source: trunk/third/perl/INSTALL @ 17035

Revision 17035, 83.0 KB checked in by zacheiss, 22 years ago (diff)
This commit was generated by cvs2svn to compensate for changes in r17034, which included commits to RCS files with non-trunk default branches.
Line 
1=head1 NAME
2
3Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
4
5=head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7First, make sure you are installing an up-to-date version of Perl.   If
8you didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
9<URL:http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
10
11The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system
12with all the defaults are:
13
14        rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
15        sh Configure -de
16        make
17        make test
18        make install
19
20        # You may also wish to add these:
21        (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
22        (installhtml --help)
23        (cd pod && make tex  && <process the latex files>)
24
25Each of these is explained in further detail below.
26
27B<NOTE>: starting from the release 5.6.0 Perl will use a version
28scheme where even-numbered subreleases (like 5.6) are stable
29maintenance releases and odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7) are
30unstable development releases.  Development releases should not be
31used in production environments.  Fixes and new features are first
32carefully tested in development releases and only if they prove
33themselves to be worthy will they be migrated to the maintenance
34releases.
35
36The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local or /opt, depending
37on the platform.  If that's not okay with you, use
38
39        rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
40        sh Configure
41        make
42        make test
43        make install
44
45For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on
46L<"Porting information"> below.
47
48If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
49L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
50
51For information on what's new in this release, see the
52pod/perldelta.pod file.  For more detailed information about specific
53changes, see the Changes file.
54
55=head1 DESCRIPTION
56
57This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
58structure.  The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
59read it as is with any pager or editor.  Headings and items are marked
60by lines beginning with '='.  The other mark-up used is
61
62    B<text>     embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
63    C<code>     literal code
64    L<name>     A link (cross reference) to name
65
66Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
67you should probably at least skim through this entire document before
68proceeding.
69
70If you're building Perl on a non-Unix system, you should also read
71the README file specific to your operating system, since this may
72provide additional or different instructions for building Perl.
73
74If there is a hint file for your system (in the hints/ directory) you
75should also read that hint file for specific information for your
76system.  (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh hint file.)  If
77there is a README file for your platform, then you should read
78that too.  Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
79
80=head1 WARNING:  This version requires an extra step to build old extensions.
81
825.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
83global symbols anymore.  This means you may need to build older
84extensions that have not been updated for the new naming convention
85with:
86
87        perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1
88
89Alternatively, you can enable CPP symbol pollution wholesale by
90building perl itself with:
91
92        sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_POLLUTE
93
94pod/perldelta.pod contains more details about this.
95
96=head1 WARNING:  This version may not be binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
97
98Using the default Configure options for building perl should get you
99a perl that will be binary compatible with the 5.005 release.
100
101However, if you run Configure with any custom options, such as
102-Dusethreads, -Dusemultiplicity, -Dusemymalloc, -Ubincompat5005 etc.,
103the resulting perl will not be binary compatible.  Under these
104circumstances, if you have dynamically loaded extensions that were
105built under perl 5.005, you will need to rebuild and reinstall all
106those extensions to use them with 5.6.
107
108Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
109without reinstallation.  See the discussions below on
110L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
111L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6"> for more details.
112
113The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
114
115On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
116changes in the Perl language in the current release.  Please see
117pod/perldelta.pod (and pod/perl500Xdelta.pod) for a description of
118what's changed.  See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
119file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
120Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
121currently installed modules.
122
123=head1 WARNING:  This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
124
125Most C compilers are now ANSI-compliant.  However, a few current
126computers are delivered with an older C compiler expressly for
127rebuilding the system kernel, or for some other historical reason.
128Alternatively, you may have an old machine which was shipped before
129ANSI compliance became widespread.  Such compilers are not suitable
130for building Perl.
131
132If you find that your default C compiler is not ANSI-capable, but you
133know that an ANSI-capable compiler is installed on your system, you
134can tell F<Configure> to use the correct compiler by means of the
135C<-Dcc=> command-line option -- see L<"gcc">.
136
137If do not have an ANSI-capable compiler there are several avenues open
138to you:
139
140=over 4
141
142=item *
143
144You may try obtaining GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide,
145listed at <URL:http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html>.  If, rather than
146building gcc from source code, you locate a binary version configured
147for your platform, be sure that it is compiled for the version of the
148operating system that you are using.
149
150=item *
151
152You may purchase a commercial ANSI C compiler from your system
153supplier or elsewhere.  (Or your organization may already have
154licensed such software -- ask your colleagues to find out how to
155access it.)  If there is a README file for your system in the Perl
156distribution (for example, F<README.hpux>), it may contain advice on
157suitable compilers.
158
159=item *
160
161Another alternative may be to use a tool like ansi2knr to convert the
162sources back to K&R style, but there is no guarantee this route will get
163you anywhere, since the prototypes are not the only ANSI features used
164in the Perl sources.  ansi2knr is usually found as part of the freely
165available Ghostscript distribution.  Another similar tool is
166unprotoize, distributed with GCC.  Since unprotoize requires GCC to
167run, you may have to run it on a platform where GCC is available, and move
168the sources back to the platform without GCC.
169
170If you succeed in automatically converting the sources to a K&R compatible
171form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.org to let us know the steps you
172followed.  This will enable us to officially support this option.
173
174=back
175
176Although Perl can be compiled using a C++ compiler, the Configure script
177does not work with some C++ compilers.
178
179=head1 Space Requirements
180
181The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 20 MB of disk space.
182After completing make, it takes up roughly 30 MB, though the actual
183total is likely to be quite system-dependent.  The installation
184directories need something on the order of 20 MB, though again that
185value is system-dependent.
186
187=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
188
189If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
190with the command
191
192        make distclean
193
194or
195
196        make realclean
197
198The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
199your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
200
201The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
202files.  If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
203change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
204you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
205not re-use your old config.sh.  Simply remove it
206
207        rm -f config.sh
208
209If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
210version and architecture-specific questions and answers.  For example,
211the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
212includes the version name.  By default, Configure will reuse your old
213name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
214Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004.  Yes, Configure should
215probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't, presently.
216Similarly, if you used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version
217numbers, you will probably want to adjust them as well.
218
219Also, be careful to check your architecture name.  For example, some
220Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486.  If you build
221it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
222might be i586 or i686 instead.  If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
223compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
224the architecture name.
225
226In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
227Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
228
229If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
230installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
231using the Policy.sh file.  See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
232settings"> below.  If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
233also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
234
235        rm -f Policy.sh
236
237=head1 Run Configure
238
239Configure will figure out various things about your system.  Some
240things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
241you about.  To accept the default, just press RETURN.   The default is
242almost always okay.  It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
243since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
244the same function.
245
246At any Configure prompt, you can type  &-d and Configure will use the
247defaults from then on.
248
249After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
250*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
251
252=head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
253
254For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine.  Configure
255also has several convenient options which are all described below.
256However, if Configure doesn't have an option to do what you want,
257you can change Configure variables after the platform hints have been
258run, by using Configure's -A switch.  For example, here's how to add
259a couple of extra flags to C compiler invocations:
260
261        sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_Y2KWARN -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
262
263For more help on Configure switches, run:
264
265        sh Configure -h
266
267=head2 Building Perl outside of the source directory
268
269Sometimes it is desirable to build Perl in a directory different from
270where the sources are, for example if you want to keep your sources
271read-only, or if you want to share the sources between different binary
272architectures.
273
274Starting from Perl 5.6.1 you can do this (if your file system supports
275symbolic links) by
276       
277        mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory
278        cd /tmp/perl/build/directory
279        sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ...
280
281This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links
282pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source.  The original files are left
283unaffected.  After Configure has finished you can just say
284
285        make all test
286
287and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory.
288
289=head2 Common Configure options
290
291Configure supports a number of useful options.  Run B<Configure -h> to
292get a listing.  See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
293Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
294
295=over 4
296
297=item gcc
298
299To compile with gcc you should run
300
301        sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
302
303This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
304compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
305
306=item Installation prefix
307
308By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
309/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}.  (See L<"Installation Directories">
310and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
311further details.)
312
313You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
314directory, when Configure prompts you or by using the Configure command
315line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
316
317        sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
318
319If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
320directory structure is simplified.  For example, if you use
321prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
322/opt/perl/lib/perl5/.  Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
323for more details.
324
325NOTE:  You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
326as or below your perl source directory.  If you do, installperl will
327attempt infinite recursion.
328
329=item /usr/bin/perl
330
331It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
332find it.  It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
333/usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary.  Be especially
334careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
335vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing.
336
337By default, Configure will arrange for /usr/bin/perl to be linked to
338the current version of perl.  You can turn off that behavior by running
339
340        Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl
341
342or by answering 'no' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
343
344In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
345put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
346into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
347obvious and convenient place.
348
349=item Overriding an old config.sh
350
351If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
352with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
353
354=back
355
356If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
357output, you can run
358
359        sh Configure -des
360
361Note: for development releases (odd subreleases, like 5.7, as opposed
362to maintenance releases which have even subreleases, like 5.6)
363if you want to use Configure -d, you will also need to supply -Dusedevel
364to Configure, because the default answer to the question "do you really
365want to Configure a development version?" is "no".  The -Dusedevel
366skips that sanity check.
367
368For example for my Solaris system, I usually use
369
370        sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
371
372=head2 GNU-style configure
373
374If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
375use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
376
377        CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
378
379The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
380options.  Try
381
382        ./configure.gnu --help
383
384for a listing.
385
386Cross compiling and compiling in a different directory are not supported.
387
388(The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
389that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
390
391=head2 Installation Directories
392
393The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
394appropriate questions in Configure.  For convenience, all the
395installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
396Further, there are a number of additions to the installation
397directories since 5.005, so reusing your old config.sh may not
398be sufficient to put everything where you want it.
399
400I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
401everything where you want it.  At any point during the Configure
402process, you can answer a question with  &-d  and Configure will use
403the defaults from then on.
404
405The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
406people building from sources.  Those who build and distribute binary
407distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
408need to alter them.  If you are content to just accept the defaults,
409you can safely skip the next section.
410
411The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
412
413=over 4
414
415=item Directories for the perl distribution
416
417By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.0.
418$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
4195.6.0 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
420determined by Configure.  The full definitions of all Configure
421variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
422
423    Configure variable  Default value
424    $prefix             /usr/local
425    $bin                $prefix/bin
426    $scriptdir          $prefix/bin
427    $privlib            $prefix/lib/perl5/$version
428    $archlib            $prefix/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
429    $man1dir            $prefix/man/man1
430    $man3dir            $prefix/man/man3
431    $html1dir           (none)
432    $html3dir           (none)
433
434Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
435/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
436instead.  Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
437directories are simplified as described below.  For simplicity, only
438the common style is shown here.
439
440=item Directories for site-specific add-on files
441
442After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
443CPAN) or scripts.  Configure will set up the following directories to
444be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
445
446    Configure variable  Default value
447    $siteprefix         $prefix
448    $sitebin            $siteprefix/bin
449    $sitescript         $siteprefix/bin
450    $sitelib            $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
451    $sitearch           $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
452    $siteman1           $siteprefix/man/man1
453    $siteman3           $siteprefix/man/man3
454    $sitehtml1          (none)
455    $sitehtml3          (none)
456
457By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
458modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
459
460NOTE:  As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will use $sitelib and $sitearch,
461but will not use the other site-specific directories.  Volunteers to
462fix this are needed.
463
464=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
465
466Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
467distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
468for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
469
470    Configure variable  Default value
471    $vendorprefix       (none)
472    (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
473    $vendorbin          $vendorprefix/bin
474    $vendorscript       $vendorprefix/bin
475    $vendorlib          $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
476    $vendorarch         $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
477    $vendorman1         $vendorprefix/man/man1
478    $vendorman3         $vendorprefix/man/man3
479    $vendorhtml1        (none)
480    $vendorhtml3        (none)
481
482These are normally empty, but may be set as needed.  For example,
483a vendor might choose the following settings:
484
485        $prefix         /usr/bin
486        $siteprefix     /usr/local/bin
487        $vendorprefix   /usr/bin
488
489This would have the effect of setting the following:
490
491        $bin            /usr/bin
492        $scriptdir      /usr/bin
493        $privlib        /usr/lib/perl5/$version
494        $archlib        /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
495        $man1dir        /usr/man/man1
496        $man3dir        /usr/man/man3
497
498        $sitebin        /usr/local/bin
499        $sitescript     /usr/local/bin
500        $sitelib        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
501        $sitearch       /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
502        $siteman1       /usr/local/man/man1
503        $siteman3       /usr/local/man/man3
504
505        $vendorbin      /usr/bin
506        $vendorscript   /usr/bin
507        $vendorlib      /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
508        $vendorarch     /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
509        $vendorman1     /usr/man/man1
510        $vendorman3     /usr/man/man3
511
512Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
513/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
514the /usr/local hierarchy.
515
516NOTE:  As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker does not use these directories.
517Volunteers to fix this are needed.
518
519The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
520version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
521However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
522installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
523See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
524on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
525
526Of course you may use these directories however you see fit.  For
527example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
528are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
529site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
530network.  One way to do that would be something like
531
532        sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
533
534=item otherlibdirs
535
536As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
537variable.  This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
538directories to add to @INC.  By default, it will be empty.
539Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
540version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
541
542=item APPLLIB_EXP
543
544There is one other way of adding paths to @INC at perl build time, and
545that is by setting the APPLLIB_EXP C pre-processor token to a colon-
546separated list of directories, like this
547
548       sh Configure -Accflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/usr/libperl\"'
549
550The directories defined by APPLLIB_EXP get added to @INC I<first>,
551ahead of any others, and so provide a way to override the standard perl
552modules should you, for example, want to distribute fixes without
553touching the perl distribution proper.  And, like otherlib dirs,
554version and architecture specific subdirectories are also searched, if
555present, at run time.  Of course, you can still search other @INC
556directories ahead of those in APPLLIB_EXP by using any of the standard
557run-time methods: $PERLLIB, $PERL5LIB, -I, use lib, etc.
558
559=item Man Pages
560
561In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
562pages in a version-specific directory, such as
563/usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3.  The default for 5.005_58 and
564after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
565without resetting MANPATH.
566
567You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
568
569        sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/man/man3
570
571Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix.  You can do that with
572
573        sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
574
575Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
576Configure.
577
578=item HTML pages
579
580As of perl5.005_57, the standard perl installation does not do
581anything with HTML documentation, but that may change in the future.
582Further, some add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents.  The
583html Configure variables listed above are provided if you wish to
584specify where such documents should be placed.  The default is "none",
585but will likely eventually change to something useful based on user
586feedback.
587
588=back
589
590Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
591to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
592architectures.
593
594Note that these are just the defaults.  You can actually structure the
595directories any way you like.  They don't even have to be on the same
596filesystem.
597
598Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
599development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
600discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
601
602If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
603library directory structure is slightly simplified.  Instead of
604suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
605
606Thus, for example, if you Configure with
607-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6.0 are
608
609    Configure variable  Default value
610        $privlib        /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0
611        $archlib        /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0/$archname
612        $sitelib        /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0
613        $sitearch       /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
614
615=head2 Changing the installation directory
616
617Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
618associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
619will eventually reside.  For most sites, these two are the same; for
620sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
621However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
622packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
623wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
624management software to move perl to its final destination.  This
625section describes how to do that.
626
627Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory.  You
628could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
629/tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
630following command line:
631
632        sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
633
634(replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
635
636Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
637modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
638follow this example.  The next section shows one way of dealing with
639that problem.
640
641=head2 Creating an installable tar archive
642
643If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is
644convenient to compile it once and create an archive that can be
645installed on multiple systems.  Suppose, for example, that you want to
646create an archive that can be installed in /opt/perl.
647Here's one way to do that:
648
649    # Set up to install perl into a different directory,
650    # e.g. /tmp/perl5 (see previous part).
651    sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5 -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
652    make
653    make test
654    make install   # This will install everything into /tmp/perl5.
655    cd /tmp/perl5
656    # Edit $archlib/Config.pm and $archlib/.packlist to change all the
657    # install* variables back to reflect where everything will
658    # really be installed.  (That is, change /tmp/perl5 to /opt/perl
659    # everywhere in those files.)
660    # Check the scripts in $scriptdir to make sure they have the correct
661    # #!/wherever/perl line.
662    tar cvf ../perl5-archive.tar .
663    # Then, on each machine where you want to install perl,
664    cd /opt/perl # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
665    tar xvf perl5-archive.tar
666
667=head2 Site-wide Policy settings
668
669After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
670answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
671person) in the Policy.sh file.  If you want to build perl on another
672system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
673to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
674hint file for your system.
675
676Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
677answers, you should
678
679        rm -f Policy.sh
680
681to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
682
683Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
684
685If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
686to contain any valid shell commands.  It will be run just after the
687platform-specific hints files.
688
689Note:  Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6.0 contains a number of
690new vendor* and site* entries, your Policy.sh file will probably not
691set them to your desired values.  I encourage you to run Configure
692interactively to be sure it puts things where you want them.
693
694=head2 Configure-time Options
695
696There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
697system.  For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
698Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl.  Here are
699some of the main things you can change.
700
701=head2 Threads
702
703On some platforms, perl5.005 and later can be compiled with
704experimental support for threads.  To enable this, read the file
705README.threads, and then try:
706
707        sh Configure -Dusethreads
708
709Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
710line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
711
712The default is to compile without thread support.
713
714As of v5.5.64, perl has two different internal threads implementations.
715The 5.005 version (5005threads) and an interpreter-based implementation
716(ithreads) with one interpreter per thread.  By default, Configure selects
717ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified.  However, you can select the old
7185005threads behavior instead by either
719
720        sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
721
722or by
723        sh Configure -Dusethreads -Uuseithreads
724
725Eventually (by perl v5.6.0) this internal confusion ought to disappear,
726and these options may disappear as well.
727
728=head2 64 bit support.
729
730If your platform does not have 64 bits natively, but can simulate them with
731compiler flags and/or C<long long> or C<int64_t>, you can build a perl that
732uses 64 bits.
733
734There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
735using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
736-Duse64bitall.  The difference is that the first one is minimal and
737the second one maximal.  The first works in more places than the second.
738
739The C<use64bitint> does only as much as is required to get 64-bit
740integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long longs")
741while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because your
742pointers could still be 32-bit).  Note that the name C<64bitint> does
743not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit C<int>s (it might,
744but it doesn't have to): the C<use64bitint> means that you will be
745able to have 64 bits wide scalar values.
746
747The C<use64bitall> goes all the way by attempting to switch also
748integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit.  This may
749create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
750resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
751have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
752aware.
753
754Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
755nor -Duse64bitall.
756
757    NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
758    Existing support only covers the LP64 data model.  In particular, the
759    LLP64 data model is not yet supported.  64-bit libraries and system
760    APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
761
762=head2 Long doubles
763
764In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
765range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
766(that is, Perl's numbers).  Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
767this support (if it is available).
