README.cygwin - Perl for Cygwin
This document will help you configure, make, test and install Perl on Cygwin. This document also describes features of Cygwin that will affect how Perl behaves at runtime.
NOTE: There are pre-built Perl packages available for Cygwin and a version of Perl is provided on the Cygwin CD. If you do not need to customize the configuration, consider using one of these packages:
http://cygutils.netpedia.net/The Cygwin tools are ports of the popular GNU development tools for Win32 platforms. They run thanks to the Cygwin library which provides the UNIX system calls and environment these programs expect. More information about this project can be found at:
http://www.cygwin.com/A recent net or commercial release of Cygwin is required.
At the time this document was last updated, Cygwin 1.1.5 was current.
NOTE: At this point, minimal effort has been made to provide compatibility with old (beta) Cygwin releases. The focus has been to provide a high quality release and not worry about working around old bugs. If you wish to use Perl with Cygwin B20.1 or earlier, consider using perl5.005_03, which is available in source and binary form athttp://cygutils.netpedia.net/. If there is significant demand, a patch kit can be developed to port back to earlier Cygwin versions.
While building Perl some changes may be necessary to your Cygwin setup so that Perl builds cleanly. These changes arenot required for normal Perl usage.
NOTE: The binaries that are built will run on all Win32 versions. They do not depend on your host system (Win9x/WinME, WinNT/Win2K) or your Cygwin configuration (ntea,ntsec, binary/text mounts). The only dependencies come from hard-coded pathnames like/usr/local. However, your host system and Cygwin configuration will affect Perl's runtime behavior (see"TEST").
PATH
Set thePATH environment variable so that Configure finds the Cygwin versions of programs. Any Windows directories should be removed or moved to the end of yourPATH.
nroff
If you do not havenroff (which is part of thegroff package), Configure willnot prompt you to installman pages.
Permissions
On WinNT with either thentea orntsecCYGWIN settings, directory and file permissions may not be set correctly. Since the build process creates directories and files, to be safe you may want to run a `chmod -R +w *' on the entire Perl source tree.
Also, it is a well known WinNT "feature" that files created by a login that is a member of theAdministrators group will be owned by theAdministrators group. Depending on your umask, you may find that you can not write to files that you just created (because you are no longer the owner). When using thentsecCYGWIN setting, this is not an issue because it "corrects" the ownership to what you would expect on a UNIX system.
The default options gathered by Configure with the assistance ofhints/cygwin.sh will build a Perl that supports dynamic loading (which requires a sharedlibperl.dll).
This will run Configure and keep a record:
./Configure 2>&1 | tee log.configureIf you are willing to accept all the defaults run Configure with-de. However, several useful customizations are available.
It is possible to strip the EXEs and DLLs created by the build process. The resulting binaries will be significantly smaller. If you want the binaries to be stripped, you can either add a-s option when Configure prompts you,
Any additional ld flags (NOT including libraries)? [none] -sAny special flags to pass to gcc to use dynamic linking? [none] -sAny special flags to pass to ld2 to create a dynamically loaded library?[none] -sor you can edithints/cygwin.sh and uncomment the relevant variables near the end of the file.
Several Perl functions and modules depend on the existence of some optional libraries. Configure will find them if they are installed in one of the directories listed as being used for library searches. Pre-built packages for most of these are available athttp://cygutils.netpedia.net/.
-lcrypt
The crypt package distributed with Cygwin is a Linux compatible 56-bit DES crypt port by Corinna Vinschen.
Alternatively, the crypt libraries in GNU libc have been ported to Cygwin.
The DES based Ultra Fast Crypt port was done by Alexey Truhan:
ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Okhapkin_Sergey/cw32crypt-dist-0.tgzNOTE: There are various export restrictions on DES implementations, see the glibc README for more details.
The MD5 port was done by Andy Piper:
ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Okhapkin_Sergey/libcrypt.tgz-lgdbm (use GDBM_File)
GDBM is available for Cygwin. GDBM's ndbm/dbm compatibility feature also makesNDBM_File andODBM_File possible (although they add little extra value).
