Perl FAQ 1.16

Perl runs on virtually all Unix machines simply by following the hints file and instructions in the Configure script. This auto-configuration script allows Perl to compile on a wide variety of platforms by modifying the machine specific parts of the code. For most Unix systems, or VMS systems for v5 perl, no porting is required. Try to compile Perl on your machine. If you have problems, examine the README file carefully. If all else fails, send a message to comp.lang.perl.misc and crosspost to comp.sys.[whatever], there's probably someone out there that has already solved your problem and will be able to help you out.

Perl4.036 has been ported to many non-Unix systems, although currently there are only a few (beta) v5 ports. All of the following are mirrored at ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/src/. The following are the (known) official distribution points. Please contact the porters directly (when possible) in case of questions on these ports.

• MS-DOS binaries and source are available at [130.179.8.47] ftp://ftp.ee.umanitoba.ca/pub/msdos/perl/perl4 There are currently half a dozen different ports for MS-DOS. BigPerl4 (v4) is perl4.036 compiled with the Watcom C/C++^32 compiler (32-bit, flat-memory model C compiler) with the following features:
  • Up to 32MB of memory can be used.
  • Supports virtual memory.
  • Works under Windows 3.1
  • The perl debugger can be used.
  • Contains Berkeley DB support. GDBM is no longer supported.

  Note that the latest version of BigPerl4 can also be found at any SimTel mirror site (ftp.ee.umanitoba.ca does not necessarily have the latest version), such as:

  ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/perl/

  A beta-test version of bigperl based on Perl 5.000 can be obtained from the following sites:

  ftp://ftp.einet.net/pub/perl5 ftp://ftp.khoros.unm.edu/pub/perl/msdos ftp://ftp.ee.umanitoba.ca/pub/msdos/perl/perl5

  This beta bigperl also contains ported versions of a2p and s2p.

• Windows/NT binaries are available from ftp://ftp.intergraph.com/pub/win32/perl, or at any of the major NT archives. They are compiled for NT 3.5, but appears to work under Win95 also. It is visible to the NT Registry. Dean Troyer* is working on extending the visibility to SAM and the Event Log. His current work-in-progress is available from ftp://pmip.dist.maricopa.edu/pub/nt.

• Macintosh binaries and source are available from [130.59.1.40] ftp://nic.switch.ch/software/mac/perl. Version 4.1.3 is perl4.036 compiled with the MPW C compiler
  • Mac_Perl_413_src.sit.bin Sources
  • Mac_Perl_413_tool.sit.bin MPW Tool
  • Mac_Perl_413_appl.sit.bin Standalone Application
  There is a mailing list for discussing Macintosh Perl. Contact mpw-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch.

  Timothy Murphy* also ported a version of perl to the Macintosh using Think C. It has probably been abandoned in favour of the MPW port, but is still available at [134.266.81.10] ftp://ftp.maths.tcd.ie/pub/Mac/perl-4.035/.

  Matthias Ulrich Neeracher* is working on a perl5 port to the Macintosh. A PowerPC version is available at ftp://err.ethz.ch/pub/neeri/MacPerlBeta.

• OS/2 sources are also available at ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/src/4.0/os2. This appears to have been abandoned and added to the official distribution. See the directory os2 in the perl5 sources.

• VMS systems should be able to build directly from the standard distribution.

• Amiga sources are not available from ftp.cis.ufl.edu, but can be found at any Aminet archive, notably:
  • ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/lang/
  • ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/aminet/dev/lang/
  • ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/dev/lang/
  • ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/ports/perl4/amiga

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