Trial releases of bug-fix maintenance releases are announced on
perl5-porters. Trial releases use the new subversion number (to avoid
testers installing it over the previous release) and include a 'local
-patch' entry in patchlevel.h. The distribution file contains the
+patch' entry in F<patchlevel.h>. The distribution file contains the
string C<MAINT_TRIAL> to make clear that the file is not meant for
public consumption.
If feasible, try to keep filenames 8.3-compliant to humor those poor
souls that get joy from running Perl under such dire limitations.
-There's a script, check83.pl, for keeping your nose 8.3-clean.
+There's a script, F<check83.pl>, for keeping your nose 8.3-clean.
In a similar vein, do not create files or directories which differ only
in case (upper versus lower).
=item source code
If you have many machine-specific #defines or #includes, consider
-creating an "osish.h" (os2ish.h, vmsish.h, and so on) and including
-that in perl.h. If you have several machine-specific files (function
+creating an "osish.h" (F<os2ish.h>, F<vmsish.h>, and so on) and including
+that in F<perl.h>. If you have several machine-specific files (function
emulations, function stubs, build utility wrappers) you may create a
separate subdirectory (djgpp, win32) and put the files in there.
Remember to update C<MANIFEST> when you add files.
peculiarities.
Remember to have a $VERSION in the modules. You can use the
-Porting/checkVERSION.pl script for checking this.
+F<Porting/checkVERSION.pl> script for checking this.
=item documentation
metaconfig -m
-will regenerate Configure and config_h.SH. Much more information
+will regenerate F<Configure> and F<config_h.SH>. Much more information
on obtaining and running metaconfig is in the F<U/README> file
that comes with Perl's metaconfig units.
Perl's metaconfig units should be available on CPAN. A set of units
that will work with perl5.9.x is in a file with a name similar to
-F<mc_units-20070423.tgz> under http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/H/HM/HMBRAND/ .
+F<mc_units-20070423.tgz> under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/H/HM/HMBRAND/>.
The mc_units tar file should be unpacked in your main perl source directory.
Note: those units were for use with 5.9.x. There may have been changes since
then. Check for later versions or contact perl5-porters@perl.org to obtain a
safely be sorted, so it's easy to track (typically very small) changes
to config.sh and then propagate them to a canned 'config.h' by any
number of means, including a perl script in win32/ or carrying
-config.sh and config_h.SH to a Unix system and running sh
-config_h.SH.) Vms uses configure.com to generate its own config.sh
-and config.h. If you want to add a new variable to config.sh check
+F<config.sh> and F<config_h.SH> to a Unix system and running sh
+config_h.SH.) Vms uses F<configure.com> to generate its own F<config.sh>
+and F<config.h>. If you want to add a new variable to F<config.sh> check
with vms folk how to add it to configure.com too.
XXX]
-The Porting/config.sh and Porting/config_H files are provided to
+The F<Porting/config.sh> and F<Porting/config_H> files are provided to
help those folks who can't run Configure. It is important to keep
-them up-to-date. If you have changed config_h.SH, those changes must
+them up-to-date. If you have changed F<config_h.SH>, those changes must
be reflected in config_H as well. (The name config_H was chosen to
distinguish the file from config.h even on case-insensitive file systems.)
Simply edit the existing config_H file; keep the first few explanatory
lines and then copy your new config.h below.
It may also be necessary to update win32/config.?c, and
-plan9/config.plan9, though you should be quite careful in doing so if
+F<plan9/config.plan9>, though you should be quite careful in doing so if
you are not familiar with those systems. You might want to issue your
patch with a promise to quickly issue a follow-up that handles those
directories.
=head2 make regen_perly
-If perly.y has been edited, it is necessary to run this target to rebuild
-perly.h, perly.act and perly.tab. In fact this target just runs the Perl
-script regen_perly.pl. Note that perly.c is I<not> rebuilt; this is just a
+If F<perly.y> has been edited, it is necessary to run this target to rebuild
+F<perly.h>, F<perly.act> and F<perly.tab>. In fact this target just runs the Perl
+script F<regen_perly.pl>. Note that F<perly.c> is I<not> rebuilt; this is just a
plain static file now.
