1PERLWIN32(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLWIN32(1)
2
6 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
7
9 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 7 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 and x86_64 architectures:
38 Microsoft Visual C++ version 12.0 or later
40 Intel C++ Compiler (experimental)
41 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5-5.3.0
42 Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later
43 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
45 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
46 <https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/>
48 Delivers gcc toolchain building 32-bit executables (which can be
49 used both 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms)
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++ 2013-2022 Community Edition" and are
59 the same compilers that ship with "Visual C++ 2013-2022 Professional".
60 Visual C++ 2013 is capable of targeting XP and Windows Server 2003 but
62 the build host requirement is Windows 7/Windows Server 2012. For more
63 details see
64 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs2013-compatibility-vs
65 and
66 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs2013-sysrequirements-vs
67 The MinGW64 compiler is available at <http://mingw-w64.org>. The
69 latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a
70 trimmed down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl
71 available at: <http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
72 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit
74 Windows operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment
75 variable to "undef". Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests
76 when USE_ITHREADS *= define (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *=
77 Debug line is commented out.
78 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used to
80 build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be able to build and
81 install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. See "Usage Hints for
82 Perl on Windows" below for general hints about this.
83 Setting Up Perl on Windows
85 Make
86 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
87 Visual C++, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++. You may
88 also use gmake instead of nmake. Builds using gcc need gmake.
89 nmake is not supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only
90 supported with gmake, not nmake.
91 Command Shell
93 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions
94 of the popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause
95 you trouble. If the build fails under that shell, try building
96 again with the cmd shell.
97 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.
99 The build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will
100 fail.
101 Microsoft Visual C++
103 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
104 Visual C++ requires that certain things be set up in the console
105 before Visual C++ will successfully run. To make a console box be
106 able to run the C compiler, you will need to beforehand, run
107 "vcvarsall.bat x86" to compile for x86-32 and for x86-64
108 "vcvarsall.bat amd64". On a typical install of a Microsoft C++
109 compiler product, these batch files will already be in your "PATH"
110 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute
111 path into your console. If you need to find the absolute path to
112 the batch file, it is usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files
113 (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC. With some newer Microsoft C
114 products (released after ~2004), the installer will put a shortcut
115 in the start menu to launch a new console window with the console
116 already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or
117 IA64). With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch
118 files if you choose so.
119 Microsoft Visual C++ 2013-2022 Community Edition
121 These free versions of Visual C++ 2013-2022 Professional contain
122 the same compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions,
123 and also contain everything necessary to build Perl.
124 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download
126 Center at
127 <https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>.
128 (Providing exact links to these packages has proven a pointless
129 task because the links keep on changing so often.)
130 Install Visual C++ 2013-2022 Community, then setup your environment
132 using, e.g.
133 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
135 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
137 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to
139 edit that file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC120-MSVC142 first.
140 GCC Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later)
142 or from MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded
143 here:
144 <https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/> <http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
146 You also need gmake. Usually it comes with MinGW but its executable
148 may have a different name, such as mingw32-make.exe.
149 Note that the MinGW build currently fails with version 6.3.0 or
151 later.
152 Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5
154 and 4.7.2 or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
155 Intel C++ Compiler
157 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added.
158 Edit win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C
159 that Intel C was installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable
160 Intel C on Visual C support. To set up the build environment, from
161 the Start Menu run IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual
162 Studio 20__ mode as appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that
163 prompt box.
164 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions
166 probably will work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C
167 has the benefit of C99 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN
168 XS modules, while maintaining compatibility with Visual C object
169 code and Visual C debugging infrastructure unlike GCC.
170 Building
172 • Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl
173 toplevel. This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
174 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++, and a GNU make
175 "GNUmakefile" that will work for all supported compilers. The
176 defaults in the gmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
177 • Edit the GNUmakefile (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and
179 change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable
180 various build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
181 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
183 with INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a
184 previous build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
185 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program
186 and may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE
187 directory rather than the one being tested.
188 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
190 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC
191 this should be the directory that contains the bin, include and lib
192 directories.
193 If building with the cross-compiler provided by mingw-w64.org
195 you'll need to uncomment the line that sets GCCCROSS in the
196 GNUmakefile. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie only if
197 the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler does
198 not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
199 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
200 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ may
202 not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists and
203 is valid.
204 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll,
206 specify them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
207 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles
209 carefully.
210 • Type "gmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
212 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create
214 perl.exe, perl536.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other
215 extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails
216 for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps
217 correctly.
218 To try gmake's parallel mode, type "gmake -j2", where 2, is the
220 maximum number of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things
221 in the build process will run in parallel, but there are
222 serialization points where you will see just 1 CPU maxed out. This
223 is normal.
224 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a
226 suggestion to speed up building perl, and the later "make test".
227 Try to keep your PATH environmental variable with the least number
228 of folders possible (remember to keep your C compiler's folders
229 there). "C:\WINDOWS\system32" or "C:\WINNT\system32" depending on
230 your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe" is
231 the most commonly launched program during the build and later
232 testing.