768
769=head2 "more bits"
770
771You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
772and the long double support.
773
774=head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
775
776Previous versions of perl used the standard IO mechanisms as defined in
777stdio.h.  Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
778mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still
779the default and is the only supported mechanism.
780
781This PerlIO abstraction can be enabled either on the Configure command
782line with
783
784        sh Configure -Duseperlio
785
786or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
787
788If you choose to use the PerlIO abstraction layer, there are two
789(experimental) possibilities for the underlying IO calls.  These have been
790tested to some extent on some platforms, but are not guaranteed to work
791everywhere.
792
793=over 4
794
795=item 1.
796
797AT&T's "sfio".  This has superior performance to stdio.h in many
798cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline" modules.  Sfio
799currently only builds on a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports.
800Because the data structures are completely different from stdio, perl
801extension modules or external libraries may not work.  This
802configuration exists to allow these issues to be worked on.
803
804This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
805The latest sfio is available from http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/sfio/
806
807You select this option by
808
809        sh Configure -Duseperlio -Dusesfio
810
811If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
812that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
813Configure.
814
815Note:  On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
816detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent).  Apparently,
817this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
818Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
819_exit vs. exit.  If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
820your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
821
822=item 2.
823
824Normal stdio IO, but with all IO going through calls to the PerlIO
825abstraction layer.  This configuration can be used to check that perl and
826extension modules have been correctly converted to use the PerlIO
827abstraction.
828
829This configuration should work on all platforms (but might not).
830
831You select this option via:
832
833        sh Configure -Duseperlio -Uusesfio
834
835If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure does not
836detect sfio, then this will be the default suggested by Configure.
837
838=back
839
840=head2 SOCKS
841
842Perl can be configured to be 'socksified', that is, to use the SOCKS
843TCP/IP proxy protocol library.  SOCKS is used to give applications
844access to transport layer network proxies.  Perl supports only SOCKS
845Version 5.  You can find more about SOCKS from http://www.socks.nec.com/
846
847=head2 Dynamic Loading
848
849By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
850your system supports it.  If you want to force perl to be compiled
851statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
852you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
853
854=head2 Building a shared libperl.so Perl library
855
856Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
857linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
858extensions (usually just DynaLoader.a) and various extra libraries,
859such as -lm.
860
861On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
862replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so.  If you anticipate building
863several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
864different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
865you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
866can share the same library.
867
868The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
869penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
870mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
871and upgrades.
872
873In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
874test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
875Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
876results.
877
878The default name for the shared library is typically something like
879libperl.so.3.2 (for Perl 5.003_02) or libperl.so.302 or simply
880libperl.so.  Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
881based on your C library name.  Since the library gets installed in a
882version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
883isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
884
885For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
886for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
887
888You can elect to build a shared libperl by
889
890        sh Configure -Duseshrplib
891
892To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
893library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
894NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, SHLIB_PATH for
895HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
896the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
897be created.  Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
898library search settings.
899
900However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
901shared library path might be required.  For example, if you want to run
902something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
903./perl:
904
905        cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
906or
907        ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
908
909then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
910You can do this with
911
912   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
913
914for Bourne-style shells, or
915
916   setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
917
918for Csh-style shells.  (This procedure may also be needed if for some
919unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.)
920
921You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
922messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
923for example:
92418126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
925
926There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
927want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
928with and without -DDEBUGGING).  For example, suppose you build and
929install a standard Perl 5.004 with a shared library.  Then, suppose you
930try to build Perl 5.004 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
931the same, including all the installation directories.  How can you
932ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
933libperl.so.4 rather with the installed libperl.so.4?  The answer is
934that you might not be able to.  The installation directory is encoded
935in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
936equivalent ld command-line option).  On Solaris, you can override that
937with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux you can't.  On Digital Unix, you can
938override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the _RLD_ROOT environment variable
939to point to the perl build directory.
940
941The only reliable answer is that you should specify a different
942directory for the architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING
943version of perl.  You can do this by changing all the *archlib*
944variables in config.sh to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
945
946=head2 Malloc Issues
947
948Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
949so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
950the malloc function on your system.  The perl source is shipped with a
951version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
952perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
953than your system malloc.
954
955However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
956experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
957that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
958(Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
959
960=over 4
961
962=item Using the system malloc
963
964To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
965
966        sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
967
968or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
969
970=item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
971
972NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you
973asked for binary compatibility with version 5.005, or if you just
974run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms.  You
975can refuse the automatic binary compatibility flags wholesale by
976running:
977
978        sh Configure -Ubincompat5005
979
980or by answering 'n' at the appropriate prompt.
981
982Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(),
983Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree().  When this flag is
984not enabled, the names do not clash with the system versions of
985these functions.
986
987If enabled, Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
988names as the system versions.  This may be sometimes required when you
989have libraries that like to free() data that may have been allocated
990by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
991
992Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
993from the linker for malloc et al.  In such cases, the system probably
994does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
995versions.
996
997=back
998
999=head2 Building a debugging perl
1000
1001You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
1002B<perl -d your_script>.  If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
1003you probably want to do
1004
1005        sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
1006
1007This will do two independent things:  First, it will force compilation
1008to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
1009executable.  (Note:  Your system may actually require something like
1010cc -g2.  Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
1011your system.)  Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
1012variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
1013internal state.  (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
1014if you are not reusing your old config.sh.  If you want to reuse your
1015old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
1016ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
1017L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
1018
1019You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
1020it's convenient to have both.
1021
1022If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
1023versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
1024
1025=head2 Extensions
1026
1027By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
1028to be supported.  For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
1029only if it is able to find the gdbm library.  (See examples below.)
1030B, DynaLoader, Fcntl, IO, and attrs are always built by default.
1031Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
1032is always built by default as well.  If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
1033set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
1034the Configure command line.  Similarly, the Opcode extension is always
1035built by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
1036useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
1037
1038If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
1039running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
1040extensions as well.  Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
1041it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
1042has been installed.  However, if you wish to have those additional
1043extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
1044convenient way to do that in one step.  (It is not necessary, however;
1045you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
1046dynamic loading.  See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
1047
1048You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
1049documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
1050ext/ subdirectory.
