These are instructions for building Perl under Windows NT (versions
3.51 or 4.0), using Visual C++ (versions 2.0 through 5.0) or Borland
-C++ (version 5.x). Currently, this port may also build under Windows95,
-but you can expect problems stemming from the unmentionable command
-shell that infests that platform. Note this caveat is only about
+C++ (version 5.02 or later). Currently, this port is reported to build
+under Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests
+Windows95 will not work (see below). Note this caveat is only about
B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to B<use> it on
either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from the inferior
command shell).
was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
which this software is being distributed.
-Also make sure you read the L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> section below for the
+Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
known limitations of this port.
The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
=item Command Shell
-Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. In particular, do
-*not* use the 4DOS/NT shell. The Makefile has commands that are not
-compatible with that shell. The Makefile also has known
-incompatibilites with the default shell that comes with Windows95,
-so building under Windows95 should be considered "unsupported".
+Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
+popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
+If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
+shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com"
+shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should
+be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful
+build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 3.00 under Windows95, using dmake, but
+your mileage may vary.
+
+The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell.
=item Borland C++
If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely
available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability.
(The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not
-work for MakeMaker builds--if you *have* to bug someone about this,
-I suggest you bug Borland to fix their make :)
+work for MakeMaker builds.)
+
+A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from:
+
+ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip
-A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from
-"http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.0-win32.tar.gz".
-Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path. Also make sure you
-copy the Borland dmake.ini file to some location where you keep
-*.ini files. If you use the binary that comes with the above port, you
-will need to set INIT in your environment to the directory where you
-put the dmake.ini file.
+Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions
+in the README.NOW file).
=item Microsoft Visual C++
will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere like
C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment.
-You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: you
-copied the dmake.ini for Visual C++; set INIT to point to the
-directory where you put it, as above; and edit win32/config.vc
-and change "make=nmake" to "make=dmake". The last step is only
-essential if you want to use dmake to be your default make for
-building extensions using MakeMaker.
+You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided:
+you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
+under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment,
+and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
+latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
+make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
=item Permissions
=item *
Edit the Makefile (or makefile.mk, if using dmake) and change the values
-of INST_DRV and INST_TOP if you want perl to be installed in a location
-other than "C:\PERL". If you are using Visual C++ ver. 2.0, uncomment
-the line that sets "CCTYPE=MSVC20".
+of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. If you are using Visual C++ ver. 2.0, uncomment
+the line that sets "CCTYPE=MSVC20". You can also enable various build
+flags.
+
+If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
+enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not
+bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions
+on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine
+is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely
+available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example:
+"ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the
+name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if
+you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set
+CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
+
+Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
+fail at run time.
You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed
your compiler.
extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for
any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
+The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or
+less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The
+maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :)
+
When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This
executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of
perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95.
This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be
-worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. Again, if this bugs you, please
-bug Microsoft :). perl95.exe gets built with its own private copy of the
-C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions (which see the DLL version
-of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this perl95.exe will have
-esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that themselves use the C
-Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers malloc()-ed by perl.
+worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its
+own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions
+(which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this
+perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that
+themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers
+malloc()-ed by perl.
You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you use Borland
C++ for building perl (perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built
=head2 Installation
Type "nmake install" (or "dmake install"). This will put the newly
-built perl and the libraries under "C:\perl" (actually whatever you set
-C<INST_TOP> to in the Makefile). It will also install the pod
-documentation under C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same
-under C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed,
-set your PATH environment variable to "C:\perl\bin" (or C<$INST_TOP\bin>,
-if you changed the default as above).
+built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
+Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
+C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
+C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed,
+set your PATH environment variable to C<$INST_TOP\bin>.
=head2 Usage Hints
If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
-variables you can set in the perlrun podpage.
+variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
+
+You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
+backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
Sometime in the future, some of the configuration information
for perl will be moved into the Windows registry.
perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of
the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very
differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve
-compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script/module that can be
-used portably) is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat
-also offers enhanced globbing functionality.
+compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably)
+is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers
+enhanced globbing functionality.
If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just
delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere
-perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which is the same
-as perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() works about 10
-times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should take this
-approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for details.
+perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core
+functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob()
+works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should
+take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for
+details.
=item Using perl from the command line
perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
-Discovering the usage of the "command.com" shell on Windows95
+Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95
is left as an exercise to the reader :)
=item Building Extensions
CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
support. This bundle is available at:
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.06.tar.gz
+ http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.09.tar.gz
See the README in that distribution for building and installation
instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the
the 5.004 release of perl, at which point the need for a dedicated
bundle such as the above should diminish.
+=item Running Perl Scripts
+
+Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
+indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
+Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
+executables.
+
+Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
+Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
+to use this to execute perl scripts:
+
+=over 8
+
+=item 1
+
+There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
+work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two
+commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
+4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
+up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't
+perl-ready? :).
+
+=item 2
+
+Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
+reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
+old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
+regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
+makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
+perl scripts into batch files. For example:
+
+ pl2bat foo.pl
+
+will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
+.pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
+
+If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
+"pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
+refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
+sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
+4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
+4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
+startup file to enable this to work.
+
+=item 3
+
+Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
+so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
+run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
+original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
+if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
+avoids both problems is possible.
+
+A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
+to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
+if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
+executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply
+by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
+runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
+With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
+than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
+the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
+links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
+
+Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
+"runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
+Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
+
+=back
+
=item Miscellaneous Things
A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
changes in any of these areas: build process, installation structure,
supported utilities/modules, and supported perl functionality.
In particular, functionality specific to the Win32 environment may
-ultimately be supported as either core modules or extensions. This
-means that you should be prepared to recompile extensions when binary
-incompatibilites arise due to changes in the internal structure of
-the code.
-
-The DLLs produced by the two supported compilers are incompatible
-with each other due to the conventions they use to export symbols,
-and due to differences in the Runtime libraries that they provide.
-This means that extension binaries built under either compiler will
-only work with the perl binaries built under the same compiler.
-If you know of a robust, freely available C Runtime that can
-be used under win32, let us know.
+ultimately be supported as either core modules or extensions. The
+beta status implies, among other things, that you should be prepared
+to recompile extensions when binary incompatibilites arise due to
+changes in the internal structure of the code.
+
+An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two
+supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the
+best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced
+by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by
+a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides
+a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled
+with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access
+the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and
+extensions use the same runtime functions.
If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice
this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the
=item *
-The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, C<exec()>,
+The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>,
C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>,
-C<setpgrp()>, C<getpgrp()>, C<setpriority()>, C<getpriority()>,
-C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>. This list is possibly very incomplete.
+C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>,
+C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>,
+C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>,
+C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>,
+C<getnetby*()>.
+This list is possibly incomplete.
=item *
=item *
-C<$?> ends up with the exitstatus of the subprocess (this is different
-from Unix, where the exitstatus is actually given by "$? >> 8").
-Failure to spawn() the subprocess is indicated by setting $? to
-"255<<8". This is subject to change.
+The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the
+functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API).
=item *
-Building modules available on CPAN is mostly supported, but this
-hasn't been tested much yet. Expect strange problems, and be
-prepared to deal with the consequences.
+Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8".
+C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the
+subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation).
+
+=item *
+
+You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you
+build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved
+as we get closer to 5.005.
=item *
=item *
Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
-doesn't exactly "behave", either :).
+doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
+or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
+implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled.
+Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
+variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
+currently be considered unsupported.
=item *
=back
+This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy.
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<perl>
Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
-Last updated: 11 June 1997
+Last updated: 3 January 1998
=cut
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff