Jarkko's How to build Configure tweaked by Nick. The Configure script and config_h.SH file in the Perl distribution are generated by a program called metaconfig. Metaconfig was originally written by Larry Wall, and was subsequently enhanced and maintained by Raphael Manfredi. You have presumably obtained the metaconfig from the repository e.g. p4 sync //depot/metaconfig/... (those are three literal dots) or some other way to obtain this file, like a complete compressed archive from the previous pumpkin. Normally this directory and perl directory are next to each other so ../perl will get you to perl and ../perl/../metaconfig will get you back here. Contents of this directory: README: This file. U: Metaconfig units used for buliding Perl's Configure U.check: Sample directory used for testing new metaconfig units. see U.check/README for more information. dist-3.0at70: dist-3.0 at patchlevel 70. This is the final version released by Raphael Manfredi. Don't use it. Instead, use ... dist-3.0at70b: dist-3.0 at patchlevel 70 with unofficial patches 'a' and 'b' applied. This version was never officially released, but the patches are essential, so this is the version we use for perl. Actually, I've also applied U/dist_patches/dist-p70c to this tree. If someone with perforce access wants to change the name of the directory, that'd be fine. Otherwise, it really doesn't matter. (a) You need to have dist installed so that you have metalint and metaconfig in your $PATH. The dist version used for perl is dist-3.0at70b in this directory. Unsurprisingly 'dist' uses (its) Configure to generate itself: cd dist-3.0at70b chmod +w -R . # We have derived files in perforce :-( ./Configure make make install dist's 'Configure' is similar to perl's but perhaps not quite as polished. There are some perl specific "dist units" in the 'U' directory. The U directory also contains some patches to 'dist' which have already been applied to dist-3.0at70b directory. We have not yet arranged for metaconfig to use perl's versions of the 'units' by default so you need some housekeeping in the perl directory... (b) You need to be in a/the Perl directory, i.e. either something from //depot/perl/... or one of its branches (e.g. Nick I-S is usually in //depot/perlio/...) and you need: 1) have a symlink to ../metaconfig/U called U 2) have a symlink to ../metaconfig/.package called .package 3) have a symlink to MANIFEST called MANIFEST.new 4) chmod +w Configure config_h.SH Porting/Glossary Porting/config* (c) Write the new unit as U/foo/bar.U (usually 'foo' is just 'perl', but sometimes there's some more appropriate subdir of U. See U/README for a description of the various subdirectories.) (d) Run metalint to see nits: as opposed to lint, the gripings of metalint are usually serious :-) and need fixing Exceptions are lots of Your private U/modified/voidflags.U overrides the public one. due to the perl special units and "End.U": stale ?MAKE: dependency '$W'. which is apparently normal ... (e) p4 edit Configure config_h.SH (f) metaconfig -m to regenerate Configure (g) The messy not-yet-automated part is that the knowledge of the new symbol needs to be propagated to non-Configure lands like Win32, WinCE, Netware, VMS, VOS, EPOC, ... see previous Configure changes to see which are these heathen lands. Files to take care of are {win32,wince,NetWare}/config_[hH]*, (Win32, WinCE, NetWare), configure.com (VMS), VOS/config* (since 5.9 VOS uses Configure, though), epoc/config.sh (EPOC). Depending on the kind of patch djgpp/config* might also need adjusting (for example when adding/changing the list of extensions) For Win32 the process is semi-automated - if you have a Win32 machine to run dmake on ... (h) Edit U/mkglossary (right near the top) to point to where you keep dist's standard metaconfig units as well as your perl-specific ones. (i) Run U/mksample to freshen the Porting/config* and Porting/Glossary. Adjust the various compile-time options (e.g. 64bit, threads) as you see fit. You can skip this phase, it's not essential, just good housekeeping. (j) make veryclean;sh Configure -des -Dusedevel;make all test (k) p4 add ../metaconfig/foo/bar.U when you are ready ... (l) p4 submit IF your $EDITOR and/or $VISUAL start a background edit session ('elvis -fork' or 'gvim'), be sure to set $P4EDITOR to an editor call that is waited for.