1PERLWIN32(1)           Perl Programmers Reference Guide           PERLWIN32(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
7

SYNOPSIS

9       These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
10

DESCRIPTION

12       Before you start, you should glance through the README file found in
13       the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution was extracted.
14       Make sure you read and understand the terms under which this software
15       is being distributed.
16
17       Also make sure you read "BUGS AND CAVEATS" below for the known
18       limitations of this port.
19
20       The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
21       only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems.  In
22       particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
23       "Configure".
24
25       You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
26       will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
27       set of rules to build a perl for Windows.  This method will probably
28       enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also need
29       to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
30       software described in that file.
31
32       This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" port
33       of Perl to the Windows platform.  This includes both 32-bit and 64-bit
34       Windows operating systems.  The resulting Perl requires no additional
35       software to run (other than what came with your operating system).
36       Currently, this port is capable of using one of the following compilers
37       on the Intel x86 architecture:
38
39             Microsoft Visual C++    version 6.0 or later
40             Intel C++ Compiler      (experimental)
41             Gcc by mingw.org        gcc version 3.4.5 or later
42             Gcc by mingw-w64.org    gcc version 4.4.3 or later
43
44       Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
45       delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
46
47       <http://mingw.org>
48           Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
49
50       <http://mingw-w64.org>
51           Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit
52           Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are
53           not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
54           and cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
55
56       The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free.
57       They are available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++
58       2005-2017 Express [or Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part
59       of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same compilers that ship with
60       "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005-2017
61       Professional" respectively.
62
63       This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
64
65             Microsoft Platform SDK    Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
66             MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
67
68       The Windows SDK can be downloaded from <http://www.microsoft.com/>.
69       The MinGW64 compiler is available at <http://mingw-w64.org>.  The
70       latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a
71       trimmed down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl
72       available at: <http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
73
74       NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit
75       Windows operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment
76       variable to "undef".  Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests
77       when USE_ITHREADS *= define (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *=
78       Debug line is commented out.
79
80       This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used to
81       build extensions to perl).  Therefore, you should be able to build and
82       install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.  See "Usage Hints for
83       Perl on Windows" below for general hints about this.
84
85   Setting Up Perl on Windows
86       Make
87           You need a "make" program to build the sources.  If you are using
88           Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, you can use nmake supplied
89           with Visual C++ or Windows SDK. You may also use, for Visual C++ or
90           Windows SDK, dmake or gmake instead of nmake.  dmake is open source
91           software, but is not included with Visual C++ or Windows SDK.
92           Builds using gcc need dmake or gmake.  nmake is not supported for
93           gcc builds.  Parallel building is only supported with dmake and
94           gmake, not nmake.  When using dmake it is recommended to use dmake
95           4.13 or newer for parallel building.  Older dmakes, in parallel
96           mode, have very high CPU usage and pound the disk/filing system
97           with duplicate I/O calls in an aggressive polling loop.
98
99           A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
100
101           <http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
102
103           Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
104
105       Command Shell
106           Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows.  Some versions
107           of the popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause
108           you trouble.  If the build fails under that shell, try building
109           again with the cmd shell.
110
111           Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.
112           The build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will
113           fail.
114
115       Microsoft Visual C++
116           The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
117           Visual C requires that certain things be set up in the console
118           before Visual C will sucessfully run. To make a console box be able
119           to run the C compiler, you will need to beforehand, run the
120           "vcvars32.bat" file to compile for x86-32 and for x86-64
121           "vcvarsall.bat x64" or "vcvarsamd64.bat". On a typical install of a
122           Microsoft C compiler product, these batch files will already be in
123           your "PATH" environment variable so you may just type them without
124           an absolute path into your console. If you need to find the
125           absolute path to the batch file, it is usually found somewhere like
126           C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.  With some newer
127           Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will put
128           a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with
129           the console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or
130           x86-64 or IA64).  With the newer compilers, you may also use the
131           older batch files if you choose so.
132
133       Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community Edition
134           These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2017 Professional contain
135           the same compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions,
136           and also contain everything necessary to build Perl, rather than
137           requiring a separate download of the Windows SDK like previous
138           versions did.
139
140           These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download
141           Center at
142           <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
143           (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
144           task because the links keep on changing so often.)
145
146           Install Visual C++ 2008-2017 Express/Community, then setup your
147           environment using, e.g.
148
149            C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
150
151           (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
152
153           Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to
154           edit that file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90FREE-MSVC141FREE
155           first.
156
157       Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
158           This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same
159           compiler and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't
160           contain everything necessary to build Perl.
161
162           You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK"
163           and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for more header files and
164           libraries.
165
166           These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download
167           Center at
168           <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
169           (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
170           task because the links keep on changing so often.)
171
172           Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK.  Sometimes
173           these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
174           name, but actually work on other OS versions too.  For example, the
175           "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
176           and Windows 2000.
177
178           Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK.  Setup your
179           environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
180           were chosen):
181
182            SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
183
184            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
185
186            SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
187
188            SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
189
190            SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
191
192           (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
193           which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
194           "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
195           into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
196           Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
197
198           Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to
199           edit that file to set
200
201            CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
202
203           and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
204           setup above.
205
206       Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
207           This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship
208           with Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain
209           everything necessary to build Perl.
210
211           You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK"