NOTE: The ndbm/dbm emulations only completely work on NTFS partitions.
-ldb (use DB_File)
BerkeleyDB is available for Cygwin. Some details can be found inext/DB_File/DB_File.pm.
NOTE: The BerkeleyDB library only completely works on NTFS partitions.
-lcygipc (use IPC::SysV)
A port of SysV IPC is available for Cygwin.
NOTE: This hasnot been extensively tested. In particular,d_semctl_semun is undefined because it fails a Configure test and on Win9x theshm*() functions seem to hang. It also creates a compile time dependency becauseperl.h includes<sys/ipc.h> and<sys/sem.h> (which will be required in the future when compiling CPAN modules).
TheINSTALL document describes several Configure-time options. Some of these will work with Cygwin, others are not yet possible. Also, some of these are experimental. You can either select an option when Configure prompts you or you can define (undefine) symbols on the command line.
-Uusedl
Undefining this symbol forces Perl to be compiled statically.
-Uusemymalloc
By default Perl uses the malloc() included with the Perl source. If you want to force Perl to build with the system malloc() undefine this symbol.
-Dusemultiplicity
Multiplicity is required when embedding Perl in a C program and using more than one interpreter instance. This works with the Cygwin port.
-Duseperlio
The PerlIO abstraction works with the Cygwin port.
-Duse64bitint
gcc supports 64-bit integers. However, several additional long long functions are necessary to use them within Perl ({strtol,strtoul}l). These arenot yet available with Cygwin.
-Duselongdouble
gcc supports long doubles (12 bytes). However, several additional long double math functions are necessary to use them within Perl ({atan2,cos,exp,floor,fmod,frexp,isnan,log,modf,pow,sin,sqrt}l,strtold). These arenot yet available with Cygwin.
-Dusethreads
POSIX threads arenot yet implemented in Cygwin.
-Duselargefiles
Although Win32 supports large files, Cygwin currently uses 32-bit integers for internal size and position calculations.
You may see some messages during Configure that seem suspicious.
dlsym()
ld2 is needed to build dynamic libraries, but it does not exist when dlsym() checking occurs (it is not created until `make' runs). You will see the following message:
Checking whether your dlsym() needs a leading underscore ...ld2: not foundI can't compile and run the test program.I'm guessing that dlsym doesn't need a leading underscore.Since the guess is correct, this is not a problem.
Win9x andd_eofnblk
Win9x does not correctly reportEOF with a non-blocking read on a closed pipe. You will see the following messages:
But it also returns -1 to signal EOF, so be careful!WARNING: you can't distinguish between EOF and no data!*** WHOA THERE!!! *** The recommended value for $d_eofnblk on this machine was "define"! Keep the recommended value? [y]At least for consistency with WinNT, you should keep the recommended value.
Compiler/Preprocessor defines
The following error occurs because of the Cygwin#define of_LONG_DOUBLE:
Guessing which symbols your C compiler and preprocessor define...try.c:<line#>: parse errorThis failure does not seem to cause any problems.
Simply runmake and wait:
make 2>&1 | tee log.makeWarnings like these are normal:
warning: overriding commands for target <file>warning: ignoring old commands for target <file>dllwrap: no export definition file provideddllwrap: creating one, but that may not be what you wantDuring `make',ld2 will be created and installed in your $installbin directory (where you said to put public executables). It does not wait until the `make install' process to install theld2 script, this is because the remainder of the `make' refers told2 without fully specifying its path and does this from multiple subdirectories. The assumption is that $installbin is in your currentPATH. If this is not the case `make' will fail at some point. If this happens, just manually copyld2 from the source directory to somewhere in yourPATH.
There are two steps to running the test suite:
make test 2>&1 | tee log.make-testcd t;./perl harness 2>&1 | tee ../log.harnessThe same tests are run both times, but more information is provided when running as `./perl harness'.
Test results vary depending on your host system and your Cygwin configuration. If a test can pass in some Cygwin setup, it is always attempted and explainable test failures are documented. It is possible for Perl to pass all the tests, but it is more likely that some tests will fail for one of the reasons listed below.
