1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
11 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
15 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
16 found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
17 was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
18 which this software is being distributed.
20 Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
21 known limitations of this port.
23 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
24 only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
25 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
28 You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
29 will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
30 set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably
31 enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also
32 need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
33 software described in that file.
35 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
36 port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and
37 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
38 additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
39 system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
40 following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
42 Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
43 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later (*)
44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.2 or later
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
47 (*) NOTE: Support for Visual C++ 2010 is not yet complete. This latest
48 version of VC++ introduces some new C<errno.h> constants which conflict
49 with Perl's current setting of them to match the corresponding WSAE*
50 constants' values. Until this issue is resolved you will see several test
51 failures (in F<cpan/autodie/t/flock.t>, F<dist/IO/t/io_multihomed.t >,
52 F<dist/Net-Ping/t/450_service.t> and F<dist/Net-Ping/t/510_ping_udp.t>)
53 and experience other problems in code involving sockets.
55 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
56 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
58 - http://mingw.org - delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows
61 - http://mingw-w64.sf.net - delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit
62 Windows and 32-bit Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64"
63 they are not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
64 and cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
66 The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
67 away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
68 Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
69 "Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as
70 "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008/2010 Express Edition" (and
71 also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships
72 with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008/2010
73 Professional" respectively.
75 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
77 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
78 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
80 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
81 The MinGW64 compiler is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64.
82 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
83 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
84 http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/mingw64-w64-20100123-kmx-v2.zip
86 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
87 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
88 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
89 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
91 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
92 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
93 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
94 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
96 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
102 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
103 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
104 the Borland compiler or gcc need dmake.
106 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
109 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
111 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
113 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
115 There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
116 compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
117 case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
118 with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
119 to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
120 For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
121 needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
122 may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
123 available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
127 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
128 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
129 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
132 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
133 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
137 If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
138 (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
139 work for MakeMaker builds.)
141 See L</"Make"> above.
143 =item Microsoft Visual C++
145 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
146 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
147 like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
148 This will set your build environment.
150 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
151 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
152 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
153 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
154 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
155 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
157 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008/2010 Express Edition
159 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008/2010 Professional contain the same
160 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
161 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
162 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
164 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
165 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
166 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
169 Install Visual C++ 2008/2010 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
171 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
173 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
175 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
176 file to set CCTYPE to MSVC90FREE or MSVC100FREE first.
178 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
180 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
181 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
182 necessary to build Perl.
184 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
185 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
187 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
188 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
189 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
192 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
193 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
194 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
195 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
197 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
198 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
200 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
202 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
204 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
206 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
208 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
210 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
211 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
212 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
213 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
215 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
220 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
222 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
224 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
225 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
226 necessary to build Perl.
228 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
229 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
230 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
231 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
232 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
233 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
235 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
236 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
237 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
240 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
241 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
242 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
243 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
245 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
246 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
249 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
251 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
253 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
255 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
257 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
258 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
259 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
260 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
262 Several required files will still be missing:
268 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
269 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
272 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
274 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
278 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
279 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
281 Change the line reading:
289 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
290 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
295 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
296 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
301 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
302 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
303 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
304 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
306 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
308 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
310 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
311 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
312 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
316 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
321 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
323 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
325 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
326 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
327 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
329 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
331 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
332 and later). It can be downloaded here:
334 http://www.mingw.org/
336 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
346 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
347 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
348 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
349 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
350 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
354 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
355 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
356 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
358 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
359 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
360 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
361 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
362 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
363 than the one being tested.
365 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
366 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. If building with
367 gcc-4.x.x, you'll also need to uncomment the assignment to GCC_4XX and
368 uncomment the assignment to the appropriate GCCHELPERDLL in the makefile.mk.
370 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
371 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
372 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
373 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
374 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
375 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
377 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
378 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
381 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
382 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
383 the linker reports an internal error.
385 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
386 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
388 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
392 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
394 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
395 perl513.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
396 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
397 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
401 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
403 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
404 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
406 There should be no test failures.
408 (If you're using VC++ 2010 then you will currently see several test failures,
409 as noted in the list of supported compilers above.)