233 Testing Perl on Windows
235 Type "gmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests
236 from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
237 There should be no test failures.
239 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail
241 with Daylight Saving Time related problems: t/io/fs.t,
242 cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t and lib/File/Copy.t. The failures are
243 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
244 later, as explained by Microsoft here:
245 <https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>.
246 In the meantime, if you need fixed "stat" and "utime" functions then
247 have a look at the CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
248 If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then
250 ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t may crash (after all its tests have passed).
251 This is due to a regression in the Universal CRT introduced in the
252 Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed in the May 2019 Update,
253 as explained here:
254 <https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>.
255 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from mingw then
257 ext/POSIX/t/time.t may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc
258 builds: see <https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
259 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
261 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
262 spaces. So don't do that.
263 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
265 failures in op/stat.t. Run "gmake test-notty" in that case.
266 Furthermore, you should make sure that during "make test" you do not
268 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
269 include some tools ("type" for instance) which override the Windows
270 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
271 avoid these errors.
272 To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t
274 directory:
275 # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory
277 cd ..\win32
278 .\perl harness <list of tests>
279 Please report any other failures as described under "BUGS AND CAVEATS".
281 Installation of Perl on Windows
283 Type "gmake install" ("nmake install"). This will put the newly built
284 perl and the libraries under whatever "INST_TOP" points to in the
285 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
286 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod" and HTML versions of the same under
287 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html".
288 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
290 your PATH environment variable: "$INST_TOP\bin", e.g.
291 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
293 If you opted to uncomment "INST_VER" and "INST_ARCH" in the makefile
295 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you
296 will need to add two new PATH components instead:
297 "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin" and "$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME", e.g.
298 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
300 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
302 Environment Variables
303 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
304 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
305 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
306 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB to a
308 list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl to look
309 for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
310 variables you can set in perlrun.
311 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
313 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See perlrun.
314 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain
316 default values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at
317 build time with USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks
318 if "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl" and
319 "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl" exist. If the keys exists, they
320 will be checked for remainder of the Perl process's run life for
321 certain entries. Entries in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl"
322 override entries in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl". One or
323 more of the following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may
324 be set in the keys:
325 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
327 lib standard library path to add to @INC
328 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
329 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
330 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
331 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
332 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
333 Note the $] in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever
335 version of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. 5.6.0. Paths
336 must be separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
337 File Globbing
339 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob
340 extension, which provides portable globbing.
341 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
343 filename conventions, you might want to consider using
344 File::DosGlob to override the internal glob() implementation. See
345 File::DosGlob for details.
346 Using perl from the command line
348 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
349 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
350 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
351 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is
353 that the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl
354 sees it. First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses
355 the command line, to handle redirection, environment variable
356 expansion, and location of the executable to run. Then, the perl
357 executable splits the remaining command line into individual
358 arguments, using the C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
359 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the
361 C runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
362 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
363 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you
364 are using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only
365 (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used
366 to protect spaces and other special characters in arguments.
367 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
369 <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd>
370 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
371 <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
372 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C
374 runtime breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in
375 argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with
376 spaces in them from being split up. You can put a double quote in
377 an argument by escaping it with a backslash and enclosing the whole
378 argument within double quotes. The backslash and the pair of
379 double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by the C
380 runtime.
381 The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by
383 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not
384 always be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the
385 shell or the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just
386 to make this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^"
387 has also been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this
388 appears to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from
389 the command line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase
390 does not treat the caret as a quote character).
391 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
393 This prints two doublequotes:
395 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
397 This does the same:
399 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
401 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
403 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
405 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
407 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
409 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
411 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
413 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the
415 console:
416 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
418 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
420 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
422 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file
424 "blurch":
425 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
427 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
429 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
430 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
432 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as
433 indicating that environment variable expansion is needed. Under
434 this shell, it is therefore important to always double any %
435 characters which you want Perl to see (for example, for hash
436 variables), even when they are quoted.
437 Building Extensions
439 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth of
440 extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. Look in
441 <https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
442 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work in
444 the Windows environment; you should check the information at
445 <https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort
446 into porting modules that don't readily build.
447 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can be
449 built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
450 perl Makefile.PL
452 $MAKE
453 $MAKE test
454 $MAKE install
455 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
457 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
458 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
459 fail), but most serious ones do.
460 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and ensure
462 Config.pm knows about it.
463 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
465 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
466 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
467 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
469 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
470 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
471 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, edit
473 Config.pm to fix it.
474 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported C
476 compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
477 the compiler for command-line compilation before running "perl
478 Makefile.PL" or any invocation of make.
479 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for why
481 it failed, and report problems to the module author. If it looks
482 like the extension building support is at fault, report that with
483 full details of how the build failed using the GitHub issue tracker
484 at <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
485 Command-line Wildcard Expansion
487 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems
488 (such as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments
489 supplied to programs. They consider it the application's job to
490 handle that. This is commonly achieved by linking the application
491 (in our case, perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries
492 usually provide. However, doing that results in incompatible perl
493 versions (since the behavior of the argv expansion code differs
494 depending on the compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).
