README.beos - Perl version 5.8+ on BeOS

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

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 CWhints/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.

With flock() support:

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

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

Without flock() support:

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

With flock() support:

        make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet -lflock"

Without flock() support:

        make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet"

CW-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 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 CW5.8.6 with your respective version of Perl.

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

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The LFS (large file support) tests (CWt/op/lfs and CWxt/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.

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The CWt/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 CWsystem("perl -e 0") flushes the stdout pipe of another child process.

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The CWext/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.

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

Last update: 2004-12-16