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   1  If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
   2  see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
   3  specially designed to be readable as is.
   4  
   5  =head1 NAME
   6  
   7  perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
   8  
   9  =head1 SYNOPSIS
  10  
  11  These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
  12  on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
  13  
  14  =head1 DESCRIPTION
  15  
  16  Before you start, you should glance through the README file
  17  found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
  18  was extracted.  Make sure you read and understand the terms under
  19  which this software is being distributed.
  20  
  21  Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
  22  known limitations of this port.
  23  
  24  The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
  25  only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems.  In
  26  particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
  27  "Configure".
  28  
  29  You may also want to look at two other options for building
  30  a perl that will work on Windows NT:  the README.cygwin and
  31  README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to
  32  build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms.  Those two methods
  33  will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but
  34  you will also need to download and use various other build-time and
  35  run-time support software described in those files.
  36  
  37  This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
  38  port of Perl to Win32 platforms.  This includes both 32-bit and
  39  64-bit Windows operating systems.  The resulting Perl requires no
  40  additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
  41  system).  Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
  42  following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
  43  
  44        Borland C++           version 5.02 or later
  45        Microsoft Visual C++  version 2.0 or later
  46        MinGW with gcc        gcc version 2.95.2 or later
  47  
  48  The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler.  Use version
  49  3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
  50  
  51  The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
  52  away free.  The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
  53  Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
  54  "Borland C++ Builder" product.  The Microsoft compiler is available as
  55  "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Express Edition" (and also
  56  as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships with
  57  "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008 Professional"
  58  respectively.
  59  
  60  This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using:
  61  
  62        Microsoft Platform SDK    Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
  63  
  64  The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
  65  
  66  This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
  67  is used to build extensions to perl).  Therefore, you should be
  68  able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
  69  See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
  70  
  71  =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
  72  
  73  =over 4
  74  
  75  =item Make
  76  
  77  You need a "make" program to build the sources.  If you are using
  78  Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
  79  will work.  All other builds need dmake.
  80  
  81  dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
  82  and parallelability.
  83  
  84  A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
  85  
  86      http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
  87  
  88  Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
  89  
  90  There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
  91  compilers.  Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
  92  case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
  93  with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
  94  to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
  95  For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
  96  needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked.  To avoid this, you
  97  may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build.  It is
  98  available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
  99  
 100  =item Command Shell
 101  
 102  Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT.  Some versions of the
 103  popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
 104  If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
 105  shell.
 106  
 107  The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
 108  "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x.  You will need to
 109  use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
 110  
 111  The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
 112  
 113  Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.  The
 114  build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
 115  
 116  =item Borland C++
 117  
 118  If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
 119  (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
 120  work for MakeMaker builds.)
 121  
 122  See L</"Make"> above.
 123  
 124  =item Microsoft Visual C++
 125  
 126  The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
 127  You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
 128  like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
 129  This will set your build environment.
 130  
 131  You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
 132  you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
 133  under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
 134  and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake".  The
 135  latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
 136  make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
 137  
 138  =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition Beta 2
 139  
 140  This free version of Visual C++ 2008 Professional contains the same compiler
 141  and linker that ship with the full version, and also contains everything
 142  necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download of the
 143  Platform SDK like previous versions did.
 144  
 145  The Beta 2 package is currently available from 
 146  
 147  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/future/default.aspx
 148  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/express/future/default.aspx
 149  
 150  The final release version will probably be found by searching in the Download
 151  Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en in due
 152  course.
 153  
 154  Install Visual C++ 2008, then setup your environment using
 155  
 156      C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
 157  
 158  (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
 159  
 160  Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to edit that
 161  file to set
 162  
 163      CCTYPE = MSVC90FREE
 164  
 165  first.
 166  
 167  =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
 168  
 169  This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
 170  and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
 171  necessary to build Perl.
 172  
 173  You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
 174  SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
 175  
 176  These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
 177  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en.  (Providing exact
 178  links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
 179  changing so often.)
 180  
 181  Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK.  Sometimes these packages
 182  contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
 183  other OS versions too.  For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
 184  also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
 185  
 186  According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
 187  2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
 188  NT probably won't work.
 189  
 190  Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK.  Setup your environment
 191  as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
 192  
 193      SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
 194  
 195      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
 196  
 197      SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
 198  
 199      SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
 200  
 201      SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
 202  
 203  (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
 204  you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
 205  while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
 206  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
 207  
 208  Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to edit that
 209  file to set
 210  
 211      CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
 212  
 213  and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
 214  
 215  =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
 216  
 217  This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
 218  Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
 219  necessary to build Perl.
 220  
 221  You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
 222  SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
 223  ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe.  Note that the latter
 224  (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
 225  Framework Redistributable" to be installed first.  This can be downloaded and
 226  installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
 227  
 228  These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
 229  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en.  (Providing exact
 230  links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
 231  changing so often.)
 232  
 233  Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK.  Sometimes these packages
 234  contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
 235  other OS versions too.  For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
 236  also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
 237  
 238  According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
 239  2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
 240  NT probably won't work.
 241  
 242  Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
 243  Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
 244  were chosen):
 245  
 246      SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
 247  
 248      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
 249  
 250      SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
 251  
 252      SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
 253  
 254  (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
 255  you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
 256  while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
 257  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
 258  
 259  Several required files will still be missing:
 260  
 261  =over 4
 262  
 263  =item *
 264  
 265  cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file.  It is actually
 266  installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
 267  following:
 268  
 269      C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
 270  
 271  Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
 272  
 273  =item *
 274  
 275  lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
 276  option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
 277  
 278  Change the line reading:
 279  
 280      ar='lib'
 281  
 282  to:
 283  
 284      ar='link /lib'
 285  
 286  It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
 287  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
 288  
 289      @echo off
 290      link /lib %*
 291  
 292  for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
 293  later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
 294  $Config{ar}.
 295  
 296  =item *
 297  
 298  setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
 299  option is enabled).  The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
 300  in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt.  Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
 301  internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
 302  
 303      cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
 304  
 305  Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
 306  
 307  Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
 308  USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
 309  from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
 310  
 311  =back
 312  
 313  Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to edit that
 314  file to set
 315  
 316      CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
 317  
 318  and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
 319  
 320  =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
 321  
 322  The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
 323  Perl.  Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
 324  shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
 325  
 326  =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
 327  
 328  The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains
 329  gcc-3.2.3.  It can be downloaded here:
 330  
 331      http://www.mingw.org/
 332  
 333  Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up).  See below
 334  for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
 335  
 336  You also need dmake.  See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
 337  
 338  =item MinGW release 1 with gcc
 339  
 340  The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
 341  
 342  Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated
 343  in the README for the GCC bundle.  You may need to set up a few environment
 344  variables (usually ran from a batch file).
 345  
 346  There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
 347  released 7 November 1999:
 348  
 349  =over
 350  
 351  =item *
 352  
 353  It left out a fix for certain command line quotes.  To fix this, be sure
 354  to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above
 355  ftp location.
 356  
 357  =item *
 358  
 359  The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong.  If your
 360  stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the
 361  test t/lib/io_xs.t.  To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from
 362  "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h,
 363  and rebuild.
 364  
 365  =back
 366  
 367  A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle
 368  of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available
 369  here:
 370  
 371      http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
 372      ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
 373  
 374  =back
 375  
 376  =head2 Building
 377  
 378  =over 4
 379  
 380  =item *
 381  
 382  Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
 383  This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
 384  versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and
 385  a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers.  The
 386  defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
 387  
 388  =item *
 389  
 390  Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
 391  the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP.   You can also enable various
 392  build flags.  These are explained in the makefiles.
 393  
 394  Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
 395  INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
 396  build.  In particular, this may cause problems with the
 397  lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
 398  may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
 399  than the one being tested.
 400  
 401  You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
 402  CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
 403  
 404  The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
 405  may not be correct for some versions.  Make sure the default exists
 406  and is valid.
 407  
 408  You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
 409  Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
 410  the linker reports an internal error.
