Cross-Compiled Linux From Scratch - Version 3.0.0-RC1-Sparc64-Multilib

Chapter 10. Installing Basic System Software

10.55. Perl-5.20.0 64 Bit

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

10.55.1. Installation of Perl

By default, Perl's Compress::Raw::Zlib module builds and links against its own internal copy of Zlib. The following command will tell it to use the system-installed Zlib: 

sed -i -e '/^BUILD_ZLIB/s/True/False/' \
       -e '/^INCLUDE/s,\./zlib-src,/usr/include,' \
       -e '/^LIB/s,\./zlib-src,/usr/lib64,' \
       cpan/Compress-Raw-Zlib/config.in

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

patch -Np1 -i ../perl-5.20.0-Configure_multilib-1.patch

We still need to tell Perl to actually use lib64: 

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

To have full control over the way Perl is set up, you can run the interactive Configure script and hand-pick the way this package is built. If you prefer instead to use the defaults that Perl auto-detects, prepare Perl for compilation with: 

./configure.gnu --prefix=/usr \
   -Dvendorprefix=/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 -Duseshrplib

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"

Less has not yet been installed, so by default perldoc will invoke the more program for viewing documentation. This option ensures that it will use less instead.

-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.

-Duseshrplib

This tells Perl to build a shared libperl.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: 

make test

Install the package: 

make install

Add a suffix to the perl binary which will be used by the multiarch wrapper: 

mv -v /usr/bin/perl{,-64}
mv -v /usr/bin/perl5.20.0{,-64}

Now we need to create a link to the multiarch wrapper that lets us choose which perl installation to use: 

ln -sv multiarch_wrapper /usr/bin/perl
ln -sv multiarch_wrapper /usr/bin/perl5.20.0

The value of the USE_ARCH environment variable will decide which perl binary to execute. USE_ARCH=32 perl -V:cc will give the value of CC used to build the 32bit perl. The multiarch_wrapper will help later with building perl extensions and bindings. Without the multiarch_wrapper it is very hard to setup a 32bit extension or binding.

10.55.2. Contents of Perl

Installed programs: a2p, c2ph, config_data, corelist, cpan, cpan2dist, cpanp, cpanp-run-perl, enc2xs, find2perl, h2ph, h2xs, instmodsh, json_pp, libnetcfg, perl, perl5.20.0 (link to perl), perlbug, perldoc, perlivp, perlthanks (link to perlbug), piconv, pl2pm, pod2html, pod2latex, pod2man, pod2text, pod2usage, podchecker, podselect, prove, psed (link to s2p), pstruct (link to c2ph), ptar, ptardiff, ptargrep, s2p, shasum, splain, xsubpp, zipdetails
Installed libraries: Several hundred which cannot all be listed here
Installed directory: /usr/lib/perl5

Short Descriptions

a2p

Translates awk to Perl

c2ph

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S

config_data

Queries or changes configuration of Perl modules

corelist

A commandline frontend to Module::CoreList

cpan

Shell script that provides a command interface to CPAN.pm

cpan2dist

The CPANPLUS distribution creator

cpanp

The CPANPLUS launcher

cpanp-run-perl

Perl script that (description needed)

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

instmodsh

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

json_pp

Converts data between certain input and output formats

libnetcfg

Can be used to configure the libnet

perl

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

perl5.20.0

A hard link to perl

perlbug

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

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

perlthanks

Used to generate thank you messages to mail to the Perl developers

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

ptar

A tar-like program written in Perl

ptardiff

A Perl program that compares an extracted archive with an unextracted one

ptargrep

A Perl program that applies pattern matching to the contents of files in a tar archive

s2p

Translates sed to Perl

shasum

Prints or checks SHA checksums

splain

Is used to force verbose warning diagnostics in Perl

xsubpp

Converts Perl XS code into C code

zipdetails

Displays details about the internal structure of a Zip file