Ubuntu Manpage: perlce - Perl for WinCE

Provided by: perl-doc_5.22.1-9ubuntu0.9_all

NAME

       perlce - Perl for WinCE

Building Perl for WinCE

WARNING
Much of this document has become very out of date and needs updating, rewriting or deleting. The build
process was overhauled during the 5.19 development track and the current instructions as of that time are
given in "CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS"; the previous build instructions, which are largely superseded but
may still contain some useful information, are left in "OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS" but really need removing
after anything of use has been extracted from them.

DESCRIPTION
This file gives the instructions for building Perl5.8 and above for WinCE. Please read and understand
the terms under which this software is distributed.

General explanations on cross-compiling WinCE
• miniperl is built. This is a single executable (without DLL), intended to run on Win32, and it will
facilitate remaining build process; all binaries built after it are foreign and should not run
locally.

miniperl is built using ./win32/Makefile; this is part of normal build process invoked as dependency
from wince/Makefile.ce

• After miniperl is built, configpm is invoked to create right Config.pm in right place and its
corresponding Cross.pm.

Unlike Win32 build, miniperl will not have Config.pm of host within reach; it rather will use
Config.pm from within cross-compilation directories.

File Cross.pm is dead simple: for given cross-architecture places in @INC a path where perl modules
are, and right Config.pm in that place.

That said, "miniperl -Ilib -MConfig -we 1" should report an error, because it can not find Config.pm.
If it does not give an error -- wrong Config.pm is substituted, and resulting binaries will be a
mess.

"miniperl -MCross -MConfig -we 1" should run okay, and it will provide right Config.pm for further
compilations.

• During extensions build phase, a script ./win32/buldext.pl is invoked, which in turn steps in ./ext
subdirectories and performs a build of each extension in turn.

All invokes of Makefile.PL are provided with "-MCross" so to enable cross- compile.

CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
(These instructions assume the host is 32-bit Windows. If you're on 64-bit Windows then change
"C:\Program Files" to "C:\Program Files (x86)" throughout.)

1. Install EVC4 from

http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/3/f/c3f8b58b-9753-4c2e-8b96-2dfe3476a2f7/eVC4.exe

Use the key mentioned at

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-eMbedded-Visual-C/3000-2212_4-10108490.html?tag=bc

The installer is ancient and has a few bugs on the paths it uses. You will have to fix them later.
Basically, some things go into "C:/Program Files/Windows CE Tools", others go into "C:/Windows CE Tools"
regardless of the path you gave to the installer (the default will be "C:/Windows CE Tools"). Reboots
will be required for the installer to proceed. Also .c and .h associations with Visual Studio might get
overridden when installing EVC4. You have been warned.

2. Download celib from GitHub (using "Download ZIP") at

https://github.com/bulk88/celib

Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source. I call this directory
"celib-palm-3.0" but in the GitHub snapshot it will be called "celib-master". Make a copy of the
"wince-arm-pocket-wce300-release" folder and rename the copy to "wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack
so we can build a CE 4.0 binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm; the linker doesn't care. Windows
Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop Windows.

3. Download console-1.3-src.tar.gz from

http://sourceforge.net/projects/perlce/files/PerlCE%20support%20files/console/

Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source. Don't extract it into the same
directory as celib. Make a copy of the "wince-arm-pocket-wce300" folder and rename the copy to
"wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack so we can build a CE 4.0 binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm;
the linker doesn't care. Windows Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop
Windows.

4. Open a command prompt, run your regular batch file to set the environment for desktop Visual C
building, goto the perl source directory, cd into win32/, fill out Makefile, and do a "nmake all" to
build a Desktop Perl.

5. Open win32/Makefile.ce in a text editor and do something similar to the following patch.

-CELIBDLLDIR = h:\src\wince\celib-palm-3.0
-CECONSOLEDIR = h:\src\wince\w32console
+CELIBDLLDIR = C:\sources\celib-palm-3.0
+CECONSOLEDIR = C:\sources\w32console

Also change

!if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
!endif

!if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
!endif

so wince-arm-pocket-wce400 is the MACHINE type.

