If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially designed to be readable as is. =head1 NAME README.cygwin - Perl for Cygwin =head1 SYNOPSIS This document will help you configure, make, test and install Perl on Cygwin. This document also describes features of Cygwin that will affect how Perl behaves at runtime. B There are pre-built Perl packages available for Cygwin and a version of Perl is provided on the Cygwin CD. If you have no need to customize the configuration, consider using one of these packages: http://cygutils.netpedia.net/ =head1 PREREQUISITES =head2 Cygwin = GNU+Cygnus+Windows (Don't leave UNIX without it) The Cygwin tools are ports of the popular GNU development tools for Win32 platforms. They run thanks to the Cygwin library which provides the UNIX system calls and environment these programs expect. More information about this project can be found at: http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/ A recent net or commercial release of Cygwin is required. At the time this document was written, the port required recent development snapshots that were expected to stabilize early in 2000 and be released to the net as B21 and commercially as v1.1. B At this point, minimal effort has been made to provide compatibility with old (beta) Cygwin releases. The focus has been to provide a high quality release and not worry about working around old Cygwin bugs. If you wish to use Perl with Cygwin B20.1 or earlier, consider using either perl5.005_03 or perl5.005_62, which are available in source and binary form at C or on the Cygwin CD. If there is significant demand, a patch kit can be developed to port back to earlier Cygwin versions. =head2 Compiler A recent net or commercial release of I is required. At the time this document was written, I was current and could be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/cygwin/gcc-2.95.2/ =head2 Cygwin Configuration While building Perl some changes may be necessary to your Cygwin setup so that Perl builds cleanly. These changes are B required for normal Perl usage. B The binaries that are built will run on all Win32 versions. They do not depend on your host system (Win9x, WinNT) or your Cygwin configuration (I, I, binary/text mounts). The only dependencies come from hardcoded pathnames like C. However, your host system and Cygwin configuration will affect Perl's runtime behavior (see L). Some regression tests may fail in different ways depending on your setup. For now, the test suite does not skip tests that do not make sense given a particular setup. If a test can pass in some Cygwin setup, it is left in and explainable test failures are documented. =over 4 =item * C Set the C environment variable so that Configure finds the Cygwin versions of programs. Any Windows directories should be removed or moved to the end of your C. =item * F There should be an instance of I in F (or F). Configure tests C<#!/bin/cat> and if it is not found, you will see the error: Configure: ./try: No such file or directory =item * F If you do not have a F directory, Configure will B prompt you to install I into F. =item * I If you do not have I (which is part of the I package), Configure will B prompt you to install man pages. =item * Permissions On WinNT with either the I or I C settings, directory and file permissions may not be set correctly. Since the build process creates files and directories, to be safe you may want to run a `C' on the entire Perl source tree. Also, it is a well known WinNT "feature" that files created by a login that is a member of the I group will be owned by the I group. Depending on your umask, you may find that you can not write to files that you just created (because you are no longer the owner). When using the I C setting, this is not an issue because it "corrects" the ownership to what you would expect on a UNIX system. =back =head1 CONFIGURE The default options gathered by Configure with the assistance of F will build a Perl that supports dynamic loading (which requires a shared F). This will run Configure and keep a record: ./Configure 2>&1 | tee log.configure If you are willing to accept all the defaults add a B<-d> option. However, several useful customizations are available. =head2 Strip Binaries It is possible to strip the EXEs and DLLs created by the build process. The resulting binaries will be significantly smaller. If you want the binaries to be stripped, you can either add a B<-s> option when Configure prompts you, Any additional ld flags (NOT including libraries)? [none] -s Any special flags to pass to gcc to use dynamic linking? [none] -s Any special flags to pass to ld2 to create a dynamically loaded library? [none] -s or you can edit F and uncomment the relevant