Cross-Compiled Linux From Scratch - Version 1.0.0rc1-Sparc64-Multilib

Chapter 10. Installing Basic System Software

10.22. Perl-5.8.8

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

10.22.1. Installation of Perl

In multilib builds we install compilers and libraries for each available architecture. The description below says that perl installs several hundred libraries, but they are used by invoking perl, not by linking to them with ld. Although it is possible to install perl for 32 bits, move it to a different name, and then install the 64-bit version, it is almost always invoked as just perl. That means only the libraries and modules for the last version installed will be accessible. We therefore only install one version.

Perl does not, by default, know about library directories with names other than lib, such as lib64. The following patch will allow it to install to lib64. 

patch -Np1 -i ../perl-5.8.8-Configure_multilib-1.patch

There is a further (possibly cosmetic) anomaly - if we install perl and then run perl -V it will claim that libc is in /lib. The following patch fixes this, but only takes effect when make install is run. 

patch -Np1 -i ../perl-5.8.8-libc_lib64-1.patch

We still need to tell perl to actually use lib64 

echo 'installstyle="lib64/perl5"' >>hints/linux.sh

Before starting to configure, create a basic /etc/hosts file which will be referenced in one of Perl's configuration files as well as being used used by the testsuite if you run that. 

echo "127.0.0.1 localhost $(hostname)" > /etc/hosts

To have full control over the way Perl is set up, run the interactive Configure script and hand-pick the way this package is built. If the defaults it auto-detects are suitable, prepare Perl for compilation with: 

./configure.gnu --prefix=/usr \
   -Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 \
   -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/man3 \
   -Dpager="/bin/less -isR" \
   -Dlibpth="/usr/local/lib64 /lib64 /usr/lib64" \
   -Dcc="gcc ${BUILD64}" \
   -Dusethreads

The meaning of the new configure option:

-Dlibpth="/usr/local/lib64 /lib64 /usr/lib64"

This tells Perl to link against the 64-bit libraries.

-Dpager="/bin/less -isR"

This corrects an error in the way that perldoc invokes the less program.

-Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/man3

Since Groff is not installed yet, configure.gnu thinks that we do not want man pages for Perl. Issuing these parameters overrides this decision.

-Dusethreads

This tells Perl to use threads.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make test.

Install the package: 

make install

10.22.2. Contents of Perl

Installed programs: a2p, c2ph, cpan, dprofpp, enc2xs, find2perl, h2ph, h2xs, instmodsh, libnetcfg, perl, perl5.8.8 (link to perl), perlbug, perlcc, perldoc, perlivp, piconv, pl2pm, pod2html, pod2latex, pod2man, pod2text, pod2usage, podchecker, podselect, prove, psed (link to s2p), pstruct (link to c2ph), s2p, splain, and xsubpp
Installed libraries: Several hundred which cannot all be listed here

Short Descriptions

a2p

Translates awk to Perl

c2ph

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S

cpan

Shell script that provides a command interface to CPAN.pm

dprofpp

Displays Perl profile data

enc2xs

Builds a Perl extension for the Encode module from either Unicode Character Mappings or Tcl Encoding Files

find2perl

Translates find commands to Perl

h2ph

Converts .h C header files to .ph Perl header files

h2xs

Converts .h C header files to Perl extensions

libnetcfg

Can be used to configure the libnet

instmodsh

A shell script for examining installed Perl modules, and can even create a tarball from an installed module

perl

Combines some of the best features of C, sed, awk and sh into a single swiss-army-knife language

perl5.8.8

A hard link to perl

perlbug

Used to generate bug reports about Perl, or the modules that come with it, and mail them

perlcc

Generates executables from Perl programs

perldoc

Displays a piece of documentation in pod format that is embedded in the Perl installation tree or in a Perl script

perlivp

The Perl Installation Verification Procedure; it can be used to verify that Perl and its libraries have been installed correctly

piconv

A Perl version of the character encoding converter iconv

pl2pm

A rough tool for converting Perl4 .pl files to Perl5 .pm modules

pod2html

Converts files from pod format to HTML format

pod2latex

Converts files from pod format to LaTeX format

pod2man

Converts pod data to formatted *roff input

pod2text

Converts pod data to formatted ASCII text

pod2usage

Prints usage messages from embedded pod docs in files

podchecker

Checks the syntax of pod format documentation files

podselect

Displays selected sections of pod documentation

prove

A command-line tool for running tests against Test::Harness

psed

A Perl version of the stream editor sed

pstruct

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S stabs

s2p

Translates sed to Perl

splain

Is used to force verbose warning diagnostics in Perl

xsubpp

Converts Perl XS code into C code