1PERLWIN32(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLWIN32(1)
2
6 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
7
9 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP on
10 the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
11
13 Before you start, you should glance through the README file found in
14 the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution was extracted.
15 Make sure you read and understand the terms under which this software
16 is being distributed.
17 Also make sure you read "BUGS AND CAVEATS" below for the known
19 limitations of this port.
20 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
22 only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
23 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
24 "Configure".
25 You may also want to look at two other options for building a perl that
27 will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and README.os2 files, each
28 of which give a different set of rules to build a Perl that will work
29 on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will probably enable you to
30 build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also need to download
31 and use various other build-time and run-time support software
32 described in those files.
33 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" port
35 of Perl to Win32 platforms. This includes both 32-bit and 64-bit
36 Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no additional
37 software to run (other than what came with your operating system).
38 Currently, this port is capable of using one of the following compilers
39 on the Intel x86 architecture:
40 Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
42 Microsoft Visual C++ version 2.0 or later
43 MinGW with gcc gcc version 2.95.2 or later
44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 2.95.2 or later
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
46 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
48 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows: - http://mingw.org -
49 delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows
50 platform.
51 Use version 3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
52 - http://mingw-w64.sf.net - delivers gcc toolchain targeting both
53 64-bit
54 Windows and 32-bit Windows platforms (despite the project name
55 "mingw-w64"
56 they are not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc
57 compilers
58 + cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
59 The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being
61 given away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++
62 Compiler Free Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships
63 with the full "Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is
64 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Express
65 Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same
66 compiler that ships with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual
67 C++ 2005/2008 Professional" respectively.
68 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
70 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
72 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
73 The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
75 The MinGW64 compiler is available at
76 http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64. The latter is actually a
77 cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed down compiler
78 (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
79 http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/mingw64-w64-20100123-kmx-v2.zip
80 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit
82 Windows operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment
83 variable to "undef". Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests
84 when USE_ITHREADS *= define (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *=
85 Debug line is commented out.
86 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used to
88 build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be able to build and
89 install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. See "Usage Hints for
90 Perl on Win32" below for general hints about this.
91 Setting Up Perl on Win32
93 Make
94 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
95 Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP,
96 nmake will work. All other builds need dmake.
97 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
99 and parallelability.
100 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
102 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
104 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
106 There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
108 compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
109 case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files
110 named with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
111 to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files
112 again. For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files,
113 resulting in needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To
114 avoid this, you may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful
115 build. It is available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl
116 source distribution.
117 Command Shell
119 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of
120 the popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you
121 trouble. If the build fails under that shell, try building again
122 with the cmd shell.
123 The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
125 "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to
126 use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
127 The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd
129 shell.
130 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.
132 The build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will
133 fail.
134 Borland C++
136 If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake. (The
137 make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not work
138 for MakeMaker builds.)
139 See "Make" above.
141 Microsoft Visual C++
143 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
144 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
145 like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
146 Studio\VC98\Bin. This will set your build environment.
147 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided,
149 however, you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory
150 name under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your
151 environment and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into
152 "make=dmake". The latter step is only essential if you want to use
153 dmake as your default make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
154 Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
156 This free version of Visual C++ 2008 Professional contains the same
157 compiler and linker that ship with the full version, and also
158 contains everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring
159 a separate download of the Platform SDK like previous versions did.
160 This package can be downloaded by searching for "Visual Studio 2008
162 Express Edition" in the Download Center at
163 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en.
164 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
165 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
166 Install Visual C++ 2008, then setup your environment using
168 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
170 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
172 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
174 edit that file to set
175 CCTYPE = MSVC90FREE
177 first.
179 Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
181 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same
182 compiler and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't
183 contain everything necessary to build Perl.
184 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK"
186 and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for more header files and
187 libraries.
188 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download
190 Center at
191 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en.
192 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
193 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
194 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes
196 these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
197 name, but actually work on other OS versions too. For example, the
198 "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
199 and Windows 2000.
200 According to the download pages these packages are only supported
202 on Windows 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows
203 95/98/ME and even Windows NT probably won't work.
204 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your
206 environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
207 were chosen):
208 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
210 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
212 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
214 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
216 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
218 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
220 which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
221 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
222 into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
223 Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
224 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
226 edit that file to set
227 CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
229 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
231 setup above.
232 Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
234 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship
235 with Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain
236 everything necessary to build Perl.
237 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK"
239 and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries
240 and rc.exe, and ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and
241 nmake.exe. Note that the latter (which also includes the free
242 compiler and linker) requires the ".NET Framework Redistributable"
243 to be installed first. This can be downloaded and installed
244 separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003"
245 anyway.
