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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the equal signs on the left. |
2 | This file is written in the POD format (see [.POD]PERLPOD.POD;1) which is | |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
fb73857a | 4 | |
b4bc034f GS |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | ||
de2902a6 | 7 | perlvms - Configuring, building, testing, and installing perl on VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
8 | |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | To configure, build, test, and install perl on VMS: | |
12 | ||
961b17fa CB |
13 | @configure |
14 | mmk | |
15 | mmk test | |
16 | mmk install | |
b4bc034f GS |
17 | |
18 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
19 | ||
20 | =head2 Important safety tip | |
97abc6ad | 21 | |
ec55d5e4 CB |
22 | For best results, make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build", |
23 | "Building Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before | |
24 | you build or install. Also please note other changes in the current | |
25 | release by having a look at L<perldelta/VMS>. | |
97abc6ad | 26 | |
a83b6f46 | 27 | =head2 Introduction to Perl on VMS |
fb73857a | 28 | |
29 | The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port | |
30 | (and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries | |
31 | provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or | |
b4bc034f GS |
32 | reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling |
33 | (e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you | |
fb73857a | 34 | might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and |
35 | sub-processes very differently. | |
36 | ||
b4bc034f | 37 | There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we |
fb73857a | 38 | could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like |
b4bc034f | 39 | to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now! |
fb73857a | 40 | |
a83b6f46 | 41 | =head2 Other required software for Compiling Perl on VMS |
b4bc034f | 42 | |
961b17fa | 43 | In addition to VMS and DCL you will need three things: |
fb73857a | 44 | |
b4bc034f GS |
45 | =over 4 |
46 | ||
47 | =item 1 A C compiler. | |
48 | ||
10019e56 | 49 | HP (formerly Compaq, more formerly DEC) C for VMS (VAX, Alpha, or Itanium). |
da80cd87 CB |
50 | Various ancient versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if you're using a |
51 | version older than 7.x on Alpha or Itanium or 6.x on VAX, you may need to | |
52 | upgrade to get a successful build. | |
b4bc034f | 53 | |
961b17fa CB |
54 | There have been no recent reports of builds using Gnu C, but latent |
55 | (and most likely outdated) support for it is still present in various | |
56 | parts of the sources. | |
57 | ||
58 | There is rudimentary but not quite complete support for HP C++; to try it out, | |
59 | configure with C<-"Dusecxx" -"Duser_c_flags=/WARN=INFORMATIONAL=NOCTOBUTCONREFM">. | |
60 | ||
b4bc034f GS |
61 | =item 2 A make tool. |
62 | ||
961b17fa CB |
63 | You will need the free MMS analog MMK (available from |
64 | L<http://ftp.endlesssoftware.com.au/mmk/kits/> or | |
65 | L<https://github.com/endlesssoftware/mmk>). HP's MMS has not been known to work for | |
66 | some time as Perl's automatically-generated description files are too complex for it, | |
67 | but MMS support may return in the future. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long | |
68 | since anyone's tested it that we're not sure. | |
69 | ||
70 | =item 3 ODS-5 and Extended Parse | |
71 | ||
72 | All development and testing of Perl on VMS takes place on ODS-5 volumes with | |
73 | extended parse enabled in the environment via the command C<SET PROCESS/PARSE=EXTENDED>. | |
74 | Latent support for ODS-2 volumes (including on VAX) is still present, but the number | |
75 | of components that require ODS-5 features is steadily growing and ODS-2 support may be | |
76 | completely removed in a future release. | |
77 | ||
b4bc034f GS |
78 | |
79 | =back | |
80 | ||
a83b6f46 | 81 | =head2 Additional software that is optional for Perl on VMS |
fb73857a | 82 | |
9f3f8d50 | 83 | You may also want to have on hand: |
b4bc034f GS |
84 | |
85 | =over 4 | |
86 | ||
961b17fa | 87 | =item 1 gunzip/gzip for VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
88 | |
89 | A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number | |
961b17fa | 90 | of web/ftp sites such as: |
