Or is there any other DLL file "Win32.dll" in your path, that gets loaded instead, by accident?

--shmem

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}

On an entirely unrelated issue: why do you start your program with #!/usr/bin/perl? On a Windows system it is most unlikely that the perl-executable is to be found at that location.

why do you start your program with #!/usr/bin/perl?

There's no reason not to use the #! line. I use it in my Windows code as I sometimes will want to use that same code on a Linux box. One upside of Perl is it's portability (when you write with that in mind) - no reason not to accommodate that from the get-go.

If you run Apache on your windows machine and you have installed Perl at C:\usr\, then Apache will find the perl executable at /usr/bin/perl. So this shebang is necessary and correct.

I run Apache on my Windows machine. Perl is not installed at c:/usr/ and none of my scripts use the she-bang line and still it works. So it may be correct but it sure is not necessary.

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

Works for me on Vanilla Perl on Win32. I'd second the call to check your PATH for conflicting .dll's or even a conflicting perl. (E.g. the Win32 SVK installer installs an entire perl.exe -- bad news if that's earlier in your PATH).

As an aside, for crashing perl on Win32, there's always this little bit of fun, too:

> perl -te fork
[download]

As an aside, for crashing perl on Win32, there's always this little bit of fun, too:

perl -te fork
[download]

How do you figure? Do you mean to say it literally crashes perl? It runs fine for me:

C:\>cmd
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>perl -te fork

C:\>perl -te "fork; print qq[I am $$\n]"
I am 3388
I am -5532

C:\>perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.3 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 8 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
...
[download]

I am wondering whether this is a joke/pun that I am not getting. Just curious...

Update: The same code runs on my Win2K machine at home:

C:\>cmd
Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.4 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 3 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
...
[download]

v5.8.3... v5.8.4...

Sorry for the confusion -- this bug was introduced in v5.8.7. No one on perl5porters seems to have any idea about it. AM mentioned "Tainted fork crash on Win32", which I posted when I first discovered it.

-xdg

Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

C:\>perl -te fork

Segfaults on all my Win32 perls (that I tried it on) on Windows 2000.

Cheers,
<Rob>

I'm not that familiar with ActivePerl any more, but the first thing I'd try would be to run the tests for the Win32 module and see if they all pass. Based on that result, you can figure out your next strategy.