Provided by: makepp_2.0.98.5-2_all 
NAME
makepp_compatibility -- Compatibility list for makepp
DESCRIPTION
Perl Version vs. System
The many Perl versions available and still installed on many machines come with various subtle bugs. We
have tried to work around most of them, but a few remain. We have a test suite of around 75 tests, all
of which usually pass. On some platforms lacking some features, notably Cygwin, a few tests are
explicitly skipped. This table shows with what version this has been tested where, and whether it was
successful. We would like to hear of your results on other platforms too!
Note that you get a comparable overview when going to the top right CPAN tab and choosing Perl/Platform
Version Matrix (<http://matrix.cpantesters.org/?dist=makepp>). But they give a red bar even if only one
out of about hundred tests fail. And since those test are automated on screened off machines, it can be
hard to find out or even fix what is going wrong. Often it is something that could be worked around,
like compiler, operating or file system particularities or wrong environment variables.
#||||||||| 5.8 #| 5.10 #|||| 5.12 #|| 5.14 #||| 5.16 #|| 5.18 # 5.20 #
# .0 | .1 | .2 | .3 | .4 | .5 | .6 | .7 | .8 | .9 # .0 | .1 # .0 | .1 | .2 | .3 | .4 # .0 | .1 | .2 # .0 | .1 | .2 | .3 # .0 | .1 | .2 # .0 #
GNU/Linux (x86)# x | x | x | x | x | | x | x | x | x # x | x # x | x | x | x | x # x | x | x # x | x | x | x # x | x | # x #
GNU/Linux (amd64)# | | | | | x | | | | x # | # | | x | x | # x | | x # | | x | x # | | # #
GNU/Linux (S/390)# | | | | | | | | x | x # x | x # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
FreeBSD (x86) # | | | | | | | | x | x # x | x # x | x | x | x | # | x | # | | x | x # | x | x # x #
NetBSD (x86) # | | | | | | | | | x # x | x # x | x | x | x | # | x | x # | | x | x # | x | # #
NetBSD (Alpha) # | | | | | | | | | x # x | x # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
OpenBSD (x86) # x | | | | | | | | | x # x | x # x | x | x | | x # x | x | x # x | x | x | # x | x | # #
AIX (PPC) # | x | x | | | | | x | x | # | # | | | | # | | # | x | | # | x | # #
Darwin (x86) # | | | | | | | | | # | # | x | | | # | | x # | | | # | | x # x #
Darwin (PPC) # | | | | | | x | x | x | x # x | x # x | x | x | | # | | # | | x | # | x | # #
HP/UX (IA64) # x | | | x | | | | | | # | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | x | # x #
Irix # | | | | | | | | x | # | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
Solaris (Sparc)# x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x # x | # x | x | | | # | | # x | x | | # x | x | # x #
Solaris (64bit)# | x | | | | | | | x | # x | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
Solaris (x86) # | x | | | | | | | x | x # x | x # x | x | x | | # | | # | | x | # | | # #
BS2000 (S/390) # | x | | | | | | | | # / | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
z/OS USS (S/390)# | | | | | | | | zOS | # / | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
Cygwin (x86) # | | | | | | | Win | x | # x | x # | | | | # | | x # | | | # | | # #
MinGW MSYS # | | | | | | | | x | # | # | | | | # | | # | | | # | | # #
Stawberry # | | | | | | | | x | x # x | x # | x | x | x | # | | x # x | x | x | x # x | | # #
ActiveState Win# x | x | x | x | x | | x | x | x | x # x | x # x | x | | x | # x | | x # | x | | x # | | # #
Win There are 4 different Perl environments on Windows, which normally extend one another when installed
in parallel. Here they have been tested with a minimal PATH, so as to separate them completely.
When using native programs, you may need to see the note under &ln.
