was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
which this software is being distributed.
-Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> 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
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-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++ 2005-2013 Express
-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++
-2005-2013 Professional" respectively.
+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++ 2005-2019 Professional" respectively.
This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
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 Windows> below for general hints about this.
+See L</Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
=head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
=item Make
You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
-Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
-the gcc need dmake.
-
-dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
-and parallelability.
+Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++
+or Windows SDK. You may also use, for Visual C++ or Windows SDK, dmake or gmake
+instead of nmake. dmake is open source software, but is not included with
+Visual C++ or Windows SDK. Builds using gcc need dmake or gmake. nmake is not
+supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only supported with dmake and
+gmake, not nmake. When using dmake it is recommended to use dmake 4.13 or newer
+for parallel building. Older dmakes, in parallel mode, have very high CPU usage
+and pound the disk/filing system with duplicate I/O calls in an aggressive
+polling loop.
A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
+L<https://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
so.
-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.
-
-=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community Edition
-These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 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++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
+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 MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE first.
+file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC142 first.
=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
file to set
- CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
+ CCTYPE = MSVC80
and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
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.)
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
+=item GCC
-Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.4.5
-and later). It can be downloaded here:
+Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from
+MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here:
L<http://www.mingw.org/>
+L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
+
+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).
-You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
+Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2
+or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
=item Intel C++ Compiler
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
=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,
-perl523.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
+perl531.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.
+To try dmake's parallel mode, type "dmake -P2", where 2, is the maximum number
+of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will
+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 build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
-F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File.Copy.t>. The failures are
-caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which will be fixed in future releases
-of VC++, as explained by Microsoft here:
+F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File/Copy.t>. The failures are
+caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
+later, as explained by Microsoft here:
L<https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>. In the meantime,
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.
-Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
+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<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
-values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
-C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
-Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
-following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
+values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with
+USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if
+C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>
+exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl
+process's run life for certain entries. Entries in
+C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in
+C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries
+(of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys:
lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
lib standard library path to add to @INC
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>
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
Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
-Last updated: 07 October 2014
+Last updated: 30 April 2019
=cut
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff