1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see perlpod manpage) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 perlamiga - Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
11 This is a port of Perl 5.22.1, it is a fresh port and not in any way
12 compatible with my previous ports of Perl 5.8 and 5.16.3. This means
13 you will need to reinstall / rebuild any third party modules you have
16 newlib.library version 53.28 or greater is required.
20 Once perl is installed you can read this document in the following way
22 sh -c "perldoc perlamiga"
24 or you may read I<as is>: either as F<README.amiga>, or F<pod/perlamiga.pod>.
32 - Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS
33 - Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS
39 =head2 Prerequisites for running Perl 5.22.1 under AmigaOS 4.1
43 =item B<AmigaOS 4.1 update 6 with all updates applied as of 9th October 2013>
45 The most important of which is:
47 =item B<newlib.library version 53.28 or greater>
51 Perl installs into the SDK directory structure and expects many of the
52 build tools present in the SDK to be available. So for the best results
53 install the SDK first.
57 If you do not have the SDK installed you must at least have abc-shell
58 installed or some other suitable sh port. This is required to run
59 external commands and should be available as 'sh' in your path.
63 =head2 Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS 4.1
65 Perl may be run from the AmigaOS shell but for best results should be
66 run under abc-shell. (abc-shell handles file globbing, pattern
67 expansion, and sets up environment variables in the UN*Xy way that
74 /AmigaOS4>perl path:to/myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
76 Abc-shell can also launch programs via the #! syntax at the start of
77 the program file, it's best use the form #!SDK:Local/C/perl so that
78 the AmigaOS shell may also find perl in the same way. AmigaOS requires
79 the script bit to be set for this to work
82 /AmigaOS4>myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
84 =head2 Limitations of Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
88 =item B<Nested Piped programs can crash when run from older abc-shells>
90 abc-shell version 53.2 has a bug that can cause crashes in the
91 subprocesses used to run piped programs, if a later version is
92 available you should install it instead.
94 =item B<Incorrect or unexpected command line unescaping>
96 newlib.library 53.30 and earlier incorrectly unescape slashed escape
97 sequences e.g. \" \n \t etc requiring unusual extra escaping.
99 =item B<Starting subprocesses via open has limitations>
103 Subprocesses started with open use a minimal popen() routine and
104 therefore they do not return pids usable with waitpid etc.
106 =item If you find any other limitations or bugs then let me know.
108 Please report bugs in this version of perl to andy@broad.ology.org.uk
109 in the first instance.
115 This guide assumes you have obtained a prebuilt archive from os4depot.net.
117 Unpack the main archive to a temporary location (RAM: is fine).
119 Execute the provided install script from shell or via its icon.
121 You B<must not> attempt to install by hand.
123 Once installed you may delete the temporary archive.
125 This approach will preserve links in the installation without creating
128 If you have the earlier ports perl 5.16 or 5.8 installed you may like
129 to rename your perl executable to perl516 or perl58 or something
130 similar before the installation of 5.22.1, this will allow you to use
131 both versions at the same time.
133 =head1 Amiga Specific Modules
137 The Amiga::ARexx module allows you to easily create a perl based ARexx
138 host or to send ARexx commands to other programs.
140 Try C<perldoc Amiga::ARexx> for more info.
144 The Amiga::Exec module introduces support for Wait().
146 Try C<perldoc Amiga::Exec> for more info.
150 To build perl under AmigaOS from the patched sources you will need to
151 have a recent version of the SDK. Version 53.29 is recommended,
152 earlier versions will probably work too.
154 With the help of Jarkko Hietaniemi the Configure system has been tweaked to
155 run under abc-shell so the recommend build process is as follows.
161 This will build the default setup that installs under SDK:local/newlib/lib/
171 =item Port to Perl 5.22
173 =item Add handling of NIL: to afstat()
175 =item Fix inheritance of environment variables by subprocesses.
177 =item Fix exec, and exit in "forked" subprocesses.
179 =item Fix issue with newlib's unlink, which could cause infinite loops.
181 =item Add flock() emulation using IDOS->LockRecord thanks to Tony Cook
184 =item Fix issue where kill was using the wrong kind of process ID
188 =item B<27th November 2013>
192 =item Create new installation system based on installperl links
193 and Amiga protection bits now set correctly.
195 =item Pod now defaults to text.
197 =item File::Spec should now recognise an Amiga style absolute path as well
198 as an Unix style one. Relative paths must always be Unix style.
202 =item B<20th November 2013>
206 =item Configured to use SDK:Local/C/perl to start standard scripts
208 =item Added Amiga::Exec module with support for Wait() and AmigaOS signal numbers.
212 =item B<10th October 13>
214 First release of port to 5.16.3.
220 You like this port? See L<http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/>
221 for how you can help.