UNIX file permissions are based on sets of mode bits for {read,write,execute} for each {user,group,other}. By default Cygwin only tracks the Win32 read-only attribute represented as the UNIX file user write bit (files are always readable, files are executable if they have a.{com,bat,exe} extension or begin with#!, directories are always readable and executable). On WinNT with thenteaCYGWIN setting, the additional mode bits are stored as extended file attributes. On WinNT with thentsecCYGWIN setting, permissions use the standard WinNT security descriptors and access control lists. Without one of these options, these tests will fail:
Failed Test List of failed------------------------------------io/fs.t 5, 7, 9-10lib/anydbm.t 2lib/db-btree.t 20lib/db-hash.t 16lib/db-recno.t 18lib/gdbm.t 2lib/ndbm.t 2lib/odbm.t 2lib/sdbm.t 2op/stat.t 9, 20 (.tmp not an executable extension)FAT partitions do not support hard links (whereas NTFS does), in which case Cygwin implements link() by copying the file. On remote (network) drives Cygwin's stat() always setsst_nlink to 1, so the link count for remote directories and files is not available. In either case, these tests will fail:
Failed Test List of failed------------------------------------io/fs.t 4op/stat.t 3On FAT partitions the filetime granularity is 2 seconds. The following test will fail:
Failed Test List of failed------------------------------------io/fs.t 18When Perl is running in taint mode,$ENV{PATH} is considered tainted and not used, so DLLs not in the default system directories will not be found. While the tests are running you will see warnings popup from the system with messages like:
Win9x Error Starting Program A required .DLL file, CYGWIN1.DLL, was not foundWinNT perl.exe - Unable to Locate DLL The dynamic link library cygwin1.dll could not be found in the specified path ...Just click OK and ignore them. When running `make test', 2 popups occur. During `./perl harness', 4 popups occur. Also, these tests will fail:
Failed Test List of failed------------------------------------op/taint.t 1, 3, 31, 37Alternatively, you can copycygwin1.dll into the directory where the tests run:
cp /bin/cygwin1.dll tor one of the Windows system directories (although, this isnot recommended).
Cygwin does not require/etc/group, in which case theop/grent.t test will be skipped. The check performed byop/grent.t expects to see entries that use the members field, otherwise this test will fail:
Failed Test List of failed------------------------------------op/grent.t 1Cygwin does an outstanding job of providing UNIX-like semantics on top of Win32 systems. However, in addition to the items noted above, there are some differences that you should know about. This is a very brief guide to portability, more information can be found in the Cygwin documentation.
Pathnames
Cygwin pathnames can be separated by forward (/) or backward (\) slashes. They may also begin with drive letters (C:) or Universal Naming Codes (//UNC). DOS device names (aux,con,prn,com*,lpt?,nul) are invalid as base filenames. However, they can be used in extensions (e.g.,hello.aux). Names may contain all printable characters except these:
: * ? " < > |File names are case insensitive, but case preserving. A pathname that contains a backslash or drive letter is a Win32 pathname (and not subject to the translations applied to POSIX style pathnames).
Text/Binary
When a file is opened it is in either text or binary mode. In text mode a file is subject to CR/LF/Ctrl-Z translations. With Cygwin, the default mode for an open() is determined by the mode of the mount that underlies the file. Perl provides a binmode() function to set binary mode on files that otherwise would be treated as text. sysopen() with theO_TEXT flag sets text mode on files that otherwise would be treated as binary:
sysopen(FOO, "bar", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TEXT)lseek(), tell() and sysseek() only work with files opened in binary mode.
The text/binary issue is covered at length in the Cygwin documentation.
.exe
The Cygwin stat(), lstat() and readlink() functions make the.exe extension transparent by looking forfoo.exe when you ask forfoo (unless afoo also exists). Cygwin does not require a.exe extension, butgcc adds it automatically when building a program. However, when accessing an executable as a normal file (e.g.,cp in a makefile) the.exe is not transparent. Theinstall included with Cygwin automatically appends a.exe when necessary.
chown()
On WinNT chown() can change a file's user and group IDs. On Win9x chown() is a no-op, although this is appropriate since there is no security model.
Miscellaneous
File locking using theF_GETLK command to fcntl() is a stub that returnsENOSYS.
Win9x can not rename() an open file (although WinNT can).
The Cygwin chroot() implementation has holes (it can not restrict file access by native Win32 programs).
This will install Perl, includingman pages.
make install | tee log.make-installNOTE: IfSTDERR is redirected `make install' willnot prompt you to installperl into/usr/bin.
You may need to beAdministrator to run `make install'. If you are not, you must have write access to the directories in question.
Information on installing the Perl documentation in HTML format can be found in theINSTALL document.
These are the files in the Perl release that contain references to Cygwin. These very brief notes attempt to explain the reason for all conditional code. Hopefully, keeping this up to date will allow the Cygwin port to be kept as clean as possible.
INSTALL README.cygwin README.win32 MANIFESTChanges Changes5.005 Changes5.004 Changes5.6pod/perl.pod pod/perlport.pod pod/perlfaq3.podpod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5004delta.pod pod/perl56delta.podpod/perlhist.pod pod/perlmodlib.pod pod/buildtoc.PL pod/perltoc.podcygwin/Makefile.SHscygwin/ld2.incygwin/perlld.inext/IPC/SysV/hints/cygwin.plext/NDBM_File/hints/cygwin.plext/ODBM_File/hints/cygwin.plhints/cygwin.shConfigure - help finding hints from uname, shared libperl required for dynamic loadingMakefile.SH - linklibperlPorting/patchls - cygwin in port listinstallman - man pages with :: translated to .installperl - install dll/ld2/perlld, install to podsmakedepend.SH - uwinfixt/io/tell.t - binmodet/lib/b.t - ignore Cwd from os_extrast/lib/glob-basic.t - Win32 directory list access differs from read modet/op/magic.t - $^X/symlink WORKAROUND, s/.exe//t/op/stat.t - no /dev, skip Win32 ftCreationTime quirk (cache manager sometimes preserves ctime of file previously created and deleted), no -u (setuid)EXTERN.h - __declspec(dllimport)XSUB.h - __declspec(dllexport)cygwin/cygwin.c - os_extras (getcwd, spawn)perl.c - os_extrasperl.h - binmodedoio.c - win9x can not rename a file when it is openpp_sys.c - do not define h_errno, pp_system with spawnutil.c - use setenvext/POSIX/POSIX.xs - tzname defined externallyext/SDBM_File/sdbm/pair.c - EXTCONST needs to be redefined from EXTERN.hext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.c - binary openlib/Cwd.pm - hook to internal Cwd::cwdlib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm - require MM_Cygwin.pmlib/ExtUtils/MM_Cygwin.pm - canonpath, cflags, manifypods, perl_archivelib/File/Find.pm - on remote drives stat() always sets st_nlink to 1lib/File/Spec/Unix.pm - preserve //unclib/File/Temp.pm - no directory sticky bitlib/perl5db.pl - use stdin not /dev/ttyutils/perldoc.PL - version commentWhenmake starts, it warns about overriding commands forperlmain.o.
`make clean' does not remove library.def or.exe.stackdump files.
Theld2 script contains references to the source directory. You should change these to $installbin after `make install'.
Support for swapping real and effective user and group IDs is incomplete. On WinNT Cygwin provides setuid(), seteuid(), setgid() and setegid(). However, additional Cygwin calls for manipulating WinNT access tokens and security contexts are required.
When building DLLs, `dllwrap --export-all-symbols' is used to export global symbols. It might be better to generate an explicit.def file (seemakedef.pl). Also, DLLs can now be build with `gcc -shared'.
Charles Wilson <cwilson@ece.gatech.edu>, Eric Fifer <egf7@columbia.edu>, alexander smishlajev <als@turnhere.com>, Steven Morlock <newspost@morlock.net>, Sebastien Barre <Sebastien.Barre@utc.fr>, Teun Burgers <burgers@ecn.nl>.
Last updated: 9 November 2000
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