• Cygwin fairly closely emulates GNU/Linux and gives the best results. Perl 5.8.7 has a small
problem with environment vars, making one test fail. In the long gone past, parallel builds
didn't work, but it hasn't be verified which version of Cygwin or Perl made them usable. Perl
5.10.1 has a problem with chmod 0 files, so they can't be used to prevent repository imports. In
rare cases recent Cygwin also leads stat() to report a symlink for an inexistent file. This does
not seem a Perl bug, since the same perls that were error free before, now show this behaviour.
Makepp has been reorganized to much reduce this, so you may never see it.
• MinGW stays close to Windows, giving it only a Unixy look and feel. It has a clever workaround
for lack of symbolic links, namely copying instead (&ln has stolen this idea). Alas this is not
good enough for the repository mechanism, so that isn't available, in addition to the Cygwin
deficiencies.
• On Strawberry Perl with only native Windows most customary Unix commands (except GNU compilers)
are missing, and the "shell" is extremely primitive. A maximal use of makepp's builtin commands
and embedded Perl can increase makefile portability.
While Windows programs can handle normal slashes as directory separators, this does not work for
command names. Those should always be portably written as dir$/command, where $/ gets replaced
by a forward or backward slash, depending on the environment. If you tell makepp, via the SHELL
variable, where to find a Unix-like Shell, you don't have these worries.
It cannot do smart recursive makes (but who would want them, since they are known to be a broken
paradigm) and parallel builds.
• ActiveState Perl is very similar to Strawberry, as far as makepp goes, though it doesn't come
with GNU compilers. Up to Perl 5.8.6, it will rewrite Mpp/File.pm so as to have a needed
workaround for an lstat bug.
zOS On z/OS (alias VMS or OS/390) Unix System Services smart recursive make doesn't work. If your
compiler is picky about option order, you may have to write your own rules. (To compile Perl 5.8.8
you may have to remove the silly "(void)env;" in miniperlmain.c. Perl 5.10.0 is not compilable on an
Ebcdic system while 5.12.1 and 5.14.0 may have macro errors with the z/OS C compiler.)
Nest
Some old compilers do not like nested comments. Since additional_tests/2006_03_23_c_comments.test
looks at all kinds of constellations, and verifies it's conclusions with the compiler, this test can
fail if you do not use gcc.
File Systems
Various special file systems have unusual properties, giving makepp a hard time when working on them:
NFS NFS may reorder file operations at its discretion, leading to unexpected relationships between time
stamps. This is relevant for the build info meta-data files, which makepp stores alongside each
file. Especially in build caches, with their concurrent access, some workaround handling was
necessary, but it is shown by load test to work fine.
Windows CIFS on GNU/Linux
A few special characters are not allowed in filenames. Links are emulated by copying while symbolic
linking fails. Apparently write operations come back before they are visible on disk, which confuses
makepp about the success of the commands it executes. Six out of 76 tests fail due to this. On the
bright side, timestamps have a precision of 100 nanoseconds (though the observed obtainable
differences are only about a centisecond). This is much better than most older Unix file systems --
alas Perl's "stat" function has no access to this very welcome precision.
Windows Server Share on Cygwin
The same CIFS disk that was works so badly on Linux, passes all tests on Cygwin. Possibly there are
CIFS mount options that might improve something.
Unix SMBFS from GNU/Linux
Linking and symbolic linking fails. No other tests fail. I have no access to a more realistic
Windows SMB server, where the situation might be different.
VFAT on GNU/Linux
A few special characters are not allowed in filenames. Linking and symbolic linking fails. The file
permission mask and owner are mount options, while the time stamps are not settable.
Mixed Case Sensitive & Insensitive File Names
Makepp's file name handling is either fully case sensitive or not, depending on the directory where
it was invoked. If this directory is case insensitive, but it is mounted on a path containing upper
case letters within the case sensitive part of the path, then makepp will trip.
If you need this setup to work (e.g. the Windows host is reachable as /mnt/hgfs/C from Linux inside
VMware) you will have to design your Makefile as though you were on a case sensitive file system and
"export MAKEPP_CASE_SENSITIVE_FILENAMES=1" before you call makepp.
AUTHOR
Daniel Pfeiffer (occitan@esperanto.org)