Newsgroup: comp.lang.perl

check out pd1:<msdos.perl>perl3.zip, or ftp.math.lsa.umich.edu:pub/emv/perl3.zip.  
(the latter for a limited time only, it'll probably migrate over to terminator.cc.umich.edu
pretty quickly.

here's the readme.

         Notes on the binary release of MS-DOS Perl


            Perl program designed and created by
           Larry Wall <lwall@devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>

               DOS port and binary release by
            Diomidis Spinellis <dds@cc.ic.ac.uk>


1.  Copying

     Perl  is  copyrighted  under  the  GNU  General  Public
License  a  copy  of  which can be found in the file ``Copy-
ing.''  Please read the  license  before  copying  or  using
Perl.   This  binary  distribution  is  based on paragraph 3
clause c) of it. You can find the complete  source  of  Perl
available  for  anonymous  ftp  and uucp on uunet.uu.net and
other comp.sources.unix archives.

2.  Contents

     The following files are included in this distribution

        Name          Length   CRC
        ============  ======== ====
        PERL.EXE        267813 5246     Perl executable
        GLOB.EXE          6373 2a1c     Wildcard expansion
        COPYING          12735 6512     GNU General Public License
        PERL.MAN        216516 5007     Manual
        README          fixed point     This file
        DRIVES.BAT        1153 ab1d     Example program
        ABBREV.PL          584 4a6b     Various library utilities
        CTIME.PL          1314 8f48
        DUMPVAR.PL         612 de91
        GETOPT.PL         1070 9439
        GETOPTS.PL         950 66a9
        IMPORTEN.PL        358 2e02
        LOOK.PL           1062 0a35
        PERLDB.PL        11399 bfce
        STAT.PL            635 95f6


3.  Installation

     In order to install Perl you need to copy the Perl exe-
cutable  (perl.exe) and the filename wildcard expansion com-
mand (glob.exe) in a directory included in  your  path.   In
order  to use the Perl debugger and the other library utili-
ties you need to copy all the .pl files  in  the  directory:
/usr/local/lib/perl.   The  manual can be printed on 66 line
per page paper on any printer capable of overstriking.


4.  Using MS-DOS Perl

     The MS-DOS version of perl has most of the  functional-
ity of the Unix version.  Functions that can not be provided
under  MS-DOS  like  sockets,  password  and  host  database
access,  fork  and wait have been ommited and will terminate
with a fatal error.  Care has been taken  to  implement  the
rest.   In particular directory access, redirection (includ-
ing pipes, but excluding the pipe function),  system,  ioctl
and sleep have been provided.

4.1.  Interface to the MS-DOS ioctl system call.

     The function code of the  ioctl  function  (the  second
argument) is encoded as follows:

        - The lowest nibble of the function code goes to AL.
        - The two middle nibbles go to CL.
        - The high nibble goes to CH.

     The return code is -1 in the case of an  error  and  if
successful:

        - for functions AL = 00, 09, 0a the value of the register DX
        - for functions AL = 02 - 08, 0e the value of the register AX
        - for functions AL = 01, 0b - 0f the number 0.

     See the perl manual for instruction on how  to  distin-
guish between the return value and the success of ioctl.

     Some ioctl functions need a number as the  first  argu-
ment.   Provided  that  no  other files have been opened the
number  can  be   obtained   if   ioctl   is   called   with
@fdnum[number]  as  the  first  argument after executing the
following code:

                @fdnum = ("STDIN", "STDOUT", "STDERR");
                $maxdrives = 15;
                for ($i = 3; $i < $maxdrives; $i++) {
                        open("FD$i", "nul");
                        @fdnum[$i - 1] = "FD$i";
                }


4.2.  Binary file access

     Files are opened in text mode by default.   This  means
that  CR LF pairs are translated to LF.  If binary access is
needed the `binary'  function  should  be  used.   There  is
currently  no  way to reverse the effect of the binary func-
tion.  If that is needed close and reopen the file.

4.3.  Interpreter startup.

     The effect of the Unix #!/bin/perl interpreter  startup
can  be  obtained  under  MS-DOS by giving the script a .bat
extension and using the following lines on its begining:

                @REM=("
                @perl %0.bat %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
                @goto end ") if 0 ;

And the following ones at the end:

                @REM=("
                :end ") if 0 ;

(Note that you will probably want an absolute path  name  in
front of %0.bat).

                                        May 1990

                                        Diomidis Spinellis <dds@cc.ic.ac.uk>
                                        Myrsinis 1
                                        GR-145 62 Kifissia
                                        Greece

Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material on this page created by Diomidis Spinellis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Greece License.