variables near the end of the file. =head2 Optional Libraries Several Perl functions and modules depend on the existence of some optional libraries. Configure will find them if they are installed in one of the directories listed as being used for library searches. Pre-built packages for most of these are available at C. =over 4 =item * C<-lcrypt> The crypt libraries in GNU libc have been ported to Cygwin. The DES based Ultra Fast Crypt port was done by Alexey Truhan: http://dome.weeg.uiowa.edu/pub/domestic/sos/cw32crypt-dist-0.tgz NOTE: There are various export restrictions on DES implementations, see the glibc README for more details. The MD5 port was done by Andy Piper: http://dome.weeg.uiowa.edu/pub/domestic/sos/libcrypt.tgz More information can also be found at: http://miracle.geol.msu.ru/sos/ =item * C<-lgdbm> (C) GDBM is available for Cygwin. GDBM's ndbm/dbm compatibility feature also makes C and C possible (although they add little extra value). =item * C<-ldb> (C) BerkeleyDB is available for Cygwin. Some details can be found in F. =item * C<-lcygipc> (C) A port of SysV IPC is available for Cygwin. NOTE: This has B been extensively tested. In particular, C is undefined because it fails a configure test and on Win9x the shm*() functions seem to hang. =back =head2 Configure-time Options The F document describes several Configure-time options. Some of these will work with Cygwin, others are not yet possible. Also, some of these are experimental. You can either select an option when Configure prompts you or you can define (undefine) symbols on the command line. =over 4 =item * C<-Uusedl> Undefining this symbol forces Perl to be compiled statically. =item * C<-Uusemymalloc> By default Perl uses the malloc() included with the Perl source. If you want to force Perl to build with the system malloc() undefine this symbol. =item * C<-Dusemultiplicity> Multiplicity is required when embedding Perl in a C program and using more than one interpreter instance. This works with the Cygwin port. =item * C<-Duseperlio> The PerlIO abstraction works with the Cygwin port. =item * C<-Duse64bitint> I supports 64-bit integers. However, several additional long long functions are necessary to use them within Perl (I<{strtol,strtoul}l>). These are B yet available with Cygwin. =item * C<-Duselongdouble> I supports long doubles (12 bytes). However, several additional long double math functions are necessary to use them within Perl (I<{atan2,cos,exp,floor,fmod,frexp,log,modf,pow,sin,sqrt}l,strtold>). These are B yet available with Cygwin. =item * C<-Dusethreads> POSIX threads are B yet implemented in Cygwin. =item * C<-Duselargefiles> Although Win32 supports large files, Cygwin currently uses 32-bit integers for internal size and position calculations. =back =head2 Suspicious Warnings You may see some messages during Configure that seem suspicious. =over 4 =item * Whoa There Cygwin does not yet implement chroot(), setegid() or seteuid() functionality, but has stub functions that return C. You will see a message when Configure detects that its guess conflicts with the hint file. *** WHOA THERE!!! *** The recommended value for $d_chroot on this machine was "undef"! Keep the recommended value? [y] You should keep the recommended value. =item * dlsym I is needed to build dynamic libraries, but it does not exist when dlsym() checking occurs (it is not created until `C' runs). You will see the following message: Checking whether your dlsym() needs a leading underscore ... I can't compile and run the test program. I'm guessing that dlsym doesn't need a leading underscore. Since the guess is correct, this is not a problem. =item * Win9x and d_eofnblk Win9x does not correctly report C with a non-blocking read on a closed pipe. You will see the following messages: But it also returns -1 to signal EOF, so be careful! WARNING: you can't distinguish between EOF and no data! *** WHOA THERE!!! *** The recommended value for $d_eofnblk on this machine was "define"! Keep the recommended value? [y] At least for consistency with WinNT, you should keep the recommended value. =item * Checking how std your stdio is... Configure reports: Your stdio doesn't appear very std. This is correct. =item * Compiler/Preprocessor defines The following error occurs because of the Cygwin C<#define> of C<_LONG_DOUBLE>: Guessing which symbols your C compiler and preprocessor define... try.c:3847: parse error This failure does not seem to cause any problems. =back =head1 MAKE Simply run make and wait: make 2>&1 | tee log.make =head2 Warnings Warnings like these are normal: warning: overriding commands for target warning: ignoring old commands for target Warning: no export definition file provided dllwrap will create