NAME¶
perlce - Perl for WinCE
Building Perl for WinCE¶
WARNING¶
Much of this document has become very out of date and needs updating,
rewriting or deleting. The build process was overhauled during the 5.19
development track and the current instructions as of that time are
given in "CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS"; the previous build
instructions, which are largely superseded but may still contain some
useful information, are left in "OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS" but
really need removing after anything of use has been extracted from
them.
DESCRIPTION¶
This file gives the instructions for building Perl5.8 and above for WinCE.
Please read and understand the terms under which this software is distributed.
General explanations on cross-compiling WinCE¶
- •
- miniperl is built. This is a single executable (without DLL),
intended to run on Win32, and it will facilitate remaining build process;
all binaries built after it are foreign and should not run locally.
miniperl is built using ./win32/Makefile; this is part of
normal build process invoked as dependency from wince/Makefile.ce
- •
- After miniperl is built, configpm is invoked to create right
Config.pm in right place and its corresponding Cross.pm.
Unlike Win32 build, miniperl will not have Config.pm of host within
reach; it rather will use Config.pm from within cross-compilation
directories.
File Cross.pm is dead simple: for given cross-architecture places in
@INC a path where perl modules are, and right Config.pm in that
place.
That said, "miniperl -Ilib -MConfig -we 1" should report an error,
because it can not find Config.pm. If it does not give an error --
wrong Config.pm is substituted, and resulting binaries will be a
mess.
"miniperl -MCross -MConfig -we 1" should run okay, and it will
provide right Config.pm for further compilations.
- •
- During extensions build phase, a script ./win32/buldext.pl is
invoked, which in turn steps in ./ext subdirectories and performs a
build of each extension in turn.
All invokes of Makefile.PL are provided with "-MCross" so
to enable cross- compile.
CURRENT BUILD INSTRUCTIONS¶
(These instructions assume the host is 32-bit Windows. If you're on 64-bit
Windows then change "C:\Program Files" to "C:\Program Files
(x86)" throughout.)
1. Install EVC4 from
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/3/f/c3f8b58b-9753-4c2e-8b96-2dfe3476a2f7/eVC4.exe
Use the key mentioned at
http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-eMbedded-Visual-C/3000-2212_4-10108490.html?tag=bc
The installer is ancient and has a few bugs on the paths it uses. You will have
to fix them later. Basically, some things go into "C:/Program
Files/Windows CE Tools", others go into "C:/Windows CE Tools"
regardless of the path you gave to the installer (the default will be
"C:/Windows CE Tools"). Reboots will be required for the installer
to proceed. Also .c and .h associations with Visual Studio might get
overridden when installing EVC4. You have been warned.
2. Download celib from GitHub (using "Download ZIP") at
https://github.com/bulk88/celib
Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source. I call this
directory "celib-palm-3.0" but in the GitHub snapshot it will be
called "celib-master". Make a copy of the
"wince-arm-pocket-wce300-release" folder and rename the copy to
"wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack so we can build a CE 4.0
binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm; the linker doesn't care. Windows
Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop Windows.
3. Download console-1.3-src.tar.gz from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/perlce/files/PerlCE%20support%20files/console/
Extract it to a spaceless path but not into the perl build source. Don't extract
it into the same directory as celib. Make a copy of the
"wince-arm-pocket-wce300" folder and rename the copy to
"wince-arm-pocket-wce400". This is a hack so we can build a CE 4.0
binary by linking in CE 3.0 ARM asm; the linker doesn't care. Windows
Mobile/WinCE are backwards compatible with machine code like Desktop Windows.
4. Open a command prompt, run your regular batch file to set the environment for
desktop Visual C building, goto the perl source directory, cd into win32/,
fill out Makefile, and do a "nmake all" to build a Desktop Perl.
5. Open win32/Makefile.ce in a text editor and do something similar to the
following patch.
-CELIBDLLDIR = h:\src\wince\celib-palm-3.0
-CECONSOLEDIR = h:\src\wince\w32console
+CELIBDLLDIR = C:\sources\celib-palm-3.0
+CECONSOLEDIR = C:\sources\w32console
Also change
!if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
!endif
to
!if "$(MACHINE)" == ""
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-arm-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-mips-hpc-wce200
#MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-pocket-wce300
#MACHINE=wince-mips-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-sh3-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86em-palm-wce211
#MACHINE=wince-x86-hpc-wce300
MACHINE=wince-arm-pocket-wce400
!endif
so wince-arm-pocket-wce400 is the MACHINE type.
6. Use a text editor to open "C:\Program Files\Microsoft eMbedded C++
4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT". Look for
if "%SDKROOT%"=="" set SDKROOT=...
On a new install it is "C:\Windows CE Tools". Goto "C:\Windows CE
Tools" in a file manager and see if "C:\Windows CE
Tools\wce400\STANDARDSDK\Include\Armv4" exists on your disk. If not the
SDKROOT need to be changed to "C:\Program Files\Windows CE Tools".
Goto celib-palm-3.0\inc\cewin32.h, search for
typedef struct _ABC {
and uncomment the struct.
7. Open another command prompt, ensure PLATFORM is not set to anything already
unless you know what you're doing (so that the correct default value is set by
the next command), and run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft eMbedded C++
4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN\WCEARMV4.BAT"
8. In the WinCE command prompt you made with WCEARMV4.BAT, goto the perl source
directory, cd into win32/ and run "nmake -f Makefile.ce".
9. The ARM perl interpreter (perl519.dll and perl.exe) will be in something like
"C:\perl519\src\win32\wince-arm-pocket-wce400", with the XS DLLs in
"C:\perl519\src\xlib\wince-arm-hpc-wce400\auto".
To prove success on the host machine, run "dumpbin /headers
wince-arm-pocket-wce400\perl.exe" from the win32/ folder and look for
"machine (ARM)" in the FILE HEADER VALUES and "subsystem
(Windows CE GUI)" in the OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES.
OLD BUILD INSTRUCTIONS¶
This section describes the steps to be performed to build PerlCE. You may find
additional information about building perl for WinCE at
<
http://perlce.sourceforge.net> and some pre-built binaries.
Tools & SDK
For compiling, you need following:
- •
- Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools
- •
- Microsoft Visual C++
- •
- Rainer Keuchel's celib-sources
- •
- Rainer Keuchel's console-sources
Needed source files can be downloaded at <
http://perlce.sourceforge.net>
Make
Normally you only need to edit
./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat to reflect
your system and run it.
File
./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat is actually a wrapper to call
"nmake -f makefile.ce" with appropriate parameters and it accepts
extra parameters and forwards them to "nmake" command as additional
arguments. You should pass target this way.
To prepare distribution you need to do following:
- •
- go to ./win32 subdirectory
- •
- edit file ./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat
- •
- run
compile.bat
- •
- run
compile.bat dist
Makefile.ce has "CROSS_NAME" macro, and it is used further to
refer to your cross-compilation scheme. You could assign a name to it, but
this is not necessary, because by default it is assigned after your machine
configuration name, such as "wince-sh3-hpc-wce211", and this is
enough to distinguish different builds at the same time. This option could be
handy for several different builds on same platform to perform, say, threaded
build. In a following example we assume that all required environment
variables are set properly for C cross-compiler (a special *.bat file could
fit perfectly to this purpose) and your
compile.bat has proper
"MACHINE" parameter set, to, say,
"wince-mips-pocket-wce300".
compile.bat
compile.bat dist
compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
"USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define"
compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" ^
"USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define" dist
If all goes okay and no errors during a build, you'll get two independent
distributions: "wince-mips-pocket-wce300" and
"mips-wce300-thr".
Target "dist" prepares distribution file set. Target
"zipdist" performs same as "dist" but additionally
compresses distribution files into zip archive.
NOTE: during a build there could be created a number (or one) of
Config.pm for cross-compilation ("foreign"
Config.pm)
and those are hidden inside
../xlib/$(CROSS_NAME) with other auxiliary
files, but, and this is important to note, there should be
no
Config.pm for host miniperl. If you'll get an error that perl could not
find Config.pm somewhere in building process this means something went wrong.
