=head1 NAME
-perlwin32 - Perl under Win32
+perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
=head1 SYNOPSIS
-These are instructions for building Perl under Windows (9x, NT and
-2000).
+These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
+on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
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 capable of using one of the
-following compilers:
-
- Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
- Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later
- Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better
-
-The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support
-for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known
-not to work.)
-
-This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
+following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
+
+ Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
+ Microsoft Visual C++ version 2.0 or later
+ MinGW with gcc gcc version 2.95.2 or later
+ Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 2.95.2 or later
+ Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
+
+Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
+delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
+- http://mingw.org - delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows
+ platform.
+ Use version 3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
+- http://mingw-w64.sf.net - delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit
+ Windows and 32-bit Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64"
+ they are not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
+ + cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
+
+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" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Express Edition" (and also
+as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships with
+"Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 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 MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
+The MinGW64 compiler is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64.
+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:
+http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/mingw64-w64-20100123-kmx-v2.zip
+
+NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
+operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
+Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
+(as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
+
+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.
=item Make
You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
-Visual C++ under Windows NT or 2000, nmake will work. All other
-builds need dmake.
+Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
+will work. All other builds need dmake.
dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
and parallelability.
A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
- http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip
-
-(This is a fixed version of the original dmake sources obtained from
-http://www.wticorp.com/. As of version 4.1PL1, the original
-sources did not build as shipped and had various other problems.
-A patch is included in the above fixed version.)
+ http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
-Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions
-in the README.NOW file).
+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
"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, using the cmd shell.
+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.
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. This will set your build environment.
+like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
+This will set your build environment.
You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
-=item Mingw32 with GCC
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
+
+This free version of Visual C++ 2008 Professional contains the same compiler
+and linker that ship with the full version, and also contains everything
+necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download of the
+Platform SDK like previous versions did.
+
+This package can be downloaded by searching for "Visual Studio 2008 Express
+Edition" in the Download Center at
+http://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, then setup your environment using
+
+ C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\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 = MSVC90FREE
+
+first.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
+
+This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
+and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
+necessary to build Perl.
+
+You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
+SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
+
+These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
+http://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.)
+
+Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
+contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
+other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
+also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
+
+According to the download pages these packages 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 Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
+as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
+
+ SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
+
+ SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
+
+ SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
+
+ SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
+
+ SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
+
+(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
+you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
+while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
+"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
+
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
+file to set
+
+ CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
+
+and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
+
+This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
+Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
+necessary to build Perl.
+
+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.
+
+These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
+http://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.)
+
+Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
+contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
+other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
+also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
+
+According to the download pages these packages 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 PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
+
+ SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
+
+ SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
+
+ SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
+
+(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
+you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
+while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
+"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
+
+Several required files will still be missing:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+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:
+
+ C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
+
+Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
+
+=item *
+
+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:
+
+Change the line reading:
+
+ ar='lib'
+
+to:
+
+ ar='link /lib'
+
+It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
+C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
+
+ @echo off
+ link /lib %*
-GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from:
+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}.
- ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/
+=item *
+
+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 %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
+internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
+
+ cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
+
+Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\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
+
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
+file to set
+
+ CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
+
+and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
+
+=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
+
+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.
+
+=item MinGW release 3 with gcc
+
+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:
+
+ http://www.mingw.org/
+
+Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up). See below
+for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
+
+And perl also compiles with gcc-4.3.0 and up, and perhaps even some of the
+earlier 4.x.x versions.
You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
-The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers.
+=item MinGW release 1 with gcc
+
+The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
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
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++, and a dmake "makefile.mk"
-that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake
-makefile are setup to build using the GCC compiler.
+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 *
-Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and 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.
-You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
-CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
+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. If building with
+gcc-4.x.x, you'll also need to uncomment the assignment to GCC_4XX and
+uncomment the assignment to the appropriate GCCHELPERDLL in the makefile.mk.
+
+If building with the cross-compiler provided by
+mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
+GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
+only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
+does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
+executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
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.
-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 Eric Young) which is widely
-available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example,
-"ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/"). 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. The location above contains
-many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different
-implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single,
-self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be
-easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is
-in des_fcrypt.patch.
-
-An easier alternative may be to get the pre-patched and ready-to-use
-fcrypt.c that can be found here:
-
- http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c
- ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c
+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 are using VC++ 4.2 or earlier then you'll have to change the /EHsc
+option in the CXX_FLAG macro to the equivalent /GX option.
+
+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 *
Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
-perl56.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
+perl512.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.
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 4.0 or
-Windows 2000. Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior
-command shell.
+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
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\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
-C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed,
-you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable,
-C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin> and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>.
-For example:
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
- set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
+To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
+your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
-If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the
-installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be
-sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance:
+ set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
- 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
the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
the C runtime.
-The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by
+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
either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
old version of nmake reportedly available from:
- ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe
+ 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.
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
+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
+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
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 most other Win32 extensions from
+all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
-support. This bundle is available at:
+support. The latest version of this bundle is available at:
- http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.151.zip
+ http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
See the README in that distribution for building and installation
-instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the
-same location.
+instructions.
+
+=item Notes on 64-bit Windows
-=item Running Perl Scripts
+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 *
+
+A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
+Itanium hardware.
+
+=item *
+
+There is no 2GB limit on process size.
+
+=item *
+
+Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
+64-bit Windows.
+
+=item *
+
+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.
=back
-=item Miscellaneous Things
+=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
"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).
-=back
-
=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
+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
+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
+updating it). The build does complete with
set PERLIO=perlio
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>
+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
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()>
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 <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced
-by C<perl -V>.
+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
=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
+=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 Gurusamy Sarathy.
+This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
=head1 SEE ALSO
Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
-Last updated: 1 April 2001
+Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
+
+Last updated: 29 August 2007
=cut
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff