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)
44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5 or later
46 Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later
48 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
49 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
53 =item L<http://mingw.org>
55 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
57 =item L<http://mingw-w64.org>
59 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
60 platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
61 oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
62 that are also supported by perl's makefile.
66 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
67 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2017 Express [or
68 Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK")
69 and are the same compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional"
70 or "Visual C++ 2005-2017 Professional" respectively.
72 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
74 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
75 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
77 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
78 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://mingw-w64.org>.
79 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
80 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
81 L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
83 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
84 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
85 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
86 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
88 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
89 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
90 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
91 See L</Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
93 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
99 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
100 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++
101 or Windows SDK. You may also use, for Visual C++ or Windows SDK, dmake or gmake
102 instead of nmake. dmake is open source software, but is not included with
103 Visual C++ or Windows SDK. Builds using gcc need dmake or gmake. nmake is not
104 supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only supported with dmake and
105 gmake, not nmake. When using dmake it is recommended to use dmake 4.13 or newer
106 for parallel building. Older dmakes, in parallel mode, have very high CPU usage
107 and pound the disk/filing system with duplicate I/O calls in an aggressive
110 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
112 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
114 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
118 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
119 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
120 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
123 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
124 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
126 =item Microsoft Visual C++
128 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C
129 requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C will
130 sucessfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
131 need to beforehand, run the C<vcvars32.bat> file to compile for x86-32 and for
132 x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat x64> or C<vcvarsamd64.bat>. On a typical install of a
133 Microsoft C compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
134 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
135 your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
136 usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
137 With some newer Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
138 put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
139 console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
140 With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
143 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community Edition
145 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2017 Professional contain the same
146 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
147 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
148 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
150 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
151 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
152 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
155 Install Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community, then setup your environment
158 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
160 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
162 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
163 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC141 first.
165 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
167 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
168 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
169 necessary to build Perl.
171 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
172 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
174 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
175 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
176 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
179 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
180 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
181 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
182 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
184 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
185 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
187 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
189 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
191 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
193 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
195 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
197 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
198 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
199 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
200 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
202 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
207 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
209 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
211 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
212 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
213 necessary to build Perl.
215 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
216 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
217 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
218 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
219 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
220 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
222 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
223 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
224 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
227 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
228 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
229 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
230 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
232 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
233 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
236 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
238 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
240 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
242 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
244 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
245 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
246 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
247 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
249 Several required files will still be missing:
255 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
256 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
259 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
261 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
265 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
266 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
268 Change the line reading:
276 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
277 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
282 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
283 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
288 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
289 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
290 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
291 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
293 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
295 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
297 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
298 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
299 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
303 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
308 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
310 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
312 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
313 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
314 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
318 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from
319 MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here:
321 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
322 L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
324 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
326 Note that the MinGW build currently requires a MinGW runtime version earlier
327 than 3.21 (check __MINGW32_MAJOR_VERSION and __MINGW32_MINOR_VERSION).
329 Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2
330 or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
332 =item Intel C++ Compiler
334 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
335 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
336 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
337 To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
338 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
339 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
341 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
342 work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99
343 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining
344 compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure
355 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
356 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
357 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
358 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
359 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
363 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
364 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
365 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
367 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
368 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
369 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
370 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
371 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
372 than the one being tested.
374 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
375 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
377 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
378 mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
379 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
380 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
381 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
382 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
384 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
385 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
388 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
389 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
390 the linker reports an internal error.
392 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
393 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
395 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
396 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
398 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
402 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
404 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
405 perl529.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
406 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
407 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
409 To try dmake's parallel mode, type "dmake -P2", where 2, is the maximum number
410 of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will
411 run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1
412 CPU maxed out. This is normal.
414 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
415 up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH enviromental
416 variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
417 compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
418 depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
419 is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing.
423 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
425 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
426 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
428 There should be no test failures.
430 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
431 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
432 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File/Copy.t>. The failures are
433 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
434 later, as explained by Microsoft here:
435 L<https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>. In the meantime,
436 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
437 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
439 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
440 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
441 see L<http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
443 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
444 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
445 spaces. So don't do that.
