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PERLBEOS(1)                           Perl Programmers Reference Guide                           PERLBEOS(1)



NAME
       README.beos - Perl version 5.8+ on BeOS

DESCRIPTION
       This file contains instructions how to build Perl under BeOS and lists known problems.

BUILD AND INSTALL
       Requirements

       I have built and tested Perl 5.8.6 and 5.9.1 under BeOS R5 x86 net server.  I can't say anything with
       regard to PPC. Since Perl 5.8.0 had been released for BeOS BONE, I suspect, there is a good chance,
       that it still compiles on a BONE system. The only change I've made, that affects BONE systems is the
       recognition of whether it is a BONE system or not in "hints/beos.sh". Now network socket support
       should remain enabled on BONE systems. This might as well break the build, though.

       As more recent versions of autoconf require flock() support, I wrote a flock() emulation
       (flock_server) and released it on BeBits:

               http://www.bebits.com/app/4030

       If you want to build a Perl with flock() support, you have to install this package first.

       Configure

       With flock() support:

               CFLAGS=-I/path/to/flock/server/headers ./configure.gnu \
                       --prefix=/boot/home/config

       Replace "/path/to/flock/server/headers" with the path to the directory containing the "flock.h"
       header.

       Without flock() support:

               ./configure.gnu --prefix=/boot/home/config

       Build

       With flock() support:

               make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet -lflock"

       Without flock() support:

               make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet"

       "-lnet" is needed on net server systems only and if the compiler doesn't add it automatically (Be's
       R5 gcc does, Oliver Tappe's gcc 2.95.3 does not).

       Install

       Install all perl files:

               make install

       Create a symlink for libperl:

               cd ~/config/lib; ln -s perl5/5.8.6/BePC-beos/CORE/libperl.so .

       Replace 5.8.6 with your respective version of Perl.

KNOWN PROBLEMS
       •   Network socket support is disabled for BeOS R5 net server. I didn't dare yet to try enabling it
           and see what problems occur.

       •   The LFS (large file support) tests ("t/op/lfs" and "xt/Fcntl/t/syslfs") are disabled as seeking
           beyond 2 GB is broken according to jhi@iki.fi who was the last one checking the BeOS port and
           updating this file before me. Haven't checked this myself.

       •   The "t/io/fflush" test fails at #6. As far as I can tell, this is caused by a bug in the BeOS
           pipes implementation that occurs when starting other child processes. In the particular test case
           a "system("perl -e 0")" flushes the stdout pipe of another child process.

       •   The "ext/POSIX/t/waitpid" test fails at #1. After all child processes are gone BeOS'
           waitpid(-1,...) returns 0 instead of -1 (as it should). No idea how to fix this.

CONTACT
       For BeOS specifics problems feel free to mail to: Ingo Weinhold <bonefish@cs.tu-berlin.de>

       Last update: 2004-12-16



perl v5.10.0                                     2007-12-18                                      PERLBEOS(1)