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   1  If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
   2  see.  It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
   3  specifically designed to be readable as is.
   4  
   5  =head1 NAME
   6  
   7  README.freebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems
   8  
   9  =head1 DESCRIPTION
  10  
  11  This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl
  12  version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
  13  
  14  =head2 FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads
  15  
  16  When perl is configured to use ithreads, it will use re-entrant library calls
  17  in preference to non-re-entrant versions.  There is a bug in FreeBSD's
  18  C<readdir_r> function in versions 4.5 and earlier that can cause a SEGV when
  19  reading large directories. A patch for FreeBSD libc is available
  20  (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=misc/30631 )
  21  which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6.
  22  
  23  =head2 $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD
  24  
  25  perl 5.8.0 sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating
  26  system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by reading
  27  the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. There is a bug on FreeBSD, where the
  28  result of reading this symlink is can be wrong in certain circumstances
  29  (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ).
  30  In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's
  31  argv[0] value for C<$^X>.
  32  
  33  =head2 Perl will no longer be part of "base FreeBSD"
  34  
  35  Not as bad as it sounds--what this means is that Perl will no longer be
  36  part of the B<kernel build system> of FreeBSD.  Perl will still very
  37  probably be part of the "default install", and in any case the latest
  38  version will be in the ports system.  The first FreeBSD version this
  39  change will affect is 5.0, all 4.n versions will keep the status quo.
  40  
  41  =head1 AUTHOR
  42  
  43  Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic
  44  and Tim Bunce.
  45  
  46  Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.
  47