246 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download
248 Center at
249 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en.
250 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
251 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
252 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes
254 these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
255 name, but actually work on other OS versions too. For example, the
256 "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
257 and Windows 2000.
258 According to the download pages these packages are only supported
260 on Windows 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows
261 95/98/ME and even Windows NT probably won't work.
262 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET
264 Framework SDK. Setup your environment as follows (assuming default
265 installation locations were chosen):
266 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
268 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
270 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
272 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
274 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
276 which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
277 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
278 into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
279 Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
280 Several required files will still be missing:
282 · cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It
284 is actually installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a
285 location such as the following:
286 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
288 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
290 · lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with
292 the /lib option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it
293 instead:
294 Change the line reading:
296 ar='lib'
298 to:
300 ar='link /lib'
302 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
304 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin
305 containing:
306 @echo off
308 link /lib %*
309 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you
311 might want to build later which explicitly reference "lib"
312 rather than taking their value from $Config{ar}.
313 · setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if
315 the USE_SETARGV option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies
316 this object file in source form in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt.
317 Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and internal.h from there to some
318 temporary location and build setargv.obj using
319 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
321 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
323 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to
325 enable the USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove
326 all mention of $(GLOBEXE) from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj
327 won't be required anyway.
328 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
330 edit that file to set
331 CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
333 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
335 setup above.
336 Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
338 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for
339 building Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build
340 Environment" shells available after you install the Platform SDK
341 from the Start Menu.
342 MinGW release 3 with gcc
344 The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which
345 contains gcc-3.2.3. It can be downloaded here:
346 http://www.mingw.org/
348 Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up).
350 See below for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
351 And perl also compiles with gcc-4.3.0 and up, and perhaps even some
353 of the earlier 4.x.x versions.
354 You also need dmake. See "Make" above on how to get it.
356 MinGW release 1 with gcc
358 The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
359 Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as
361 indicated in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up
362 a few environment variables (usually ran from a batch file).
363 There are a couple of problems with the version of
365 gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe released 7 November 1999:
366 · It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix
368 this, be sure to download and install the file
369 fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above ftp location.
370 · The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If
372 your stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when
373 running the test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the
374 typedef for fpos_t from "long" to "long long" in the file
375 i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h, and rebuild.
376 A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated)
378 bundle of the above package with the mentioned fixes already
379 applied is available here:
380 http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
382 ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
383 Building
385 · Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl
386 toplevel. This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
387 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK,
388 and a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported
389 compilers. The defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build
390 using MinGW/gcc.
391 · Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and
393 change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable
394 various build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
395 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
397 with INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a
398 previous build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
399 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program
400 and may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE
401 directory rather than the one being tested.
402 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
404 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. If building
405 with gcc-4.x.x, you'll also need to uncomment the assignment to
406 GCC_4XX and uncomment the assignment to the appropriate
407 GCCHELPERDLL in the makefile.mk.
408 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
410 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that
411 sets GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-
412 compiler - ie only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe.
413 (The cross-compiler does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe,
414 etc. Instead, all of these executables are prefixed with
415 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
416 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ may
418 not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists and
419 is valid.
420 You may also need to comment out the "DELAYLOAD = ..." line in the
422 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack
423 and the linker reports an internal error.
424 If you are using VC++ 4.2 or earlier then you'll have to change the
426 /EHsc option in the CXX_FLAG macro to the equivalent /GX option.
427 If you have either the source or a library that contains
429 des_fcrypt(), enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A
430 ready-to-use version of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally
431 written by Eric Young at
432 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with
433 the distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it. Alternatively, if
434 you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set
435 CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. Perl will also build
436 without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will fail at run
437 time.
438 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll,
440 specify them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
441 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles
443 carefully.
444 · Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
446 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create
448 perl.exe, perl512.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other
449 extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails
450 for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps
451 correctly.
452 Testing Perl on Win32
454 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests
455 from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
456 There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
458 Many tests will fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command
459 shell.
460 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
462 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
463 spaces. So don't do that.
464 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
466 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
467 If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in
469 op/taint.t arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs
470 on the system default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by
471 the messages from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows
472 system directory (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun
473 the test.
474 If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run
476 into problems finding the correct header files when building
477 extensions. For example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because
478 both perl and Tk contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The
479 latest Borland compiler (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it
480 even supports an option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for
481 using the old Borland search algorithm to locate header files.
482 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
484 "link()" related tests (op/write.t, op/stat.t ...). Testing on NTFS
485 avoids these errors.
