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 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later
43 Intel C++ Compiler (experimental, nmake only)
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 that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
48 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
52 =item L<http://mingw.org>
54 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
56 =item L<http://mingw-w64.sf.net>
58 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
59 platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
60 oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
61 that are also supported by perl's makefile.
65 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
66 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2013 Express
67 Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same
68 compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++
69 2005-2013 Professional" respectively.
71 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
73 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
74 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
76 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
77 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64>.
78 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
79 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
80 L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
82 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
83 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
84 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
85 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
87 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
88 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
89 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
90 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
92 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
98 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
99 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
102 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
105 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
107 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
109 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
113 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
114 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
115 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
118 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
119 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
121 =item Microsoft Visual C++
123 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
124 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
125 like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
126 This will set your build environment.
128 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
129 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
130 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
131 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
132 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
133 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
135 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
137 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 Professional contain the same
138 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
139 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
140 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
142 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
143 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
144 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
147 Install Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
149 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
151 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
153 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
154 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE first.
156 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
158 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
159 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
160 necessary to build Perl.
162 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
163 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
165 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
166 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
167 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
170 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
171 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
172 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
173 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
175 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
176 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
178 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
180 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
182 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
184 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
186 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
188 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
189 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
190 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
191 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
193 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
198 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
200 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
202 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
203 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
204 necessary to build Perl.
206 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
207 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
208 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
209 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
210 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
211 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
213 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
214 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
215 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
218 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
219 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
220 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
221 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
223 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
224 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
227 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
229 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
231 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
233 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
235 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
236 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
237 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
238 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
240 Several required files will still be missing:
246 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
247 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
250 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
252 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
256 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
257 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
259 Change the line reading:
267 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
268 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
273 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
274 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
279 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
280 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
281 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
282 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
284 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
286 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
288 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
289 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
290 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
294 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
299 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
301 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
303 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
304 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
305 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
307 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
309 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
310 and later). It can be downloaded here:
312 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
314 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
316 =item Intel C++ Compiler
318 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. You must use
319 nmake, not dmake. Edit win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the
320 Visual C that Intel C was installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel
321 C on Visual C support. To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
322 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
323 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
325 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
336 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
337 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
338 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
339 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
340 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
344 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
345 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
346 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
348 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
349 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
350 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
351 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
352 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
353 than the one being tested.
355 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
356 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
358 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
359 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
360 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
361 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
362 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
363 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
365 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
366 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
369 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
370 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
371 the linker reports an internal error.
373 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
374 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
376 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
377 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
379 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
383 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
385 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
386 perl519.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
387 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
388 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
392 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
394 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
395 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
397 There should be no test failures.
399 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then two tests currently may fail with
400 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t> and
401 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t>.
403 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
404 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
405 spaces. So don't do that.
407 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
408 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
410 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
411 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
412 NTFS avoids these errors.
414 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
415 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
416 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
417 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
420 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
422 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
424 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
425 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
426 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
427 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
428 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
430 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
431 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
433 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
435 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
436 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
437 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
438 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
440 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
442 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
446 =item Environment Variables
448 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
449 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
450 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
452 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
453 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
454 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
455 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
457 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
458 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
460 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
461 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
462 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
463 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
464 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
466 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
467 lib standard library path to add to @INC
468 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
469 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
470 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
471 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
472 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
474 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
475 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
476 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
480 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
481 which provides portable globbing.
483 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
484 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
485 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
488 =item Using perl from the command line
490 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
491 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
492 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
494 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
495 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
496 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
497 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
498 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
499 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
500 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
502 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
503 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
504 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
505 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
506 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
507 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
508 and other special characters in arguments.
510 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
511 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
512 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
513 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
515 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
516 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
517 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
518 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
519 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
520 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
521 be stripped by the C runtime.
523 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
524 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
525 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
526 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
527 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
528 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
529 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
530 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
531 the caret as a quote character).
533 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
535 This prints two doublequotes:
537 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
541 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
543 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
545 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
547 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
549 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
551 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
553 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
555 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
557 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
559 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
561 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
563 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
565 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
568 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
569 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
571 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
572 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
573 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
574 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
575 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
578 =item Building Extensions
580 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
581 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
582 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
584 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
585 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
586 L<http://testers.cpan.org/> before investing too much effort into
587 porting modules that don't readily build.
589 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
590 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
597 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
598 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
599 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
600 fail), but most serious ones do.
602 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
603 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
604 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
605 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
607 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
609 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
612 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
614 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
616 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
617 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
618 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
620 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
621 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
622 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
623 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
625 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
626 edit Config.pm to fix it.
628 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
629 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
630 the compiler for command-line compilation.
632 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
633 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
634 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
635 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
638 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
640 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
641 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
642 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
643 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
644 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
645 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
646 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
647 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
648 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
649 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
651 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
652 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
653 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
654 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
655 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
656 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
658 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
659 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
662 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
667 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
668 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
672 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
673 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
674 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
675 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
676 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
677 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
679 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
680 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
681 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
682 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
685 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
686 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
687 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
688 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
689 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
691 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
693 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
696 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
697 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
698 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
699 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
700 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
701 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
702 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
705 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
706 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
707 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
708 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
714 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
719 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
723 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
728 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
734 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
736 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
737 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
738 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
741 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
742 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
743 to use this to execute perl scripts:
749 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
750 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
751 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
752 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
753 wasn't perl-ready? :).
757 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
758 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
759 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
760 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
761 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
762 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
766 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
767 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
769 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
770 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
771 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
772 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
773 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
774 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
775 startup file to enable this to work.
779 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
780 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
781 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
782 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
783 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
784 avoids both problems is possible.
786 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
787 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
788 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
789 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
790 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
791 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
792 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
793 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
794 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
795 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
797 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
798 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
799 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
803 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
805 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
806 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
809 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
810 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
811 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
812 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
813 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
816 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
817 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
818 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
819 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
820 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
821 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
822 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
824 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
825 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
826 find a mailer on your system).
828 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
830 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
831 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
832 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
833 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
834 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
835 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
836 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
837 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
838 updating it). The build does complete with
842 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
844 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
845 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
846 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
847 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
848 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
849 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
851 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
852 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
854 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
855 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
857 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
858 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
859 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
860 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
861 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
862 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
863 currently be considered unsupported.
865 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
866 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
867 produced by C<perl -V>.
869 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
871 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
872 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
878 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
880 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
882 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
884 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
886 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
890 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
898 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
899 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
900 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
903 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
905 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
907 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
909 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
911 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
913 Last updated: 22 October 2013