perldos - Perl under DOS, W31, W95.


SYNOPSIS

       These are instructions for building Perl under DOS (or
       w??), using DJGPP v2.01 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 dis­
       tribution was extracted.  Make sure you read and under­
       stand the terms under which this software is being dis­
       tributed.

       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.

       Prerequisites

       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 Sim­
           Tel.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/bnu27b.zip
                   v2gnu/gcc2721b.zip
                   v2gnu/bsh1147b.zip
                   v2gnu/mak3761b.zip
                   v2gnu/fil316b.zip
                   v2gnu/sed118b.zip
                   v2gnu/txt122b.zip
                   v2gnu/dif271b.zip
                   v2gnu/grep21b.zip
                   v2gnu/shl112b.zip
                   v2gnu/gawk303b.zip
                   v2misc/csdpmi4b.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

       ·   Unpack the source package perl5.6*.tar.gz with djtarx.
           If you want to use long file names under w95, don't
           forget to use

                   set LFN=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

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


           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.

       ·   Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and
           type the following command:

                   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.

           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).

           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 val­
           ues 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:


       ·   Now you can compile Perl. Type:

                   make

       Testing

       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

       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'.


AUTHOR

       Laszlo Molnar, laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se


SEE ALSO

       perl(1).


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