1PERLCE(1)              Perl Programmers Reference Guide              PERLCE(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       perlce - Perl for WinCE
7

Building Perl for WinCE

9   WARNING
10       Much of this document has become very out of date and needs updating,
11       rewriting or deleting. The build process was overhauled during the 5.19
12       development track and the current instructions as of that time are
13       given in "CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS"; the previous build instructions,
14       which are largely superseded but may still contain some useful
15       information, are left in "OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS" but really need
16       removing after anything of use has been extracted from them.
17
18   DESCRIPTION
19       This file gives the instructions for building Perl5.8 and above for
20       WinCE.  Please read and understand the terms under which this software
21       is distributed.
22
23   General explanations on cross-compiling WinCE
24       ·   miniperl is built. This is a single executable (without DLL),
25           intended to run on Win32, and it will facilitate remaining build
26           process; all binaries built after it are foreign and should not run
27           locally.
28
29           miniperl is built using ./win32/Makefile; this is part of normal
30           build process invoked as dependency from wince/Makefile.ce
31
32       ·   After miniperl is built, configpm is invoked to create right
33           Config.pm in right place and its corresponding Cross.pm.
34
35           Unlike Win32 build, miniperl will not have Config.pm of host within
36           reach; it rather will use Config.pm from within cross-compilation
37           directories.
38
39           File Cross.pm is dead simple: for given cross-architecture places
40           in @INC a path where perl modules are, and right Config.pm in that
41           place.
42
43           That said, "miniperl -Ilib -MConfig -we 1" should report an error,
44           because it can not find Config.pm. If it does not give an error --
45           wrong Config.pm is substituted, and resulting binaries will be a
46           mess.
47
48           "miniperl -MCross -MConfig -we 1" should run okay, and it will
49           provide right Config.pm for further compilations.
50
51       ·   During extensions build phase, a script ./win32/buildext.pl is
52           invoked, which in turn steps in ./ext subdirectories and performs a
53           build of each extension in turn.
54
55           All invokes of Makefile.PL are provided with "-MCross" so to enable
56           cross- compile.
57
58   CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
59       (These instructions assume the host is 32-bit Windows. If you're on
60       64-bit Windows then change "C:\Program Files" to "C:\Program Files
61       (x86)" throughout.)
62
63       1. Install EVC4 from
64
65        http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/3/f/c3f8b58b-9753-4c2e-8b96-2dfe3476a2f7/eVC4.exe
66
67       Use the key mentioned at
68
69        http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-eMbedded-Visual-C/3000-2212_4-10108490.html?tag=bc
70
71       The installer is ancient and has a few bugs on the paths it uses. You
72       will have to fix them later. Basically, some things go into "C:/Program
73       Files/Windows CE Tools", others go into "C:/Windows CE Tools"
74       regardless of the path you gave to the installer (the default will be
75       "C:/Windows CE Tools"). Reboots will be required for the installer to
76       proceed. Also .c and .h associations with Visual Studio might get
77       overridden when installing EVC4. You have been warned.
78
79       2. Download celib from GitHub (using "Download ZIP") at
80
81           https://github.com/bulk88/celib
82
83       Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source.  I
84       call this directory "celib-palm-3.0" but in the GitHub snapshot it will
85       be called "celib-master". Make a copy of the
86       "wince-arm-pocket-wce300-release" folder and rename the copy to
87       "wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack so we can build a CE 4.0
88       binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm; the linker doesn't care. Windows
89       Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop
90       Windows.
91
92       3. Download console-1.3-src.tar.gz from
93
94        http://sourceforge.net/projects/perlce/files/PerlCE%20support%20files/console/
95
96       Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source.
97       Don't extract it into the same directory as celib. Make a copy of the
98       "wince-arm-pocket-wce300" folder and rename the copy to
99       "wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack so we can build a CE 4.0
100       binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm; the linker doesn't care. Windows
101       Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop
102       Windows.
103
104       4. Open a command prompt, run your regular batch file to set the
105       environment for desktop Visual C building, goto the perl source
106       directory, cd into win32/, fill out Makefile, and do a "nmake all" to
107       build a Desktop Perl.
108
109       5. Open win32/Makefile.ce in a text editor and do something similar to
110       the following patch.
111
112           -CELIBDLLDIR  = h:\src\wince\celib-palm-3.0
113           -CECONSOLEDIR = h:\src\wince\w32console
114           +CELIBDLLDIR  = C:\sources\celib-palm-3.0
115           +CECONSOLEDIR = C:\sources\w32console
116
117       Also change
118
119           !if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
120           MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
121           #MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
122           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
123           #MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
124           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
125           #MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
126           #MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
127           #MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
128           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
129           #MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
130           #MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
131           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
132           #MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
133           #MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
134           #MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
135           !endif
136
137       to
138
139           !if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
