Problem when using NMAKE to build Perl on Windows

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

treble54

2007-05-30 21:36:32 UTC

I am trying to run Perl in a Windows environment.

Here is my setup:
I have installed Visual Studio C++ Express 2005 as well as the latest
SDK (non 64-bit version). I am currently running Windows XP SP2. I
first had problems with the some environment variables but I resolved
that by adding the correct paths in the LIB and INCLUDE environment
variables.

Here is the issue I am trying to resolve:
I load up the Visual Studio 2005 Command prompt and direct my way to
the correct ..\perl-5.8.8\win32\ directory. From that, I type nmake to
start the make process. When the build process of nmake gets outputs
the line:

"Runing Makefile.PL in B
C:\..\perl-5.8.8\win32\..\miniperl.exe -IC:\..\perl5.8.8\win32\..\lib
Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=perl PERL_CORE=1"

a window outside the command prompt pops up, stating:
"miniperl.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are
sorry for the inconvenience." with the only optional button being one
that says "Close." When I hit the "Close" button, the same window pops
up again, stating the same information about "miniperl.exe"
encountering a problem. I press the "Close" button again and the
resulting output is as follows:

"Making B
nmake -nologo
NMAKE : fatal error U1064: MAKEFILE not found and no target specified
Stop.
Unsuccessful make(B): code=512 at buildext.pl line 142.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '..\miniperl.exe' : return code '0x2'
Stop."

After that, I gain control of the prompt again. I am hoping someone on
here will be able to help me resolve this error. If anyone here has
some help or suggestions that they can contribute, I would very much
appreciate it. Thanks for taking your time to look over this.

-- treble54

e***@googlemail.com

2007-05-31 03:32:46 UTC

Permalink

Post by treble54
I am trying to run Perl in a Windows environment.
I have installed Visual Studio C++ Express 2005 as well as the latest
SDK (non 64-bit version). I am currently running Windows XP SP2. I
first had problems with the some environment variables but I resolved
that by adding the correct paths in the LIB and INCLUDE environment
variables.
I load up the Visual Studio 2005 Command prompt and direct my way to
the correct ..\perl-5.8.8\win32\ directory. From that, I type nmake to
start the make process. When the build process of nmake gets outputs
"Runing Makefile.PL in B
C:\..\perl-5.8.8\win32\..\miniperl.exe -IC:\..\perl5.8.8\win32\..\lib
Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=perl PERL_CORE=1"
"miniperl.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are
sorry for the inconvenience." with the only optional button being one
that says "Close." When I hit the "Close" button, the same window pops
up again, stating the same information about "miniperl.exe"
encountering a problem. I press the "Close" button again and the
"Making B
nmake -nologo
NMAKE : fatal error U1064: MAKEFILE not found and no target specified
Stop.
Unsuccessful make(B): code=512 at buildext.pl line 142.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '..\miniperl.exe' : return code '0x2'
Stop."
After that, I gain control of the prompt again. I am hoping someone on
here will be able to help me resolve this error. If anyone here has
some help or suggestions that they can contribute, I would very much
appreciate it. Thanks for taking your time to look over this.
-- treble54

Try a google search for install perl on windows. If im not mistaken
there is a an issue with using nmake that disappears if you use make.
But to be sure do the search.

Dean

e***@googlemail.com

2007-05-31 03:39:42 UTC

Permalink

Post by e***@googlemail.com

Try a google search for install perl on windows. If im not mistaken
there is a an issue with using nmake that disappears if you use make.
But to be sure do the search.
Dean

If you're interested you can install the ActivePerl distro
(www.activestate.com).

Sisyphus

2007-05-31 05:53:52 UTC

Permalink

Others have reported problems with miniperl when attempting to use that
compiler to build perl. I don't think anyone has managed to build perl using
that compiler - I haven't checked for a while, so please let me know if you
discover that's not so.

Building perl is a fairly straightforward procedure using Visual Studio 6.0,
7.0, or 7.1. (Do you have either of them ?)
It's also fairly straightforward using the (freely available) MinGW port of
the gcc compiler and dmake.

For MinGW and dmake:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2435&package_id=82721&release_id=158801
and
http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/

I know activestate uses the freely available Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform
SDK compiler for their 64-bit build of ActivePerl (as Visual Studio 6.0
won't work in a 64-bit environment). I think there's a good chance that the
32-bit version of Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK compiler would also
build perl on a 32-bit platform (but I don't really know). You can get it
from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0BAF2B35-C656-4969-ACE8-E4C0C0716ADB&displaylang=en

if you want to give it a try.

One other option worth investigating is Strawberry Perl:
http://vanillaperl.com/ .

It's a precompiled perl but it comes packaged with it's own compiler
(MinGW's gcc) and make (dmake) - so there's nothing else that needs to be
installed if you want to build perl extensions. (For that matter, you could
use the MinGW and dmake that comes with Strawberry perl to build your own
perl if you wanted.)

Then, of course, there's ActivePerl (as Dean mentioned). It doesn't give you
a compiler, but there's a good PPM utility for installing pre-built modules.
And I think you might even have a fair degree of success using Visual Studio
C++ Express 2005 to build perl extensions - though I'm loathe to recommend
using that compiler with ActivePerl.

Cheers,
Rob