comment on

Background

Its been quite interesting reading all the many varied writeups and tutorials on building modules for Windows.

To keep this focused, I know about PPM. The sole reason I have begun down this path is that modules provided on the ActiveState repository, are often several versions behind CPAN. (which is often months and sometimes even years).

I realise that building modules for Win32 is a difficult task, but I'm willing to do whatever necessary to figure this out. Plus i have been finding this quite interesting so far. The trigger for this was my interest in getting Win32::API. And File::Spec is a dependancy of it that needs a compiler

Also, to clarify, I don't have any prior knowledge or experience compiling c code. But I'm keen to learn, and so far, I've never found a learning adventure that didn't provide some kind of rewards.

Building PathTools-3.30

I have started with PathTools, which I believe should work on Windows. (I realise that there will always be some modules that just won't work on windows, and I accept that.)

I have browsed the very helpful tutorials on modules, Installing Modules but times have definitely moved on since these were written. I went looking for Visual Studio 2003, but found its been replaced twice, So I downloaded the Visual Studio 2008 Express package.

Making PathTools

Visual Studio installed fine, and nmake was detecting it. "Sweet!" I thought.

C:\temp\file_spec\PathTools-3.30>perl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for Cwd

C:\temp\file_spec\PathTools-3.30>nmake

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 9.00.30729.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

cp lib/File/Spec/Mac.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Mac.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/OS2.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\OS2.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/VMS.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\VMS.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/Cygwin.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Cygwin.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/Epoc.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Epoc.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/Functions.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Functions.pm
cp lib/File/Spec.pm blib\lib\File\Spec.pm
cp Cwd.pm blib\lib\Cwd.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/Unix.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Unix.pm
cp lib/File/Spec/Win32.pm blib\lib\File\Spec\Win32.pm
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:\Perl\lib\ExtUtils\xsubpp  -typemap C:\
+Perl\lib\ExtUtils\typemap  Cwd.xs > Cwd.xsc && C:\
Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e mv Cwd.xsc Cwd.c
        cl -c    -nologo -GF -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D_CONSO
+LE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT -DNO_HASH_SEED -D
USE_SITECUSTOMIZE -DPRIVLIB_LAST_IN_INC -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL
+_IMPLICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX -
MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1    -DVERSION=\"3.30\"  -DXS_VERSION=\"3.30\"  "-IC
+:\Perl\lib\CORE"   Cwd.c
Cwd.c
Cwd.xs(89) : warning C4996: 'getcwd': The POSIX name for this item is 
+deprecated. Instead, use the ISO C++ conformant na
me: _getcwd. See online help for details.
        C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\INCLUDE\direct
+.h(121) : see declaration of 'getcwd'
Cwd.xs(77) : warning C4101: 'symlink' : unreferenced local variable
Running Mkbootstrap for Cwd ()
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 644 Cwd.bs
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Mksymlists  -e "Mksymlists('N
+AME'=>\"Cwd\", 'DLBASE' => 'Cwd', 'DL_FUNCS' => {
 }, 'FUNCLIST' => [], 'IMPORTS' => {  }, 'DL_VARS' => []);"
        link -out:blib\arch\auto\Cwd\Cwd.dll -dll -nologo -nodefaultli
+b -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"C:\Perl\lib\CORE"
  -machine:x86 Cwd.obj   C:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl58.lib oldnames.lib kern
+el32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib  comdlg
32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib u
+uid.lib ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib
odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvcrt.lib -def:Cwd.def
   Creating library blib\arch\auto\Cwd\Cwd.lib and object blib\arch\au
+to\Cwd\Cwd.exp
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 755 blib\arc
+h\auto\Cwd\Cwd.dll
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e cp Cwd.bs blib\arc
+h\auto\Cwd\Cwd.bs
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 644 blib\arc
+h\auto\Cwd\Cwd.bs

C:\temp\file_spec\PathTools-3.30>
[download]

Then came the problems

C:\temp\file_spec\PathTools-3.30>nmake test

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 9.00.30729.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harn
+ess(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\arch')" t/*.t
t/crossplatform....ok
        10/71 skipped: various reasons
t/cwd..............ok
        2/30 skipped: various reasons
t/Functions........ok
t/rel2abs2rel......ok
t/Spec.............ok
        126/598 skipped: various reasons
t/taint............ok
t/tmpdir...........ok
t/win32............Undefined subroutine &Cwd::getdcwd called at t/win3
+2.t line 22.
t/win32............ok 1/4# Looks like you planned 4 tests but only ran
+ 1.
# Looks like your test died just after 1.
t/win32............dubious
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
DIED. FAILED tests 2-4
        Failed 3/4 tests, 25.00% okay
Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail  List of Failed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------
t/win32.t    255 65280     4    6  2-4
138 subtests skipped.
Failed 1/8 test scripts. 3/731 subtests failed.
Files=8, Tests=731,  3 wallclock secs ( 0.00 cusr +  0.00 csys =  0.00
+ CPU)
Failed 1/8 test programs. 3/731 subtests failed.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe' : return code '0xff'
Stop.
[download]

So... win32.t is failing. (plus others which I was soon to find out) So I ran it directly using this:
C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harness(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\arch')" t/win32.t Then I see the real error. (A pop-up msg)

perl.exe - unable to Locate Component
This application has failed to start because MSVCR90.dll was not found
+. Re-installing the application may fix this problem
[download]

So I give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, I tried reinstalling Perl. no joy. Same error
Then I tried copying the dll into my temp directory just to see what happens. New error this time:

 
MS Visual C++ Runtime Library

Program: C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe

R6034
An Application has made an attempt to load the C runtime library incor
+rectly.
[download]

And finally the questions

Why did Visual Studio compile the module with a dependancy on MSVCR90.dll?

Is there anything in the header c files, or makefile, or config.pm file I can edit so that it compiles a fully portable Win32 dll?

If I were to ditch Visual Studio 2008, and go with MinGW, how do I set up the environment? I couldn't seem to get nmake or MinGW's version of make to find the compiler.

If anyone here has tried both MS VisualStudio and the gcc tools to compile Perl modules specifically for Win32, which do you prefer and why?

Update: Well, I managed to get MinGW working, albeit, until it was actually working it was a bit touch and go... I kept trying various things, and I think my final working result was due to the following. I've jotted them down below for anyone else whos interested.

Run perl -V:make and perl -V:cc, if they still report make='nmake'; and cc='cl'; respectively, Perl won't create the Makefile file properly (at least for using with MinGW).

On my system I found that C:\Perl\Site\Bin was not in my PATH, only C:\Perl\Bin was... Once I updated that the perl -V:xxx commands gave the correct results, make='dmake'; and cc='gcc'; respectively.

Then, you should be able to follow the standard Mantra:
perl Makefile.pl
dmake
dmake test
dmake install

During my troubles, I found that -n switch on dmake quite helpful for troubleshooting, as it shows you what dmake is about to do, without actually doing it. And also the -v switch for verbose error logging.

Would anyone be kind enough to explain why MinGW compiles a fully portable dll and Visual Studio doesn't? Is it just Microsoft trying to dominate everything with their "you must use all our products. And anyway our stuff is incompatible with everyone else - and we like it that way..." kind of approach? Or is it a new industry standard for software development?

And finally, Thanks to everyone for their responses and feedback.

In reply to Compiling modules for win32 ActivePerl by desemondo

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