140           #MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
141           #MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
142           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
143           #MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
144           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
145           #MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
146           #MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
147           #MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
148           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
149           #MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
150           #MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
151           #MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
152           #MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
153           #MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
154           MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
155           !endif
156
157       so wince-arm-pocket-wce400 is the MACHINE type.
158
159       6. Use a text editor to open "C:\Program Files\Microsoft eMbedded C++
160       4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT". Look for
161
162           if "%SDKROOT%"=="" set SDKROOT=...
163
164       On a new install it is "C:\Windows CE Tools". Goto "C:\Windows CE
165       Tools" in a file manager and see if "C:\Windows CE
166       Tools\wce400\STANDARDSDK\Include\Armv4" exists on your disk. If not the
167       SDKROOT need to be changed to "C:\Program Files\Windows CE Tools".
168
169       Goto celib-palm-3.0\inc\cewin32.h, search for
170
171           typedef struct _ABC {
172
173       and uncomment the struct.
174
175       7. Open another command prompt, ensure PLATFORM is not set to anything
176       already unless you know what you're doing (so that the correct default
177       value is set by the next command), and run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
178       eMbedded C++ 4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT"
179
180       8. In the WinCE command prompt you made with WCEARMV4.BAT, goto the
181       perl source directory, cd into win32/ and run "nmake -f Makefile.ce".
182
183       9. The ARM perl interpreter (perl519.dll and perl.exe) will be in
184       something like "C:\perl519\src\win32\wince-arm-pocket-wce400", with the
185       XS DLLs in "C:\perl519\src\xlib\wince-arm-hpc-wce400\auto".
186
187       To prove success on the host machine, run "dumpbin /headers
188       wince-arm-pocket-wce400\perl.exe" from the win32/ folder and look for
189       "machine (ARM)" in the FILE HEADER VALUES and "subsystem (Windows CE
190       GUI)" in the OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES.
191
192   OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
193       This section describes the steps to be performed to build PerlCE.  You
194       may find additional information about building perl for WinCE at
195       <http://perlce.sourceforge.net> and some pre-built binaries.
196
197       Tools & SDK
198
199       For compiling, you need following:
200
201       ·   Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools
202
203       ·   Microsoft Visual C++
204
205       ·   Rainer Keuchel's celib-sources
206
207       ·   Rainer Keuchel's console-sources
208
209       Needed source files can be downloaded at
210       <http://perlce.sourceforge.net>
211
212       Make
213
214       Normally you only need to edit ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat to
215       reflect your system and run it.
216
217       File ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat is actually a wrapper to call
218       "nmake -f makefile.ce" with appropriate parameters and it accepts extra
219       parameters and forwards them to "nmake" command as additional
220       arguments. You should pass target this way.
221
222       To prepare distribution you need to do following:
223
224       ·   go to ./win32 subdirectory
225
226       ·   edit file ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat
227
228       ·   run
229             compile.bat
230
231       ·   run
232             compile.bat dist
233
234       Makefile.ce has "CROSS_NAME" macro, and it is used further to refer to
235       your cross-compilation scheme. You could assign a name to it, but this
236       is not necessary, because by default it is assigned after your machine
237       configuration name, such as "wince-sh3-hpc-wce211", and this is enough
238       to distinguish different builds at the same time. This option could be
239       handy for several different builds on same platform to perform, say,
240       threaded build. In a following example we assume that all required
241       environment variables are set properly for C cross-compiler (a special
242       *.bat file could fit perfectly to this purpose) and your compile.bat
243       has proper "MACHINE" parameter set, to, say,
244       "wince-mips-pocket-wce300".
245
246         compile.bat
247         compile.bat dist
248         compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
249           "USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define"
250         compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
251           "USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define" dist
252
253       If all goes okay and no errors during a build, you'll get two
254       independent distributions: "wince-mips-pocket-wce300" and
255       "mips-wce300-thr".
256
257       Target "dist" prepares distribution file set. Target "zipdist" performs
258       same as "dist" but additionally compresses distribution files into zip
259       archive.
260
261       NOTE: during a build there could be created a number (or one) of
262       Config.pm for cross-compilation ("foreign" Config.pm) and those are
263       hidden inside ../xlib/$(CROSS_NAME) with other auxiliary files, but,
264       and this is important to note, there should be no Config.pm for host
265       miniperl.  If you'll get an error that perl could not find Config.pm
266       somewhere in building process this means something went wrong. Most
267       probably you forgot to specify a cross-compilation when invoking
268       miniperl.exe to Makefile.PL When building an extension for cross-
269       compilation your command line should look like
270
271         ..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross=mips-wce300-thr Makefile.PL
272
273       or just
274
275         ..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross Makefile.PL
276
277       to refer a cross-compilation that was created last time.
278
279       All questions related to building for WinCE devices could be asked in
280       perlce-user@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list.
281

