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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X</span></strong></big>
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  17 <p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
  18 <!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
  19
  20 <ul>
  21
  22         <li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
  23         <li><a href="#synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
  24         <li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  25         <ul>
  26
  27                 <li><a href="#installation_prefix">Installation Prefix</a></li>
  28                 <li><a href="#sdk_support">SDK support</a></li>
  29                 <li><a href="#universal_binary_support">Universal Binary support</a></li>
  30                 <li><a href="#libperl_and_prebinding">libperl and Prebinding</a></li>
  31                 <li><a href="#updating_apple_s_perl">Updating Apple's Perl</a></li>
  32                 <li><a href="#known_problems">Known problems</a></li>
  33                 <li><a href="#macperl">MacPerl</a></li>
  34                 <li><a href="#carbon">Carbon</a></li>
  35                 <li><a href="#cocoa">Cocoa</a></li>
  36         </ul>
  37
  38         <li><a href="#starting_from_scratch">Starting From Scratch</a></li>
  39         <li><a href="#author">AUTHOR</a></li>
  40         <li><a href="#date">DATE</a></li>
  41 </ul>
  42 <!-- INDEX END -->
  43
  44 <hr />
  45 <p>
  46 </p>
  47 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  48 <p>README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X</p>
  49 <p>
  50 </p>
  51 <hr />
  52 <h1><a name="synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
  53 <p>This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X.</p>
  54 <p>
  55 </p>
  56 <hr />
  57 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  58 <p>The latest Perl release (5.8.8 as of this writing) builds without changes
  59 under Mac OS X. Under 10.3 ``Panther'' and newer OS versions, all self-tests
  60 pass, and all standard features are supported.</p>
  61 <p>Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 ``Jaguar'' and older) did not include a
  62 completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also,
  63 earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests
  64 are known to fail on those releases.</p>
  65 <p>
  66 </p>
  67 <h2><a name="installation_prefix">Installation Prefix</a></h2>
  68 <p>The default installation location for this release uses the traditional
  69 UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location
  70 for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules
  71 undisturbed.</p>
  72 <p>Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout
  73 that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in
  74 '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in
  75 '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of
  76 '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored
  77 on a file server and used by many Macs.</p>
  78 <p>
  79 </p>
  80 <h2><a name="sdk_support">SDK support</a></h2>
  81 <p>First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment:</p>
  82 <pre>
  83     export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk</pre>
  84 <p>Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags'
  85 config variables:</p>
  86 <pre>
  87     ./Configure -Accflags=&quot;-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
  88                            -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
  89                            -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks&quot; \
  90                 -Aldflags=&quot;-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK&quot; \
  91                 -de</pre>
  92 <p>
  93 </p>
  94 <h2><a name="universal_binary_support">Universal Binary support</a></h2>
  95 <p>To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export
  96 the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK:</p>
  97 <pre>
  98     export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk</pre>
  99 <p>In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags
 100 for creating a universal binary:</p>
 101 <pre>
 102     ./Configure -Accflags=&quot;-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
 103                            -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
 104                            -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks&quot; \
 105                 -Aldflags=&quot;-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK&quot; \
 106                 -de</pre>
 107 <p>Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when
 108 building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any
 109 libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The system libraries that
 110 Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries
 111 may need to be re-installed as universal binaries.</p>
 112 <p>
 113 </p>
 114 <h2><a name="libperl_and_prebinding">libperl and Prebinding</a></h2>
 115 <p>Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for
 116 this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is
 117 pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in
 118 memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware
 119 of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple
 120 collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and
 121 thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would
 122 need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed
 123 for pre-binding.</p>
 124 <p>You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish
 125 (Configure&nbsp;...&nbsp;-Duseshrlib), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS
 126 releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's
 127 pre-bound dynamic library.</p>
 128 <p>With 10.4 ``Tiger'' and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance
 129 penalty for non-prebound libraries.</p>
 130 <p>
 131 </p>
 132 <h2><a name="updating_apple_s_perl">Updating Apple's Perl</a></h2>
 133 <p>In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts
 134 can just as easily begin with ``#!/usr/local/bin/perl'' as with
 135 ``#!/usr/bin/perl''. Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as
 136 part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested
 137 with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple.</p>
 138 <p>If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth
 139 keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you
 140 upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic
 141 libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are
 142 present when an application that links against libperl is built, ld will
 143 link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you need to replace
 144 Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need to be sure to
 145 delete the older dynamic library after you've installed the update.</p>
 146 <p>
 147 </p>
 148 <h2><a name="known_problems">Known problems</a></h2>
 149 <p>If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink
 150 (in other words, you have libraries under <em>/sw/lib</em>), or libdlcompat
 151 to <em>/usr/local/lib</em>, you may need to be extra careful when running
 152 Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries
 153 to use.  Being confused will show up for example as ``dyld'' errors about
 154 symbol problems, for example during ``make test''. The safest bet is to run
 155 Configure as</p>
 156 <pre>
 157     Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib</pre>
 158 <p>to make Configure look only into the system libraries.  If you have some
 159 extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer
 160 Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth:</p>
 161 <pre>
 162     Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib'</pre>
 163 <p>The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex
 164 applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl</p>
 165 <pre>
 166     Configure ... -Duseshrplib</pre>
 167 <p>but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above
 168 ``libperl and Prebinding'').</p>
 169 <p>Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for
 170 the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain).  In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in
 171 failures in the <code>lib/locale</code> test. These failures have been supressed
 172 in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale.
