1PERLWIN32(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLWIN32(1)
2
6 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
7
9 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
10
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 Also make sure you read "BUGS AND CAVEATS" below for the known
18 limitations of this port.
19 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 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 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 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 with runtime < 3.21
43 Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later
44 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
46 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
47 <http://mingw.org>
49 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
50 <http://mingw-w64.org>
52 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit
53 Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are
54 not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
55 and cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
56 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free.
58 They are available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++
59 2005-2019 Express [or Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part
60 of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same compilers that ship with
61 "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005-2019
62 Professional" respectively.
63 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
65 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
67 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
68 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from
70 <https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/sdk-archive>. The
71 MinGW64 compiler is available at <http://mingw-w64.org>. The latter is
72 actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed down
73 compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available
74 at: <http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
75 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit
77 Windows operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment
78 variable to "undef". Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests
79 when USE_ITHREADS *= define (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *=
80 Debug line is commented out.
81 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used to
83 build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be able to build and
84 install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. See "Usage Hints for
85 Perl on Windows" below for general hints about this.
86 Setting Up Perl on Windows
88 Make
89 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
90 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, you can use nmake supplied
91 with Visual C++ or Windows SDK. You may also use, for Visual C++ or
92 Windows SDK, dmake or gmake instead of nmake. dmake is open source
93 software, but is not included with Visual C++ or Windows SDK.
94 Builds using gcc need dmake or gmake. nmake is not supported for
95 gcc builds. Parallel building is only supported with dmake and
96 gmake, not nmake. When using dmake it is recommended to use dmake
97 4.13 or newer for parallel building. Older dmakes, in parallel
98 mode, have very high CPU usage and pound the disk/filing system
99 with duplicate I/O calls in an aggressive polling loop.
100 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
102 <https://metacpan.org/release/dmake>
104 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
106 Command Shell
108 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions
109 of the popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause
110 you trouble. If the build fails under that shell, try building
111 again with the cmd shell.
112 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.
114 The build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will
115 fail.
116 Microsoft Visual C++
118 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
119 Visual C++ requires that certain things be set up in the console
120 before Visual C++ will sucessfully run. To make a console box be
121 able to run the C compiler, you will need to beforehand, run
122 "vcvarsall.bat x86" to compile for x86-32 and for x86-64
123 "vcvarsall.bat amd64". On a typical install of a Microsoft C++
124 compiler product, these batch files will already be in your "PATH"
125 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute
126 path into your console. If you need to find the absolute path to
127 the batch file, it is usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files
128 (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC. With some newer Micrsoft C
129 products (released after ~2004), the installer will put a shortcut
130 in the start menu to launch a new console window with the console
131 already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or
132 IA64). With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch
133 files if you choose so.
134 Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community Edition
136 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2019 Professional contain
137 the same compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions,
138 and also contain everything necessary to build Perl, rather than
139 requiring a separate download of the Windows SDK like previous
140 versions did.
141 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download
143 Center at
144 <https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
145 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
146 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
147 Install Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community, then setup your
149 environment using, e.g.
150 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
152 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
154 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
156 edit that file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC142 first.
157 Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
159 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same
160 compiler and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't
161 contain everything necessary to build Perl.
162 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK"
164 and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for more header files and
165 libraries.
166 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download
168 Center at
169 <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
170 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
171 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
172 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes
174 these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
175 name, but actually work on other OS versions too. For example, the
176 "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
177 and Windows 2000.
178 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your
180 environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
181 were chosen):
182 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
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
186 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
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
190 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
192 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
194 which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
195 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
196 into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
197 Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
198 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
200 edit that file to set
201 CCTYPE = MSVC80
203 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
205 setup above.
206 Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
208 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship
209 with Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain
210 everything necessary to build Perl.
211 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK"
213 and "MDAC SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries
214 and rc.exe, and ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and
215 nmake.exe. Note that the latter (which also includes the free
216 compiler and linker) requires the ".NET Framework Redistributable"
217 to be installed first. This can be downloaded and installed
218 separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003"
219 anyway.
220 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download
222 Center at
223 <https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
224 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
225 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
226 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes
228 these packages contain a particular Windows OS version in their
229 name, but actually work on other OS versions too. For example, the
230 "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK" also runs on Windows XP SP2
231 and Windows 2000.