6. Use a text editor to open "C:\Program Files\Microsoft eMbedded C++ 4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT".
Look for

if "%SDKROOT%"=="" set SDKROOT=...

On a new install it is "C:\Windows CE Tools". Goto "C:\Windows CE Tools" in a file manager and see if
"C:\Windows CE Tools\wce400\STANDARDSDK\Include\Armv4" exists on your disk. If not the SDKROOT need to be
changed to "C:\Program Files\Windows CE Tools".

Goto celib-palm-3.0\inc\cewin32.h, search for

typedef struct _ABC {

and uncomment the struct.

7. Open another command prompt, ensure PLATFORM is not set to anything already unless you know what
you're doing (so that the correct default value is set by the next command), and run "C:\Program
Files\Microsoft eMbedded C++ 4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT"

8. In the WinCE command prompt you made with WCEARMV4.BAT, goto the perl source directory, cd into win32/
and run "nmake -f Makefile.ce".

9. The ARM perl interpreter (perl519.dll and perl.exe) will be in something like
"C:\perl519\src\win32\wince-arm-pocket-wce400", with the XS DLLs in
"C:\perl519\src\xlib\wince-arm-hpc-wce400\auto".

To prove success on the host machine, run "dumpbin /headers wince-arm-pocket-wce400\perl.exe" from the
win32/ folder and look for "machine (ARM)" in the FILE HEADER VALUES and "subsystem (Windows CE GUI)" in
the OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES.

OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
This section describes the steps to be performed to build PerlCE. You may find additional information
about building perl for WinCE at <http://perlce.sourceforge.net> and some pre-built binaries.

Tools & SDK

For compiling, you need following:

• Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools

• Microsoft Visual C++

• Rainer Keuchel's celib-sources

• Rainer Keuchel's console-sources

Needed source files can be downloaded at <http://perlce.sourceforge.net>

Make

Normally you only need to edit ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat to reflect your system and run it.

File ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat is actually a wrapper to call "nmake -f makefile.ce" with appropriate
parameters and it accepts extra parameters and forwards them to "nmake" command as additional arguments.
You should pass target this way.

To prepare distribution you need to do following:

• go to ./win32 subdirectory

• edit file ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat

• run
compile.bat

• run
compile.bat dist

Makefile.ce has "CROSS_NAME" macro, and it is used further to refer to your cross-compilation scheme. You
could assign a name to it, but this is not necessary, because by default it is assigned after your
machine configuration name, such as "wince-sh3-hpc-wce211", and this is enough to distinguish different
builds at the same time. This option could be handy for several different builds on same platform to
perform, say, threaded build. In a following example we assume that all required environment variables
are set properly for C cross-compiler (a special *.bat file could fit perfectly to this purpose) and your
compile.bat has proper "MACHINE" parameter set, to, say, "wince-mips-pocket-wce300".

compile.bat
compile.bat dist
compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
"USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define"
compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
"USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define" dist

If all goes okay and no errors during a build, you'll get two independent distributions:
"wince-mips-pocket-wce300" and "mips-wce300-thr".

Target "dist" prepares distribution file set. Target "zipdist" performs same as "dist" but additionally
compresses distribution files into zip archive.

NOTE: during a build there could be created a number (or one) of Config.pm for cross-compilation
("foreign" Config.pm) and those are hidden inside ../xlib/$(CROSS_NAME) with other auxiliary files, but,
and this is important to note, there should be no Config.pm for host miniperl. If you'll get an error
that perl could not find Config.pm somewhere in building process this means something went wrong. Most
probably you forgot to specify a cross-compilation when invoking miniperl.exe to Makefile.PL When
building an extension for cross-compilation your command line should look like

..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross=mips-wce300-thr Makefile.PL

or just

..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross Makefile.PL

to refer a cross-compilation that was created last time.

All questions related to building for WinCE devices could be asked in perlce-user@lists.sourceforge.net
mailing list.

