| 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
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| 2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
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| 3 | specifically designed to be readable as is.
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| 4 |
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| 5 | =head1 NAME
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| 6 |
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| 7 | README.freebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems
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| 8 |
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| 9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION
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| 10 |
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| 11 | This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl
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| 12 | version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
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| 13 |
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| 14 | =head2 FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads
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| 15 |
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| 16 | When perl is configured to use ithreads, it will use re-entrant library calls
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| 17 | in preference to non-re-entrant versions. There is a bug in FreeBSD's
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| 18 | C<readdir_r> function in versions 4.5 and earlier that can cause a SEGV when
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| 19 | reading large directories. A patch for FreeBSD libc is available
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| 20 | (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=misc/30631 )
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| 21 | which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6.
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| 22 |
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| 23 | =head2 $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD
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| 24 |
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| 25 | perl 5.8.0 sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating
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| 26 | system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by reading
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| 27 | the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. There is a bug on FreeBSD, where the
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| 28 | result of reading this symlink is can be wrong in certain circumstances
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| 29 | (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ).
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| 30 | In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's
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| 31 | argv[0] value for C<$^X>.
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| 32 |
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| 33 | =head2 Perl will no longer be part of "base FreeBSD"
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| 34 |
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| 35 | Not as bad as it sounds--what this means is that Perl will no longer be
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| 36 | part of the B<kernel build system> of FreeBSD. Perl will still very
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| 37 | probably be part of the "default install", and in any case the latest
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| 38 | version will be in the ports system. The first FreeBSD version this
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| 39 | change will affect is 5.0, all 4.n versions will keep the status quo.
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| 40 |
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| 41 | =head1 AUTHOR
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| 42 |
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| 43 | Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic
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| 44 | and Tim Bunce.
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| 45 |
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| 46 | Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.
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| 47 |
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