Steps to build Perl 5.6.2 in Cygwin 1.7.11 - perl

Question

I cannot seem to build perl 5.6.2 in Cygwin 1.7.11.
Here are the steps I am following to do it so far.
Download perl 5.6.2 source from website and untar to some folder "perl-5.6.2"
cd perl-5.6.2/bld
sh ../Configure -des -Dmksymlinks -Dprefix=/common/ndd/perl/5.6.2 -DDEBUGGING 2>&1
make 2>&1
make install 2>&1
Here are the logs from this:
http://pastebin.com/pqLg4S7z
What happens is make creates "perl-5.6.2/bld/perl.exe" and this file generates an abort signal every time.
Here is the backtrace from running gdb on it. (Note: I configured with -DDEBUGGING so all the gcc debug flags should be enabled.)
(gdb) run
Starting program: /openlogic/build/work/perl-5.6.2/bld/perl.exe
[New Thread 3348.0xf54]
[New Thread 3348.0x48c]
Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb) backtrace
#0 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#1 0x7792f8b1 in ntdll!RtlUpdateClonedSRWLock ()
from /cygdrive/c/Windows/system32/ntdll.dll
#2 0x757f0a91 in WaitForSingleObjectEx ()
from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/KERNELBASE.dll
#3 0x000000a8 in ?? ()
#4 0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb) quit
Here id the ldd.exe command ran on perl.exe
$ ldd /ndipiazza/build/work/perl-5.6.2/bld/perl.exe
ntdll.dll => /cygdrive/c/Windows/SysWOW64/ntdll.dll (0x77910000)
kernel32.dll => /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/kernel32.dll (0x75cb0000)
KERNELBASE.dll => /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/KERNELBASE.dll (0x757e0000)
libperl5_6_2.dll => /ndipiazza/build/work/perl-5.6.2/bld/libperl5_6_2.dll (0x66140000)
cygcrypt-0.dll => /usr/bin/cygcrypt-0.dll (0x67db0000)
cygwin1.dll => /usr/bin/cygwin1.dll (0x61000000)
??? => ??? (0x570000)
Can anyone see why I would be getting this sigabrt?
EDIT: here is a link to a discussion going on in Cygwin mailing list: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2012-07/msg00368.html

Answer 1

5.6 is outdated for your build environment. Maintenance patches exist.
I recommend to install perlbrew and patchperl:
$ perlbrew install-patchperl
which will DTRT.

Answer 2

This question is above my pay grade and this is a shot in the dark, but the two things I remember that ruin a perl5.6.2 build on Cygwin are
spaces in the $PATH (e.g. /cygdrive/c/Program Files/BlahBlahBlah)
configure script unable to determine the signal names
Check your config.sh script and see whether it contains lines like
sig_count='1'
sig_name='ZERO '
sig_name_init='"ZERO", 0'
sig_num='0 '
sig_num_init='0, 0'
You want it to say something like
sig_count='33'
sig_name='ZERO HUP INT QUIT ILL TRAP ABRT EMT FPE KILL BUS SEGV SYS PIPE ALRM TERM URG STOP TSTP CONT CHLD TTIN TTOU IO XCPU XFSZ VTALRM PROF WINCH LOST USR1 USR2 RTMAX CLD POLL PWR RTMIN '
sig_name_init='"ZERO", "HUP", "INT", "QUIT", "ILL", "TRAP", "ABRT", "EMT", "FPE", "KILL", "BUS", "SEGV", "SYS", "PIPE", "ALRM", "TERM", "URG", "STOP", "TSTP", "CONT", "CHLD", "TTIN", "TTOU", "IO", "XCPU", "XFSZ", "VTALRM", "PROF", "WINCH", "LOST", "USR1", "USR2", "RTMAX", "CLD", "POLL", "PWR", "RTMIN", 0'
sig_num='0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 20 23 29 32 '
sig_num_init='0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 20, 23, 29, 32, 0'
(I copied these values from a config.sh from a build for a newer version of Perl. The values you need may vary slightly)

Answer 3

I figured it out. Perl 5.6.2 tries to use it's own malloc. This is incompatible with Cygwin's malloc.
I was given some help on Cygwin mailing list to fix this: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2012-07/msg00380.html
Bottom line, add -Dusemymalloc=n to the sh ./Configure arguments.
Then it works.