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
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.org 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.org>
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://mingw-w64.org>.
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. Visual C
124 requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C will
125 sucessfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
126 need to beforehand, run the C<vcvars32.bat> file to compile for x86-32 and for
127 x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat x64> or C<vcvarsamd64.bat>. On a typical install of a
128 Microsoft C compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
129 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
130 your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
131 usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
132 With some newer Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
133 put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
134 console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
135 With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
138 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
139 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
140 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
141 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
142 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
143 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
145 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
147 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 Professional contain the same
148 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
149 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
150 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
152 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
153 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
154 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
157 Install Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
159 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
161 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
163 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
164 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE first.
166 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
168 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
169 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
170 necessary to build Perl.
172 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
173 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
175 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
176 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
177 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
180 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
181 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
182 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
183 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
185 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
186 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
188 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
190 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
192 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
194 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
196 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
198 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
199 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
200 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
201 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
203 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
208 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
210 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
212 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
213 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
214 necessary to build Perl.
216 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
217 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
218 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
219 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
220 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
221 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
223 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
224 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
225 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
228 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
229 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
230 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
231 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
233 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
234 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
237 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
239 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
241 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
243 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
245 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
246 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
247 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
248 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
250 Several required files will still be missing:
256 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
257 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
260 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
262 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
266 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
267 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
269 Change the line reading:
277 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
278 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
283 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
284 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
289 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
290 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
291 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
292 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
294 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
296 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
298 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
299 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
300 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
304 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
309 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
311 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
313 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
314 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
315 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
317 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
319 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.4.5
320 and later). It can be downloaded here:
322 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
324 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
326 =item Intel C++ Compiler
328 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
329 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
330 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
331 To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
332 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
333 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
335 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
336 work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99
337 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining
338 compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure
349 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
350 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
351 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
352 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
353 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
357 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
358 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
359 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
361 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
362 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
363 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
364 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
365 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
366 than the one being tested.
368 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
369 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
371 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
372 mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
373 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
374 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
375 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
376 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
378 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
379 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
382 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
383 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
384 the linker reports an internal error.
386 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
387 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
389 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
390 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
392 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
396 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
398 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
399 perl523.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
400 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
401 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
403 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
404 up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH enviromental
405 variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
406 compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
407 depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
408 is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing.
412 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
414 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
415 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
417 There should be no test failures.
419 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
420 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
421 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File.Copy.t>. The failures are
422 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which will be fixed in future releases
423 of VC++, as explained by Microsoft here:
424 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,
425 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
426 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
428 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
429 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
430 see L<http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
432 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
433 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
434 spaces. So don't do that.
436 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
437 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
439 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
440 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
441 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
442 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
445 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
447 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
449 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
450 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
451 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
452 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
453 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
455 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
456 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
458 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
460 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
461 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
462 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
463 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
465 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
467 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
471 =item Environment Variables
473 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
474 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
475 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
477 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
478 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
479 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
480 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
482 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
483 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
485 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
486 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
487 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
488 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
489 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
491 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
492 lib standard library path to add to @INC
493 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
494 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
495 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
496 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
497 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
499 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
500 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
501 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
505 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
506 which provides portable globbing.
508 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
509 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
510 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
513 =item Using perl from the command line
515 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
516 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
517 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
519 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
520 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
521 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
522 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
523 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
524 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
525 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
527 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
528 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
529 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
530 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
531 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
532 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
533 and other special characters in arguments.
535 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
536 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
537 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
538 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
540 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
541 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
542 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
543 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
544 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
545 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
546 be stripped by the C runtime.
548 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
549 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
550 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
551 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
552 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
553 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
554 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
555 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
556 the caret as a quote character).
558 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
560 This prints two doublequotes:
562 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
566 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
568 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
570 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
572 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
574 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
576 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
578 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
580 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
582 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
584 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
586 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
588 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
590 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
593 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
594 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
596 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
597 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
598 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
599 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
600 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
603 =item Building Extensions
605 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
606 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
607 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
609 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
610 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
611 L<http://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
612 porting modules that don't readily build.
614 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
615 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
622 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
623 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
624 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
625 fail), but most serious ones do.
627 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
628 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
629 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
630 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
632 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
634 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
637 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
639 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
641 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
642 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
643 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
645 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
646 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
647 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
648 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
650 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
651 edit Config.pm to fix it.
653 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
654 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
655 the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL>
656 or any invocation of make.
658 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
659 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
660 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
661 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
664 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
666 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
667 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
668 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
669 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
670 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
671 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
672 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
673 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
674 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
675 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
677 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
678 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
679 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
680 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
681 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
682 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
684 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
685 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
688 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
693 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
694 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
698 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
699 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
700 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
701 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
702 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
703 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
705 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
706 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
707 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
708 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
711 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
712 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
713 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
714 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
715 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
717 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
719 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
722 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
723 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
724 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
725 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
726 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
727 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
728 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
731 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
732 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
733 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
734 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
740 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
745 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
749 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
754 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
760 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
762 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
763 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
764 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
767 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
768 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
769 to use this to execute perl scripts:
775 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
776 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
777 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
778 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
779 wasn't perl-ready? :).
783 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
784 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
785 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
786 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
787 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
788 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
792 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
793 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
795 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
796 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
797 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
798 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
799 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
800 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
801 startup file to enable this to work.
805 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
806 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
807 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
808 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
809 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
810 avoids both problems is possible.
812 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
813 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
814 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
815 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
816 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
817 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
818 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
819 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
820 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
821 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
823 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
824 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
825 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
829 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
831 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
832 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
835 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
836 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
837 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
838 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
839 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
842 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
843 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
844 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
845 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
846 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
847 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
848 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
850 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
851 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
852 find a mailer on your system).
854 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
856 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
857 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
858 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
859 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
860 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
861 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
862 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
863 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
864 updating it). The build does complete with
868 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
870 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build
871 and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its
872 git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause
873 any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described
874 above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager
875 to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building
878 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
879 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
880 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
881 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
882 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
883 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
885 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
886 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
888 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
889 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
891 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
892 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
893 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
894 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
895 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
896 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
897 currently be considered unsupported.
899 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
900 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
901 produced by C<perl -V>.
903 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
905 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
906 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
912 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
914 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
916 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
918 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
920 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
924 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
932 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
933 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
934 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
937 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
939 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
941 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
943 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
945 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
947 Last updated: 07 October 2014