232 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET
234 Framework SDK. Setup your environment as follows (assuming default
235 installation locations were chosen):
236 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
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
240 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
242 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
244 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on
246 which version you are using. Earlier versions installed into
247 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK", while the latest versions install
248 into version-specific locations such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
249 Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
250 Several required files will still be missing:
252 · cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It
254 is actually installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a
255 location such as the following:
256 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
258 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
260 · lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with
262 the /lib option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it
263 instead:
264 Change the line reading:
266 ar='lib'
268 to:
270 ar='link /lib'
272 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
274 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin
275 containing:
276 @echo off
278 link /lib %*
279 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you
281 might want to build later which explicitly reference "lib"
282 rather than taking their value from $Config{ar}.
283 · setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if
285 the USE_SETARGV option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies
286 this object file in source form in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt.
287 Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and internal.h from there to some
288 temporary location and build setargv.obj using
289 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
291 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
293 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to
295 enable the USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove
296 all mention of $(GLOBEXE) from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj
297 won't be required anyway.
298 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
300 edit that file to set
301 CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
303 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment
305 setup above.
306 Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
308 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for
309 building Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build
310 Environment" shells available after you install the Platform SDK
311 from the Start Menu.
312 GCC Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later)
314 or from MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded
315 here:
316 <http://www.mingw.org/> <http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
318 You also need dmake or gmake. See "Make" above on how to get it.
320 Note that the MinGW build currently requires a MinGW runtime
322 version earlier than 3.21 (check __MINGW32_MAJOR_VERSION and
323 __MINGW32_MINOR_VERSION).
324 Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5
326 and 4.7.2 or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
327 Intel C++ Compiler
329 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added.
330 Edit win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C
331 that Intel C was installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable
332 Intel C on Visual C support. To set up the build environment, from
333 the Start Menu run IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual
334 Studio 20__ mode as appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that
335 prompt box.
336 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions
338 probably will work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C
339 has the benefit of C99 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN
340 XS modules, while maintaining compatibility with Visual C object
341 code and Visual C debugging infrastructure unlike GCC.
342 Building
344 · Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl
345 toplevel. This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
346 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
347 a GNU make "GNUmakefile" or dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for
348 all supported compilers. The defaults in the gmake and dmake
349 makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
350 · Edit the GNUmakefile, makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using
352 nmake) and change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can
353 also enable various build flags. These are explained in the
354 makefiles.
355 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
357 with INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a
358 previous build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
359 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program
360 and may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE
361 directory rather than the one being tested.
362 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
364 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC
365 this should be the directory that contains the bin, include and lib
366 directories.
367 If building with the cross-compiler provided by mingw-w64.org
369 you'll need to uncomment the line that sets GCCCROSS in the
370 makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie only if
371 the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler does
372 not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
373 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
374 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ may
376 not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists and
377 is valid.
378 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll,
380 specify them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
381 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles
383 carefully.
384 · Type "dmake" ("gmake" for GNU make, or "nmake" if you are using
386 that make).
387 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create
389 perl.exe, perl532.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other
390 extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails
391 for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps
392 correctly.
393 To try dmake's parallel mode, type "dmake -P2", where 2, is the
395 maximum number of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things
396 in the build process will run in parallel, but there are
397 serialization points where you will see just 1 CPU maxed out. This
398 is normal.
399 Similarly you can build in parallel with GNU make, type "gmake -j2"
401 to build with two parallel jobs, or higher for more.
402 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a
404 suggestion to speed up building perl, and the later "make test".
405 Try to keep your PATH environmental variable with the least number
406 of folders possible (remember to keep your C compiler's folders
407 there). "C:\WINDOWS\system32" or "C:\WINNT\system32" depending on
408 your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe" is
409 the most commonly launched program during the build and later
410 testing.
411 Testing Perl on Windows
413 Type "dmake test" (or "gmake test", "nmake test"). This will run most
414 of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
415 There should be no test failures.
417 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail
419 with Daylight Saving Time related problems: t/io/fs.t,
420 cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t and lib/File/Copy.t. The failures are
421 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
422 later, as explained by Microsoft here:
423 <https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>.
424 In the meantime, if you need fixed "stat" and "utime" functions then
425 have a look at the CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
426 If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then
428 ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t may crash (after all its tests have passed).
429 This is due to a regression in the Universal CRT introduced in the
430 Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed in the May 2019 Update,
431 as explained here:
432 <https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>.
433 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from
435 www.mingw.org then ext/POSIX/t/time.t may fail test 17 due to a known
436 bug in those gcc builds: see
437 <https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
438 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
440 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
441 spaces. So don't do that.
442 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
444 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
445 Furthermore, you should make sure that during "make test" you do not
447 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
448 include some tools ("type" for instance) which override the Windows
449 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
450 avoid these errors.