 411  
 412  If you are using VC++ 4.2 or earlier then you'll have to change the /EHsc
 413  option in the CXX_FLAG macro to the equivalent /GX option.
 414  
 415  If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
 416  enable the appropriate option in the makefile.  A ready-to-use version
 417  of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
 418  ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
 419  distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
 420  Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
 421  you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
 422  Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
 423  fail at run time.
 424  
 425  If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
 426  them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
 427  
 428  Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
 429  
 430  =item *
 431  
 432  Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
 433  
 434  This should build everything.  Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
 435  perl510.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
 436  under the lib\auto directory.  If the build fails for any reason, make
 437  sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
 438  
 439  =back
 440  
 441  =head2 Testing Perl on Win32
 442  
 443  Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test").  This will run most of the tests from
 444  the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
 445  
 446  There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
 447  Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell.
 448  
 449  Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
 450  native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
 451  spaces.  So don't do that.
 452  
 453  If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
 454  failures in op/stat.t.  Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
 455  
 456  If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
 457  arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
 458  default path.  You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
 459  from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
 460  (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
 461  
 462  If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
 463  problems finding the correct header files when building extensions.  For
 464  example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
 465  contain a header file called "patchlevel.h".  The latest Borland compiler
 466  (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
 467  option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
 468  search algorithm  to locate header files.
 469  
 470  If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
 471  C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
 472  NTFS avoids these errors.
 473  
 474  Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
 475  have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
 476  include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
 477  ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
 478  avoid these errors.
 479  
 480  Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
 481  
 482  =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32
 483  
 484  Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install").  This will put the newly
 485  built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
 486  Makefile.  It will also install the pod documentation under
 487  C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
 488  C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
 489  
 490  To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
 491  your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
 492  
 493      set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
 494  
 495  If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
 496  then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
 497  need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
 498  C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
 499  
 500      set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
 501  
 502  =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
 503  
 504  =over 4
 505  
 506  =item Environment Variables
 507  
 508  The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
 509  into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
 510  using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
 511  
 512  If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
 513  to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
 514  to look for libraries.  Look for descriptions of other environment
 515  variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
 516  
 517  You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
 518  backtick commands via PERL5SHELL.  See L<perlrun>.
 519  
 520  Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
 521  values if you choose to put them there.  Perl attempts to read entries from
 522  C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
 523  Entries in the former override entries in the latter.  One or more of the
 524  following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
 525  
 526      lib-$]        version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
 527      lib            standard library path to add to @INC
 528      sitelib-$]        version-specific site library path to add to @INC
 529      sitelib        site library path to add to @INC
 530      vendorlib-$]    version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
 531      vendorlib        vendor library path to add to @INC
 532      PERL*        fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
 533  
 534  Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal.  Substitute whatever version
 535  of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>.  Paths must be
 536  separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
 537  
 538  =item File Globbing
 539  
 540  By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
 541  which provides portable globbing.
 542  
 543  If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
 544  filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
 545  to override the internal glob() implementation.  See L<File::DosGlob> for
 546  details.
 547  
 548  =item Using perl from the command line
 549  
 550  If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
 551  shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
 552  with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
 553  
 554  The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
 555  the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
 556  First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
 557  COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
 558  redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
 559  executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
 560  command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
 561  upon which Perl was built.
 562  
 563  It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
 564  runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
 565  wildcards need not be quoted).  Also, the quoting behaviours of the
 566  shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
 567  using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent).  The only (useful) quote
 568  character is the double quote (").  It can be used to protect spaces
 569  and other special characters in arguments.
 570  
 571  The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
 572  quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
 573  based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
 574  passes them to programs in argc/argv.  Double quotes can be used to
 575  prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up.  You can
 576  put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
 577  enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.  The backslash and
 578  the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
 579  the C runtime.
 580  
 581  The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
 582  double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
 583  be true).  Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
 584  the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
 585  this type of quoting completely useless).  The caret "^" has also
 586  been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
 587  to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
 588  line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
 589  the caret as a quote character).
