NAME

       perldos - Perl under DOS, W31, W95.

SYNOPSIS

       These are instructions for building Perl under DOS (or w??), using DJGPP v2.03 or later.  Under w95 long
       filenames are supported.

DESCRIPTION

       Before you start, you should glance through the README file 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.

       This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that is used to build extensions to perl).
       Therefore, you should be able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.

       Detailed instructions on how to build and install perl extension modules, including XS-type modules, is
       included.  See 'BUILDING AND INSTALLING MODULES'.

   Prerequisites for Compiling Perl on DOS
       DJGPP
           DJGPP is a port of GNU C/C++ compiler and development tools to 32-bit, protected-mode environment on
           Intel 32-bit CPUs running MS-DOS and compatible operating systems, by DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> and
           friends.

           For more details (FAQ), check out the home of DJGPP at:

                   http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

           If you have questions about DJGPP, try posting to the DJGPP newsgroup: comp.os.msdos.djgpp, or use
           the email gateway djgpp@delorie.com.

           You can find the full DJGPP distribution on any of the mirrors listed here:

                   http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/getting.html

           You need the following files to build perl (or add new modules):

                   v2/djdev203.zip
                   v2gnu/bnu2112b.zip
                   v2gnu/gcc2953b.zip
                   v2gnu/bsh204b.zip
                   v2gnu/mak3791b.zip
                   v2gnu/fil40b.zip
                   v2gnu/sed3028b.zip
                   v2gnu/txt20b.zip
                   v2gnu/dif272b.zip
                   v2gnu/grep24b.zip
                   v2gnu/shl20jb.zip
                   v2gnu/gwk306b.zip
                   v2misc/csdpmi5b.zip

           or possibly any newer version.

       Pthreads
           Thread support is not tested in this version of the djgpp perl.

   Shortcomings of Perl under DOS
       Perl under DOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most
       notably:

       •   fork() and pipe()

       •   some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates

       •   in-place operation is a little bit broken with short filenames

       •   sockets

   Building Perl on DOS
       •   Unpack the source package perl5.8*.tar.gz with djtarx. If you want to use long file names under w95
           and also to get Perl to pass all its tests, don't forget to use

                   set LFN=y
                   set FNCASE=y

           before unpacking the archive.

       •   Create a "symlink" or copy your bash.exe to sh.exe in your "($DJDIR)/bin" directory.

                   ln -s bash.exe sh.exe

           [If you have the recommended version of bash for DJGPP, this is already done for you.]

           And make the "SHELL" environment variable point to this sh.exe:

                   set SHELL=c:/djgpp/bin/sh.exe (use full path name!)

           You can do this in djgpp.env too. Add this line BEFORE any section definition:

                   +SHELL=%DJDIR%/bin/sh.exe

       •   If you have split.exe and gsplit.exe in your path, then rename split.exe to djsplit.exe, and
           gsplit.exe to split.exe.  Copy or link gecho.exe to echo.exe if you don't have echo.exe.  Copy or
           link gawk.exe to awk.exe if you don't have awk.exe.

           [If you have the recommended versions of djdev, shell utilities and gawk, all these are already done
           for you, and you will not need to do anything.]

       •   Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the following commands:

                   set FNCASE=y
                   configure.bat

           This will do some preprocessing then run the Configure script for you.  The Configure script is
           interactive, but in most cases you just need to press ENTER.  The "set" command ensures that DJGPP
           preserves the letter case of file names when reading directories.  If you already issued this set
           command when unpacking the archive, and you are in the same DOS session as when you unpacked the
           archive, you don't have to issue the set command again.  This command is necessary *before* you start
           to (re)configure or (re)build perl in order to ensure both that perl builds correctly and that
           building XS-type modules can succeed.  See the DJGPP info entry for "_preserve_fncase" for more
           information:

                   info libc alphabetical _preserve_fncase

           If the script says that your package is incomplete, and asks whether to continue, just answer with Y
           (this can only happen if you don't use long filenames or forget to issue "set FNCASE=y" first).

           When Configure asks about the extensions, I suggest IO and Fcntl, and if you want database handling
           then SDBM_File or GDBM_File (you need to install gdbm for this one). If you want to use the POSIX
           extension (this is the default), make sure that the stack size of your cc1.exe is at least 512kbyte
           (you can check this with: "stubedit cc1.exe").

           You can use the Configure script in non-interactive mode too.  When I built my perl.exe, I used
           something like this:

                   configure.bat -des

           You can find more info about Configure's command line switches in the INSTALL file.