1051
1052Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
1053DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
1054version.  (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
1055
1056In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
1057to turn off each extension:
1058
1059    B                   (Always included by default)
1060    DB_File             i_db
1061    DynaLoader          (Must always be included as a static extension)
1062    Fcntl               (Always included by default)
1063    GDBM_File           i_gdbm
1064    IO                  (Always included by default)
1065    NDBM_File           i_ndbm
1066    ODBM_File           i_dbm
1067    POSIX               useposix
1068    SDBM_File           (Always included by default)
1069    Opcode              useopcode
1070    Socket              d_socket
1071    Threads             use5005threads
1072    attrs               (Always included by default)
1073
1074Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
1075
1076        sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
1077
1078Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
1079library.
1080
1081Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
1082the extensions you want.
1083
1084Note:  The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
1085DB or newer releases of version 2.  Configure will automatically detect
1086this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
1087releases of version 2.
1088
1089If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
1090adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
1091for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
1092you.
1093
1094Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
1095remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
1096executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
1097well build all the ones that will work on your system.
1098
1099=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
1100
1101Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
1102dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db.  For each extension, if
1103Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
1104automatically include that extension.  The gdbm and db libraries
1105are not included with perl.  See the library documentation for
1106how to obtain the libraries.
1107
1108If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
1109searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
1110appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.  If
1111your database library (.a) files are not in a directory normally
1112searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
1113the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
1114See the examples below.
1115
1116=head2 Examples
1117
1118=over 4
1119
1120=item gdbm in /usr/local
1121
1122Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
1123GDBM_File extension.  This example assumes you have gdbm.h
1124installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
1125/usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a.  Configure should figure all the
1126necessary steps out automatically.
1127
1128Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
1129your C compiler, you should include  -I/usr/local/include.
1130
1131When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
1132-L/usr/local/lib.
1133
1134If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
1135linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
1136-L/usr/local/lib.
1137
1138Again, this should all happen automatically.  This should also work if
1139you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
1140/opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
1141
1142=item gdbm in /usr/you
1143
1144Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
1145but you still want Configure to find it.  To be specific, assume you
1146have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a.  You
1147still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
1148an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a.  Specifically, when
1149Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
1150/usr/you/lib to the list.
1151
1152It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
1153line):
1154
1155        sh Configure -de \
1156                -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
1157                -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
1158
1159locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
1160Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
1161
1162loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
1163Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives.  If
1164you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
1165/usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
1166
1167        sh Configure -de \
1168                -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
1169                -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
1170
1171=back
1172
1173=head2 Building DB, NDBM, and ODBM interfaces with Berkeley DB 3
1174
1175Perl interface for DB3 is part of Berkeley DB, but if you want to
1176compile standard Perl DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you must follow
1177following instructions.
1178
1179Berkeley DB3 from Sleepycat Software is by default installed without
1180DB1 compatibility code (needed for DB_File interface) and without
1181links to compatibility files. So if you want to use packages written
1182for DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you need to configure DB3 with
1183--enable-compat185 (and optionally with --enable-dump185) and create
1184additional references (suppose you are installing DB3 with
1185--prefix=/usr):
1186
1187    ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdbm.so
1188    ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libndbm.so
1189    echo '#define DB_DBM_HSEARCH 1' >dbm.h
1190    echo '#include <db.h>' >>dbm.h
1191    install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/dbm.h
1192    install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/ndbm.h
1193
1194Optionally, if you have compiled with --enable-compat185 (not needed
1195for ODBM/NDBM):
1196
1197    ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb1.so
1198    ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb.so
1199
1200ODBM emulation seems not to be perfect, but is quite usable,
1201using DB 3.1.17:
1202
1203    lib/odbm.............FAILED at test 9
1204        Failed 1/64 tests, 98.44% okay
1205
1206=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1207
1208If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
1209If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
1210
1211=over 4
1212
1213=item Running Configure Interactively
1214
1215If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
1216Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
1217guesses.
1218
1219All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
1220have to wait for them.  Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
1221flags) you can type  &-d  at the next Configure prompt and Configure
1222will use the defaults from then on.
1223
1224If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
1225config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
1226instead.  You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
1227
1228=item Hint files
1229
1230The perl distribution includes a number of system-specific hints files
1231in the hints/ directory.  If one of them matches your system, Configure
1232will offer to use that hint file.
1233
1234Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
1235If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
1236for further information.  See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
1237More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
1238file.
1239
1240=item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1241
1242Occasionally, Configure makes a wrong guess.  For example, on SunOS
12434.1.3, Configure incorrectly concludes that tzname[] is in the
1244standard C library.  The hint file is set up to correct for this.  You
1245will see a message:
1246
1247    *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1248        The recommended value for $d_tzname on this machine was "undef"!
1249        Keep the recommended value? [y]
1250
1251You should always keep the recommended value unless, after reading the
1252relevant section of the hint file, you are sure you want to try
1253overriding it.
1254
1255If you are re-using an old config.sh, the word "previous" will be
1256used instead of "recommended".  Again, you will almost always want
1257to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something on your
1258system.
1259
1260For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1261and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File.  When you run
1262Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
1263Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1264issue a message:
1265
1266    *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1267        The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1268        Keep the previous value? [y]
1269
1270In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
1271should answer 'n'.  (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
1272the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1273
1274=item Changing Compilers
1275
1276If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1277probably not re-use your old config.sh.  Simply remove it or
1278rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old.  Then rerun Configure
1279with the options you want to use.
1280
1281This is a common source of problems.  If you change from cc to
1282gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
1283
1284=item Propagating your changes to config.sh
1285
1286If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1287them to all the .SH files by running
1288
1289        sh Configure -S
1290
1291You will then have to rebuild by running
1292
1293        make depend
1294        make
1295
1296=item config.over
1297
1298You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride Configure's
1299guesses.  It will get loaded up at the very end, just before config.sh
1300is created.  You have to be careful with this, however, as Configure
1301does no checking that your changes make sense.
1302
1303=item config.h
1304
1305Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1306Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1307The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
1308
1309If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly.  Beware,
1310though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
1311lost.
1312
1313=item cflags
1314
1315If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1316line, they can be made in cflags.SH.  For instance, to turn off the
1317optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1318toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; .  You
1319can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1320lost the next time you run Configure.
1321
1322To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1323see the file hints/README.hints.
1324
1325To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1326$ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1327
1328        sh Configure -S
1329        make depend
1330
1331=item No sh
1332
1333If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
1334Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
1335system's peculiarities.  See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
1336You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1337mechanism.
