=head1 NAME
-perlwin32 - Perl under Win32
+perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
=head1 SYNOPSIS
-These are instructions for building Perl under WindowsNT (versions
-3.51 or 4.0), using Visual C++ (versions 2.0 through 5.0). 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 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).
+These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
+on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Before you start, you should glance through the README file
-found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution
+found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
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
particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
"Configure".
-You should probably also read the README.os2 file, which gives a
-different set of rules to build a Perl that will work on Win32
-platforms. That method will probably enable you to build a more
-Unix-compatible perl, but you will also need to download and use
-various other support software described in that file.
+You may also want to look at two other options for building
+a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and
+README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to
+build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods
+will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but
+you will also need to download and use various other build-time and
+run-time support software described in those files.
This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
-port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no
+port of Perl to Win32 platforms. This includes both 32-bit and
+64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
-system). Currently, this port is only capable of using Microsoft's
-Visual C++ compiler. The ultimate goal is to support the other major
-compilers that can be used to build Win32 applications.
+system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
+following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
-This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
+ Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
+ Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later
+ MinGW with gcc gcc version 2.95.2 or later
+
+The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Use version
+3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
+
+The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
+away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
+Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
+"Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as
+"Visual C++ Toolkit 2003", and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK", and
+is the same compiler that ships with "Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional".
+
+This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using:
+
+ Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
+
+The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
+
+This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
+See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
-=head2 Setting Up
+=head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
=over 4
-=item *
+=item Make
-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. You are mostly on your own if you can
-muster the temerity to attempt this with Windows95.
+You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
+Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
+will work. All other builds need dmake.
-=item *
+dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
+and parallelability.
+
+A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
+
+ http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
+
+Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
+
+There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
+compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
+case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
+with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
+to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
+For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
+needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
+may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
+available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
+
+=item Command Shell
+
+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 nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
+"command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to
+use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
+
+The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
+
+Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
+build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
+
+=item Borland C++
+
+If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
+(The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
+work for MakeMaker builds.)
+
+See L</"Make"> above.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++
-Run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN.
+The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
+You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
+like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
This will set your build environment.
-=item *
+You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
+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.
-Depending on how you extracted the distribution, you have to make sure
-all the files are writable by you. The easiest way to make sure of
-this is to execute:
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
- attrib -R *.* /S
+This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
+Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
+necessary to build Perl.
-from the perl toplevel directory. You don't I<have> to do this if you
-used the right tools to extract the files in the standard distribution,
-but it doesn't hurt to do so.
+You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
+SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
+".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
+(which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
+Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
+installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
-=back
+These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
+http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en
+
+The Platform SDK packages can also be obtained from the Platform SDK Update
+site: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate Note that this
+site requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later to function, but the site's home
+page currently gives links to two download pages for users of other browsers:
+
+For Windows XP Service Pack 2:
+http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/XPSP2FULLInstall.htm
+
+For Windows Server 2003:
+http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/psdk-full.htm
-=head2 Building and Installation
+According to the download pages the Toolkit and the .NET Framework SDK are only
+supported on Windows 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows
+95/98/ME and even Windows NT probably won't work.
+
+Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
+Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
+were chosen):
+
+ SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
+ SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
+ SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
+
+Several required files will still be missing:
=over 4
=item *
-The "win32" directory contains *.mak files for use with the NMAKE that
-comes with Visual C++ ver. 4.0 and above. If you wish to build perl
-using Visual C++ versions between 2.0 and 4.0, do the following two
-additional steps (these steps are not required if you are
-using Visual C++ versions 4.0 and above):
-
-=over 8
+cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
+installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
+following:
-=item 1.
+ C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
-Overwrite the *.mak files in the win32 subdirectory with the versions
-in the win32\VC-2.0 directory.
+Copy it from there to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin
-=item 2.
+=item *
-Reset your INCLUDE environment variable to the MSVC include directory.
-For example:
+lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
+option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
- set INCLUDE=E:\MSVC20\INCLUDE
+Change the line reading:
-This must have only one directory (a list of directories will not work).
-VCVARS32.BAT may put multiple locations in there, which is why this step
-is required.
+ ar='lib'
-=back
+to:
-=item *
+ ar='link /lib'
-Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
+It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
+C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
-=item *
+ @echo off
+ link /lib %*
-Type "nmake" while in the "win32" subdirectory. This should build
-everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, perl.dll, and
-perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
-under the lib\auto directory. If the make fails for any reason, make
-sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
+for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
+later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
+$Config{ar}.
