Windows perl/tcl requirement documentation
Our docs currently state this regarding the perl requirement for
building on Windows:
ActiveState Perl
ActiveState Perl is required to run the build generation scripts.
MinGW or Cygwin Perl will not work. It must also be present in the
PATH. Binaries can be downloaded from https://www.activestate.com
<https://www.activestate.com> (Note: version 5.14 or later is
required, the free Standard Distribution is sufficient).
This really hasn't been a true requirement for quite some time. I
stopped using AS perl quite a few years ago due to possible licensing
issues, and have been building with MSVC using Strawberry Perl ever
since. Andres recently complained that Strawberry was somewhat out of
date, but that's no longer really the case - it's on 5.38.2, which is
the latest in that series, and perl 5.40.0 was only releases a few weeks
ago.
We recommend AS Tcl/Tk, which I have not used, but which I am wary of
for the same reasons. There is a BSD licensed up to date windows binary
installation called Magicsplat which I haven't tried but which might
well be suitable for our purposes.
I suggest we remove these references to AS and replace them with
references to Windows distros that are more appropriate.
cheers
andrew
--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB:https://www.enterprisedb.com
On Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 11:27:26AM -0400, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
Our docs currently state this regarding the perl requirement for building on
Windows:ActiveState Perl
ActiveState Perl is required to run the build generation scripts.
MinGW or Cygwin Perl will not work. It must also be present in the
PATH. Binaries can be downloaded from https://www.activestate.com
<https://www.activestate.com> (Note: version 5.14 or later is
required, the free Standard Distribution is sufficient).This really hasn't been a true requirement for quite some time. I stopped
using AS perl quite a few years ago due to possible licensing issues, and
have been building with MSVC using Strawberry Perl ever since. Andres
recently complained that Strawberry was somewhat out of date, but that's no
longer really the case - it's on 5.38.2, which is the latest in that series,
and perl 5.40.0 was only releases a few weeks ago.
This is an area where I have proposed a set of changes in the last
commit fest of March, but it led nowehere as, at least it seems to me,
there was no strong consensus about what to mention as main
references:
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/47/4745/
/messages/by-id/ZZEGb7NQbkZm0VtO@paquier.xyz
Not everything should be gone, but I was wondering back on this thread
if it would make most sense to replace all these references to point
to the popular packaging systems used in the buildfarm.
We recommend AS Tcl/Tk, which I have not used, but which I am wary of for
the same reasons. There is a BSD licensed up to date windows binary
installation called Magicsplat which I haven't tried but which might well be
suitable for our purposes.
Interesting.
I suggest we remove these references to AS and replace them with references
to Windows distros that are more appropriate.
Agreed.
--
Michael
On 2024-07-16 Tu 7:21 PM, Michael Paquier wrote:
On Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 11:27:26AM -0400, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
Our docs currently state this regarding the perl requirement for building on
Windows:ActiveState Perl
ActiveState Perl is required to run the build generation scripts.
MinGW or Cygwin Perl will not work. It must also be present in the
PATH. Binaries can be downloaded from https://www.activestate.com
<https://www.activestate.com> (Note: version 5.14 or later is
required, the free Standard Distribution is sufficient).This really hasn't been a true requirement for quite some time. I stopped
using AS perl quite a few years ago due to possible licensing issues, and
have been building with MSVC using Strawberry Perl ever since. Andres
recently complained that Strawberry was somewhat out of date, but that's no
longer really the case - it's on 5.38.2, which is the latest in that series,
and perl 5.40.0 was only releases a few weeks ago.This is an area where I have proposed a set of changes in the last
commit fest of March, but it led nowehere as, at least it seems to me,
there was no strong consensus about what to mention as main
references:
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/47/4745/
/messages/by-id/ZZEGb7NQbkZm0VtO@paquier.xyzNot everything should be gone, but I was wondering back on this thread
if it would make most sense to replace all these references to point
to the popular packaging systems used in the buildfarm.
At the very least we should stop recommending things we don't use or
test with. Our default position of doing nothing is getting increasingly
untenable here. We're actively misleading people IMNSHO.
cheers
andrew
--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com