perlamiga(1)
NAME
perlamiga - Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
NOTE
This is a port of Perl 5.22.1, it is a fresh port and not in any way compatible with my previous ports of Perl 5.8 and 5.16.3. This means you will need to reinstall / rebuild any third party modules you have installed. newlib.library version 53.28 or greater is required.
SYNOPSIS
Once perl is installed you can read this document in the following way
sh -c "perldoc perlamiga"
or you may read as is: either as README.amiga, or pod/perlamiga.pod.
DESCRIPTION
Prerequisites for running Perl 5.22.1 under AmigaOS 4.1
AmigaOS 4.1 update 6 with all updates applied as of 9th October 2013
The most important of which is:
newlib.library version 53.28 or greater
AmigaOS SDK
Perl installs into the SDK directory structure and expects many
of the build tools present in the SDK to be available. So for the
best results install the SDK first.
abc-shell
If you do not have the SDK installed you must at least have abc-
shell installed or some other suitable sh port. This is required
to run external commands and should be available as 'sh' in your
path.
Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS 4.1
Perl may be run from the AmigaOS shell but for best results should be
run under abc-shell. (abc-shell handles file globbing, pattern
expansion, and sets up environment variables in the UN*Xy way that Perl
expects.)
For example:
New Shell process 10
10.AmigaOS4:> sh
/AmigaOS4>perl path:to/myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
Abc-shell can also launch programs via the #! syntax at the start of
the program file, it's best use the form #!SDK:Local/C/perl so that the
AmigaOS shell may also find perl in the same way. AmigaOS requires the
script bit to be set for this to work
10.AmigaOS4:> sh
/AmigaOS4>myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
Limitations of Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
Nested Piped programs can crash when run from older abc-shells
abc-shell version 53.2 has a bug that can cause crashes in the
subprocesses used to run piped programs, if a later version is
available you should install it instead.
Incorrect or unexpected command line unescaping
newlib.library 53.30 and earlier incorrectly unescape slashed
escape sequences e.g. \" \n \t etc requiring unusual extra
escaping.
Starting subprocesses via open has limitations
open FH, "command |"
Subprocesses started with open use a minimal popen() routine and
therefore they do not return pids usable with waitpid etc.
If you find any other limitations or bugs then let me know.
Please report bugs in this version of perl to
andy@broad.ology.org.uk in the first instance.
INSTALLATION
This guide assumes you have obtained a prebuilt archive from os4depot.net. Unpack the main archive to a temporary location (RAM: is fine). Execute the provided install script from shell or via its icon. You must not attempt to install by hand. Once installed you may delete the temporary archive. This approach will preserve links in the installation without creating duplicate binaries. If you have the earlier ports perl 5.16 or 5.8 installed you may like to rename your perl executable to perl516 or perl58 or something similar before the installation of 5.22.1, this will allow you to use both versions at the same time.
Amiga Specific Modules
Amiga::ARexx The Amiga::ARexx module allows you to easily create a perl based ARexx host or to send ARexx commands to other programs. Try "perldoc Amiga::ARexx" for more info. Amiga::Exec The Amiga::Exec module introduces support for Wait(). Try "perldoc Amiga::Exec" for more info.
BUILDING
To build perl under AmigaOS from the patched sources you will need to
have a recent version of the SDK. Version 53.29 is recommended, earlier
versions will probably work too.
With the help of Jarkko Hietaniemi the Configure system has been
tweaked to run under abc-shell so the recommend build process is as
follows.
stack 2000000
sh Configure -de
gmake
This will build the default setup that installs under
SDK:local/newlib/lib/
CHANGES
August 2015
Port to Perl 5.22
Add handling of NIL: to afstat()
Fix inheritance of environment variables by subprocesses.
Fix exec, and exit in "forked" subprocesses.
Fix issue with newlib's unlink, which could cause infinite loops.
Add flock() emulation using IDOS->LockRecord thanks to Tony Cook
for the suggestion.
Fix issue where kill was using the wrong kind of process ID
27th November 2013
Create new installation system based on installperl links and
Amiga protection bits now set correctly.
Pod now defaults to text.
File::Spec should now recognise an Amiga style absolute path as
well as an Unix style one. Relative paths must always be Unix
style.
20th November 2013
Configured to use SDK:Local/C/perl to start standard scripts
Added Amiga::Exec module with support for Wait() and AmigaOS
signal numbers.
10th October 13
First release of port to 5.16.3.
SEE ALSO
You like this port? See <http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/> for how you can help.
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