=item *
-Type "nmake install". This will put the newly built perl and the
-libraries under C:\PERL. If you want to alter this location, to say,
-D:\FOO\PERL, you will have to say:
+setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
+option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
+in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
+internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
- nmake install INST_TOP=D:\FOO\PERL
+ cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
-instead. To use the Perl you just installed, make sure you set your
-PATH environment variable to C:\PERL\BIN (or D:\FOO\PERL\BIN).
+Then copy setargv.obj to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib
+
+Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
+USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
+from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
=back
-=head2 Testing
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
+file to comment-out CCTYPE = MSVC60 (since that enables delay-loading of the
+Winsock DLL which the free toolkit does not support) and to set CCHOME,
+CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above. You may also want to
+change both mentions of the compiler's "-Gf" switch to "-GF" since the former
+is deprecated in VC7 and will be removed from future versions.
-Type "nmake test". This will run most of the tests from the
-testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail).
+=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
-If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command
-shell than the native "cmd.exe". To get a more detailed breakdown of the
-tests that failed, you may want to say:
+The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
+Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
+shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
- cd ..\t
- .\perl harness
+=item MinGW release 3 with gcc
-Please report any failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
+The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains
+gcc-3.2.3. It can be downloaded here:
-=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
+ http://www.mingw.org/
-This is still very much an experimental port, and should be considered
-alpha quality software. You can expect changes in virtually all of
-these areas: build process, installation structure, supported
-utilities/modules, and supported perl functionality. Specifically,
-functionality specific to the Win32 environment may ultimately
-be supported as either core modules or extensions.
+Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up). See below
+for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
-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
-differences fall under one of these categories.
+You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
-=over 8
+=item MinGW release 1 with gcc
-=item *
+The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
-C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They
-may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix
-platforms, and some fields may be completely bogus.
+Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated
+in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment
+variables (usually ran from a batch file).
-=item *
+There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
+released 7 November 1999:
-The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, C<exec()>,
-C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>,
-C<setpgrp()>, C<getpgrp()>, C<setpriority()>, C<getpriority()>,
-C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<flock()>. This list is possibly very
-incomplete.
+=over
=item *
-Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
-behave as on Unix platforms.
+It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure
+to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above
+ftp location.
=item *
-The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets.
+The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your
+stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the
+test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from
+"long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h,
+and rebuild.
+
+=back
+
+A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle
+of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available
+here:
+
+ http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
+ ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Building
+
+=over 4
=item *
-The behavior of C<system()> or the C<qx[]> operator (a.k.a. "backticks"),
-when used to call interactive commands, is ill-defined.
+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 Platform 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.
=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.
+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.
+
+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
+build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
+lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
+may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
+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.
+
+The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
+may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
+and is valid.
+
+You may also need to comment out a line C<DELAYLOAD = ...> in the
+makefile, in case you're using an older version of the Visual C++ compiler
+(e.g. 6.0 without service packs) and if the linker reports an internal
+error.
+
+If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
+enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version
+of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
+ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
+distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
+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.
+
+If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
+them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
+
+Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
=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.
+Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
+
+This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
+perl59.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.
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Testing Perl on Win32
+
+Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
+the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
+
+There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
+Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell.
+
+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
+spaces. So don't do that.
+
+If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
+failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
+
+If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
+arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
+default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
+from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
+(usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
+
+If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
+problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
+example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
+contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
+(v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
+option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
+search algorithm to locate header files.
+
+If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
+C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
+NTFS avoids these errors.
+
+Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
+have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
+include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
+ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
+avoid these errors.
+
+Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
+
+=head2 Installation of Perl on Win32
+
+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<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
+
+To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
+your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
+
+ set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
+
+If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
+then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
+need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
+
+ set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
+
+=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Environment Variables
+
+The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
+into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
+using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
+
+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 L<perlrun>.
+
+You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
+backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
+
+Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
+values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
+C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
+Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
+following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
+
+ lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
+ lib standard library path to add to @INC
+ sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
+ sitelib site library path to add to @INC
+ vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
+ vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
+ PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
+
+Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
+of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
+separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
+
+=item File Globbing
+
+By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
+which provides portable globbing.
+
+If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
+filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
+to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
+details.