212           and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries
213           and rc.exe, and ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and
214           nmake.exe.  Note that the latter (which also includes the free
215           compiler and linker) requires the ".NET Framework Redistributable"
216           to be installed first.  This can be downloaded and installed
217           separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003"
218           anyway.
219
220           These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download
221           Center at
222           <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
223           (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
224           task because the links keep on changing so often.)
225
226           Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK.  Sometimes
227           these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
228           name, but actually work on other OS versions too.  For example, the
229           "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
230           and Windows 2000.
231
232           Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET
233           Framework SDK.  Setup your environment as follows (assuming default
234           installation locations were chosen):
235
236            SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
237
238            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
239
240            SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
241
242            SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
243
244           (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
245           which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
246           "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
247           into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
248           Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
249
250           Several required files will still be missing:
251
252           ·   cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file.  It
253               is actually installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a
254               location such as the following:
255
256                C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
257
258               Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
259
260           ·   lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with
261               the /lib option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it
262               instead:
263
264               Change the line reading:
265
266                       ar='lib'
267
268               to:
269
270                       ar='link /lib'
271
272               It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
273               C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin
274               containing:
275
276                       @echo off
277                       link /lib %*
278
279               for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you
280               might want to build later which explicitly reference "lib"
281               rather than taking their value from $Config{ar}.
282
283           ·   setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if
284               the USE_SETARGV option is enabled).  The Platform SDK supplies
285               this object file in source form in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt.
286               Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and internal.h from there to some
287               temporary location and build setargv.obj using
288
289                       cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
290
291               Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
292
293               Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to
294               enable the USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove
295               all mention of $(GLOBEXE) from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj
296               won't be required anyway.
297
298           Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to
299           edit that file to set
300
301                   CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
302
303           and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
304           setup above.
305
306       Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
307           The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for
308           building Perl.  Make sure you are building within one of the "Build
309           Environment" shells available after you install the Platform SDK
310           from the Start Menu.
311
312       MinGW release 3 with gcc
313           Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using
314           gcc 3.4.5 and later).  It can be downloaded here:
315
316           <http://www.mingw.org/>
317
318           You also need dmake.  See "Make" above on how to get it.
319
320       Intel C++ Compiler
321           Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added.
322           Edit win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C
323           that Intel C was installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable
324           Intel C on Visual C support.  To set up the build enviroment, from
325           the Start Menu run IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual
326           Studio 20__ mode as appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that
327           prompt box.
328
329           Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions
330           probably will work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C
331           has the benefit of C99 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN
332           XS modules, while maintaining compatibility with Visual C object
333           code and Visual C debugging infrastructure unlike GCC.
334
335   Building
336       ·   Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl
337           toplevel.  This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
338           versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
339           a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers.
340           The defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using
341           MinGW/gcc.
342
343       ·   Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and
344           change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP.   You can also enable
345           various build flags.  These are explained in the makefiles.
346
347           Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
348           with INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a
349           previous build.  In particular, this may cause problems with the
350           lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program
351           and may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE
352           directory rather than the one being tested.
353
354           You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
355           CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
356
357           If building with the cross-compiler provided by mingw-w64.org
358           you'll need to uncomment the line that sets GCCCROSS in the
359           makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie only if
360           the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler does
361           not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
362           executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
363
364           The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ may
365           not be correct for some versions.  Make sure the default exists and
366           is valid.
367
368           You may also need to comment out the "DELAYLOAD = ..." line in the
369           Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack
370           and the linker reports an internal error.
371
372           If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll,
373           specify them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
374
375           NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the
376           32-bit Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
377
378           Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles
379           carefully.
380
381       ·   Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
382
383           This should build everything.  Specifically, it will create
384           perl.exe, perl526.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other
385           extension dll's under the lib\auto directory.  If the build fails
386           for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps
387           correctly.
388
389           To try dmake's parallel mode, type "dmake -P2", where 2, is the
390           maximum number of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things
391           in the build process will run in parallel, but there are
392           serialization points where you will see just 1 CPU maxed out. This
393           is normal.
394
395           If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a
396           suggestion to speed up building perl, and the later "make test".
397           Try to keep your PATH enviromental variable with the least number
398           of folders possible (remember to keep your C compiler's folders
399           there). "C:\WINDOWS\system32" or "C:\WINNT\system32" depending on
400           your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe" is
401           the most commonly launched program during the build and later
402           testing.
403
404   Testing Perl on Windows
405       Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test").  This will run most of the tests
406       from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
407
408       There should be no test failures.
409
410       If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail
411       with Daylight Saving Time related problems: t/io/fs.t,
412       cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t and lib/File/Copy.t. The failures are
413       caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
414       later, as explained by Microsoft here:
415       <https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>.
416       In the meantime, if you need fixed "stat" and "utime" functions then
417       have a look at the CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
418
419       If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from
420       www.mingw.org then ext/POSIX/t/time.t may fail test 17 due to a known
421       bug in those gcc builds: see
422       <http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
423
424       Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
425       native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
426       spaces.  So don't do that.
427
428       If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
429       failures in op/stat.t.  Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
430
431       Furthermore, you should make sure that during "make test" you do not
432       have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
433       include some tools ("type" for instance) which override the Windows
434       ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
435       avoid these errors.
436
437       Please report any other failures as described under "BUGS AND CAVEATS".
438
439   Installation of Perl on Windows
440       Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install").  This will put the newly
441       built perl and the libraries under whatever "INST_TOP" points to in the
442       Makefile.  It will also install the pod documentation under
443       "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod" and HTML versions of the same under
444       "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html".
445
446       To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
447       your PATH environment variable: "$INST_TOP\bin", e.g.
448
449           set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
450
451       If you opted to uncomment "INST_VER" and "INST_ARCH" in the makefile
452       then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you
453       will need to add two new PATH components instead:
454       "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin" and "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME", e.g.
455
456           set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
457
458   Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
459       Environment Variables
460           The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
461           into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
462           using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
463
464           If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB to a
465           list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl to look
466           for libraries.  Look for descriptions of other environment
467           variables you can set in perlrun.
468
469           You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
470           backtick commands via PERL5SHELL.  See perlrun.
471
472           Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain
473           default values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at
474           build time with USE_NO_REGISTRY.  On Perl process start Perl checks
475           if "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl" and
476           "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl" exist.  If the keys exists, they
477           will be checked for remainder of the Perl process's run life for
478           certain entries.  Entries in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl"
479           override entries in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl".  One or
480           more of the following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may
481           be set in the keys:
482
483            lib-$]        version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
484            lib           standard library path to add to @INC
485            sitelib-$]    version-specific site library path to add to @INC
486            sitelib       site library path to add to @INC
487            vendorlib-$]  version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
488            vendorlib     vendor library path to add to @INC
489            PERL*         fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
490
491           Note the $] in the above is not literal.  Substitute whatever
492           version of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. 5.6.0.  Paths
493           must be separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
494
495       File Globbing
496           By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob
497           extension, which provides portable globbing.
498
499           If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
500           filename conventions, you might want to consider using
501           File::DosGlob to override the internal glob() implementation.  See
502           File::DosGlob for details.
503
504       Using perl from the command line
505           If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
506           shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
507           with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
508
509           The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is
510           that the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl
511           sees it.  First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses
512           the command line, to handle redirection, environment variable
513           expansion, and location of the executable to run. Then, the perl
514           executable splits the remaining command line into individual
515           arguments, using the C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
516
517           It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the
518           C runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
519           wildcards need not be quoted).  Also, the quoting behaviours of the
520           shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you
521           are using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent).  The only
522           (useful) quote character is the double quote (").  It can be used
523           to protect spaces and other special characters in arguments.
524
525           The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
526           <http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
527           and the C runtime parsing rules here:
528           <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
529
530           Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C
531           runtime breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in
532           argc/argv.  Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with
533           spaces in them from being split up.  You can put a double quote in
534           an argument by escaping it with a backslash and enclosing the whole
535           argument within double quotes.  The backslash and the pair of
536           double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by the C
537           runtime.
538
539           The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by
540           double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not
541           always be true).  Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the
542           shell or the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just
543           to make this type of quoting completely useless).  The caret "^"
544           has also been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this
545           appears to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from
546           the command line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase
547           does not treat the caret as a quote character).
548
549           Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
550
551           This prints two doublequotes:
552
553               perl -e "print '\"\"' "
554
555           This does the same:
556
557               perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
558
559           This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
560
561               perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
562
563           This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
564
565               perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
566
567           This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
568
569               perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
570
571           This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the
572           console:
573
574               perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
575
576           This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
577
578               perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
579
580           This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file
581           "blurch":
582
583               perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
584
585           Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
586           is left as an exercise to the reader :)
587
588           One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
589           Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as
590           indicating that environment variable expansion is needed.  Under
591           this shell, it is therefore important to always double any %
592           characters which you want Perl to see (for example, for hash
593           variables), even when they are quoted.
594
595       Building Extensions
596           The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth of
597           extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.  Look in
598           <http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
599
600           Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work in
601           the Windows environment; you should check the information at
602           <http://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
603           porting modules that don't readily build.
604
605           Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can be
606           built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
607
608               perl Makefile.PL
609               $MAKE
610               $MAKE test
611               $MAKE install
612
613           where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
614           use.  Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is.  Some extensions
615           may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
616           fail), but most serious ones do.
617
618           It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and ensure
619           Config.pm knows about it.  If you don't have nmake, you can either
620           get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an old version
621           of nmake reportedly available from:
622
623           <http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
624
625           Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
626           CPAN.
627
628           <http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
629
630           You may also use dmake.  See "Make" above on how to get it.
631
632           Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
633           depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using.  Therefore, it is
634           important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
635
636               make='nmake'        # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
637               make='dmake'        # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
638               any other value     # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
639                                       (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
640
641           If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, edit
642           Config.pm to fix it.
643
644           If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported C
645           compilers.  You must make sure you have set up the environment for
646           the compiler for command-line compilation before running "perl
647           Makefile.PL" or any invocation of make.
648
649           If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for why
650           it failed, and report problems to the module author.  If it looks
651           like the extension building support is at fault, report that with
652           full details of how the build failed using the perlbug utility.
653
654       Command-line Wildcard Expansion
655           The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems
656           (such as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments
657           supplied to programs.  They consider it the application's job to
658           handle that.  This is commonly achieved by linking the application
659           (in our case, perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries
660           usually provide.  However, doing that results in incompatible perl
661           versions (since the behavior of the argv expansion code differs
662           depending on the compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).
663           Besides, it may be a source of frustration if you use such a perl
664           binary with an alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
665
666           Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
667           about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
668           powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
669           */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
670           4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
671           entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
672
673            C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
674            # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
675            use File::DosGlob;
676            @ARGV = map {
677                         my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
678                         @g ? @g : $_;
679                       } @ARGV;
680            1;
681            ^Z
682            C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
683            C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
684            p4view/perl/perl.c
685            p4view/perl/perlio.c
686            p4view/perl/perly.c
687            perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
688            perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
689            perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
690            perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
691            perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
692            perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
693
694           Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
695           Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
696           set the PERL5OPT environment variable.  If you want argv expansion
697           to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
698           environment.
699
700           If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
701           command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary.  The
702           resulting binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which
703           may not be what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.
704           The expansion done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach
705           suggested above.
706
707       Notes on 64-bit Windows
708           Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel
709           Itanium architecture.
710
711           The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is
712           the norm on 64-bit Unix platforms.  In the former, "int" and "long"
713           are both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide.  In
714           addition, there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, "__int64".
715           In contrast, the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix
716           platforms provides "int" as the 32-bit type, while both the "long"
717           type and pointers are of 64-bit precision.  Note that both models
718           provide for 64-bits of addressability.
719
720           64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
721           binaries transparently.  This means that you could use a 32-bit
722           build of Perl on a 64-bit system.  Given this, why would one want
723           to build a 64-bit build of Perl?  Here are some reasons why you
724           would bother:
725
726           ·   A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
727               Itanium hardware.
728
729           ·   There is no 2GB limit on process size.
730
731           ·   Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
732               64-bit Windows.
733
734           ·   Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
735
736   Running Perl Scripts
737       Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to indicate to
738       the OS that it should execute the file using perl.  Windows has no
739       comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are executables.
740
741       Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on Windows
742       rely on the file "extension".  There are three methods to use this to
743       execute perl scripts:
744
745       1.      There is a facility called "file extension associations".  This
746               can be manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype"
747               that come standard with Windows.  Type "ftype /?" for a
748               complete example of how to set this up for perl scripts (Say
749               what?  You thought Windows wasn't perl-ready? :).
750
751       2.      Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
752               reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
753               old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
754               regular batch file to the OS, may be used.  The install process
755               makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to
756               wrap perl scripts into batch files.  For example:
757
758                       pl2bat foo.pl
759
760               will create the file "FOO.BAT".  Note "pl2bat" strips any .pl
761               suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
762
763               If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
764               "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
765               refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to
766               make sure that construct works in batch files.  As of this
767               writing, 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *"
768               statement in their 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos
769               /p*" in the 4DOS/NT startup file to enable this to work.
770
771       3.      Using "pl2bat" has a few problems:  the file name gets changed,
772               so scripts that rely on $0 to find what they must do may not
773               run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
774               original script, and so this process can be maintenance
775               intensive if the originals get updated often.  A different
776               approach that avoids both problems is possible.
777
778               A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
779               to any filename (along with the .bat suffix).  For example, if
780               you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
781               executed.  Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms
782               simply by typing the name (without the extension), this
783               effectively runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or
784               "foo.bat".  With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a
785               different location than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is
786               available somewhere on the PATH.  If your scripts are on a
787               filesystem that allows symbolic links, you can even avoid
788               copying "runperl.bat".
789
790               Here's a diversion:  copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
791               "runperl".  Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
792               Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
793
794   Miscellaneous Things
795       A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be able to
796       use it if you have a web browser installed on your system.
797
798       "perldoc" is also a useful tool for browsing information contained in
799       the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager like "less"
800       (recent versions of which have Windows support).  You may have to set
801       the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.  "perldoc -f
802       foo" will print information about the perl operator "foo".
803
804       One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like "Tk" is
805       assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line window
806       will go away.  This isn't the case.  If you want to start a copy of
807       "perl" without opening a command-line window, use the "wperl"
808       executable built during the installation process.  Usage is exactly the
809       same as normal "perl" on Windows, except that options like "-h" don't
810       work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
811
812       If you find bugs in perl, you can run "perlbug" to create a bug report
813       (you may have to send it manually if "perlbug" cannot find a mailer on
814       your system).
815

BUGS AND CAVEATS

817       Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if set
818       to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications the
819       perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the the
820       AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process
821       significantly.  Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with
822       peculiar messages as the virus checker interacts badly with
823       miniperl.exe writing configure files (it seems to either catch file
824       part written and treat it as suspicious, or virus checker may have it
825       "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl updating it). The build does
826       complete with
827
828          set PERLIO=perlio
829
830       but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar
831       issues.
832
833       A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause
834       the build and later "make test" to run much slower since every file is
835       checked for its git status as soon as it is created and/or modified.
836       TortoiseGit doesn't cause any test failures or build problems unlike
837       the antivirus software described above, but it does cause similar
838       slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager to look for background
839       processes which use high CPU amounts during the building process.
840
841       Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
842       perlfunc, and a few are not implemented at all.  To avoid surprises,
843       particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl in other operating
844       environments or if you intend to write code that will be portable to
845       other environments, see perlport for a reasonably definitive list of
846       these differences.
847
848       Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly in
849       the Windows environment.  See "Building Extensions".
850
851       Most "socket()" related calls are supported, but they may not behave as
852       on Unix platforms.  See perlport for the full list.
853
854       Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it doesn't
855       exactly "behave", either :).  For instance, calling "die()" or "exit()"
856       from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
857       implementations of "signal()" on Windows are severely crippled.  Thus,
858       signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag variable in
859       the handler.  Using signals under this port should currently be
860       considered unsupported.
861
862       Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
863       you may find to <perlbug@perl.org>, along with the output produced by
864       "perl -V".
865

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

867       The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly
868       and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
869

AUTHORS

871       Gary Ng <71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>
872       Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@activestate.com>
873       Nick Ing-Simmons <nick@ing-simmons.net>
874       Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
875       Steve Hay <steve.m.hay@googlemail.com>
876
877       This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
878

SEE ALSO

880       perl
881

HISTORY

883       This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, and
884       borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available at the
885       time.  Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks since then.
886
887       GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
888
889       Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
890
891       Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
892
893       Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
894
895       Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
896
897       Last updated: 16 June 2017
898
899
900
901perl v5.26.3                      2018-03-23                      PERLWIN32(1)
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