1Notes on Perl 2============= 3 4 - [General Notes](#general-notes) 5 - [Perl on Windows](#perl-on-windows) 6 - [Perl on VMS](#perl-on-vms) 7 - [Perl on NonStop](#perl-on-nonstop) 8 - [Required Perl modules](#required-perl-modules) 9 - [Notes on installing a Perl module](#notes-on-installing-a-perl-module]) 10 11General Notes 12------------- 13 14For our scripts, we rely quite a bit on Perl, and increasingly on 15some core Perl modules. These Perl modules are part of the Perl 16source, so if you build Perl on your own, you should be set. 17 18However, if you install Perl as binary packages, the outcome might 19differ, and you may have to check that you do get the core modules 20installed properly. We do not claim to know them all, but experience 21has told us the following: 22 23 - on Linux distributions based on Debian, the package `perl` will 24 install the core Perl modules as well, so you will be fine. 25 - on Linux distributions based on RPMs, you will need to install 26 `perl-core` rather than just `perl`. 27 28You MUST have at least Perl version 5.10.0 installed. This minimum 29requirement is due to our use of regexp backslash sequence \R among 30other features that didn't exist in core Perl before that version. 31 32Perl on Windows 33--------------- 34 35There are a number of build targets that can be viewed as "Windows". 36Indeed, there are `VC-*` configs targeting VisualStudio C, as well as 37MinGW and Cygwin. The key recommendation is to use a Perl installation 38that matches the build environment. For example, if you will build 39on Cygwin be sure to use the Cygwin package manager to install Perl. 40For MSYS builds use the MSYS provided Perl. 41For VC-* builds we recommend Strawberry Perl, from <http://strawberryperl.com>. 42An alternative is ActiveState Perl, from <http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl> 43for which you may need to explicitly select the Perl module Win32/Console.pm 44available via <https://platform.activestate.com/ActiveState>. 45 46Perl on VMS 47----------- 48 49You will need to install Perl separately. One way to do so is to 50download the source from <http://perl.org/>, unpacking it, reading 51`README-VMS.md` and follow the instructions. Another way is to download a 52`.PCSI` file from <http://www.vmsperl.com/> and install it using the 53POLYCENTER install tool. 54 55Perl on NonStop 56--------------- 57 58Perl is installed on HPE NonStop platforms as part of the Scripting Languages 59package T1203PAX file. The package is shipped as part of a NonStop RVU 60(Release Version Updates) package. Individual SPRs (Software Product Release) 61representing fixes can be obtained from the Scout website at 62<https://h22204.www2.hpe.com/NEP>. Follow the appropriate set of installation 63instructions for your operating system release as described in the 64Script Language User Guide available from the NonStop Technical Library. 65 66Required Perl modules 67--------------------- 68 69We do our best to limit ourselves to core Perl modules to keep the 70requirements down. There are just a few exceptions. 71 72 * Text::Template this is required *for building* 73 74 To avoid unnecessary initial hurdles, we include a copy of this module 75 in the source. It will work as a fallback if the module isn't already 76 installed. 77 78 * `Test::More` this is required *for testing* 79 80 We require the minimum version to be 0.96, which appeared in Perl 5.13.4, 81 because that version was the first to have all the features we're using. 82 This module is required for testing only! If you don't plan on running 83 the tests, you don't need to bother with this one. 84 85Notes on installing a Perl module 86--------------------------------- 87 88There are a number of ways to install a perl module. In all 89descriptions below, `Text::Template` will serve as an example. 90 911. for Linux users, the easiest is to install with the use of your 92 favorite package manager. Usually, all you need to do is search 93 for the module name and to install the package that comes up. 94 95 On Debian based Linux distributions, it would go like this: 96 97 $ apt-cache search Text::Template 98 ... 99 libtext-template-perl - perl module to process text templates 100 $ sudo apt-get install libtext-template-perl 101 102 Perl modules in Debian based distributions use package names like 103 the name of the module in question, with "lib" prepended and 104 "-perl" appended. 105 1062. Install using CPAN. This is very easy, but usually requires root 107 access: 108 109 $ cpan -i Text::Template 110 111 Note that this runs all the tests that the module to be installed 112 comes with. This is usually a smooth operation, but there are 113 platforms where a failure is indicated even though the actual tests 114 were successful. Should that happen, you can force an 115 installation regardless (that should be safe since you've already 116 seen the tests succeed!): 117 118 $ cpan -f -i Text::Template 119 120 Note: on VMS, you must quote any argument that contains upper case 121 characters, so the lines above would be: 122 123 $ cpan -i "Text::Template" 124 125 and: 126 127 $ cpan -f -i "Text::Template" 128