1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
11 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
15 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
16 found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
17 was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
18 which this software is being distributed.
20 Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
21 known limitations of this port.
23 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
24 only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
25 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
28 You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
29 will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
30 set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably
31 enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also
32 need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
33 software described in that file.
35 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
36 port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and
37 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
38 additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
39 system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
40 following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
42 Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
43 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later
44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.2 or later
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
47 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
48 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
50 - http://mingw.org - delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows
53 - http://mingw-w64.sf.net - delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit
54 Windows and 32-bit Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64"
55 they are not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
56 and cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
58 The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
59 away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
60 Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
61 "Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as
62 "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Express Edition" (and also
63 as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships with
64 "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Professional"
67 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
69 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
70 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
72 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
73 The MinGW64 compiler is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64.
74 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
75 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
76 http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/mingw64-w64-20100123-kmx-v2.zip
78 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
79 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
80 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
81 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
83 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
84 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
85 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
86 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
88 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
94 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
95 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
96 the Borland compiler or gcc need dmake.
98 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
101 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
103 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
105 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
107 There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
108 compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
109 case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
110 with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
111 to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
112 For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
113 needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
114 may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
115 available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
119 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
120 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
121 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
124 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
125 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
129 If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
130 (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
131 work for MakeMaker builds.)
133 See L</"Make"> above.
135 =item Microsoft Visual C++
137 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
138 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
139 like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
140 This will set your build environment.
142 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
143 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
144 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
145 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
146 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
147 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
149 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
151 This free version of Visual C++ 2008 Professional contains the same compiler
152 and linker that ship with the full version, and also contains everything
153 necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download of the
154 Windows SDK like previous versions did.
156 This package can be downloaded by searching for "Visual Studio 2008 Express
157 Edition" in the Download Center at
158 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
159 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
162 Install Visual C++ 2008, then setup your environment using
164 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
166 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
168 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
175 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
177 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
178 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
179 necessary to build Perl.
181 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
182 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
184 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
185 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
186 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
189 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
190 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
191 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
192 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
194 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
195 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
197 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
199 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
201 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
203 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
205 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
207 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
208 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
209 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
210 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
212 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
217 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
219 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
221 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
222 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
223 necessary to build Perl.
225 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
226 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
227 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
228 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
229 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
230 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
232 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
233 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
234 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
237 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
238 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
239 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
240 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
242 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
243 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
246 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
248 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
250 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
252 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
254 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
255 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
256 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
257 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
259 Several required files will still be missing:
265 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
266 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
269 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
271 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
275 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
276 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
278 Change the line reading:
286 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
287 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
292 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
293 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
298 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
299 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
300 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
301 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
303 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
305 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
307 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
308 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
309 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
313 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
318 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
320 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
322 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
323 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
324 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
326 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
328 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
329 and later). It can be downloaded here:
331 http://www.mingw.org/
333 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
343 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
344 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
345 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
346 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
347 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
351 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
352 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
353 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
355 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
356 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
357 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
358 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
359 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
360 than the one being tested.
362 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
363 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. If building with
364 gcc-4.x.x, you'll also need to uncomment the assignment to GCC_4XX and
365 uncomment the assignment to the appropriate GCCHELPERDLL in the makefile.mk.
367 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
368 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
369 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
370 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
371 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
372 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
374 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
375 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
378 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
379 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
380 the linker reports an internal error.
382 If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
383 enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version
384 of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
385 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
386 distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
387 Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
388 you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
389 Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
392 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
393 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
395 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
399 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
401 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
402 perl513.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
403 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
404 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
408 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
410 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
411 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
413 There should be no test failures.
415 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
416 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
417 spaces. So don't do that.
419 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
420 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
422 If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
423 arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
424 default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
425 from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
426 (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
428 If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
429 problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
430 example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
431 contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
432 (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
433 option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
434 search algorithm to locate header files.
436 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
437 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
438 NTFS avoids these errors.
440 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
441 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
442 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
443 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
446 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
448 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
450 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
451 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
452 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
453 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
454 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
456 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
457 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
459 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
461 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
462 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
463 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
464 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
466 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
468 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
472 =item Environment Variables
474 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
475 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
476 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
478 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
479 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
480 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
481 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
483 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
484 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
486 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
487 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
488 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
489 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
490 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
492 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
493 lib standard library path to add to @INC
494 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
495 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
496 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
497 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
498 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
500 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
501 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
502 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
506 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
507 which provides portable globbing.
509 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
510 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
511 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
514 =item Using perl from the command line
516 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
517 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
518 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
520 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
521 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
522 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
523 COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
524 redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
525 executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
526 command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
527 upon which Perl was built.
529 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
530 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
531 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
532 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
533 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
534 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
535 and other special characters in arguments.
537 The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
538 quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
539 based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
540 passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
541 prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
542 put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
543 enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
544 the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
547 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
548 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
549 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
550 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
551 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
552 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
553 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
554 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
555 the caret as a quote character).
557 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
559 This prints two doublequotes:
561 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
565 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
567 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
569 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
571 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
573 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
575 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
577 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
579 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
581 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
583 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
585 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
587 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
589 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
592 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
593 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
595 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
596 Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
597 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
598 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
599 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
602 =item Building Extensions
604 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
605 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
606 Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
608 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
609 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
610 http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
611 porting modules that don't readily build.
613 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
614 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
621 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
622 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
623 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
624 fail), but most serious ones do.
626 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
627 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
628 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
629 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
631 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
633 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
636 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
638 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
640 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
641 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
642 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
644 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
645 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
646 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
647 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
649 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
650 edit Config.pm to fix it.
652 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
653 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
654 the compiler for command-line compilation.
656 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
657 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
658 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
659 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
662 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
664 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
665 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
666 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
667 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
668 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
669 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
670 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
671 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
672 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
673 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
675 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
676 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
677 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
678 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
679 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
680 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
682 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
683 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
686 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
691 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
692 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
696 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
697 perl5.005/win32/perllib.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
703 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
704 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
705 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
706 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
709 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
710 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
711 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
712 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
713 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
715 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
717 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
720 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
721 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
722 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
723 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
724 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
725 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
726 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
729 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
730 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
731 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
732 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
738 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
743 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
747 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
752 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
758 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
760 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
761 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
762 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
765 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
766 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
767 to use this to execute perl scripts:
773 There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
774 work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two
775 commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
776 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
777 up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't
782 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
783 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
784 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
785 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
786 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
787 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
791 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
792 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
794 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
795 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
796 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
797 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
798 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
799 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
800 startup file to enable this to work.
804 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
805 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
806 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
807 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
808 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
809 avoids both problems is possible.
811 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
812 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
813 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
814 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
815 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
816 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
817 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
818 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
819 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
820 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
822 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
823 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
824 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
828 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
830 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
831 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
834 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
835 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
836 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
837 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
838 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
841 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
842 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
843 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
844 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
845 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
846 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
847 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
849 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
850 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
851 find a mailer on your system).
853 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
855 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
856 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
857 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
858 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
859 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
860 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
861 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
862 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
863 updating it). The build does complete with
867 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
869 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
870 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
871 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
872 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
873 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
874 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
876 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
877 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
879 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
880 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
881 Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
882 running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
884 http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
886 Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
888 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
889 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
890 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
891 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
892 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
893 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
894 currently be considered unsupported.
896 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
897 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
898 produced by C<perl -V>.
900 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
902 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
903 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
909 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
911 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
913 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
915 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
917 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
921 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
929 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
930 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
931 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
934 Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
936 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
938 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
940 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
942 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
944 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
946 Last updated: 6 August 2010