1338
1339=item Environment variable clashes
1340
1341Configure uses a CONFIG variable that is reported to cause trouble on
1342ReliantUnix 5.44.  If your system sets this variable, you can try
1343unsetting it before you run Configure.  Configure should eventually
1344be fixed to avoid polluting the namespace of the environment.
1345
1346=item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1347
1348In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1349
1350Build a threading Perl? [n]
1351Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1352
1353This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1354(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1355"sh Configure" or "./Configure").  The Korn shell bug has been reported
1356to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1357being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1358'xpg4'.  This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1359(a ksh).  Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1360
1361=item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1362
1363If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1364that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1365HP-UX 11 do not mix.  This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1366fail
1367
1368Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1369Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1370sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1371
1372and Configure will give up.  The cure is to recompile and install
1373libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1374
1375=item Porting information
1376
1377Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1378corresponding README files and subdirectories.  Additional information,
1379including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
1380subdirectory.  Especially Porting/Glossary should come in handy.
1381
1382Ports for other systems may also be available.  You should check out
1383http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports for current information on ports to
1384various other operating systems.
1385
1386If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture study carefully the
1387section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
1388in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
1389Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
1390
1391=back
1392
1393=head1 make depend
1394
1395This will look for all the includes.  The output is stored in makefile.
1396The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1397the bottom of makefile.  If you have to make any changes, you should edit
1398makefile, not Makefile since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
1399(On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1400Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
1401
1402Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1403explicitly above.
1404
1405=head1 make
1406
1407This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1408
1409=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1410
1411If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
1412If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
1413the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
1414then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
1415
1416=over 4
1417
1418=item hints
1419
1420If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1421for further tips and information.
1422
1423=item extensions
1424
1425If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
1426during the building of extensions, you should run
1427
1428        make minitest
1429
1430to test your version of miniperl.
1431
1432=item locale
1433
1434If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1435them.  I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1436running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1437See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1438whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
1439The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1440
1441        perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1442        perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1443                LC_ALL = "En_US",
1444                LANG = (unset)
1445            are supported and installed on your system.
1446        perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1447
1448at Perl startup.
1449
1450=item varargs
1451
1452If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
1453correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc.  When using
1454gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
1455in config.sh.  The problem is usually solved by running fixincludes
1456correctly.  If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1457your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
1458See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
1459
1460=item util.c
1461
1462If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
1463numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
1464
1465    util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1466    util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1467    proto.h:125: prototype declaration
1468
1469it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem".  See the
1470previous L<"varargs"> item.
1471
1472=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
1473
1474If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
1475the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.  If you're creating a static
1476Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
1477fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1478of your local set-up.
1479
1480=item nm extraction
1481
1482If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1483try not using nm extraction.  You can do this from the command line
1484with
1485
1486        sh Configure -Uusenm
1487
1488or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1489If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
1490config.sh.
1491
1492=item umask not found
1493
1494If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1495is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1496Check your config.sh.  You should have d_umask='define'.  If you don't,
1497this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.  Also,
1498try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1499
1500=item vsprintf
1501
1502If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1503problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1504version of vsprintf().  Check whether your system has vprintf().
1505(Virtually all modern Unix systems do.)  Then, check the variable
1506d_vprintf in config.sh.  If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1507
1508        d_vprintf='define'
1509
1510If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
1511on a number of other common functions too.  This is probably
1512the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1513
1514=item do_aspawn
1515
1516If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1517problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1518fork() function.  Follow the procedure in the previous item
1519on L<"nm extraction">.
1520
1521=item __inet_* errors
1522
1523If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1524referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1525installed.  It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1526these symbols.  Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1527in that location and avoid the errors.  You should probably update to a
1528newer version of BIND.  If you can't, you can either link with the
1529updated resolver library provided with BIND 8.1 or rename
1530/usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and test process to
1531avoid the problem.
1532
1533=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1534
1535This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1536gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1.  The Solaris header files
1537changed, so you need to update your gcc installation.  You can either
1538rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1539update your gcc installation.
1540
1541=item Optimizer
1542
1543If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
1544optimizer.  Edit config.sh and change the line
1545
1546        optimize='-O'
1547
1548to
1549
1550        optimize=' '
1551
1552then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1553with B<make depend; make>.
1554
1555=item CRIPPLED_CC
1556
1557If you still can't compile successfully, try:
1558
1559        sh Configure -Accflags=-DCRIPPLED_CC
1560
1561This flag simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get
1562indigestion easily.  (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it
1563compiled right!)
1564
1565=item Missing functions
1566
1567If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or
1568other, or you need to undefine some feature that Configure thought was
1569there but is defective or incomplete.  Look through config.h for
1570likely suspects.  If Configure guessed wrong on a number of functions,
1571you might have the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1572
1573=item toke.c
1574
1575Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1576toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1577allocate larger internal tables.  You can customize the switches for
1578each file in cflags.  It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1579makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
1580specific rule.
1581
1582=item Missing dbmclose
1583
1584SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose().  An upgrade to 3.2.4
1585that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
1586
1587=item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
1588
1589If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1590the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1591then don't worry about the warning message.  The extension
1592Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
1593systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
1594For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1595unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
1596they don't have.  The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1597reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1598process is continuing.
1599
1600On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1601message
1602
1603    Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
1604
1605then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1606the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1607extension without the -lgdbm library.
1608
1609It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1610this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1611quite that tightly coordinated.
1612
1613=item sh: ar: not found
1614
1615This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1616was not found.  You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1617make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command.  This
1618is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
1619directory.
1620
1621=item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1622
1623Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1624with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1625bval settings.  Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1626
1627=item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1628
1629If you get this error message from the lib/ipc_sysv test, your System
1630V IPC may be broken.  The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1631also should be.  Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1632to include the System V semaphores.
1633
1634=item lib/ipc_sysv........semget: No space left on device
1635
1636Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores.  Or
1637both.  Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1638ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1639with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1640system.
1641
1642=item GNU binutils
1643
1644If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1645tools you may be in for some trouble.  For example creating archives
1646with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1647may lead into linking problems.  Either recompile your GNU binutils
1648under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1649to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1650vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1651Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1652
1653=item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
1654
1655The F<Configure> program has not been able to find all the files which
1656make up the complete Perl distribution.  You may have a damaged source
1657archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
1658C<gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file> and C<tar: Unexpected EOF on
1659archive file>), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
1660incomplete archive.  In either case, try downloading again from the
1661official site named at the start of this document.  If you do find
1662that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
1663archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
1664
1665=item invalid token: ##
1666
1667You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler.  See L<WARNING:  This
1668version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C>.
