1 TOC 2 === 3 4 - Notes on Perl 5 - Notes on Perl on Windows 6 - Notes on Perl modules we use 7 - Notes on installing a perl module 8 9 Notes on Perl 10 ------------- 11 12 For our scripts, we rely quite a bit on Perl, and increasingly on 13 some core Perl modules. These Perl modules are part of the Perl 14 source, so if you build Perl on your own, you should be set. 15 16 However, if you install Perl as binary packages, the outcome might 17 differ, and you may have to check that you do get the core modules 18 installed properly. We do not claim to know them all, but experience 19 has told us the following: 20 21 - on Linux distributions based on Debian, the package 'perl' will 22 install the core Perl modules as well, so you will be fine. 23 - on Linux distributions based on RPMs, you will need to install 24 'perl-core' rather than just 'perl'. 25 26 You MUST have at least Perl version 5.10.0 installed. This minimum 27 requirement is due to our use of regexp backslash sequence \R among 28 other features that didn't exist in core Perl before that version. 29 30 Notes on Perl on Windows 31 ------------------------ 32 33 There are a number of build targets that can be viewed as "Windows". 34 Indeed, there are VC-* configs targeting VisualStudio C, as well as 35 MinGW and Cygwin. The key recommendation is to use "matching" Perl, 36 one that matches build environment. For example, if you will build 37 on Cygwin be sure to use the Cygwin package manager to install Perl. 38 For MSYS builds use the MSYS provided Perl. For VC-* builds we 39 recommend ActiveState Perl, available from 40 http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl. 41 42 Notes on Perl on VMS 43 -------------------- 44 45 You will need to install Perl separately. One way to do so is to 46 download the source from http://perl.org/, unpacking it, reading 47 README.vms and follow the instructions. Another way is to download a 48 .PCSI file from http://www.vmsperl.com/ and install it using the 49 POLYCENTER install tool. 50 51 Notes on Perl modules we use 52 ---------------------------- 53 54 We make increasing use of Perl modules, and do our best to limit 55 ourselves to core Perl modules to keep the requirements down. There 56 are just a few exceptions: 57 58 Test::More We require the minimum version to be 0.96, which 59 appeared in Perl 5.13.4, because that version was 60 the first to have all the features we're using. 61 This module is required for testing only! If you 62 don't plan on running the tests, you don't need to 63 bother with this one. 64 65 Text::Template This module is not part of the core Perl modules. 66 As a matter of fact, the core Perl modules do not 67 include any templating module to date. 68 This module is absolutely needed, configuration 69 depends on it. 70 71 To avoid unnecessary initial hurdles, we have bundled a copy of the 72 following modules in our source. They will work as fallbacks if 73 these modules aren't already installed on the system. 74 75 Text::Template 76 77 Notes on installing a perl module 78 --------------------------------- 79 80 There are a number of ways to install a perl module. In all 81 descriptions below, Text::Template will serve as an example. 82 83 1. for Linux users, the easiest is to install with the use of your 84 favorite package manager. Usually, all you need to do is search 85 for the module name and to install the package that comes up. 86 87 On Debian based Linux distributions, it would go like this: 88 89 $ apt-cache search Text::Template 90 ... 91 libtext-template-perl - perl module to process text templates 92 $ sudo apt-get install libtext-template-perl 93 94 Perl modules in Debian based distributions use package names like 95 the name of the module in question, with "lib" prepended and 96 "-perl" appended. 97 98 2. Install using CPAN. This is very easy, but usually requires root 99 access: 100 101 $ cpan -i Text::Template 102 103 Note that this runs all the tests that the module to be installed 104 comes with. This is usually a smooth operation, but there are 105 platforms where a failure is indicated even though the actual tests 106 were successful. Should that happen, you can force an 107 installation regardless (that should be safe since you've already 108 seen the tests succeed!): 109 110 $ cpan -f -i Text::Template 111 112 Note: on VMS, you must quote any argument that contains uppercase 113 characters, so the lines above would be: 114 115 $ cpan -i "Text::Template" 116 117 and: 118 119 $ cpan -f -i "Text::Template" 120