411 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
412 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
413 spaces. So don't do that.
415 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
416 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
418 If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
419 arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
420 default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
421 from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
422 (usually somewhere like C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
424 If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
425 problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
426 example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
427 contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
428 (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
429 option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
430 search algorithm to locate header files.
432 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
433 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
434 NTFS avoids these errors.
436 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
437 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
438 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
439 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
442 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
444 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
446 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
447 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
448 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
449 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
450 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
452 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
453 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
455 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
457 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
458 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
459 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
460 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
462 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
464 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
468 =item Environment Variables
470 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
471 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
472 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
474 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
475 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
476 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
477 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
479 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
480 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
482 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
483 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
484 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
485 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
486 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
488 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
489 lib standard library path to add to @INC
490 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
491 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
492 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
493 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
494 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
496 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
497 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
498 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
502 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
503 which provides portable globbing.
505 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
506 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
507 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
510 =item Using perl from the command line
512 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
513 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
514 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
516 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
517 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
518 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
519 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
520 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
521 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
522 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
524 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
525 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
526 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
527 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
528 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
529 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
530 and other special characters in arguments.
532 The Windows documentation has almost no description of how the
533 quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
534 based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
535 passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
536 prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
537 put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
538 enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
539 the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
542 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
543 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
544 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
545 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
546 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
547 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
548 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
549 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
550 the caret as a quote character).
552 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
554 This prints two doublequotes:
556 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
560 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
562 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
564 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
566 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
568 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
570 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
572 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
574 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
576 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
578 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
580 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
582 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
584 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
587 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
588 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
590 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
591 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
592 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
593 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
594 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
597 =item Building Extensions
599 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
600 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
601 Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
603 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
604 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
605 http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
606 porting modules that don't readily build.
608 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
609 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
616 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
617 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
618 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
619 fail), but most serious ones do.
621 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
622 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
623 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
624 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
626 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
628 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
631 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
633 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
635 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
636 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
637 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
639 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
640 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
641 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
642 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
644 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
645 edit Config.pm to fix it.
647 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
648 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
649 the compiler for command-line compilation.
651 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
652 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
653 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
654 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
657 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
659 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
660 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
661 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
662 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
663 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
664 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
665 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
666 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
667 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
668 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
670 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
671 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
672 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
673 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
674 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
675 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
677 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
678 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
681 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
686 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
687 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
691 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
692 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
693 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
694 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
695 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
696 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
698 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
699 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
700 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
701 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
704 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
705 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
706 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
707 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
708 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
710 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
712 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
715 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
716 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
717 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
718 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
719 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
720 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
721 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
724 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
725 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
726 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
727 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
733 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
738 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
742 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
747 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
753 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
755 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
756 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
757 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
760 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
761 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
762 to use this to execute perl scripts:
768 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
769 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
770 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
771 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
772 wasn't perl-ready? :).
776 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
777 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
778 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
779 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
780 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
781 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
785 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
786 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
788 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
789 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
790 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
791 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
792 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
793 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
794 startup file to enable this to work.
798 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
799 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
800 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
801 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
802 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
803 avoids both problems is possible.
805 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
806 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
807 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
808 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
809 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
810 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
811 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
812 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
813 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
814 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
816 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
817 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
818 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
822 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
824 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
825 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
828 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
829 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
830 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
831 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
832 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
835 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
836 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
837 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
838 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
839 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
840 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
841 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
843 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
844 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
845 find a mailer on your system).
847 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
849 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
850 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
851 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
852 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
853 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
854 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
855 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
856 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
857 updating it). The build does complete with
861 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
863 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
864 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
865 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
866 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
867 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
868 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
870 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
871 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
873 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
874 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
876 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
877 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
878 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
879 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
880 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
881 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
882 currently be considered unsupported.
884 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
885 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
886 produced by C<perl -V>.
888 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
890 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
891 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
897 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
899 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
901 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
903 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
905 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
909 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
917 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
918 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
919 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
922 Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
924 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
926 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
928 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
930 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
932 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
934 Last updated: 18 November 2010