495 Besides, it may be a source of frustration if you use such a perl
496 binary with an alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
497 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
499 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
500 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
501 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
502 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
503 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
504 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
506 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
507 use File::DosGlob;
508 @ARGV = map {
509 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
510 @g ? @g : $_;
511 } @ARGV;
512 1;
513 ^Z
514 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
515 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
516 p4view/perl/perl.c
517 p4view/perl/perlio.c
518 p4view/perl/perly.c
519 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
520 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
521 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
522 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
523 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
524 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
525 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
527 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
528 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
529 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
530 environment.
531 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
533 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The
534 resulting binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which
535 may not be what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.
536 The expansion done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach
537 suggested above.
538 Notes on 64-bit Windows
540 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel
541 Itanium architecture.
542 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is
544 the norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, "int" and "long"
545 are both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In
546 addition, there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, "__int64".
547 In contrast, the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix
548 platforms provides "int" as the 32-bit type, while both the "long"
549 type and pointers are of 64-bit precision. Note that both models
550 provide for 64-bits of addressability.
551 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
553 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit
554 build of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want
555 to build a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you
556 would bother:
557 • A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
559 Itanium hardware.
560 • There is no 2GB limit on process size.
562 • Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
564 64-bit Windows.
565 • Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
567 Running Perl Scripts
569 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to indicate to
570 the OS that it should execute the file using perl. Windows has no
571 comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are executables.
572 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on Windows
574 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods to use this to
575 execute perl scripts:
576 1. There is a facility called "file extension associations". This
578 can be manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype"
579 that come standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a
580 complete example of how to set this up for perl scripts (Say
581 what? You thought Windows wasn't perl-ready? :).
582 2. Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
584 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
585 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
586 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
587 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to
588 wrap perl scripts into batch files. For example:
589 pl2bat foo.pl
591 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any .pl
593 suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
594 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
596 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
597 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to
598 make sure that construct works in batch files. As of this
599 writing, 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *"
600 statement in their 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos
601 /p*" in the 4DOS/NT startup file to enable this to work.
602 3. Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
604 so scripts that rely on $0 to find what they must do may not
605 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
606 original script, and so this process can be maintenance
607 intensive if the originals get updated often. A different
608 approach that avoids both problems is possible.
609 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
611 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, if
612 you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
613 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms
614 simply by typing the name (without the extension), this
615 effectively runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or
616 "foo.bat". With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a
617 different location than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is
618 available somewhere on the PATH. If your scripts are on a
619 filesystem that allows symbolic links, you can even avoid
620 copying "runperl.bat".
621 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
623 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
624 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
625 Miscellaneous Things
627 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be able to
628 use it if you have a web browser installed on your system.
629 "perldoc" is also a useful tool for browsing information contained in
631 the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager like "less"
632 (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may have to set
633 the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. "perldoc -f
634 foo" will print information about the perl operator "foo".
635 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like "Tk" is
637 assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line window
638 will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy of
639 "perl" without opening a command-line window, use the "wperl"
640 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly the
641 same as normal "perl" on Windows, except that options like "-h" don't
642 work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
643 If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to
645 <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
646
648 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if set
649 to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications the
650 perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
651 AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process
652 significantly. Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with
653 peculiar messages as the virus checker interacts badly with
654 miniperl.exe writing configure files (it seems to either catch file
655 part written and treat it as suspicious, or virus checker may have it
656 "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl updating it). The build does
657 complete with
658 set PERLIO=perlio
660 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar
662 issues.
663 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause
665 the build and later "make test" to run much slower since every file is
666 checked for its git status as soon as it is created and/or modified.
667 TortoiseGit doesn't cause any test failures or build problems unlike
668 the antivirus software described above, but it does cause similar
669 slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager to look for background
670 processes which use high CPU amounts during the building process.
671 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
673 perlfunc, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid surprises,
674 particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl in other operating
675 environments or if you intend to write code that will be portable to
676 other environments, see perlport for a reasonably definitive list of
677 these differences.
678 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly in
680 the Windows environment. See "Building Extensions".
681 Most "socket()" related calls are supported, but they may not behave as
683 on Unix platforms. See perlport for the full list.
684 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it doesn't
686 exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling "die()" or "exit()"
687 from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
688 implementations of "signal()" on Windows are severely crippled. Thus,
689 signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag variable in
690 the handler. Using signals under this port should currently be
691 considered unsupported.
692 Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
694 you may find at <<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>>, along with
695 the output produced by "perl -V".
696
698 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly
699 and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
700
702 Gary Ng <71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>
703 Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@activestate.com>
704 Nick Ing-Simmons <nick@ing-simmons.net>
705 Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
706 Steve Hay <steve.m.hay@googlemail.com>
707 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
709
711 perl
712
714 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, and
715 borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available at the
716 time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks since then.
717 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
719 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
721 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
723 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
725 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
727 Last updated: 06 October 2021
729perl v5.36.0 2022-08-30 PERLWIN32(1)