447 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
448 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
450 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
451 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
452 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
453 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
456 Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
458 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
460 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
461 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
462 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
463 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
464 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
466 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
467 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
469 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
471 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
472 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
473 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
474 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
476 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
478 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
482 =item Environment Variables
484 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
485 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
486 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
488 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
489 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
490 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
491 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
493 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
494 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
496 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
497 values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with
498 USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if
499 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>
500 exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl
501 process's run life for certain entries. Entries in
502 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in
503 C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries
504 (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys:
506 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
507 lib standard library path to add to @INC
508 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
509 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
510 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
511 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
512 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
514 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
515 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
516 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
520 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
521 which provides portable globbing.
523 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
524 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
525 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
528 =item Using perl from the command line
530 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
531 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
532 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
534 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
535 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
536 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
537 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
538 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
539 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
540 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
542 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
543 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
544 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
545 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
546 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
547 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
548 and other special characters in arguments.
550 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
551 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
552 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
553 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
555 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
556 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
557 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
558 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
559 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
560 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
561 be stripped by the C runtime.
563 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
564 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
565 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
566 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
567 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
568 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
569 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
570 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
571 the caret as a quote character).
573 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
575 This prints two doublequotes:
577 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
581 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
583 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
585 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
587 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
589 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
591 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
593 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
595 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
597 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
599 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
601 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
603 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
605 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
608 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
609 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
611 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
612 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
613 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
614 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
615 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
618 =item Building Extensions
620 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
621 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
622 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
624 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
625 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
626 L<http://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
627 porting modules that don't readily build.
629 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
630 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
637 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
638 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
639 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
640 fail), but most serious ones do.
642 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
643 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
644 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
645 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
647 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
649 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
652 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
654 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
656 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
657 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
658 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
660 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
661 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
662 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
663 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
665 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
666 edit Config.pm to fix it.
668 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
669 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
670 the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL>
671 or any invocation of make.
673 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
674 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
675 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
676 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
679 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
681 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
682 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
683 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
684 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
685 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
686 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
687 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
688 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
689 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
690 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
692 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
693 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
694 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
695 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
696 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
697 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
699 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
700 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
703 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
708 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
709 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
713 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
714 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
715 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
716 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
717 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
718 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
720 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
721 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
722 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
723 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
726 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
727 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
728 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
729 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
730 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
732 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
734 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
737 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
738 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
739 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
740 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
741 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
742 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
743 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
746 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
747 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
748 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
749 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
755 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
760 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
764 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
769 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
775 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
777 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
778 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
779 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
782 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
783 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
784 to use this to execute perl scripts:
790 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
791 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
792 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
793 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
794 wasn't perl-ready? :).
798 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
799 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
800 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
801 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
802 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
803 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
807 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
808 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
810 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
811 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
812 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
813 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
814 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
815 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
816 startup file to enable this to work.
820 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
821 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
822 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
823 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
824 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
825 avoids both problems is possible.
827 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
828 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
829 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
830 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
831 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
832 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
833 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
834 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
835 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
836 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
838 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
839 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
840 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
844 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
846 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
847 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
850 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
851 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
852 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
853 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
854 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
857 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
858 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
859 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
860 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
861 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
862 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
863 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
865 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
866 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
867 find a mailer on your system).
869 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
871 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
872 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
873 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
874 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
875 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
876 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
877 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
878 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
879 updating it). The build does complete with
883 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
885 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build
886 and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its
887 git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause
888 any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described
889 above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager
890 to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building
893 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
894 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
895 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
896 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
897 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
898 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
900 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
901 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
903 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
904 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
906 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
907 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
908 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
909 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
910 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
911 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
912 currently be considered unsupported.
914 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
915 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
916 produced by C<perl -V>.
918 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
920 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
921 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
927 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
929 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
931 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
933 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
935 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
939 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
947 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
948 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
949 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
952 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
954 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
956 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
958 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
960 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
962 Last updated: 23 May 2018