           When the script ends, and you want to change some values in the generated config.sh file, then run

                   sh Configure -S

           after you made your modifications.

           IMPORTANT: if you use this "-S" switch, be sure to delete the CONFIG environment variable before
           running the script:

                   set CONFIG=

       •   Now you can compile Perl. Type:

                   make

   Testing Perl on DOS
       Type:

               make test

       If you're lucky you should see "All tests successful". But there can be a few failed subtests (less than
       5 hopefully) depending on some external conditions (e.g. some subtests fail under linux/dosemu or plain
       dos with short filenames only).

   Installation of Perl on DOS
       Type:

               make install

       This will copy the newly compiled perl and libraries into your DJGPP directory structure. Perl.exe and
       the utilities go into "($DJDIR)/bin", and the library goes under "($DJDIR)/lib/perl5". The pod
       documentation goes under "($DJDIR)/lib/perl5/pod".

BUILDING AND INSTALLING MODULES ON DOS

   Building Prerequisites for Perl on DOS
       For building and installing non-XS modules, all you need is a working perl under DJGPP.  Non-XS modules
       do not require re-linking the perl binary, and so are simpler to build and install.

       XS-type modules do require re-linking the perl binary, because part of an XS module is written in "C",
       and has to be linked together with the perl binary to be executed.  This is required because perl under
       DJGPP is built with the "static link" option, due to the lack of "dynamic linking" in the DJGPP
       environment.

       Because XS modules require re-linking of the perl binary, you need both the perl binary distribution and
       the perl source distribution to build an XS extension module.  In addition, you will have to have built
       your perl binary from the source distribution so that all of the components of the perl binary are
       available for the required link step.

   Unpacking CPAN Modules on DOS
       First, download the module package from CPAN (e.g., the "Comma Separated Value" text package,
       Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz).  Then expand the contents of the package into some location on your disk.  Most
       CPAN modules are built with an internal directory structure, so it is usually safe to expand it in the
       root of your DJGPP installation.  Some people prefer to locate source trees under /usr/src (i.e.,
       "($DJDIR)/usr/src"), but you may put it wherever seems most logical to you, *EXCEPT* under the same
       directory as your perl source code.  There are special rules that apply to modules which live in the perl
       source tree that do not apply to most of the modules in CPAN.

       Unlike other DJGPP packages, which are normal "zip" files, most CPAN module packages are "gzipped
       tarballs".  Recent versions of WinZip will safely unpack and expand them, *UNLESS* they have zero-length
       files.  It is a known WinZip bug (as of v7.0) that it will not extract zero-length files.

       From the command line, you can use the djtar utility provided with DJGPP to unpack and expand these
       files.  For example:

               C:\djgpp>djtarx -v Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz

       This will create the new directory "($DJDIR)/Text-CSV-0.01", filling it with the source for this module.

   Building Non-XS Modules on DOS
       To build a non-XS module, you can use the standard module-building instructions distributed with perl
       modules.

           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make test
           make install

       This is sufficient because non-XS modules install only ".pm" files and (sometimes) pod and/or man
       documentation.  No re-linking of the perl binary is needed to build, install or use non-XS modules.

   Building XS Modules on DOS
       To build an XS module, you must use the standard module-building instructions distributed with perl
       modules *PLUS* three extra instructions specific to the DJGPP "static link" build environment.

           set FNCASE=y
           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make perl
           make test
           make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl.exe
           make install

       The first extra instruction sets DJGPP's FNCASE environment variable so that the new perl binary which
       you must build for an XS-type module will build correctly.  The second extra instruction re-builds the
       perl binary in your module directory before you run "make test", so that you are testing with the new
       module code you built with "make".  The third extra instruction installs the perl binary from your module
       directory into the standard DJGPP binary directory, "($DJDIR)/bin", replacing your previous perl binary.

       Note that the MAP_TARGET value *must* have the ".exe" extension or you will not create a "perl.exe" to
       replace the one in "($DJDIR)/bin".

       When you are done, the XS-module install process will have added information to your "perllocal"
       information telling that the perl binary has been replaced, and what module was installed.  You can view
       this information at any time by using the command:

               perl -S perldoc perllocal

AUTHOR

       Laszlo Molnar, laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se [Installing/building perl]

       Peter J. Farley III pjfarley@banet.net [Building/installing modules]

SEE ALSO

       perl(1).