one, but may not be what you want =head2 ld2 During `C', I will be created and installed in your $installbin directory (where you said to put public executables). It does not wait until the `C' process to install the I script, this is because the remainder of the `C' refers to I without fully specifying its path and does this from multiple subdirectories. The assumption is that $installbin is in your current C. If this is not the case or if you do not have an I program, `C' will fail at some point. If this happens, just manually copy I from the source directory to someplace in your C. =head1 TEST There are two steps to running the test suite: make test 2>&1 | tee log.make-test cd t;./perl harness 2>&1 | tee ../log.harness The same tests are run both times, but more information is provided when running as `C<./perl harness>'. Test results vary depending on your host system and your Cygwin configuration. It is possible that Cygwin will pass all the tests, but it is more likely that some tests will fail for one of these reasons. =head2 File Permissions UNIX file permissions are based on sets of mode bits for {read,write,execute} for each {user,group,other}. By default Cygwin only tracks the Win32 readonly attribute represented as the UNIX file user write bit (files are always readable, files are executable if they have a F<.{com,bat,exe}> extension or begin with C<#!>, directories are always readable and executable). On WinNT with the I C setting, the remaining mode bits are stored as extended attributes. On WinNT with the I C setting, permissions use the standard WinNT security descriptors and access control lists. Without one of these options, these tests will fail: Failed Test List of failed ------------------------------------ io/fs.t 5, 7, 9-10 lib/anydbm.t 2 lib/db-btree.t 20 lib/db-hash.t 16 lib/db-recno.t 18 lib/gdbm.t 2 lib/ndbm.t 2 lib/odbm.t 2 lib/sdbm.t 2 op/stat.t 9, 20 (.tmp not an executable extension) =head2 Hard Links FAT partitions do not support hard links (whereas NTFS does), in which case Cygwin implements link() by copying the file. These tests will fail: Failed Test List of failed ------------------------------------ io/fs.t 4 op/stat.t 3 =head2 Filetime Granularity On FAT partitions the filetime granularity is 2 seconds. The following test will fail: Failed Test List of failed ------------------------------------ io/fs.t 18 =head2 Tainting Checks When Perl is running in taint mode, C<$ENV{PATH}> is considered tainted and not used, so DLLs not in the default system directories will not be found. While the tests are running you will see warnings popup from the system with messages like: Win9x Error Starting Program A required .DLL file, CYGWIN1.DLL, was not found WinNT perl.exe or sh.exe - Unable to Locate DLL The dynamic link library cygwin1.dll could not be found in the specified path ... Just click OK and ignore them. When running `C', 2 popups occur. During `C<./perl harness>', 4 popups occur. Also, these tests will fail: Failed Test List of failed ------------------------------------ op/taint.t 1, 3, 31, 37 Alternatively, you can copy F into one of the Windows system directories (although, this is B recommended). =head2 /etc/group Cygwin does not require F, in which case the F test will be skipped. The check performed by F expects to see entries that use the members field, otherwise this test will fail: Failed Test List of failed ------------------------------------ op/grent.t 1 =head2 Unexplained Failures Any additional tests that fail are likely due to bugs in Cygwin or the optional libraries. It is expected that by the time of the next net release most of these will be solved so they are not described here. =head2 Script Portability Cygwin does an outstanding job of providing UNIX-like semantics on top of Win32 systems. However, in addition to the items noted above, there are some differences that you should know about. This is only a very brief guide to portability, more information can be found in the Cygwin documentation. =over 4 =item * Pathnames Cygwin pathnames can be separated by forward (F) or backward (F<\>) slashes. They may also begin with drive letters (F) or Universal Naming Codes (F). DOS device names (F, F, F, F, F) are invalid as base filenames. However, they can be used in extensions (e.g., F). Names may not contain these characters: : * ? " < > | File names are case insensitive, but case preserving. With the I C setting, file names are mixed-case (although, directory names remain case insensitive). The I setting is only available with the "coolview" version of F provided by Sergey Okhapkin at: ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Okhapkin_Sergey/ =item * Text/Binary When a file is opened it is in