b4bc034f | 91 | |
961b17fa CB |
92 | L<http://www.antinode.info/dec/sw/gzip.html> |
93 | L<http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?GZIP> | |
b4bc034f | 94 | |
961b17fa | 95 | =item 2 VMS tar |
b4bc034f | 96 | |
961b17fa CB |
97 | For reading and writing Unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also |
98 | available from a number of sites such as: | |
b4bc034f | 99 | |
961b17fa CB |
100 | L<http://www.antinode.info/dec/sw/vmstar.html> |
101 | L<http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?VMSTAR> | |
d83fac45 | 102 | |
10019e56 CB |
103 | A port of GNU tar is also available as part of the GNV package: |
104 | ||
961b17fa | 105 | L<http://h71000.www7.hp.com/opensource/gnv.html> |
10019e56 | 106 | |
961b17fa | 107 | =item 3 unzip for VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
108 | |
109 | A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files. | |
110 | Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites. | |
111 | ||
961b17fa CB |
112 | L<http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html> |
113 | L<http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/> | |
114 | L<http://vms.process.com/fileserv-software.html> | |
b4bc034f | 115 | |
961b17fa | 116 | =item 5 GNU patch and diffutils for VMS |
1bc81404 CB |
117 | |
118 | Patches to Perl are usually distributed as GNU unified or contextual diffs. | |
119 | Such patches are created by the GNU diff program (part of the diffutils | |
120 | distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are | |
121 | available here: | |
122 | ||
961b17fa CB |
123 | L<http://www.antinode.info/dec/sw/diffutils.html> |
124 | L<http://vms.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/gnupatch.zip> | |
1bc81404 | 125 | |
b4bc034f GS |
126 | =back |
127 | ||
961b17fa | 128 | Please note that unzip and gunzip are not the same thing (they work with |
b4bc034f | 129 | different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive |
58979ab1 PP |
130 | Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz or *.tgz format (this includes copies |
131 | of the source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may | |
132 | wish to add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and | |
133 | VMSTAR.EXE on your VMS machine. | |
fb73857a | 134 | |
b4bc034f GS |
135 | If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either |
136 | DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic | |
137 | for more details. | |
fb73857a | 138 | |
d83fac45 PP |
139 | =head1 Unpacking the Perl source code |
140 | ||
961b17fa CB |
141 | You may need to set up a foreign symbol for the unpacking utility of |
142 | choice. Once you have done so, use a command like the following to | |
143 | unpack the archive: | |
718752a5 | 144 | |
3f572b05 | 145 | vmstar -xvf perl-5^.21^.7.tar |
d83fac45 | 146 | |
961b17fa CB |
147 | Then set default to the top-level source directory like so: |
148 | ||
3f572b05 | 149 | set default [.perl-5^.21^.7] |
d83fac45 | 150 | |
961b17fa | 151 | and proceed with configuration as described in the next section. |
d83fac45 | 152 | |
d83fac45 | 153 | |
b4bc034f | 154 | =head1 Configuring the Perl build |
fb73857a | 155 | |
97abc6ad | 156 | To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command |
fb73857a | 157 | |
961b17fa | 158 | @configure.com |
fb73857a | 159 | |
b4bc034f GS |
160 | from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a |
161 | series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities | |
961b17fa | 162 | of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom- |
b4bc034f | 163 | built for your machine. |
fb73857a | 164 | |
b4bc034f | 165 | If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may |
961b17fa | 166 | interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then F<configure.com> |
b4bc034f | 167 | will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing |
7bb57f25 GS |
168 | you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to |
169 | then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table | |
170 | such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the | |
b4bc034f GS |
171 | SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table) |
172 | otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially | |
961b17fa | 173 | troublesome logicals and symbols include: |
7bb57f25 | 174 | |
b3b333bf PP |
175 | COMP "LOGICAL" |
176 | EXT "LOGICAL" | |