+
+=item Using perl from the command line
+
+If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
+shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
+with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
+
+The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
+the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
+First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
+COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
+redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
+executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
+command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
+upon which Perl was built.
+
+It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
+runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
+wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
+shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
+using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
+character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
+and other special characters in arguments.
+
+The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
+quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
+based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
+passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
+prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
+put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
+enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
+the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
+the C runtime.
+
+The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
+double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
+be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
+the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
+this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
+been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
+to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
+line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
+the caret as a quote character).
+
+Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
+
+This prints two doublequotes:
+
+ perl -e "print '\"\"' "
+
+This does the same:
+
+ perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
+
+This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
+
+ perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
+
+This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
+
+ perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
+
+This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
+
+ perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
+
+This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
+
+ perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
+
+This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
+
+ perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
+
+This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
+
+ perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
+
+
+Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
+is left as an exercise to the reader :)
+
+One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
+Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
+that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
+therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
+Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
+quoted.
+
+=item Building Extensions
+
+The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
+of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
+Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
+
+Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
+in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
+http://testers.cpan.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
+be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
+
+ perl Makefile.PL
+ $MAKE
+ $MAKE test
+ $MAKE install
+
+where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
+use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
+may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
+fail), but most serious ones do.
+
+It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
+ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
+either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
+old version of nmake reportedly available from:
+
+ http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
+
+Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
+CPAN.
+
+ http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
+
+You may also use dmake. 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
+important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
+
+ make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
+ make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
+ any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
+ (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
+
+If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
+edit Config.pm to fix it.
+
+If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
+C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
+the compiler for command-line compilation.
+
+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.
+
+=item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
+
+The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
+as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
+programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
+This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
+perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
+However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
+behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
+compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
+be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
+alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
+
+Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
+about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
+powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
+*/*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
+4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
+entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
+
+ C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
+ # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
+ use File::DosGlob;
+ @ARGV = map {
+ my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
+ @g ? @g : $_;
+ } @ARGV;
+ 1;
+ ^Z
+ C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
+ C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
+ p4view/perl/perl.c
+ p4view/perl/perlio.c
+ p4view/perl/perly.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+ perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+
+Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
+Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
+set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
+to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
+environment.
+
+If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
+command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
+binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
+what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
+done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
+
+=item Win32 Specific Extensions
+
+A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
+from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
+be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only
+native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not
+have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these
+extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore,
+cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section.
+
+To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
+ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains
+all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
+CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
+support. The latest version of this bundle is available at:
+
+ http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
+
+See the README in that distribution for building and installation
+instructions.
+
+=item Notes on 64-bit Windows
+
+Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
+architecture.
+
+The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
+norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
+both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
+there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
+the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
+as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
+64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
+addressability.
+
+64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
+binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
+of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
+a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
+
+=over
=item *
-C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not
-behave as described in the documentation, and some of the
-returned values or effects may be bogus.
+A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
+Itanium hardware.
=item *
-Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms.
+There is no 2GB limit on process size.
=item *
-File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms.
+Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
+64-bit Windows.
=item *
-Not all of the utilities that come with the Perl distribution
-are supported yet.
+Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
+
+=back
+
+=back
+
+=head2 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
-Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
-you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced
-by C<perl -V>.
+=head2 Miscellaneous Things
+
+A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
+able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
+system.
+
+C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
+in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
+like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may
+have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
+"perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
+"foo".
+
+One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
+is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
+window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
+of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
+executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
+the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, 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).
+
+=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.
+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,
+or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
+updating it). The build does complete with
+
+ set PERLIO=perlio
+
+but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
+
+Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
+L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
+surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
+in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
+that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
+for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
+
+Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
+in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
+
+Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
+behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
+Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
+running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
+
+http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
+
+Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
+
+Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
+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.
+
+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>.
+
+=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
+
+The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
+of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
=head1 AUTHORS
=over 4
-=item Gary Ng <F<71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>>
+=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
+
+=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
-=item Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>
+=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
-=item Nick Ing-Simmons <F<nick@ni-s.u-net.com>>
+=item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
+
+=item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
=back
+This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<perl>
This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
-at the time.
+at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
+since then.
+
+Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
+
+GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
+
+Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
+
+Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
+
+Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
-Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and
-sundry hacks since then.
+Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
-Last updated: 05 April 1997
+Last updated: 16 June 2005
=cut
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