 590  
 591  Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
 592  
 593  This prints two doublequotes:
 594  
 595      perl -e "print '\"\"' "
 596  
 597  This does the same:
 598  
 599      perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
 600  
 601  This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
 602  
 603      perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
 604  
 605  This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
 606  
 607      perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
 608  
 609  This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
 610  
 611      perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
 612  
 613  This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
 614  
 615      perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
 616  
 617  This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
 618  
 619      perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
 620  
 621  This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
 622  
 623      perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
 624  
 625  
 626  Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
 627  is left as an exercise to the reader :)
 628  
 629  One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
 630  Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
 631  that environment variable expansion is needed.  Under this shell, it is
 632  therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
 633  Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
 634  quoted.
 635  
 636  =item Building Extensions
 637  
 638  The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
 639  of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
 640  Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
 641  
 642  Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
 643  in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
 644  http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
 645  porting modules that don't readily build.
 646  
 647  Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
 648  be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
 649  
 650      perl Makefile.PL
 651      $MAKE
 652      $MAKE test
 653      $MAKE install
 654  
 655  where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
 656  use.  Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is.  Some extensions
 657  may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
 658  fail), but most serious ones do.
 659  
 660  It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
 661  ensure Config.pm knows about it.  If you don't have nmake, you can
 662  either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
 663  old version of nmake reportedly available from:
 664  
 665   http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
 666  
 667  Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
 668  CPAN.
 669  
 670      http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
 671  
 672  You may also use dmake.  See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
 673  
 674  Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
 675  depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using.  Therefore, it is
 676  important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
 677  
 678      make='nmake'    # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
 679      make='dmake'    # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
 680      any other value    # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
 681                      (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
 682  
 683  If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
 684  edit Config.pm to fix it.
 685  
 686  If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
 687  C compilers.  You must make sure you have set up the environment for
 688  the compiler for command-line compilation.
 689  
 690  If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
 691  why it failed, and report problems to the module author.  If
 692  it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
 693  that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
 694  utility.
 695  
 696  =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
 697  
 698  The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
 699  as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
 700  programs.  They consider it the application's job to handle that.
 701  This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
 702  perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
 703  However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
 704  behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
 705  compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).  Besides, it may
 706  be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
 707  alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
 708  
 709  Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
 710  about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
 711  powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
 712  */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
 713  4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
 714  entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
 715  
 716      C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
 717      # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
 718      use File::DosGlob;
 719      @ARGV = map {
 720                my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
 721                @g ? @g : $_;
 722              } @ARGV;
 723      1;
 724      ^Z
 725      C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
 726      C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
 727      p4view/perl/perl.c
 728      p4view/perl/perlio.c
 729      p4view/perl/perly.c
 730      perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
 731      perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
 732      perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
 733      perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
 734      perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
 735      perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
 736  
 737  Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
 738  Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
 739  set the PERL5OPT environment variable.  If you want argv expansion
 740  to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
 741  environment.
 742  
 743  If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
 744  command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary.  The resulting
 745  binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
 746  what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.  The expansion
 747  done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
 748  
 749  =item Win32 Specific Extensions
 750  
 751  A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
 752  from CPAN.  You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
 753  be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only
 754  native port for the Win32 platform.  Since the Activeware port does not
 755  have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these
 756  extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore,
 757  cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section.
 758  
 759  To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
 760  ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains
 761  all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
 762  CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
 763  support.  The latest version of this bundle is available at:
 764  
 765      http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
 766  
 767  See the README in that distribution for building and installation
 768  instructions.
 769  
 770  =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
 771  
 772  Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
 773  architecture.
 774  
 775  The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
 776  norm on 64-bit Unix platforms.  In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
 777  both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide.  In addition,
 778  there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>.  In contrast,
 779  the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
 780  as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
 781  64-bit precision.  Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
 782  addressability.
 783  
 784  64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
 785  binaries transparently.  This means that you could use a 32-bit build
 786  of Perl on a 64-bit system.  Given this, why would one want to build
 787  a 64-bit build of Perl?  Here are some reasons why you would bother:
 788  
 789  =over
 790  
 791  =item *
 792  
 793  A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
 794  Itanium hardware.
 795  
 796  =item *
 797  
 798  There is no 2GB limit on process size.
 799  
 800  =item *
 801  
 802  Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
 803  64-bit Windows.
