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perldos

PERLDOS(1)             Perl Programmers Reference Guide             PERLDOS(1)



NAME
       perldos - Perl under DOS, W31, W95.

SYNOPSIS
       These are instructions for building Perl under DOS (or w??), using
       DJGPP v2.03 or later.  Under w95 long filenames are supported.

DESCRIPTION
       Before you start, you should glance through the README file found in
       the top-level directory where the Perl distribution was extracted.
       Make sure you read and understand the terms under which this software
       is being distributed.

       This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used
       to build extensions to perl).  Therefore, you should be able to build
       and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.

       Detailed instructions on how to build and install perl extension mod-
       ules, including XS-type modules, is included.  See 'BUILDING AND
       INSTALLING MODULES'.

       Prerequisites for Compiling Perl on DOS


       DJGPP
           DJGPP is a port of GNU C/C++ compiler and development tools to
           32-bit, protected-mode environment on Intel 32-bit CPUs running MS-
           DOS and compatible operating systems, by DJ Delorie <dj@delo-
           rie.com> and friends.

           For more details (FAQ), check out the home of DJGPP at:

                   http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

           If you have questions about DJGPP, try posting to the DJGPP news-
           group: comp.os.msdos.djgpp, or use the email gateway djgpp@delo-
           rie.com.

           You can find the full DJGPP distribution on any SimTel.Net mirror
           all over the world. Like:

                   ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2*

           You need the following files to build perl (or add new modules):

                   v2/djdev203.zip
                   v2gnu/bnu2112b.zip
                   v2gnu/gcc2953b.zip
                   v2gnu/bsh204b.zip
                   v2gnu/mak3791b.zip
                   v2gnu/fil40b.zip
                   v2gnu/sed3028b.zip
                   v2gnu/txt20b.zip
                   v2gnu/dif272b.zip
                   v2gnu/grep24b.zip
                   v2gnu/shl20jb.zip
                   v2gnu/gwk306b.zip
                   v2misc/csdpmi5b.zip

           or possibly any newer version.

       Pthreads
           Thread support is not tested in this version of the djgpp perl.

       Shortcomings of Perl under DOS

       Perl under DOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of defi-
       ciencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:

       o   fork() and pipe()

       o   some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file
           dates

       o   in-place operation is a little bit broken with short filenames

       o   sockets

       Building Perl on DOS


       o   Unpack the source package perl5.8*.tar.gz with djtarx. If you want
           to use long file names under w95 and also to get Perl to pass all
           its tests, don't forget to use

                   set LFN=y
                   set FNCASE=y

           before unpacking the archive.

       o   Create a "symlink" or copy your bash.exe to sh.exe in your
           "($DJDIR)/bin" directory.

                   ln -s bash.exe sh.exe

           [If you have the recommended version of bash for DJGPP, this is
           already done for you.]

           And make the "SHELL" environment variable point to this sh.exe:

                   set SHELL=c:/djgpp/bin/sh.exe (use full path name!)

           You can do this in djgpp.env too. Add this line BEFORE any section
           definition:

                   +SHELL=%DJDIR%/bin/sh.exe

       o   If you have split.exe and gsplit.exe in your path, then rename
           split.exe to djsplit.exe, and gsplit.exe to split.exe.  Copy or
           link gecho.exe to echo.exe if you don't have echo.exe.  Copy or
           link gawk.exe to awk.exe if you don't have awk.exe.

           [If you have the recommended versions of djdev, shell utilities and
           gawk, all these are already done for you, and you will not need to
           do anything.]

       o   Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the fol-
           lowing commands:

                   set FNCASE=y
                   configure.bat

           This will do some preprocessing then run the Configure script for
           you.  The Configure script is interactive, but in most cases you
           just need to press ENTER.  The "set" command ensures that DJGPP
           preserves the letter case of file names when reading directories.
           If you already issued this set command when unpacking the archive,
           and you are in the same DOS session as when you unpacked the
           archive, you don't have to issue the set command again.  This com-
           mand is necessary *before* you start to (re)configure or (re)build
           perl in order to ensure both that perl builds correctly and that
           building XS-type modules can succeed.  See the DJGPP info entry for
           "_preserve_fncase" for more information:

                   info libc alphabetical _preserve_fncase

           If the script says that your package is incomplete, and asks
           whether to continue, just answer with Y (this can only happen if
           you don't use long filenames or forget to issue "set FNCASE=y"
           first).

           When Configure asks about the extensions, I suggest IO and Fcntl,
           and if you want database handling then SDBM_File or GDBM_File (you
           need to install gdbm for this one). If you want to use the POSIX
           extension (this is the default), make sure that the stack size of
           your cc1.exe is at least 512kbyte (you can check this with: "stube-
           dit cc1.exe").

