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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