NAME

perlwin32 - Perl under WindowsNT [XXX and perhaps under Windows95]


SYNOPSIS

These are instructions for building Perl under WindowsNT (versions 3.51 or 4.0), using Visual C++.


DESCRIPTION

Before you start, you should glance through the README file found found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under which this software is being distributed.

Make sure you read the BUGS AND CAVEATS section below for the known limitations of this port.

The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about ``Configure''.

You should probably also read the README.os2 file, which gives a different set of rules to build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. That method will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also need to download and use various other support software described in that file.

This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called ``native'' port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no additional software to run (other than what came with your operating system). Currently, this port is only capable of using Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. The ultimate goal is to support the other major compilers that can be used on the platforms.


Setting Up


Building and Installation


Testing

Type ``nmake test''. This will run most of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and some tests will fail). Most failures are due to UNIXisms in the standard perl testsuite.

To get a more detailed breakdown of the tests that failed, say:

       cd ..\t
       .\perl harness

This should produce a summary very similar to the following:

    Failed Test  Status Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of failed
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    io/fs.t                      26   16  61.54%  1-5, 7-11, 16-18, 23-25
    io/tell.t                    13    1   7.69%  10
    lib/anydbm.t                 12    1   8.33%  2
    lib/findbin.t                 1    1 100.00%  1
    lib/sdbm.t                   12    1   8.33%  2
    op/mkdir.t                    7    2  28.57%  3, 7
    op/runlevel.t                 8    1  12.50%  4
    op/stat.t                    56    3   5.36%  3-4, 20
    op/taint.t                   98   20  20.41%  1-6, 14, 16, 19-21, 24, 26, 35-3
    pragma/locale.t              98   40  40.82%  1, 13-14, 21-27, 33, 39, 45-53,
    Failed 10/149 test scripts, 93.29% okay. 86/3506 subtests failed, 97.55% okay.

Check if any additional tests other than the ones shown here failed. The standard testsuite will ultimately be modified so that the testsuite avoids running irrelevant tests on Win32.


BUGS AND CAVEATS

This is still very much an experimental port, and should be considered alpha quality software. You can expect changes in virtually all of these areas: build process, installation structure, supported utilities/modules, and supported perl functionality. Specifically, functionality that supports the Win32 environment may be ultimately be supported as either core modules or extensions.

Many tests from the standard testsuite either fail or produce different results under this port. Most of the problems fall under one of these categories

Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that you may find to <perlbug@perl.com>, along with the output produced by perl -V.


AUTHORS

Gary Ng <71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>
Gurusamy Sarathy
Nick Ing-Simmons


SEE ALSO

the perl manpage


HISTORY

This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available at the time.

Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and sundry hacks since then.

Last updated: 19 March 1997