Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later
Intel C++ Compiler (experimental)
- Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5 or later with runtime < 3.21
+ Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5 or later
+ with runtime < 3.21
Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later
Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
=back
The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
-available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2017 Express [or
+available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2019 Express [or
Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK")
and are the same compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional"
-or "Visual C++ 2005-2017 Professional" respectively.
+or "Visual C++ 2005-2019 Professional" respectively.
This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
-The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
+The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/sdk-archive>.
The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://mingw-w64.org>.
The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
+L<https://metacpan.org/release/dmake>
Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
=item Microsoft Visual C++
-The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C
-requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C will
-sucessfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
-need to beforehand, run the C<vcvars32.bat> file to compile for x86-32 and for
-x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat x64> or C<vcvarsamd64.bat>. On a typical install of a
-
Microsoft C compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
+The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C++
+requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C++ will
+successfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
+need to beforehand, run C<vcvarsall.bat x86> to compile for x86-32 and for
+x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat amd64>. On a typical install of a Microsoft C++
+compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
-usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
-With some newer Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
+usually found somewhere like
+C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC.
+With some newer Microsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
so.
-=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community Edition
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community Edition
-These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2017 Professional contain the same
+These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2019 Professional contain the same
compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
-L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
+L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
changing so often.)
-Install Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community, then setup your environment
+Install Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community, then setup your environment
using, e.g.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
(assuming the default installation location was chosen).
Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
-file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC141 first.
+file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC142 first.
=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
-L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
+L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
changing so often.)
L<http://www.mingw.org/>
L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
-You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
+You also need dmake or gmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
Note that the MinGW build currently requires a MinGW runtime version earlier
than 3.21 (check __MINGW32_MAJOR_VERSION and __MINGW32_MINOR_VERSION).
Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
-To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
+To set up the build environment, from the Start Menu run
IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
-a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
-defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
+a GNU make "GNUmakefile" or dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all
+supported compilers. The defaults in the gmake and dmake makefile are
+setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
=item *
-Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
-the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
-build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
+Edit the GNUmakefile, makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake)
+and change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable
+various build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
than the one being tested.
You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
-CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
+CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC this
+should be the directory that contains the F<bin>, F<include> and
+F<lib> directories.
If building with the cross-compiler provided by
mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
and is valid.
-You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
-Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
-the linker reports an internal error.
-
If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
-NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
-Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
-
Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
=item *
-Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
+Type "dmake" ("gmake" for GNU make, or "nmake" if you are using that make).
This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
-perl528.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
+perl533.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1
CPU maxed out. This is normal.
+Similarly you can build in parallel with GNU make, type "gmake -j2" to
+build with two parallel jobs, or higher for more.
+
If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
-up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH enviromental
+up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH environmental
variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
=head2 Testing Perl on Windows
-Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
-the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
+Type "dmake test" (or "gmake test", "nmake test"). This will run most
+of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
There should be no test failures.
if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
+If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then F<ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t>
+may crash (after all its tests have passed). This is due to a regression in the
+Universal CRT introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed
+in the May 2019 Update, as explained here: L<https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>.
+
If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
-see L<http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
+see L<https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
avoid these errors.
+To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t
+directory:
+
+ # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory
+ cd ..\win32
+ .\perl harness <list of tests>
+
Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
=head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
-Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
-built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
-Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
-C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
-C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
+Type "dmake install" (or "gmake install", "nmake install"). This will
+put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP>
+points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation
+under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same
+under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
and other special characters in arguments.
The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
-L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
+L<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd>
and the C runtime parsing rules here:
-L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
+L<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
-Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
+Look in L<https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
-L<http://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
+L<https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
porting modules that don't readily build.
Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
CPAN.
-L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
+L<https://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
-You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
+You may also use dmake or gmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
-that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
-utility.
+that with full details of how the build failed using the GitHub
+issue tracker at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
=item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
-If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
-bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
-find a mailer on your system).
+If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to
+L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
-the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
+AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
currently be considered unsupported.
-Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
-you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
-produced by C<perl -V>.
+Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
+you may find at E<lt>L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>E<gt>,
+
along with the output produced by C<perl -V>.
=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
-Last updated: 23 May 2018
+Last updated: 30 April 2019
=cut
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff