1PERLMACOSX(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLMACOSX(1)
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6 README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X
7
9 This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X.
10
12 The latest Perl release (5.8.8 as of this writing) builds without
13 changes under Mac OS X. Under 10.3 "Panther" and newer OS versions, all
14 self-tests pass, and all standard features are supported.
15 Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 "Jaguar" and older) did not include a
17 completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also,
18 earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests
19 are known to fail on those releases.
20 Installation Prefix
22 The default installation location for this release uses the traditional
23 UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended
24 location for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its
25 modules undisturbed.
26 Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory
28 layout that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules
29 stored in '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in
30 '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of
31 '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored
32 on a file server and used by many Macs.
33 SDK support
35 First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment:
36 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk
38 Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and
40 '..flags' config variables:
41 ./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
43 -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
44 -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \
45 -Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \
46 -de
47 Universal Binary support
49 To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel),
50 export the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK:
51 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
53 In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the
55 flags for creating a universal binary:
56 ./Configure -Accflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
58 -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
59 -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \
60 -Aldflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \
61 -de
62 In Leopard (MacOSX 10.5.6 at the time of this writing) you must use the
64 10.5 SDK:
65 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk
67 You can use the same compiler flags you would use with the 10.4u SDK.
69 Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used
71 when building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a
72 universal binary, any libraries it links to must also be universal
73 binaries. The system libraries that Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK
74 are all universal, but user-installed libraries may need to be re-
75 installed as universal binaries.
76 64-bit PPC support
78 Follow the instructions in INSTALL to build perl with support for
79 64-bit integers ("use64bitint") or both 64-bit integers and 64-bit
80 addressing ("use64bitall"). In the latter case, the resulting binary
81 will run only on G5-based hosts.
82 Support for 64-bit addressing is experimental: some aspects of Perl may
84 be omitted or buggy. Note the messages output by Configure for further
85 information. Please use "perlbug" to submit a problem report in the
86 event that you encounter difficulties.
87 When building 64-bit modules, it is your responsiblity to ensure that
89 linked external libraries and frameworks provide 64-bit support: if
90 they do not, module building may appear to succeed, but attempts to use
91 the module will result in run-time dynamic linking errors, and
92 subsequent test failures. You can use "file" to discover the
93 architectures supported by a library:
94 $ file libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib
96 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib: Mach-O fat file with 2 architectures
97 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library ppc
98 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library ppc64
99 Note that this issue precludes the building of many Macintosh-specific
101 CPAN modules ("Mac::*"), as the required Apple frameworks do not
102 provide PPC64 support. Similarly, downloads from Fink or Darwinports
103 are unlikely to provide 64-bit support; the libraries must be rebuilt
104 from source with the appropriate compiler and linker flags. For further
105 information, see Apple's 64-Bit Transition Guide at
106 <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/64bitPorting/index.html>.
107 libperl and Prebinding
109 Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for
110 this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is
111 pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address
112 in memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be
113 aware of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries.
114 Apple collects this information as part of their overall OS build
115 process, and thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but
116 ordinary users would need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the
117 information needed for pre-binding.
118 You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish
120 (Configure ... -Duseshrlib), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS releases
121 will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's pre-bound
122 dynamic library.
123 With 10.4 "Tiger" and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the
125 performance penalty for non-prebound libraries.
126 Updating Apple's Perl
128 In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts
129 can just as easily begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/perl" as with
130 "#!/usr/bin/perl". Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as
131 part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested
132 with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple.
133 If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth
135 keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you
136 upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the
137 dynamic libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both
138 libraries are present when an application that links against libperl is
139 built, ld will link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you
140 need to replace Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need
141 to be sure to delete the older dynamic library after you've installed
142 the update.
143 Known problems
145 If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink (in
146 other words, you have libraries under /sw/lib), or libdlcompat to
147 /usr/local/lib, you may need to be extra careful when running Configure
148 to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries to use.
149 Being confused will show up for example as "dyld" errors about symbol
150 problems, for example during "make test". The safest bet is to run
151 Configure as
152 Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib
154 to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have
156 some extra library directories that you really want to use (such as
157 newer Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the
158 libpth:
159 Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib'
161 The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex
163 applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl
164 Configure ... -Duseshrplib
166 but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above
168 "libperl and Prebinding").
169 Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files
171 for the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain). In previous releases of Perl,
172 this resulted in failures in the "lib/locale" test. These failures have
173 been supressed in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore
174 the broken locale. If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should
175 contact Apple support.
176 MacPerl
178 Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for
179 "Classic MacOS" - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it
180 runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many
181 things are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a
182 different procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are
183 different, etc.
184 From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a
186 traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that
187 refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's
188 drastically different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the
189 MacOS instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic
190 MacOS. In that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to
191 follow the UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions.
192 Carbon
194 MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the
195 classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use
196 Mac OS X's newer "Carbon" toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the
197 "Mac::Carbon" module.
198 Cocoa
200 There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge
201 module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to
202 access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects.
203 An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both
205 Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI
206 applications can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on
207 SourceForge, at <http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>.
208
210 Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's
211 Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to
212 really, REALLY, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl
213 installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following
214 instructions should do it. Please think twice before following these
215 instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to yourself.
216 Without anesthesia. We will not come to fix your system if you do
217 this.
218 First, get rid of the libperl.dylib:
220 # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE
222 # rm libperl.dylib
223 Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders:
225 /System/Library/Perl
227 /Library/Perl
228 You can find them for example by
230 # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print
232 After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media
234 (you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl), or
235 rebuild Perl from the source code with "Configure -Dprefix=/usr
236 -Dusershrplib" NOTE: the "-Dprefix=/usr" to replace the system Perl
237 works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the settings
238 were not quite right.
239 "Pacifist" from CharlesSoft (<http://www.charlessoft.com/>) is a nice
241 way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to
242 reinstall the entire OS.
243
245 This README was written by Sherm Pendley <sherm@dot-app.org>, and
246 subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org>. The
247 "Starting From Scratch" recipe was contributed by John Montbriand
248 <montbriand@apple.com>.
249
251 Last modified 2006-02-24.
252perl v5.12.4 2011-06-07 PERLMACOSX(1)