either text or binary mode. In text mode a file is subject to CR/LF/Ctrl-Z translations. With Cygwin, the default mode for an open() is determined by the mode of the mount that underlies the file. Perl provides a binmode() function to set binary mode on files that otherwise would be treated as text. sysopen() with the C flag sets text mode on files that otherwise would be treated as binary: sysopen(FOO, "bar", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TEXT) lseek(), tell() and sysseek() only work with files opened in binary mode. The text/binary issue is covered at length in the Cygwin documentation. =item * F<.exe> The Cygwin stat() makes the F<.exe> extension transparent by looking for a F when you ask for F (unless a F also exists). Cygwin does not require a F<.exe> extension, but I adds it automatically when building a program. However, when accessing an executable as a normal file (e.g., I or I in a makefile) the F<.exe> is not transparent. NOTE: There is a version of I that understands the F<.exe> semantics, it can be found at: ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Humblet_Pierre_A/ =item * chown() On WinNT with the I C setting, chown() can change a file's user and group IDs. In all other configurations chown() is a no-op, although this is appropriate on Win9x since there is no security model. =item * Miscellaneous File locking using the C command to fcntl() is a stub that returns C. Win9x can not rename() an open file (although WinNT can). =back =head1 INSTALL This will install Perl, including man pages. make install | tee log.make-install NOTE: If C is redirected `C' will B prompt you to install I into F. You may need to be I to run `C'. If you are not, you must have write access to the directories in question. Information on installing the Perl documentation in HTML format can be found in the F document. =head1 MANIFEST These are the files in the Perl release that contain references to Cygwin. These very brief notes attempt to explain the reason for all conditional code. Hopefully, keeping this up to date will allow the Cygwin port to be kept as clean as possible. =over 4 =item Documentation INSTALL README.cygwin Changes Changes5.005 Changes5.004 AUTHORS MAINTAIN MANIFEST README.win32 pod/perl.pod pod/perlfaq3.pod pod/perlhist.pod pod/perlmodlib.pod pod/perlport.pod pod/perltoc.pod pod/perl5004delta.pod =item Build, Configure, Make, Install cygwin/Makefile.SHs cygwin/ld2.in cygwin/perlld.in ext/IPC/SysV/hints/cygwin.pl ext/NDBM_File/hints/cygwin.pl ext/ODBM_File/hints/cygwin.pl hints/cygwin.sh Configure - help finding hints from uname, shared libperl required for dynamic loading Makefile.SH - linklibperl Porting/patchls - cygwin in port list installman - man pages with :: translated to . installperl - install dll/ld2/perlld, install to pods makedepend.SH - uwinfix =item Tests t/io/tell.t - binmode t/lib/glob-basic.t - Win32 directory list access differs from read mode t/op/magic.t - $^X/symlink WORKAROUND, s/.exe// t/op/stat.t - no /dev, skip Win32 ftCreationTime quirk (cache manager sometimes preserves ctime of file previously created and deleted), no -u (setuid) =item Compiled Perl Source EXTERN.h - __declspec(dllimport) XSUB.h - __declspec(dllexport) cygwin/cygwin.c - os_extras (getcwd) perl.c - os_extras perl.h - binmode doio.c - win9x can not rename a file when it is open pp_sys.c - do not define h_errno mg.c - environ WORKAROUND unixish.h - environ WORKAROUND util.c - environ WORKAROUND =item Compiled Module Source ext/POSIX/POSIX.xs - tzname defined externally ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/pair.c - EXTCONST needs to be redefined from EXTERN.h ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.c - binary open =item Perl Modules/Scripts lib/Cwd.pm - hook to internal Cwd::cwd lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm - require MM_Cygwin.pm lib/ExtUtils/MM_Cygwin.pm - canonpath, cflags, manifypods, perl_archive lib/File/Spec/Unix.pm - preserve //unc lib/perl5db.pl - use stdin not /dev/tty utils/perlcc.PL - DynaLoader.a in compile, -DUSEIMPORTLIB utils/perldoc.PL - version comment =back =head1 BUGS Upon each start, I warns that a rule for F is overridden (but there seems to be no better solution than adding an explicit define). `C' does not remove library F<.def> and F<.exe.stackdump> files. The I script contains references to the source directory. You should change these to C (or whatever) after install. =head1 AUTHORS Charles Wilson Ecwilson@ece.gatech.eduE, Eric Fifer Eefifer@sanwaint.comE, alexander smishlajev Eals@turnhere.comE, Steven Morlock Enewspost@morlock.netE, Sebastien Barre ESebastien.Barre@utc.frE, Teun Burgers Eburgers@ecn.nlE. =head1 HISTORY Last updated: 1 March 2000