1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.beos - Perl version 5.8+ on BeOS
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This file contains instructions how to build Perl under BeOS and lists
12known problems.
13
14=head1 BUILD AND INSTALL
15
16=head2 Requirements
17
18I have built and tested Perl 5.8.6 and 5.9.1 under BeOS R5 x86 net server.
19I can't say anything with regard to PPC. Since Perl 5.8.0 had been released
20for BeOS BONE, I suspect, there is a good chance, that it still compiles on
21a BONE system. The only change I've made, that affects BONE systems is the
22recognition of whether it is a BONE system or not in C<hints/beos.sh>. Now
23network socket support should remain enabled on BONE systems. This might
24as well break the build, though.
25
26As more recent versions of autoconf require flock() support, I wrote a flock()
27emulation (flock_server) and released it on BeBits:
28
29	http://www.bebits.com/app/4030
30
31If you want to build a Perl with flock() support, you have to install this
32package first.
33
34=head2 Configure
35
36With flock() support:
37
38	CFLAGS=-I/path/to/flock/server/headers ./configure.gnu \
39		--prefix=/boot/home/config
40
41Replace C</path/to/flock/server/headers> with the path to the directory
42containing the C<flock.h> header.
43
44Without flock() support:
45
46	./configure.gnu --prefix=/boot/home/config
47
48=head2 Build
49
50With flock() support:
51
52	make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet -lflock"
53
54Without flock() support:
55
56	make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet"
57
58C<-lnet> is needed on net server systems only and if the compiler doesn't
59add it automatically (Be's R5 gcc does, Oliver Tappe's gcc 2.95.3 does not).
60
61=head2 Install
62
63Install all perl files:
64
65	make install
66
67Create a symlink for libperl:
68
69	cd ~/config/lib; ln -s perl5/5.8.6/BePC-beos/CORE/libperl.so .
70
71Replace C<5.8.6> with your respective version of Perl.
72
73=head1 KNOWN PROBLEMS
74
75=over 4
76
77=item *
78
79Network socket support is disabled for BeOS R5 net server. I didn't dare yet
80to try enabling it and see what problems occur.
81
82=item *
83
84The LFS (large file support) tests (C<t/op/lfs> and C<xt/Fcntl/t/syslfs>) are
85disabled as seeking beyond 2 GB is broken according to jhi@iki.fi who was the
86last one checking the BeOS port and updating this file before me. Haven't
87checked this myself.
88
89=item *
90
91The C<t/io/fflush> test fails at #6. As far as I can tell, this is caused by
92a bug in the BeOS pipes implementation that occurs when starting other child
93processes. In the particular test case a C<system("perl -e 0")> flushes the
94stdout pipe of another child process.
95
96=item *
97
98The C<ext/POSIX/t/waitpid> test fails at #1. After all child processes are
99gone BeOS' waitpid(-1,...) returns 0 instead of -1 (as it should). No idea
100how to fix this.
101
102=back
103
104=head1 CONTACT
105
106For BeOS specifics problems feel free to mail to:
107Ingo Weinhold <bonefish@cs.tu-berlin.de>
108
109Last update: 2004-12-16
110