1669
1670=item Miscellaneous
1671
1672Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1673
1674Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1675
1676NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1677
1678UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
1679
1680FreeBSD can fail the lib/ipc_sysv.t test if SysV IPC has not been
1681configured to the kernel.  Perl tries to detect this, though, and
1682you will get a message telling what to do.
1683
1684If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
1685
1686Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM
1687
1688HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1689Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1690tests whether utime() can change timestamps.  The Y2K patch seems to
1691break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1692(on local filesystems utime() still works).
1693
1694=back
1695
1696=head1 make test
1697
1698This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made.  If
1699'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
1700wrong.  See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
1701
1702Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
1703opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
1704a few tty tests will be skipped.
1705
1706=head2 What if make test doesn't work?
1707
1708If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
1709by hand to see if it makes any difference.  If individual tests
1710bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
1711
1712        ./perl op/groups.t
1713
1714Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1715individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
1716
1717        ./perl harness
1718
1719(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
1720complicated constructs).
1721
1722You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
1723comments that apply to your system.
1724
1725=over 4
1726
1727=item locale
1728
1729Note:  One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
1730may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
1731B<make test> exercises them.  For example, this may happen if you have
1732one or more of these environment variables set:  LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
1733LC_COLLATE LANG.  In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
1734are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
1735
1736If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
1737
1738        setenv LC_ALL C
1739
1740(for C shell) or
1741
1742        LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
1743
1744for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
1745make test.  If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
1746is confusing the testing.  Please run the troublesome test by hand as
1747shown above and see whether you can locate the program.  Look for
1748things like:  exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
1749open("...|").  All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
1750external program.
1751
1752=item Out of memory
1753
1754On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
1755of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
1756For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
1757test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
1758
1759Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
1760
1761        cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
1762
1763to see if you have any better luck.  If your perl still fails this
1764test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl.  This test
1765tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
1766and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
1767
1768=item Test failures from lib/ftmp-security saying "system possibly insecure"
1769
1770Firstly, test failures from the ftmp-security are not necessarily
1771serious or indicative of a real security threat.  That being said,
1772they bear investigating.
1773
1774The tests may fail for the following reasons.   Note that each of the
1775tests is run both in the building directory and the temporary
1776directory, as returned by File::Spec->tmpdir().
1777
1778(1) If the directory the tests are being run is owned by somebody else
1779than the user running the tests, or root (uid 0).  This failure can
1780happen if the Perl source code distribution is unpacked in a way that
1781the user ids in the distribution package are used as-is.  Some tar
1782programs do this.
1783
1784(2) If the directory the test are being run in is writable by group
1785or by other (remember: with UNIX/POSIX semantics, write access to
1786a directory means the right to add/remove files in that directory),
1787and there is no sticky bit set in the directory.  'Sticky bit' is
1788a feature used in some UNIXes to give extra protection to files: if
1789the bit is on a directory, no one but the owner (or the root) can remove
1790that file even if the permissions of the directory would allow file
1791removal by others.  This failure can happen if the permissions in the
1792directory simply are a bit too liberal for the tests' liking.  This
1793may or may not be a real problem: it depends on the permissions policy
1794used on this particular directory/project/system/site.  This failure
1795can also happen if the system either doesn't support the sticky bit
1796(this is the case with many non-UNIX platforms: in principle the
1797File::Temp should know about these platforms and skip the tests), or
1798if the system supports the sticky bit but for some reason or reasons
1799it is not being used.  This is for example the case with HP-UX: as of
1800HP-UX release 11.00, the sticky bit is very much supported, but HP-UX
1801doesn't use it on its /tmp directory as shipped.  Also as with the
1802permissions, some local policy might dictate that the stickiness is
1803not used.
1804
1805(3) If the system supports the POSIX 'chown giveaway' feature and if
1806any of the parent directories of the temporary file back to the root
1807directory are 'unsafe', using the definitions given above in (1) and
1808(2).
1809
1810See the documentation for the File::Temp module for more information
1811about the various security aspects.
1812
1813=back
1814
1815=head1 make install
1816
1817This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1818Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin.  It will also try
1819to put the man pages in a reasonable place.  It will not nroff the man
1820pages, however.  You may need to be root to run B<make install>.  If you
1821are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
1822ignore any messages about chown not working.
1823
1824=head2 Installing perl under different names
1825
1826If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
1827when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
1828indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
1829
1830    make install PERLNAME=myperl
1831
1832You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
1833"perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
1834
1835    make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
1836
1837This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (due to an
1838ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor, eg).  Without this
1839the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
1840
1841=head2 Installed files
1842
1843If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
1844anything, you can run
1845
1846        ./perl installperl -n
1847        ./perl installman -n
1848
1849make install will install the following:
1850
1851    binaries
1852
1853        perl,
1854            perl5.nnn   where nnn is the current release number.  This
1855                        will be a link to perl.
1856        suidperl,
1857            sperl5.nnn  If you requested setuid emulation.
1858        a2p             awk-to-perl translator
1859
1860    scripts
1861
1862        cppstdin        This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
1863                        read from stdin.
1864        c2ph, pstruct   Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
1865        s2p             sed-to-perl translator
1866        find2perl       find-to-perl translator
1867        h2ph            Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
1868        h2xs            Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
1869        perlbug         Tool to report bugs in Perl.
1870        perldoc         Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
1871        pl2pm           Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
1872        pod2html,       Converters from perl's pod documentation format
1873        pod2latex,      to other useful formats.
1874        pod2man,
1875        pod2text,
1876        pod2checker,
1877        pod2select,
1878        pod2usage
1879        splain          Describe Perl warnings and errors
1880        dprofpp         Perl code profile post-processor
1881
1882    library files
1883
1884                        in $privlib and $archlib specified to
1885                        Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
1886
1887    documentation
1888
1889        man pages       in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
1890        module man
1891        pages           in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
1892        pod/*.pod       in $privlib/pod/.
1893
1894Installperl will also create the directories listed above
1895in L<"Installation Directories">.
1896
1897Perl's *.h header files and the libperl library are also installed
1898under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
1899optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
1900program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
1901
1902Sometimes you only want to install the version-specific parts of the perl
1903installation.  For example, you may wish to install a newer version of
1904perl alongside an already installed production version of perl without
1905disabling installation of new modules for the production version.