 804  
 805  =item *
 806  
 807  Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
 808  
 809  =back
 810  
 811  =back
 812  
 813  =head2 Running Perl Scripts
 814  
 815  Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
 816  indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
 817  Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
 818  executables.
 819  
 820  Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
 821  Win32 rely on the file "extension".  There are three methods
 822  to use this to execute perl scripts:
 823  
 824  =over 8
 825  
 826  =item 1
 827  
 828  There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
 829  work in Windows NT 4.0.  This can be manipulated via the two
 830  commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
 831  4.0.  Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
 832  up for perl scripts (Say what?  You thought Windows NT wasn't
 833  perl-ready? :).
 834  
 835  =item 2
 836  
 837  Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
 838  reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
 839  old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
 840  regular batch file to the OS, may be used.  The install process
 841  makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
 842  perl scripts into batch files.  For example:
 843  
 844      pl2bat foo.pl
 845  
 846  will create the file "FOO.BAT".  Note "pl2bat" strips any
 847  .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
 848  
 849  If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
 850  "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
 851  refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
 852  sure that construct works in batch files.  As of this writing,
 853  4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
 854  4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
 855  startup file to enable this to work.
 856  
 857  =item 3
 858  
 859  Using "pl2bat" has a few problems:  the file name gets changed,
 860  so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
 861  run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
 862  original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
 863  if the originals get updated often.  A different approach that
 864  avoids both problems is possible.
 865  
 866  A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
 867  to any filename (along with the .bat suffix).  For example,
 868  if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
 869  executed.  Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply
 870  by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
 871  runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
 872  With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
 873  than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
 874  the PATH.  If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
 875  links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
 876  
 877  Here's a diversion:  copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
 878  "runperl".  Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
 879  Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
 880  
 881  =back
 882  
 883  =head2 Miscellaneous Things
 884  
 885  A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
 886  able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
 887  system.
 888  
 889  C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
 890  in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
 891  like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support).  You may
 892  have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
 893  "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
 894  "foo".
 895  
 896  One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
 897  is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
 898  window will go away.  This isn't the case.  If you want to start a copy
 899  of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
 900  executable built during the installation process.  Usage is exactly
 901  the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h>
 902  don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
 903  
 904  If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
 905  bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
 906  find a mailer on your system).
 907  
 908  =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
 909  
 910  Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
 911  set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
 912  the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
 913  the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
 914  Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
 915  as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
 916  files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
 917  or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
 918  updating it). The build does complete with
 919  
 920     set PERLIO=perlio
 921  
 922  but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
 923  
 924  Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
 925  L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all.  To avoid
 926  surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
 927  in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
 928  that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
 929  for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
 930  
 931  Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
 932  in the Win32 environment.  See L</"Building Extensions">.
 933  
 934  Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
 935  behave as on Unix platforms.  See L<perlport> for the full list.
 936  Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
 937  running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
 938  
 939  http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
 940  
 941  Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
 942  
 943  Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
 944  doesn't exactly "behave", either :).  For instance, calling C<die()>
 945  or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
 946  implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled.
 947  Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
 948  variable in the handler.  Using signals under this port should
 949  currently be considered unsupported.
 950  
 951  Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
 952  you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
 953  produced by C<perl -V>.
 954  
 955  =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 956  
 957  The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
 958  of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
 959  
 960  =head1 AUTHORS
 961  
 962  =over 4
 963  
 964  =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
 965  
 966  =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
 967  
 968  =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
 969  
 970  =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
 971  
 972  =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
 973  
 974  =back
 975  
 976  This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
 977  
 978  =head1 SEE ALSO
 979  
 980  L<perl>
 981  
 982  =head1 HISTORY
 983  
 984  This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
 985  and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
 986  at the time.  Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
 987  since then.
 988  
 989  Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
 990  
 991  GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
 992  
 993  Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
 994  
 995  Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
 996  
 997  Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
 998  
 999  Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
1000  
1001  Last updated: 29 August 2007
1002  
1003  =cut