mingw/html/pod/perlmachten.html

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   5 <title>README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems</title>
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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems</span></strong></big>
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  17 <p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
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  20 <ul>
  21
  22         <li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
  23         <li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  24         <ul>
  25
  26                 <li><a href="#perl_version_5_8_x_and_greater_not_supported">Perl version 5.8.x and greater not supported</a></li>
  27                 <li><a href="#compiling_perl_5_6_x_on_machten">Compiling Perl 5.6.x on MachTen</a></li>
  28                 <li><a href="#failures_during_make_test_on_machten">Failures during <code>make test</code> on MachTen</a></li>
  29                 <li><a href="#building_external_modules_on_machten">Building external modules on MachTen</a></li>
  30         </ul>
  31
  32         <li><a href="#author">AUTHOR</a></li>
  33         <li><a href="#date">DATE</a></li>
  34 </ul>
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  37 <hr />
  38 <p>
  39 </p>
  40 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  41 <p>README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems</p>
  42 <p>
  43 </p>
  44 <hr />
  45 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  46 <p>This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems,
  47 and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation.</p>
  48 <p>
  49 </p>
  50 <h2><a name="perl_version_5_8_x_and_greater_not_supported">Perl version 5.8.x and greater not supported</a></h2>
  51 <p><strong>Power MachTen is not supported by versions of Perl later than
  52 5.6.x.</strong>
  53 If you wish to build a version from the 5.6 track, please
  54 obtain a source distribution from the archive at
  55 <a href="http://cpan.org/src/5.0/">http://cpan.org/src/5.0/</a> and follow the instructions in its
  56 README.machten file.</p>
  57 <p>MachTen is no longer supported by its developers, Tenon Intersystems.
  58 A UNIX environment hosted on Mac OS Classic, MachTen has been
  59 superseded by Mac OS X and by BSD and Linux implementations for Macintosh
  60 hardware.
  61 The final version of Power MachTen, 4.1.4, lacks many features found in
  62 modern implementations of UNIX, and has a number of bugs.
  63 These shortcomings prevent recent versions of Perl from being able to use
  64 extensions on MachTen, and cause numerous test suite failures in the
  65 perl core.</p>
  66 <p>In September 2003, a discussion on the MachTen mailing list determined
  67 that there was no interest in making a later version of Perl build
  68 successfully on MachTen.
  69 Consequently, support for building Perl under MachTen has been suppressed
  70 in Perl distributions published after February 2004.
  71 The hints file, <em>hints/machten.sh</em>, remains a part of the
  72 distributions for reference purposes.</p>
  73 <p>
  74 </p>
  75 <h2><a name="compiling_perl_5_6_x_on_machten">Compiling Perl 5.6.x on MachTen</a></h2>
  76 <p>To compile perl 5.6.x under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions):</p>
  77 <pre>
  78   ./Configure -de
  79   make
  80   make test
  81   make install</pre>
  82 <p>This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic
  83 linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of
  84 dynamically linked libraries.  (See <em>hints/machten.sh</em> for more
  85 information.)</p>
  86 <p>You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your
  87 system before running the <code>make</code> command.</p>
  88 <p>For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to
  89 change the default installation directory -- see <em>INSTALL</em>.</p>
  90 <p>
  91 </p>
  92 <h2><a name="failures_during_make_test_on_machten">Failures during <code>make test</code> on MachTen</a></h2>
  93 <dl>
  94 <dt><strong><a name="item_op_2flexassign_2et">op/lexassign.t</a></strong>
  95
  96 <dd>
  97 <p>This test may fail when first run after building perl.  It does not
  98 fail subsequently.  The cause is unknown.</p>
  99 </dd>
 100 </li>
 101 <dt><strong><a name="item_pragma_2fwarnings_2et">pragma/warnings.t</a></strong>
 102
 103 <dd>
 104 <p>Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a
 105 filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a
 106 pipe.  The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses
 107 a different failure, not applicable to MachTen.</p>
 108 </dd>
 109 <dd>
 110 <p>The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to
 111 either end of a pipe (see <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/lib/File/stat.html">the stat manpage</a>), resulting, among other things
 112 in Perl's <code>-p</code> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes.
 113 As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a
 114 write-only file fails.  I am reluctant to patch perl to get around
 115 this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed),
 116 and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs.</p>
 117 </dd>
 118 </li>
 119 </dl>
 120 <p>
 121 </p>
 122 <h2><a name="building_external_modules_on_machten">Building external modules on MachTen</a></h2>
 123 <p>To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which
 124 is documented in <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.html">the ExtUtils::MakeMaker manpage</a>, or which can be driven
 125 automatically by the CPAN module (see <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/lib/CPAN.html">the CPAN manpage</a>), which is part of the
 126 standard distribution.  If you want to install a module which
 127 contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code
 128 for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with
 129 a new version containing the new statically-linked object module.  The
 130 build process tells you how to do this.</p>
 131 <p>There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately
 132 they respond to CPAN's invitation to <code>install Bundle::CPAN</code>. When
 133 installing a <em>bundle</em> -- a group of modules which together achieve
 134 some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in
 135 the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully
 136 installed and are available for use.  This is not true on a
 137 statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code.
 138 As a result the installation of the bundle fails.  The work-around is
 139 not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see
 140 what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in
 141 the order given.</p>
 142 <p>
 143 </p>
 144 <hr />
 145 <h1><a name="author">AUTHOR</a></h1>
 146 <p>Dominic Dunlop &lt;<a href="mailto:domo@computer.org">domo@computer.org</a>&gt;</p>
 147 <p>
 148 </p>
 149 <hr />
 150 <h1><a name="date">DATE</a></h1>
 151 <p>Version 1.1.0 2004-02-13</p>
 152 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
 153 <tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
 154 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems</span></strong></big>
 155 </td></tr>
 156 </table>
 157
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