486 Furthermore, you should make sure that during "make test" you do not
488 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
489 include some tools ("type" for instance) which override the Windows
490 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
491 avoid these errors.
492 Please report any other failures as described under "BUGS AND CAVEATS".
494 Installation of Perl on Win32
496 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
497 built perl and the libraries under whatever "INST_TOP" points to in the
498 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
499 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod" and HTML versions of the same under
500 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html".
501 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
503 your PATH environment variable: "$INST_TOP\bin", e.g.
504 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
506 If you opted to uncomment "INST_VER" and "INST_ARCH" in the makefile
508 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you
509 will need to add two new PATH components instead:
510 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin" and "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME", e.g.
511 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
513 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
515 Environment Variables
516 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
517 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
518 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
519 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB to a
521 list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl to look
522 for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
523 variables you can set in perlrun.
524 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
526 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See perlrun.
527 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain
529 default values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to
530 read entries from "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl" and
531 "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl". Entries in the former override
532 entries in the latter. One or more of the following entries (of
533 type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
534 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
536 lib standard library path to add to @INC
537 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
538 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
539 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
540 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
541 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
542 Note the $] in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever
544 version of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. 5.6.0. Paths
545 must be separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
546 File Globbing
548 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob
549 extension, which provides portable globbing.
550 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
552 filename conventions, you might want to consider using
553 File::DosGlob to override the internal glob() implementation. See
554 File::DosGlob for details.
555 Using perl from the command line
557 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
558 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
559 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
560 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is
562 that the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl
563 sees it. First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT,
564 and COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to
565 handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of
566 the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the
567 remaining command line into individual arguments, using the C
568 runtime library upon which Perl was built.
569 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the
571 C runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
572 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
573 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you
574 are using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only
575 (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used
576 to protect spaces and other special characters in arguments.
577 The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
579 quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general
580 observations based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments
581 at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes
582 can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being
583 split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it
584 with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double
585 quotes. The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding
586 the argument will be stripped by the C runtime.
587 The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by
589 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not
590 always be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the
591 shell or the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just
592 to make this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^"
593 has also been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this
594 appears to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from
595 the command line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase
596 does not treat the caret as a quote character).
597 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
599 This prints two doublequotes:
601 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
603 This does the same:
605 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
607 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
609 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
611 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
613 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
615 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
617 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
619 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the
621 console:
622 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
624 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
626 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
628 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file
630 "blurch":
631 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
633 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
635 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
636 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
638 Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as
639 indicating that environment variable expansion is needed. Under
640 this shell, it is therefore important to always double any %
641 characters which you want Perl to see (for example, for hash
642 variables), even when they are quoted.
643 Building Extensions
645 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth of
646 extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. Look in
647 http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
648 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work in
650 the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
651 http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
652 porting modules that don't readily build.
653 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can be
655 built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
656 perl Makefile.PL
658 $MAKE
659 $MAKE test
660 $MAKE install
661 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
663 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
664 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
665 fail), but most serious ones do.
666 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and ensure
668 Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can either
669 get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an old version
670 of nmake reportedly available from:
671 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
673 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
675 CPAN.
676 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
678 You may also use dmake. See "Make" above on how to get it.
680 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
682 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
683 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
684 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
686 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
687 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
688 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
689 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, edit
691 Config.pm to fix it.
692 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported C
694 compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
695 the compiler for command-line compilation.
696 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for why
698 it failed, and report problems to the module author. If it looks
699 like the extension building support is at fault, report that with
700 full details of how the build failed using the perlbug utility.
701 Command-line Wildcard Expansion
703 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems
704 (such as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments
705 supplied to programs. They consider it the application's job to
706 handle that. This is commonly achieved by linking the application
707 (in our case, perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries
708 usually provide. However, doing that results in incompatible perl
709 versions (since the behavior of the argv expansion code differs
710 depending on the compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).
711 Besides, it may be a source of frustration if you use such a perl
712 binary with an alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
713 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
715 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
716 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
717 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
718 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
719 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
720 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
722 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
723 use File::DosGlob;
724 @ARGV = map {
725 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
726 @g ? @g : $_;
727 } @ARGV;
728 1;
729 ^Z
730 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
731 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
732 p4view/perl/perl.c
733 p4view/perl/perlio.c
734 p4view/perl/perly.c
735 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
736 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
737 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
738 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
739 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
740 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
741 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
743 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
744 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
745 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
746 environment.
747 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
749 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The
750 resulting binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which
751 may not be what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.
752 The expansion done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach
753 suggested above.