Using Perl on WinCE

283   DESCRIPTION
284       PerlCE is currently linked with a simple console window, so it also
285       works on non-hpc devices.
286
287       The simple stdio implementation creates the files stdin.txt, stdout.txt
288       and stderr.txt, so you might examine them if your console has only a
289       limited number of cols.
290
291       When exitcode is non-zero, a message box appears, otherwise the console
292       closes, so you might have to catch an exit with status 0 in your
293       program to see any output.
294
295       stdout/stderr now go into the files /perl-stdout.txt and
296       /perl-stderr.txt.
297
298       PerlIDE is handy to deal with perlce.
299
300   LIMITATIONS
301       No fork(), pipe(), popen() etc.
302
303   ENVIRONMENT
304       All environment vars must be stored in HKLM\Environment as strings.
305       They are read at process startup.
306
307       PERL5LIB
308           Usual perl lib path (semi-list).
309
310       PATH
311           Semi-list for executables.
312
313       TMP - Tempdir.
314
315       UNIXROOTPATH
316           - Root for accessing some special files, i.e. /dev/null,
317           /etc/services.
318
319       ROWS/COLS
320           - Rows/cols for console.
321
322       HOME
323           - Home directory.
324
325       CONSOLEFONTSIZE
326           - Size for console font.
327
328       You can set these with cereg.exe, a (remote) registry editor or via the
329       PerlIDE.
330
331   REGISTRY
332       To start perl by clicking on a perl source file, you have to make the
333       according entries in HKCR (see ce-helpers/wince-reg.bat).  cereg.exe
334       (which must be executed on a desktop pc with ActiveSync) is reported
335       not to work on some devices.  You have to create the registry entries
336       by hand using a registry editor.
337
338   XS
339       The following Win32-Methods are built-in:
340
341               newXS("Win32::GetCwd", w32_GetCwd, file);
342               newXS("Win32::SetCwd", w32_SetCwd, file);
343               newXS("Win32::GetTickCount", w32_GetTickCount, file);
344               newXS("Win32::GetOSVersion", w32_GetOSVersion, file);
345               newXS("Win32::IsWinNT", w32_IsWinNT, file);
346               newXS("Win32::IsWin95", w32_IsWin95, file);
347               newXS("Win32::IsWinCE", w32_IsWinCE, file);
348               newXS("Win32::CopyFile", w32_CopyFile, file);
349               newXS("Win32::Sleep", w32_Sleep, file);
350               newXS("Win32::MessageBox", w32_MessageBox, file);
351               newXS("Win32::GetPowerStatus", w32_GetPowerStatus, file);
352               newXS("Win32::GetOemInfo", w32_GetOemInfo, file);
353               newXS("Win32::ShellEx", w32_ShellEx, file);
354
355   BUGS
356       Opening files for read-write is currently not supported if they use
357       stdio (normal perl file handles).
358
359       If you find bugs or if it does not work at all on your device, send
360       mail to the address below. Please report the details of your device
361       (processor, ceversion, devicetype (hpc/palm/pocket)) and the date of
362       the downloaded files.
363
364   INSTALLATION
365       Currently installation instructions are at
366       <http://perlce.sourceforge.net/>.
367
368       After installation & testing processes will stabilize, information will
369       be more precise.
370

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

372       The port for Win32 was used as a reference.
373

History of WinCE port

375       5.6.0
376           Initial port of perl to WinCE. It was performed in separate
377           directory named wince. This port was based on contents of ./win32
378           directory.  miniperl was not built, user must have HOST perl and
379           properly edit makefile.ce to reflect this.
380
381       5.8.0
382           wince port was kept in the same ./wince directory, and
383           wince/Makefile.ce was used to invoke native compiler to create HOST
384           miniperl, which then facilitates cross-compiling process.
385           Extension building support was added.
386
387       5.9.4
388           Two directories ./win32 and ./wince were merged, so perlce build
389           process comes in ./win32 directory.
390

AUTHORS

392       Rainer Keuchel <coyxc@rainer-keuchel.de>
393           provided initial port of Perl, which appears to be most essential
394           work, as it was a breakthrough on having Perl ported at all.  Many
395           thanks and obligations to Rainer!
396
397       Vadim Konovalov
398           made further support of WinCE port.
399
400       Daniel Dragan
401           updated the build process during the 5.19 development track.
402
403
404
405perl v5.26.3                      2018-03-01                         PERLCE(1)
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