| 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
|
|---|
| 2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
|
|---|
| 3 | specifically designed to be readable as is.
|
|---|
| 4 |
|
|---|
| 5 | =head1 NAME
|
|---|
| 6 |
|
|---|
| 7 | README.freebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems
|
|---|
| 8 |
|
|---|
| 9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION
|
|---|
| 10 |
|
|---|
| 11 | This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl
|
|---|
| 12 | version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
|
|---|
| 13 |
|
|---|
| 14 | =head2 FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads
|
|---|
| 15 |
|
|---|
| 16 | When perl is configured to use ithreads, it will use re-entrant library calls
|
|---|
| 17 | in preference to non-re-entrant versions. There is a bug in FreeBSD's
|
|---|
| 18 | C<readdir_r> function in versions 4.5 and earlier that can cause a SEGV when
|
|---|
| 19 | reading large directories. A patch for FreeBSD libc is available
|
|---|
| 20 | (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=misc/30631 )
|
|---|
| 21 | which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6.
|
|---|
| 22 |
|
|---|
| 23 | =head2 $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD
|
|---|
| 24 |
|
|---|
| 25 | perl 5.8.0 sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating
|
|---|
| 26 | system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by reading
|
|---|
| 27 | the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. There is a bug on FreeBSD, where the
|
|---|
| 28 | result of reading this symlink is can be wrong in certain circumstances
|
|---|
| 29 | (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ).
|
|---|
| 30 | In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's
|
|---|
| 31 | argv[0] value for C<$^X>.
|
|---|
| 32 |
|
|---|
| 33 | =head2 Perl will no longer be part of "base FreeBSD"
|
|---|
| 34 |
|
|---|
| 35 | Not as bad as it sounds--what this means is that Perl will no longer be
|
|---|
| 36 | part of the B<kernel build system> of FreeBSD. Perl will still very
|
|---|
| 37 | probably be part of the "default install", and in any case the latest
|
|---|
| 38 | version will be in the ports system. The first FreeBSD version this
|
|---|
| 39 | change will affect is 5.0, all 4.n versions will keep the status quo.
|
|---|
| 40 |
|
|---|
| 41 | =head1 AUTHOR
|
|---|
| 42 |
|
|---|
| 43 | Nicholas Clark <[email protected]>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic
|
|---|
| 44 | and Tim Bunce.
|
|---|
| 45 |
|
|---|
| 46 | Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<[email protected]>.
|
|---|
| 47 |
|
|---|
