Perl::Dist::Strawberry - Strawberry Perl for win32
Strawberry Perl is currently an alpha release and is not recommended for production purposes.
Strawberry Perl is a binary distribution of Perl for the Windows operating system. It includes a bundled compiler and pre-installed modules that offer the ability to install XS CPAN modules directly from CPAN.
The purpose of the Strawberry Perl series is to provide a practical Win32 Perl environment for experienced Perl developers to experiment with and test the installation of various CPAN modules under Win32 conditions, and to provide a useful platform for doing real work.
Strawberry Perl includes:
Perl 5.8.8
Mingw GCC C/C++ compiler
Dmake "make" tool
ExtUtils::CBuilder and ExtUtils::ParseXS
Bundle::CPAN (including Perl modules that largely eliminate the need for external helper programs like gzip and tar)
gzip
tar
Bundle::LWP (providing more reliable http CPAN repository support)
Additional Perl modules that enhance the stability of core Perl for the Win32 platform
The Perl::Dist::Strawberry distribution on CPAN contains programs and instructions for downloading component sources and assembling them into the executable installer for Strawberry Perl. It does not include the resulting Strawberry Perl installer itself.
See "DOWNLOADING THE INSTALLER" for instructions on where to download and how to install Strawberry Perl.
See Perl::Dist::Build at http://search.cpan.org for details on the builder used to create Strawberry Perl from source.
Strawberry Perl is and will continue to be based on the latest "stable" release of Perl, currently version 5.8.8. Some additional modifications are included that improve general compatibility with the Win32 platform or improve "turnkey" operation on Win32.
Whenever possible, these modifications will be made only by preinstalling additional CPAN modules within Strawberry Perl, particularly modules that have been newly included as core Perl modules in the "development" branch of perl to address Win32 compatibility issues.
Modules or distributions currently included are:
ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.30_01 -- fixes a Win32 perl path bug
CPAN 1.87_57 -- many small fixes for numerous annoyances on Win32
Win32API::File -- to allow for deletion of in-use files at next reboot; required for CPAN.pm to be able to upgrade itself
IO -- to address Win32 Socket bugs
Compress::Zlib, IO::Zlib and Archive::Tar -- to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on external, binary programs to handle .tar.gz files
Archive::Zip (and its dependency, Time::Local) -- to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on external, binary programs to handle .zip files
libnet -- provides Net::FTP to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on an external, binary ftp program; installed configured for FTP passive mode
Additionally, a stub CPAN Config.pm file is installed. It provides defaults to the path for dmake, to automatically follow dependencies and to use the Windows temporary directory for the CPAN working directory.
Strawberry Perl is available from http://strawberryperl.com/.
At present, Strawberry Perl must be installed in C:\strawberry. The executable installer adds the following environment variable changes:
* adds directories to PATH - C:\strawberry\perl\bin - C:\strawberry\c\bin * adds directories to LIB - C:\strawberry\perl\bin - C:\strawberry\c\lib * adds directories to INCLUDE - C:\strawberry\perl\lib\CORE - C:\strawberry\mingw\include
LIB and INCLUDE changes are likely more than are necessary, but attempt to head off potential problems compiling external programs for use with Perl.
Users installing Strawberry Perl without the installer will need to change their environment variables manually.
The first time that the "cpan" program is run, users will be prompted for configuration settings. With the defaults provided in Strawberry Perl, users may answer "no" to manual configuration and the installation should still work.
Manual CPAN configuration may be repeated by running the following command:
perl -MCPAN::FirstTime -e "CPAN::FirstTime::init"
Perl::Dist::Strawberry version numbers map to Strawberry Perl release versions as follows:
Pre-release series (0.x.y) 0.0.1 -- Strawberry Perl 5.8.8 Alpha 1 (July 9, 2006) 0.1.2 -- Strawberry Perl 5.8.8 Alpha 2 (August 27, 2006) 0.1.y -- Alpha series 0.3.y -- Beta series 0.5.y -- Release candidate series Perl 5.8 series (1.x.y) -- 'x' will be odd for test releases Perl 5.10 series (2.x.y) -- 'x' will be odd for test releases
Strawberry Perl is targeting release 1.0.0 to correspond to the next maintenance release of Perl (5.8.9), which should include most of the "changes from core Perl" listed above. Strawberry Perl will be declared Beta when the pre-release candidate for Perl 5.8.9 is available.
Currently, Strawberry Perl discussion is centered at win32.perl.org. New venues for discussion may be listed there.
Please report bugs or feature requests using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs can be sent by email to bug-Perl-Dist-Strawberry@rt.cpan.org or submitted using the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Perl-Dist-Strawberry
bug-Perl-Dist-Strawberry@rt.cpan.org
Copyright 2007 - 2008 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.
To install Perl::Dist::Strawberry, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Perl::Dist::Strawberry
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Perl::Dist::Strawberry
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.