Perl
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| - | One caveat of perl development on the [[N900]] is that there is a fuller perl distribution in the SDK than on the device. This means not just that there are fewer modules on the device, it means that rather fundamental perl modules are missing form the normal debian version of perl on the device. This is done to save space; the device itself is embedded linux, | + | One caveat of perl development on the [[N900]] is that there is a fuller perl distribution in the SDK than on the device. This means not just that there are fewer modules on the device, it means that rather fundamental perl modules are missing form the normal debian version of perl on the device. This is done to save space; the device itself is embedded linux, the root files system is rather small. |
You will find it difficult to build perl modules on the device if you do not add the necessary perl tools, namely perl and perl-modules. Without these key tools, many of the modules used to build perl modules won't exist on the device and you won't be able to add software written in perl. Here is an example of what is shipped with both the SDK and device environments; | You will find it difficult to build perl modules on the device if you do not add the necessary perl tools, namely perl and perl-modules. Without these key tools, many of the modules used to build perl modules won't exist on the device and you won't be able to add software written in perl. Here is an example of what is shipped with both the SDK and device environments; | ||
Revision as of 01:30, 9 November 2009
The Perl environment on the Maemo Platform
Because Maemo is based on debian, and because perl is such a big part of the debian OS, Maemo contains a full-blown Perl platform. This page aims to document and describe this environment so developers can take advantage of it when programming on the Maemo platform.
Fremantle
The current version of perl shipped with the N900 is 5.8.3.
One caveat of perl development on the N900 is that there is a fuller perl distribution in the SDK than on the device. This means not just that there are fewer modules on the device, it means that rather fundamental perl modules are missing form the normal debian version of perl on the device. This is done to save space; the device itself is embedded linux, the root files system is rather small.
You will find it difficult to build perl modules on the device if you do not add the necessary perl tools, namely perl and perl-modules. Without these key tools, many of the modules used to build perl modules won't exist on the device and you won't be able to add software written in perl. Here is an example of what is shipped with both the SDK and device environments;
| In the SDK | On device |
| liblocale-gettext-perl 1.01-17osso2 libtimedate-perl 1.1600-4osso | liblocale-gettext-perl 1.01-17osso2 perl-base 5.8.3-3osso10 |
If you wish to add perl modules what I recommend is to bring in the necessary tools, namely the perl package and the perl-modules package. You can do that by adding the repositories that supply modules to the SDK. Of course you can build perl yourself, but it is already built for the device's architecture and it is in a known good states, so it is much easier to just take the already built packages for the N900. (There are later versions of perl built and packaged for the device, I'll eventually provide links to those, until then, you'll have to rely on google.)