PERLMACOSX(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLMACOSX(1)
NAME
perlmacosx - Perl under Mac OS X
SYNOPSIS
This document briefly describes Perl under Mac OS X.
curl http://www.cpan.org/src/perl-5.12.3.tar.gz > perl-5.12.3.tar.gz
tar -xzf perl-5.12.3.tar.gz
cd perl-5.12.3
./Configure -des -Dprefix=/usr/local/
make
make test
sudo make install
DESCRIPTION
The latest Perl release (5.12.3 as of this writing) builds without changes under all versions of Mac OS X from
10.3 "Panther" onwards.
In order to build your own version of Perl you will need 'make' this is part of the Apples developer tools
(you only need the 'unix tools'), usually supplied with Mac OS install DVDs. You do not need the latest
version of Xcode (which is now charged for) in order to install make.
Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 "Jaguar" and older) did not include a completely thread-safe libc, so
threading is not fully supported. Also, earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests
are known to fail on those releases.
Installation Prefix
The default installation location for this release uses the traditional UNIX directory layout under
/usr/local. This is the recommended location for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its
modules undisturbed.
Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout that mirrors that of Apple's default
Perl, with core modules stored in '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in
'/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that
are stored on a file server and used by many Macs.
SDK support
First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment:
export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk
Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags' config variables:
./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
-B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
-F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \
-Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \
-de
Universal Binary support
To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export the SDK variable as above,
selecting the 10.4u SDK:
export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags for creating a universal binary:
Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when building CPAN modules. For XS
modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The
system libraries that Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries may
need to be re-installed as universal binaries.
64-bit PPC support
Follow the instructions in INSTALL to build perl with support for 64-bit integers ("use64bitint") or both
64-bit integers and 64-bit addressing ("use64bitall"). In the latter case, the resulting binary will run only
on G5-based hosts.
Support for 64-bit addressing is experimental: some aspects of Perl may be omitted or buggy. Note the messages
output by Configure for further information. Please use "perlbug" to submit a problem report in the event that
you encounter difficulties.
When building 64-bit modules, it is your responsibility to ensure that linked external libraries and
frameworks provide 64-bit support: if they do not, module building may appear to succeed, but attempts to use
the module will result in run-time dynamic linking errors, and subsequent test failures. You can use "file"
to discover the architectures supported by a library:
$ file libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib
libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib: Mach-O fat file with 2 architectures
libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library ppc
libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library ppc64
Note that this issue precludes the building of many Macintosh-specific CPAN modules ("Mac::*"), as the
required Apple frameworks do not provide PPC64 support. Similarly, downloads from Fink or Darwinports are
unlikely to provide 64-bit support; the libraries must be rebuilt from source with the appropriate compiler
and linker flags. For further information, see Apple's 64-Bit Transition Guide at
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/64bitPorting/index.html>.
libperl and Prebinding
Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for this release is to compile a static
libperl. The reason for this is pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in
memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware of the location and size of all
previously-loaded libraries. Apple collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and
thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would need to go to a great deal of effort
to obtain the information needed for pre-binding.
You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish (Configure ... -Duseshrplib), but the load
time on pre-10.4 OS releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's pre-bound dynamic
library.
With 10.4 "Tiger" and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance penalty for non-prebound libraries.
Updating Apple's Perl
In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts can just as easily begin with
"#!/usr/local/bin/perl" as with "#!/usr/bin/perl". Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as part
of installation packages and such have generally only been tested with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by
Apple.
If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth keeping in mind is the question of
static vs. dynamic libraries. If you upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic
libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are present when an application that links
to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some extra library directories that you
really want to use (such as newer Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth:
Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib'
The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex applications like Tk: in that case
consider building shared Perl
Configure ... -Duseshrplib
but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above "libperl and Prebinding").
Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain).
In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in failures in the lib/locale test. These failures have been
suppressed in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale. If you need to use the
eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support.
Cocoa
There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge module, included with Mac OS X, can be used
by standalone scripts to access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects.
An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both Foundation and AppKit classes and
objects, so that full GUI applications can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at
<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>.
Starting From Scratch
Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all
else fails and you want to really, REALLY, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl installation
(which has become corrupted somehow), the following instructions should do it. Please think twice before
following these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to yourself. Without anesthesia.
We will not come to fix your system if you do this.
First, get rid of the libperl.dylib:
# cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE
# rm libperl.dylib
Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders:
/System/Library/Perl
/Library/Perl
You can find them for example by
# find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print
After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media (you will need at least the
/System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl), or rebuild Perl from the source code with "Configure -Dprefix=/usr
-Duseshrplib" NOTE: the "-Dprefix=/usr" to replace the system Perl works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and
later, in Perl 5.8.0 the settings were not quite right.
"Pacifist" from CharlesSoft (<http://www.charlessoft.com/>) is a nice way to extract the Perl binaries from
the OS media, without having to reinstall the entire OS.
Back to main site | Back to man page index