I'm building Perl 5.8.9 from source, and am confused by the words about 64-bit integers in the INSTALL file and man page. Specifically:

'If your platform does not run natively at 64 bits, but can simulate them with compiler flags and/or "long long" or "int64_t", you can build a perl that uses 64 bits' and 'Natively 64-bit systems need neither -Duse64bitint nor -Duse64bitall'

The server I'm building for is a Xeon L5320, and it has native 64-bit instructions, so no "simulation" should be needed. However, my internet hosting provider (IHP) set up the basic site, and they are conservative in how they set things up. They may have told the FreeBSD 6.3 kernel and the gcc toolchain that they're on a plain i386.

How do I decide whether I should include -Duse64bitint in my Configure command? I know from a previous build that if I do, the build sequence takes it seriously, in that it changes the name of the "architectural directories" correspondingly.

Most of my Perl usage is under mod_perl2, under an Apache server that I'm trying to move to a threaded MPM. My goals are to run as fast and efficiently as possible and minimize the total httpd footprint.

How do I find out how the gcc toolchain is configured? Is reconfiguring it an alternative to using -Duse64bitint? Can I endanger the interface to the kernel by such reconfiguration? At the moment I do not feel up to building a custom FreeBSD 6.3...

The advice of the wise monks (actually any monks in case the wise ones are on holiday :-) will be appreciated.

Thanks,
cmac
www.animalhead.com

In reply to use64bitint in building Perl by cmac

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