 173 If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support.</p>
 174 <p>
 175 </p>
 176 <h2><a name="macperl">MacPerl</a></h2>
 177 <p>Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for
 178 ``Classic MacOS'' - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it
 179 runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things
 180 are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different
 181 procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different,
 182 etc.</p>
 183 <p>From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a
 184 traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that
 185 refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically
 186 different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS
 187 instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In
 188 that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the
 189 UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions.</p>
 190 <p>
 191 </p>
 192 <h2><a name="carbon">Carbon</a></h2>
 193 <p>MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the
 194 classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use
 195 Mac OS X's newer ``Carbon'' toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the
 196 ``Mac::Carbon'' module.</p>
 197 <p>
 198 </p>
 199 <h2><a name="cocoa">Cocoa</a></h2>
 200 <p>There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge
 201 module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to
 202 access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects.</p>
 203 <p>An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both
 204 Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications
 205 can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at
 206 <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/">http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/</a>.</p>
 207 <p>
 208 </p>
 209 <hr />
 210 <h1><a name="starting_from_scratch">Starting From Scratch</a></h1>
 211 <p>Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's
 212 Mac OS X Perl rather severely.  If all else fails and you want to
 213 really, <strong>REALLY</strong>, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl
 214 installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following
 215 instructions should do it.  <strong>Please think twice before following
 216 these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to
 217 yourself.  Without anesthesia.</strong>  We will <strong>not</strong> come to fix your system
 218 if you do this.</p>
 219 <p>First, get rid of the libperl.dylib:</p>
 220 <pre>
 221     # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE
 222     # rm libperl.dylib</pre>
 223 <p>Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders:</p>
 224 <pre>
 225     /System/Library/Perl
 226     /Library/Perl</pre>
 227 <p>You can find them for example by</p>
 228 <pre>
 229     # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print</pre>
 230 <p>After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media
 231 (you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl),
 232 or rebuild Perl from the source code with <code>Configure -Dprefix=/usr
 233 -Dusershrplib</code> NOTE: the <code>-Dprefix=/usr</code> to replace the system Perl
 234 works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the
 235 settings were not quite right.</p>
 236 <p>``Pacifist'' from CharlesSoft (<a href="http://www.charlessoft.com/">http://www.charlessoft.com/</a>) is a nice
 237 way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to
 238 reinstall the entire OS.</p>
 239 <p>
 240 </p>
 241 <hr />
 242 <h1><a name="author">AUTHOR</a></h1>
 243 <p>This README was written by Sherm Pendley &lt;<a href="mailto:sherm@dot-app.org">sherm@dot-app.org</a>&gt;,
 244 and subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop &lt;<a href="mailto:domo@computer.org">domo@computer.org</a>&gt;.
 245 The ``Starting From Scratch'' recipe was contributed by John Montbriand
 246 &lt;<a href="mailto:montbriand@apple.com">montbriand@apple.com</a>&gt;.</p>
 247 <p>
 248 </p>
 249 <hr />
 250 <h1><a name="date">DATE</a></h1>
 251 <p>Last modified 2005-11-07.</p>
 252 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
 253 <tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
 254 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X</span></strong></big>
 255 </td></tr>
 256 </table>
 257
 258 </body>
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