README.freebsd

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

README.freebsd - 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 5.8.0 sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating
system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by reading
the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. There is a bug on FreeBSD, where the
result of reading this symlink is can be wrong in certain circumstances
(see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ).
In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's
argv[0] value for C<$^X>.

=head2 Perl will no longer be part of "base FreeBSD"

Not as bad as it sounds--what this means is that Perl will no longer be
part of the B<kernel build system> of FreeBSD.  Perl will still very
probably be part of the "default install", and in any case the latest
version will be in the ports system.  The first FreeBSD version this
change will affect is 5.0, all 4.n versions will keep the status quo.

=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>.