PERLRISCOS(1)

✨ NAME ✨

perlriscos — it's Perl version 5, but make it RISC OS 💖 no cap.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay bestie, so this doc is literally your step-by-step for building Perl for RISC OS. it's giving... complicated 💀 and that's because you gotta cross-compile — yeah, exactly, the whole "build it somewhere else for somewhere else" situation.

good news tho!! there's a binary version of perl already sitting there at <https://www.cp15.org/perl/> and you may wish to use that instead of trying to compile it yourself. fr fr, sometimes the move is just taking the gift 🎁

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🌸 BUILD 🌸

so before anything, you need two things installed and working (not "kinda working", we need functioning bestie energy):

• GCCSDK cross-compiler — grab it at <https://www.riscos.info/downloads/gccsdk/latest/>
• REXEN — that's at <https://www.cp15.org/programming/>

got those? slay. now here's the whole sequence 👑

First, copy the source and build a native copy of perl for your host system. yes, a whole separate build for your own machine, it's part of the plan, trust.

Then, in the source to be cross-compiled:

1. run this:

$ ./Configure

2. Select the RISC OS hint file (hints/riscos.sh). the default answers for the rest of the questions are usually sufficient — don't overthink it, just vibe with the defaults 💅

⚠️ little heads up: if you wish to run Configure non-interactively (see the INSTALL document for details), and you want it to select the correct hint file, you'll need to provide the argument -Dhintfile=riscos on the Configure command-line. iykyk, that flag is doing the heavy lifting.

3. then:

$ make miniperl

4. okay so this should build miniperl... and then fail when it tries to run it. 😭 and that's fine!! that's literally the expected plot twist, don't panic.
5. Copy the miniperl executable from the native build you did earlier and use it to replace the cross-compiled miniperl. swapping in the understudy, main character energy ✨
6. now:

$ make

7. and this one will use miniperl to complete the rest of the build. 🎀 done, iconic, you ate.

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Alex Waugh <alex@alexwaugh.com> — thank you for your service 🫶

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this was perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-03, from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide. go forth and cross-compile, you absolute legend 🌈⭐💖