1906To only install the version-specific parts of the perl installation, run
1907
1908        Configure -Dversiononly
1909
1910or answer 'y' to the appropriate Configure prompt.  Alternatively,
1911you can just manually run
1912
1913        ./perl installperl -v
1914
1915and skip installman altogether.
1916See also L<"Maintaining completely separate versions"> for another
1917approach.
1918
1919=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
1920
1921In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
19225.004_04) to another similar version (e.g. 5.004_05) without re-compiling
1923all of your add-on extensions.  You can also safely leave the old version
1924around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
1925For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
1926with 5.004_04, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
1927top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
1928#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
1929
1930Most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use
1931with a newer version of perl.   Here is how it is supposed to work.
1932(These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
1933
1934Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed.  The directories
1935searched by 5.005_03 are
1936
1937        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
1938        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
1939        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1940        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1941
1942Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
1943fully versioned.  Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0.  The directories
1944searched by version 5.6.0 will be
1945
1946        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
1947        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
1948        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
1949        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
1950
1951        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1952        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1953        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
1954
1955Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
1956of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
1957directories.  This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
1958to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0.  Further,
1959suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
1960present only in 5.6.0.  That new module will get installed into
1961/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
1962but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
1963
1964The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
19655.6.0 will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
1966
1967Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1, which we'll assume is
1968binary compatible with 5.6.0 and 5.005.  The directories searched
1969by 5.6.1 (if you don't change the Configure defaults) will be:
1970
1971        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/$archname
1972        /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1
1973        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/$archname
1974        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
1975
1976        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
1977        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
1978
1979        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1980        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1981        /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
1982
1983Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
19845.005 after you installed 5.6.1, you can continue to install add-on
1985extensions using any of perl 5.6.1, 5.6.0, or 5.005.  The installations
1986of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the newer
1987versions of perl are automatically set up to search the site libraries of
1988the older ones.  This means that installing a new extension with 5.005
1989will make it visible to all three versions.  Later, if you install the
1990same extension using, say, perl 5.6.1, it will override the 5.005-installed
1991version, but only for perl 5.6.1.
1992
1993This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
1994to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
1995versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
1996
1997=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
1998
1999Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
2000separate directories.  This guarantees that an update to one version
2001won't interfere with another version.  (The defaults guarantee this for
2002libraries after 5.6.0, but not for executables. TODO?)  One convenient
2003way to do this is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
2004
2005        sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.004
2006
2007and adding /opt/perl5.004/bin to the shell PATH variable.  Such users
2008may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
2009scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
2010
2011Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
2012(e.g. 5.004 for all 5.004_0x versions), but change directory with
2013each major version.
2014
2015If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
2016seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
2017subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
2018yet.
2019
2020=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6.0
2021
2022Most extensions built and installed with versions of perl
2023prior to 5.005_50 will not need to be recompiled to be used with
20245.6.0.  If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with 5.6.0,
2025you may safely do so without disturbing the 5.005 installation.
2026(See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> above.)
2027
2028See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
2029incomplete) list of locally installed modules.  Note that you want
2030perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod for installed module information.
2031
2032=head1 Coexistence with perl4
2033
2034You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
2035
2036By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
2037they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
2038
2039In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
2040perl4.036.  That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
2041process.  Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
2042However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
2043the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
2044whatever the appropriate pathname is).  See pod/perltrap.pod for
2045possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
2046
2047=head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
2048
2049Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
2050system header files.  This command will convert the most commonly used
2051header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
2052by perl.  These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
2053library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
2054
2055Note:  Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
2056of the header files is not perfect.  You will probably have to
2057hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
2058For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
2059structures.
2060
2061=head1 installhtml --help
2062
2063Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
2064format.  The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
2065documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
2066
2067Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
2068html Configure variables.  This should be fixed in a future release.
2069
2070The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
2071perl documentation:
2072
2073  ./installhtml                   \
2074      --podroot=.                 \
2075      --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms   \
2076      --recurse                   \
2077      --htmldir=/perl/nmanual     \
2078      --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual    \
2079      --splithead=pod/perlipc     \
2080      --splititem=pod/perlfunc    \
2081      --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
2082      --verbose
2083
2084See the documentation in installhtml for more details.  It can take
2085many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
2086see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
2087resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
2088(and would welcome patches for them).
2089
2090You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
2091the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
2092
2093=head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
2094
2095Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
2096available in TeX format.  Type
2097
2098        (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
2099
2100=head1 Reporting Problems
2101
2102If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this file
2103helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant manual
2104pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a message
2105to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.org with
2106an accurate description of your problem.
2107
2108Please include the output of the ./myconfig shell script that comes with
2109the distribution.  Alternatively, you can use the perlbug program that
2110comes with the perl distribution, but you need to have perl compiled
2111before you can use it.  (If you have not installed it yet, you need to
2112run C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug> instead of a plain C<perlbug>.)
2113
2114Please try to make your message brief but clear.  Trim out unnecessary
2115information.  Do not include large files (such as config.sh or a complete
2116Configure or make log) unless absolutely necessary.  Do not include a
2117complete transcript of your build session.  Just include the failing
2118commands, the relevant error messages, and whatever preceding commands
2119are necessary to give the appropriate context.  Plain text should
2120usually be sufficient--fancy attachments or encodings may actually
2121reduce the number of people who read your message.  Your message
2122will get relayed to over 400 subscribers around the world so please
2123try to keep it brief but clear.
2124
2125=head1 DOCUMENTATION
2126
2127Read the manual entries before running perl.  The main documentation
2128is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
2129build process.  Type B<man perl> to get started.  Alternatively, you
2130can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script.  This is
2131sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
2132
2133Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
2134along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
2135running (either):
2136
2137        ./roffitall -groff              # If you have GNU groff installed
2138        ./roffitall -psroff             # If you have psroff
2139
2140This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
2141(You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
2142set-up.)
2143
2144Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
2145the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
2146the documentation.
2147
2148=head1 AUTHOR
2149
2150Original author:  Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
2151heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
2152feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
2153
2154If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
2155L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
2156
2157=head1 REDISTRIBUTION
2158
2159This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
2160the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
2161If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
2162a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
2163and the contact information to match your distribution.
2164
2165=head1 LAST MODIFIED
2166
2167$Id: INSTALL,v 1.1.1.3 2002-02-07 21:12:37 zacheiss Exp $
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.