CONTENTS

• NAME
• DESCRIPTION
  • FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads
  • $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD
• AUTHOR

#NAME

perlfreebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems

#DESCRIPTION

This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.

#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 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 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30631) which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6.

#$^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD

perl sets $^X where possible to a full path by asking the operating system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by using sysctl with KERN_PROC_PATHNAME if that is supported, else by reading the symlink /proc/curproc/file. FreeBSD 7 and earlier has a bug where either approach sometimes returns an incorrect value (see https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35703). In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's argv[0] value for $^X.

#AUTHOR

Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic and Tim Bunce.

Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues.

Perldoc Browser is maintained by Dan Book (DBOOK). Please contact him via the GitHub issue tracker or email regarding any issues with the site itself, search, or rendering of documentation.

The Perl documentation is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters in the development of Perl. Please contact them via the Perl issue tracker, the mailing list, or IRC to report any issues with the contents or format of the documentation.