451 To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t
453 directory:
454 # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory
456 cd ..\win32
457 .\perl harness <list of tests>
458 Please report any other failures as described under "BUGS AND CAVEATS".
460 Installation of Perl on Windows
462 Type "dmake install" (or "gmake install", "nmake install"). This will
463 put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever "INST_TOP"
464 points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation
465 under "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod" and HTML versions of the same under
466 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html".
467 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
469 your PATH environment variable: "$INST_TOP\bin", e.g.
470 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
472 If you opted to uncomment "INST_VER" and "INST_ARCH" in the makefile
474 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you
475 will need to add two new PATH components instead:
476 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin" and "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME", e.g.
477 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
479 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
481 Environment Variables
482 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
483 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
484 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
485 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB to a
487 list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl to look
488 for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
489 variables you can set in perlrun.
490 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
492 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See perlrun.
493 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain
495 default values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at
496 build time with USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks
497 if "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl" and
498 "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl" exist. If the keys exists, they
499 will be checked for remainder of the Perl process's run life for
500 certain entries. Entries in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl"
501 override entries in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl". One or
502 more of the following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may
503 be set in the keys:
504 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
506 lib standard library path to add to @INC
507 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
508 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
509 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
510 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
511 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
512 Note the $] in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever
514 version of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. 5.6.0. Paths
515 must be separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
516 File Globbing
518 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob
519 extension, which provides portable globbing.
520 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
522 filename conventions, you might want to consider using
523 File::DosGlob to override the internal glob() implementation. See
524 File::DosGlob for details.
525 Using perl from the command line
527 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
528 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
529 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
530 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is
532 that the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl
533 sees it. First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses
534 the command line, to handle redirection, environment variable
535 expansion, and location of the executable to run. Then, the perl
536 executable splits the remaining command line into individual
537 arguments, using the C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
538 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the
540 C runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
541 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
542 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you
543 are using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only
544 (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used
545 to protect spaces and other special characters in arguments.
546 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
548 <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd>
549 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
550 <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
551 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C
553 runtime breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in
554 argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with
555 spaces in them from being split up. You can put a double quote in
556 an argument by escaping it with a backslash and enclosing the whole
557 argument within double quotes. The backslash and the pair of
558 double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by the C
559 runtime.
560 The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by
562 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not
563 always be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the
564 shell or the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just
565 to make this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^"
566 has also been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this
567 appears to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from
568 the command line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase
569 does not treat the caret as a quote character).
570 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
572 This prints two doublequotes:
574 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
576 This does the same:
578 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
580 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
582 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
584 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
586 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
588 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
590 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
592 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the
594 console:
595 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
597 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
599 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
601 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file
603 "blurch":
604 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
606 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
608 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
609 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
611 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as
612 indicating that environment variable expansion is needed. Under
613 this shell, it is therefore important to always double any %
614 characters which you want Perl to see (for example, for hash
615 variables), even when they are quoted.
616 Building Extensions
618 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth of
619 extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. Look in
620 <https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
621 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work in
623 the Windows environment; you should check the information at
624 <https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort
625 into porting modules that don't readily build.
626 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can be
628 built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
629 perl Makefile.PL
631 $MAKE
632 $MAKE test
633 $MAKE install
634 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
636 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
637 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
638 fail), but most serious ones do.
639 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and ensure
641 Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can either
642 get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an old version
643 of nmake reportedly available from:
644 <http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
646 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
648 CPAN.
649 <https://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
651 You may also use dmake or gmake. See "Make" above on how to get
653 it.
654 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
656 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
657 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
658 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
660 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
661 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
662 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
663 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, edit
665 Config.pm to fix it.
666 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported C
668 compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
669 the compiler for command-line compilation before running "perl
670 Makefile.PL" or any invocation of make.
671 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for why
673 it failed, and report problems to the module author. If it looks
674 like the extension building support is at fault, report that with
675 full details of how the build failed using the GitHub issue tracker
676 at <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
677 Command-line Wildcard Expansion
679 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems
680 (such as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments
681 supplied to programs. They consider it the application's job to
682 handle that. This is commonly achieved by linking the application
683 (in our case, perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries
684 usually provide. However, doing that results in incompatible perl
685 versions (since the behavior of the argv expansion code differs
686 depending on the compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).
687 Besides, it may be a source of frustration if you use such a perl
688 binary with an alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
689 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
691 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
692 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
693 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
694 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
695 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
696 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
698 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
699 use File::DosGlob;
700 @ARGV = map {
701 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
702 @g ? @g : $_;
703 } @ARGV;
704 1;
705 ^Z
706 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
707 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
708 p4view/perl/perl.c
709 p4view/perl/perlio.c
710 p4view/perl/perly.c
711 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
712 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
713 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
714 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
715 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
716 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
717 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
719 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
720 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
721 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
722 environment.