This target relies on you having Bison installed on your system. Running
the target will tell you if you haven't got the right version, and if so,
where to get the right one. Or if you prefer, you could hack
-regen_perly.pl to work with your version of Bison. The important things
+F<regen_perly.pl> to work with your version of Bison. The important things
are that the regexes can still extract out the right chunks of the Bison
-output into perly.act and perly.tab, and that the contents of those two
-files, plus perly.h, are functionally equivalent to those produced by the
+output into F<perly.act> and F<perly.tab>, and that the contents of those two
+files, plus F<perly.h>, are functionally equivalent to those produced by the
supported version of Bison.
Note that in the old days, you had to do C<make run_byacc> instead.
than answering all the questions and complaints about the failing
command.
-=head2 global.sym, and perlio.sym
+=head2 globvar.sym, and perlio.sym
Make sure these files are up-to-date. Read the comments in these
-files and in perl_exp.SH to see what to do.
+files and in F<perl_exp.SH> to see what to do.
=head2 Binary compatibility
-If you do change F<global.sym> think carefully about
+If you do change F<embed.fnc> think carefully about
what you are doing. To the extent reasonable, we'd like to maintain
source and binary compatibility with older releases of perl. That way,
extensions built under one version of perl will continue to work with
=head2 PPPort
F<cpan/Devel-PPPort/PPPort.pm> needs to be synchronized to include all
-new macros added to .h files (normally perl.h and XSUB.h, but others
+new macros added to .h files (normally F<perl.h> and F<XSUB.h>, but others
as well). Since chances are that when a new macro is added the
committer will forget to update F<PPPort.pm>, it's the best to diff for
changes in .h files when making a new release and making sure that
=head2 Todo
-The F<pod/perltodo.pod> file contains a roughly-categorized unordered
+The F<Porting/todo.pod> file contains a roughly-categorized unordered
list of aspects of Perl that could use enhancement, features that could
be added, areas that could be cleaned up, and so on. During your term
as pumpkin-holder, you will probably address some of these issues, and
=head2 VMS-specific updates
-The Perl revision number appears as "perl5" in configure.com.
+The Perl revision number appears as "perl5" in F<configure.com>.
It is courteous to update that if necessary.
I find the F<makepatch> utility quite handy for making patches.
You can obtain it from any CPAN archive under
-http://www.cpan.org/authors/Johan_Vromans/ . There are a couple
+L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/Johan_Vromans/>. There are a couple
of differences between my version and the standard one. I have mine do
a
For dynamic loading to work on AIX (and VMS) we need to provide a list
of symbols to be exported. This is done by the script F<perl_exp.SH>,
-which reads F<global.sym>. Thus, the C<pause>
-symbol would have to be added to F<global.sym> So far, so good.
+which reads F<embed.fnc>. Thus, the C<pause>
+symbol would have to be added to F<embed.fnc> So far, so good.
On the other hand, one of the goals of Perl5 is to make it easy to
either extend or embed perl and link it with other libraries. This
That is, we don't want perl's global variables to conflict with
those in the other application library. Although this work is still
in progress, the way it is currently done is via the F<embed.h> file.
-This file is built from the F<global.sym> file,
+This file is built from the F<embed.fnc> file,
since those files already list the globally visible symbols. If we
-had added C<pause> to global.sym, then F<embed.h> would contain the
+had added C<pause> to F<embed.fnc>, then F<embed.h> would contain the
line
#define pause Perl_pause
applies to SCO. This shows the perils of having internal
functions with the same name as external library functions :-).
-Now, we can safely put C<my_chsize> in F<global.sym>, export it, and
+Now, we can safely put C<my_chsize> in C<embed.fnc>, export it, and
hide it with F<embed.h>.
To be consistent with what I did for C<pause>, I probably should have
#endif
Alternatively, we could just always use C<chsize> everywhere and move
-C<chsize> from F<global.sym> to the end of F<perl_exp.SH>. That would
+C<chsize> from F<embed.fnc> to the end of F<perl_exp.SH>. That would
probably be fine as long as our C<chsize> function agreed with all the
C<chsize> function prototypes in the various systems we'll be using.
As long as the prototypes in actual use don't vary that much, this is
=head1 Upload Your Work to CPAN
You can upload your work to CPAN if you have a CPAN id. Check out
-http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html for information on
+L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html> for information on
_PAUSE_, the Perl Author's Upload Server.
I typically upload both the patch file, e.g. F<perl5.004_08.pat.gz>