           You can use the Configure script in non-interactive mode too.  When
           I built my perl.exe, I used something like this:

                   configure.bat -des

           You can find more info about Configure's command line switches in
           the INSTALL file.

           When the script ends, and you want to change some values in the
           generated config.sh file, then run

                   sh Configure -S

           after you made your modifications.

           IMPORTANT: if you use this "-S" switch, be sure to delete the CON-
           FIG environment variable before running the script:

                   set CONFIG=

       o   Now you can compile Perl. Type:

                   make

       Testing Perl on DOS

       Type:

               make test

       If you're lucky you should see "All tests successful". But there can be
       a few failed subtests (less than 5 hopefully) depending on some exter-
       nal conditions (e.g. some subtests fail under linux/dosemu or plain dos
       with short filenames only).

       Installation of Perl on DOS

       Type:

               make install

       This will copy the newly compiled perl and libraries into your DJGPP
       directory structure. Perl.exe and the utilities go into "($DJDIR)/bin",
       and the library goes under "($DJDIR)/lib/perl5". The pod documentation
       goes under "($DJDIR)/lib/perl5/pod".

BUILDING AND INSTALLING MODULES ON DOS
       Building Prerequisites for Perl on DOS

       For building and installing non-XS modules, all you need is a working
       perl under DJGPP.  Non-XS modules do not require re-linking the perl
       binary, and so are simpler to build and install.

       XS-type modules do require re-linking the perl binary, because part of
       an XS module is written in "C", and has to be linked together with the
       perl binary to be executed.  This is required because perl under DJGPP
       is built with the "static link" option, due to the lack of "dynamic
       linking" in the DJGPP environment.

       Because XS modules require re-linking of the perl binary, you need both
       the perl binary distribution and the perl source distribution to build
       an XS extension module.  In addition, you will have to have built your
       perl binary from the source distribution so that all of the components
       of the perl binary are available for the required link step.

       Unpacking CPAN Modules on DOS

       First, download the module package from CPAN (e.g., the "Comma Sepa-
       rated Value" text package, Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz).  Then expand the con-
       tents of the package into some location on your disk.  Most CPAN mod-
       ules are built with an internal directory structure, so it is usually
       safe to expand it in the root of your DJGPP installation.  Some people
       prefer to locate source trees under /usr/src (i.e.,
       "($DJDIR)/usr/src"), but you may put it wherever seems most logical to
       you, *EXCEPT* under the same directory as your perl source code.  There
       are special rules that apply to modules which live in the perl source
       tree that do not apply to most of the modules in CPAN.

       Unlike other DJGPP packages, which are normal "zip" files, most CPAN
       module packages are "gzipped tarballs".  Recent versions of WinZip will
       safely unpack and expand them, *UNLESS* they have zero-length files.
       It is a known WinZip bug (as of v7.0) that it will not extract zero-
       length files.

       From the command line, you can use the djtar utility provided with
       DJGPP to unpack and expand these files.  For example:

               C:\djgpp>djtarx -v Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz

       This will create the new directory "($DJDIR)/Text-CSV-0.01", filling it
       with the source for this module.

       Building Non-XS Modules on DOS

       To build a non-XS module, you can use the standard module-building
       instructions distributed with perl modules.

           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make test
           make install

       This is sufficient because non-XS modules install only ".pm" files and
       (sometimes) pod and/or man documentation.  No re-linking of the perl
       binary is needed to build, install or use non-XS modules.

       Building XS Modules on DOS

       To build an XS module, you must use the standard module-building
       instructions distributed with perl modules *PLUS* three extra instruc-
       tions specific to the DJGPP "static link" build environment.

           set FNCASE=y
           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make perl
           make test
           make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl.exe
           make install

       The first extra instruction sets DJGPP's FNCASE environment variable so
       that the new perl binary which you must build for an XS-type module
       will build correctly.  The second extra instruction re-builds the perl
       binary in your module directory before you run "make test", so that you
       are testing with the new module code you built with "make".  The third
       extra instruction installs the perl binary from your module directory
       into the standard DJGPP binary directory, "($DJDIR)/bin", replacing
       your previous perl binary.

       Note that the MAP_TARGET value *must* have the ".exe" extension or you
       will not create a "perl.exe" to replace the one in "($DJDIR)/bin".

       When you are done, the XS-module install process will have added infor-
       mation to your "perllocal" information telling that the perl binary has
       been replaced, and what module was installed.  You can view this infor-
       mation at any time by using the command:

               perl -S perldoc perllocal

AUTHOR
       Laszlo Molnar, laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se [Installing/building perl]

       Peter J. Farley III pjfarley@banet.net [Building/installing modules]

SEE ALSO
       perl(1).



perl v5.8.6                       2004-11-05                        PERLDOS(1)