Using Perl on WinCE

   DESCRIPTION
       PerlCE is currently linked with a simple console window, so it also works on non-hpc devices.

       The simple stdio implementation creates the files stdin.txt, stdout.txt  and  stderr.txt,  so  you  might
       examine them if your console has only a limited number of cols.

       When  exitcode  is  non-zero,  a  message box appears, otherwise the console closes, so you might have to
       catch an exit with status 0 in your program to see any output.

       stdout/stderr now go into the files /perl-stdout.txt and /perl-stderr.txt.

       PerlIDE is handy to deal with perlce.

   LIMITATIONS
       No fork(), pipe(), popen() etc.

   ENVIRONMENT
       All environment vars must be stored in HKLM\Environment as strings. They are read at process startup.

       PERL5LIB
           Usual perl lib path (semi-list).

       PATH
           Semi-list for executables.

       TMP - Tempdir.

       UNIXROOTPATH
           - Root for accessing some special files, i.e. /dev/null, /etc/services.

       ROWS/COLS
           - Rows/cols for console.

       HOME
           - Home directory.

       CONSOLEFONTSIZE
           - Size for console font.

       You can set these with cereg.exe, a (remote) registry editor or via the PerlIDE.

   REGISTRY
       To start perl by clicking on a perl source file, you have to make the  according  entries  in  HKCR  (see
       ce-helpers/wince-reg.bat).   cereg.exe  (which  must  be  executed  on  a  desktop pc with ActiveSync) is
       reported not to work on some devices.  You have to create the registry entries by hand using  a  registry
       editor.

   XS
       The following Win32-Methods are built-in:

               newXS("Win32::GetCwd", w32_GetCwd, file);
               newXS("Win32::SetCwd", w32_SetCwd, file);
               newXS("Win32::GetTickCount", w32_GetTickCount, file);
               newXS("Win32::GetOSVersion", w32_GetOSVersion, file);
               newXS("Win32::IsWinNT", w32_IsWinNT, file);
               newXS("Win32::IsWin95", w32_IsWin95, file);
               newXS("Win32::IsWinCE", w32_IsWinCE, file);
               newXS("Win32::CopyFile", w32_CopyFile, file);
               newXS("Win32::Sleep", w32_Sleep, file);
               newXS("Win32::MessageBox", w32_MessageBox, file);
               newXS("Win32::GetPowerStatus", w32_GetPowerStatus, file);
               newXS("Win32::GetOemInfo", w32_GetOemInfo, file);
               newXS("Win32::ShellEx", w32_ShellEx, file);

   BUGS
       Opening files for read-write is currently not supported if they use stdio (normal perl file handles).

       If  you  find  bugs  or if it does not work at all on your device, send mail to the address below. Please
       report the details of your device (processor, ceversion, devicetype (hpc/palm/pocket)) and  the  date  of
       the downloaded files.

   INSTALLATION
       Currently installation instructions are at <http://perlce.sourceforge.net/>.

       After installation & testing processes will stabilize, information will be more precise.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       The port for Win32 was used as a reference.

History of WinCE port

       5.6.0
           Initial  port  of  perl  to  WinCE. It was performed in separate directory named wince. This port was
           based on contents of ./win32 directory.  miniperl was  not  built,  user  must  have  HOST  perl  and
           properly edit makefile.ce to reflect this.

       5.8.0
           wince  port  was  kept in the same ./wince directory, and wince/Makefile.ce was used to invoke native
           compiler to create HOST miniperl, which then facilitates cross-compiling process.  Extension building
           support was added.

       5.9.4
           Two directories ./win32 and ./wince were merged, so perlce build process comes in ./win32 directory.

AUTHORS

       Rainer Keuchel <coyxc@rainer-keuchel.de>
           provided initial port of Perl, which appears to be most essential work, as it was a  breakthrough  on
           having Perl ported at all.  Many thanks and obligations to Rainer!

       Vadim Konovalov
           made further support of WinCE port.

       Daniel Dragan
           updated the build process during the 5.19 development track.

perl v5.22.1                                       2020-10-19                                          PERLCE(1)