754 Win32 Specific Extensions
756 A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
757 from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
758 be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the
759 only native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port
760 does not have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools,
761 these extensions typically do not support those tools either and,
762 therefore, cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the
763 previous section.
764 To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
766 ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that
767 contains all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32
768 extensions from CPAN in source form, along with many added
769 bugfixes, and with MakeMaker support. The latest version of this
770 bundle is available at:
771 http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
773 See the README in that distribution for building and installation
775 instructions.
776 Notes on 64-bit Windows
778 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel
779 Itanium architecture.
780 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is
782 the norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, "int" and "long"
783 are both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In
784 addition, there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, "__int64".
785 In contrast, the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix
786 platforms provides "int" as the 32-bit type, while both the "long"
787 type and pointers are of 64-bit precision. Note that both models
788 provide for 64-bits of addressability.
789 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
791 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit
792 build of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want
793 to build a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you
794 would bother:
795 · A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
797 Itanium hardware.
798 · There is no 2GB limit on process size.
800 · Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
802 64-bit Windows.
803 · Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
805 Running Perl Scripts
807 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to indicate to
808 the OS that it should execute the file using perl. Win32 has no
809 comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are executables.
810 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on Win32
812 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods to use this to
813 execute perl scripts:
814 1. There is a facility called "file extension associations" that
816 will work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the
817 two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with
818 Windows NT 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
819 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
820 NT wasn't perl-ready? :).
821 2. Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
823 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
824 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
825 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
826 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to
827 wrap perl scripts into batch files. For example:
828 pl2bat foo.pl
830 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any .pl
832 suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
833 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
835 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
836 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to
837 make sure that construct works in batch files. As of this
838 writing, 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *"
839 statement in their 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos
840 /p*" in the 4DOS/NT startup file to enable this to work.
841 3. Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
843 so scripts that rely on $0 to find what they must do may not
844 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
845 original script, and so this process can be maintenance
846 intensive if the originals get updated often. A different
847 approach that avoids both problems is possible.
848 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
850 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, if
851 you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
852 executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms
853 simply by typing the name (without the extension), this
854 effectively runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or
855 "foo.bat". With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a
856 different location than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is
857 available somewhere on the PATH. If your scripts are on a
858 filesystem that allows symbolic links, you can even avoid
859 copying "runperl.bat".
860 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
862 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
863 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
864 Miscellaneous Things
866 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be able to
867 use it if you have a web browser installed on your system.
868 "perldoc" is also a useful tool for browsing information contained in
870 the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager like "less"
871 (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may have to set the
872 PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. "perldoc -f foo"
873 will print information about the perl operator "foo".
874 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like "Tk" is
876 assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line window
877 will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy of
878 "perl" without opening a command-line window, use the "wperl"
879 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly the
880 same as normal "perl" on Win32, except that options like "-h" don't
881 work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
882 If you find bugs in perl, you can run "perlbug" to create a bug report
884 (you may have to send it manually if "perlbug" cannot find a mailer on
885 your system).
886
888 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if set
889 to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications the
890 perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the the
891 AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process
892 significantly. Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with
893 peculiar messages as the virus checker interacts badly with
894 miniperl.exe writing configure files (it seems to either catch file
895 part written and treat it as suspicious, or virus checker may have it
896 "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl updating it). The build does
897 complete with
898 set PERLIO=perlio
900 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar
902 issues.
903 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
905 perlfunc, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid surprises,
906 particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl in other operating
907 environments or if you intend to write code that will be portable to
908 other environments, see perlport for a reasonably definitive list of
909 these differences.
910 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly in
912 the Win32 environment. See "Building Extensions".
913 Most "socket()" related calls are supported, but they may not behave as
915 on Unix platforms. See perlport for the full list. Perl requires
916 Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're running Win95, you
917 can download Winsock upgrade from here:
918 http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
920 Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
922 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it doesn't
924 exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling "die()" or "exit()"
925 from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
926 implementations of "signal()" on Win32 are severely crippled. Thus,
927 signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag variable in
928 the handler. Using signals under this port should currently be
929 considered unsupported.
930 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
932 you may find to <perlbug@perl.org>, along with the output produced by
933 "perl -V".
934
936 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly
937 and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
938
940 Gary Ng <71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>
941 Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@activestate.com>
942 Nick Ing-Simmons <nick@ing-simmons.net>
943 Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
944 Steve Hay <steve.hay@uk.radan.com>
945 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
947
949 perl
950
952 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, and
953 borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available at the
954 time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks since then.
955 Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
957 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
959 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
961 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
963 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
965 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
967 Last updated: 29 August 2007
969perl v5.12.4 2011-06-07 PERLWIN32(1)