Most probably you forgot to specify a cross-compilation when invoking
miniperl.exe to Makefile.PL When building an extension for cross-compilation
your command line should look like
..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross=mips-wce300-thr Makefile.PL
or just
..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross Makefile.PL
to refer a cross-compilation that was created last time.
All questions related to building for WinCE devices could be asked in
perlce-user@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list.
Using Perl on WinCE¶
DESCRIPTION¶
PerlCE is currently linked with a simple console window, so it also works on
non-hpc devices.
The simple stdio implementation creates the files
stdin.txt,
stdout.txt and
stderr.txt, so you might examine them if your
console has only a limited number of cols.
When exitcode is non-zero, a message box appears, otherwise the console closes,
so you might have to catch an exit with status 0 in your program to see any
output.
stdout/stderr now go into the files
/perl-stdout.txt and
/perl-stderr.txt.
PerlIDE is handy to deal with perlce.
LIMITATIONS¶
No
fork(),
pipe(),
popen() etc.
ENVIRONMENT¶
All environment vars must be stored in HKLM\Environment as strings. They are
read at process startup.
- PERL5LIB
- Usual perl lib path (semi-list).
- PATH
- Semi-list for executables.
- TMP
- - Tempdir.
- UNIXROOTPATH
- - Root for accessing some special files, i.e. /dev/null,
/etc/services.
- ROWS/COLS
- - Rows/cols for console.
- HOME
- - Home directory.
- CONSOLEFONTSIZE
- - Size for console font.
You can set these with cereg.exe, a (remote) registry editor or via the PerlIDE.
REGISTRY¶
To start perl by clicking on a perl source file, you have to make the according
entries in HKCR (see
ce-helpers/wince-reg.bat). cereg.exe (which must
be executed on a desktop pc with ActiveSync) is reported not to work on some
devices. You have to create the registry entries by hand using a registry
editor.
The following Win32-Methods are built-in:
newXS("Win32::GetCwd", w32_GetCwd, file);
newXS("Win32::SetCwd", w32_SetCwd, file);
newXS("Win32::GetTickCount", w32_GetTickCount, file);
newXS("Win32::GetOSVersion", w32_GetOSVersion, file);
newXS("Win32::IsWinNT", w32_IsWinNT, file);
newXS("Win32::IsWin95", w32_IsWin95, file);
newXS("Win32::IsWinCE", w32_IsWinCE, file);
newXS("Win32::CopyFile", w32_CopyFile, file);
newXS("Win32::Sleep", w32_Sleep, file);
newXS("Win32::MessageBox", w32_MessageBox, file);
newXS("Win32::GetPowerStatus", w32_GetPowerStatus, file);
newXS("Win32::GetOemInfo", w32_GetOemInfo, file);
newXS("Win32::ShellEx", w32_ShellEx, file);
BUGS¶
Opening files for read-write is currently not supported if they use stdio
(normal perl file handles).
If you find bugs or if it does not work at all on your device, send mail to the
address below. Please report the details of your device (processor, ceversion,
devicetype (hpc/palm/pocket)) and the date of the downloaded files.
INSTALLATION¶
Currently installation instructions are at
<
http://perlce.sourceforge.net/>.
After installation & testing processes will stabilize, information will be
more precise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS¶
The port for Win32 was used as a reference.
History of WinCE port¶
- 5.6.0
- Initial port of perl to WinCE. It was performed in separate directory
named wince. This port was based on contents of ./win32
directory. miniperl was not built, user must have HOST perl and
properly edit makefile.ce to reflect this.
- 5.8.0
- wince port was kept in the same ./wince directory, and
wince/Makefile.ce was used to invoke native compiler to create HOST
miniperl, which then facilitates cross-compiling process. Extension
building support was added.
- 5.9.4
- Two directories ./win32 and ./wince were merged, so perlce
build process comes in ./win32 directory.
AUTHORS¶
- Rainer Keuchel <coyxc@rainer-keuchel.de>
- provided initial port of Perl, which appears to be most essential work, as
it was a breakthrough on having Perl ported at all. Many thanks and
obligations to Rainer!
- Vadim Konovalov
- made further support of WinCE port.
- Daniel Dragan
- updated the build process during the 5.19 development track.