| If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
| see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is |
| specifically designed to be readable as is. |
| |
| =head1 NAME |
| |
| perlfreebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems |
| |
| =head1 DESCRIPTION |
| |
| This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl |
| version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs. |
| |
| =head2 FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads |
| |
| When perl is configured to use ithreads, it will use re-entrant library calls |
| in preference to non-re-entrant versions. There is a bug in FreeBSD's |
| C<readdir_r> function in versions 4.5 and earlier that can cause a SEGV when |
| reading large directories. A patch for FreeBSD libc is available |
| (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=misc/30631 ) |
| which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6. |
| |
| =head2 $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD |
| |
| perl sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating |
| system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by using |
| C<sysctl> with C<KERN_PROC_PATHNAME> if that is supported, else by reading |
| the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. FreeBSD 7 and earlier has a bug where |
| either approach sometimes returns an incorrect value |
| (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ). |
| In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's |
| argv[0] value for C<$^X>. |
| |
| =head1 AUTHOR |
| |
| Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic |
| and Tim Bunce. |
| |
| Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>. |
| |
