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
   modules, 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@delorie.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
       newsgroup: comp.os.msdos.djgpp, or use the email gateway
       djgpp@delorie.com.

       You can find the full DJGPP distribution on any of the mirrors
       listed here:

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

       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
   deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:

   *   fork() and pipe()

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

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

   *   sockets

   Building Perl on DOS
   *   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.

   *   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

   *   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.]

   *   Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the
       following 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
       command 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:
       "stubedit 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
       CONFIG environment variable before running the script:

               set CONFIG=

   *   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
   external 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
   Separated Value" text package, Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz).  Then expand the
   contents of the package into some location on your disk.  Most CPAN
   modules 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
   instructions 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
   information to your "perllocal" information telling that the perl
   binary has been replaced, and what module was installed.  You can view
   this information 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).





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