723 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
725 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The
726 resulting binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which
727 may not be what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.
728 The expansion done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach
729 suggested above.
730 Notes on 64-bit Windows
732 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel
733 Itanium architecture.
734 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is
736 the norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, "int" and "long"
737 are both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In
738 addition, there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, "__int64".
739 In contrast, the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix
740 platforms provides "int" as the 32-bit type, while both the "long"
741 type and pointers are of 64-bit precision. Note that both models
742 provide for 64-bits of addressability.
743 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
745 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit
746 build of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want
747 to build a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you
748 would bother:
749 · A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
751 Itanium hardware.
752 · There is no 2GB limit on process size.
754 · Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
756 64-bit Windows.
757 · Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
759 Running Perl Scripts
761 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to indicate to
762 the OS that it should execute the file using perl. Windows has no
763 comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are executables.
764 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on Windows
766 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods to use this to
767 execute perl scripts:
768 1. There is a facility called "file extension associations". This
770 can be manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype"
771 that come standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a
772 complete example of how to set this up for perl scripts (Say
773 what? You thought Windows wasn't perl-ready? :).
774 2. Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
776 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
777 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
778 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
779 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to
780 wrap perl scripts into batch files. For example:
781 pl2bat foo.pl
783 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any .pl
785 suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
786 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
788 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
789 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to
790 make sure that construct works in batch files. As of this
791 writing, 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *"
792 statement in their 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos
793 /p*" in the 4DOS/NT startup file to enable this to work.
794 3. Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
796 so scripts that rely on $0 to find what they must do may not
797 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
798 original script, and so this process can be maintenance
799 intensive if the originals get updated often. A different
800 approach that avoids both problems is possible.
801 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
803 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, if
804 you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
805 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms
806 simply by typing the name (without the extension), this
807 effectively runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or
808 "foo.bat". With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a
809 different location than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is
810 available somewhere on the PATH. If your scripts are on a
811 filesystem that allows symbolic links, you can even avoid
812 copying "runperl.bat".
813 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
815 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
816 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
817 Miscellaneous Things
819 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be able to
820 use it if you have a web browser installed on your system.
821 "perldoc" is also a useful tool for browsing information contained in
823 the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager like "less"
824 (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may have to set
825 the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. "perldoc -f
826 foo" will print information about the perl operator "foo".
827 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like "Tk" is
829 assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line window
830 will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy of
831 "perl" without opening a command-line window, use the "wperl"
832 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly the
833 same as normal "perl" on Windows, except that options like "-h" don't
834 work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
835 If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to
837 <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
838
840 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if set
841 to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications the
842 perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
843 AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process
844 significantly. Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with
845 peculiar messages as the virus checker interacts badly with
846 miniperl.exe writing configure files (it seems to either catch file
847 part written and treat it as suspicious, or virus checker may have it
848 "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl updating it). The build does
849 complete with
850 set PERLIO=perlio
852 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar
854 issues.
855 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause
857 the build and later "make test" to run much slower since every file is
858 checked for its git status as soon as it is created and/or modified.
859 TortoiseGit doesn't cause any test failures or build problems unlike
860 the antivirus software described above, but it does cause similar
861 slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager to look for background
862 processes which use high CPU amounts during the building process.
863 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
865 perlfunc, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid surprises,
866 particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl in other operating
867 environments or if you intend to write code that will be portable to
868 other environments, see perlport for a reasonably definitive list of
869 these differences.
870 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly in
872 the Windows environment. See "Building Extensions".
873 Most "socket()" related calls are supported, but they may not behave as
875 on Unix platforms. See perlport for the full list.
876 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it doesn't
878 exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling "die()" or "exit()"
879 from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
880 implementations of "signal()" on Windows are severely crippled. Thus,
881 signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag variable in
882 the handler. Using signals under this port should currently be
883 considered unsupported.
884 Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
886 you may find at <<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>>, along with
887 the output produced by "perl -V".
888
890 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly
891 and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
892
894 Gary Ng <71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>
895 Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@activestate.com>
896 Nick Ing-Simmons <nick@ing-simmons.net>
897 Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
898 Steve Hay <steve.m.hay@googlemail.com>
899 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
901
903 perl
904
906 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, and
907 borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available at the
908 time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks since then.
909 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
911 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
913 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
915 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
917 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
919 Last updated: 30 April 2019
921perl v5.32.1 2021-03-31 PERLWIN32(1)