177 | FOO "LOGICAL" | |
178 | LIB "LOGICAL" | |
179 | LIST "LOGICAL" | |
180 | MIME "LOGICAL" | |
181 | POSIX "LOGICAL" | |
182 | SYS "LOGICAL" | |
183 | T "LOGICAL" | |
184 | THREAD "LOGICAL" | |
185 | THREADS "LOGICAL" | |
186 | TIME "LOGICAL" | |
187 | TMP "LOGICAL" | |
188 | UNICODE "LOGICAL" | |
189 | UTIL "LOGICAL" | |
190 | TEST "SYMBOL" | |
fb73857a | 191 | |
97abc6ad HM |
192 | As a handy shortcut, the command: |
193 | ||
961b17fa | 194 | @configure "-des" |
b4bc034f GS |
195 | |
196 | (note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults | |
046cc26c CB |
197 | automatically. Some options can be given explicitly on the command line; |
198 | the following example specifies a non-default location for where Perl | |
199 | will be installed: | |
1bc81404 | 200 | |
961b17fa | 201 | @configure "-d" "-Dprefix=dka100:[utils.perl5.]" |
1bc81404 | 202 | |
dab31494 | 203 | Note that the installation location would be by default where you unpacked |
fe05d1a7 | 204 | the source with a "_ROOT." appended. For example if you unpacked the perl |
dab31494 PP |
205 | source into: |
206 | ||
961b17fa | 207 | F<DKA200:[PERL-5^.18^.0...]> |
dab31494 | 208 | |
961b17fa | 209 | Then the F<PERL_SETUP.COM> that gets written out by F<configure.com> will |
dab31494 PP |
210 | try to DEFINE your installation PERL_ROOT to be: |
211 | ||
961b17fa | 212 | F<DKA200:[PERL-5^.18^.0_ROOT.]> |
dab31494 | 213 | |
1bc81404 | 214 | More help with configure.com is available from: |
b4bc034f | 215 | |
961b17fa | 216 | @configure "-h" |
b4bc034f | 217 | |
961b17fa CB |
218 | If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding then be sure to also follow |
219 | the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional)" and the checklist | |
220 | of items in the "CAVEATS" sections below. | |
b4bc034f | 221 | |
a83b6f46 | 222 | =head2 Changing compile-time options (optional) for Perl on VMS |
b4bc034f | 223 | |
961b17fa | 224 | Most of the user-definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in |
adc5a9a5 CB |
225 | configure.com, which processes the hints file config_h.SH. There is |
226 | code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that may end up being the | |
227 | wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what you are doing since | |
228 | inappropriate changes to configure.com or config_h.SH can render perl | |
229 | unbuildable; odds are that there's nothing in there you'll need to | |
961b17fa CB |
230 | change. Note also that non-default options are tested less than default |
231 | options, so you may end up being more of a pioneer than you intend to be. | |
b4bc034f | 232 | |
a83b6f46 | 233 | =head2 Socket Support (optional) for Perl on VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
234 | |
235 | Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if | |
046cc26c CB |
236 | you choose to compile Perl with socket support. It does this via the socket |
237 | routines built into the CRTL regarless of which TCP/IP stack your system | |
238 | has. | |
17d4810c | 239 | |
b4bc034f GS |
240 | =head1 Building Perl |
241 | ||
242 | The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK | |
243 | command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start | |
244 | the build. | |
97abc6ad | 245 | |
b4bc034f GS |
246 | Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should |
247 | compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the | |
248 | "CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some | |
961b17fa | 249 | mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the L<"Mailing Lists"> |
b4bc034f | 250 | section of this document. |
97abc6ad | 251 | |
b4bc034f | 252 | =head1 Testing Perl |
fb73857a | 253 | |
b4bc034f GS |
254 | Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work. |
255 | This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong | |
256 | somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you. | |
fb73857a | 257 | |
258 | Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl | |
da80cd87 | 259 | distribution. To run the tests, enter the I<exact> MMS line you used to |
fb73857a | 260 | compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this: |
261 | ||
b4bc034f | 262 | If the compile command was: |
fb73857a | 263 | |
961b17fa | 264 | MMK |
fb73857a | 265 | |
b4bc034f | 266 | then the test command ought to be: |
fb73857a | 267 | |
961b17fa | 268 | MMK test |
fb73857a | 269 | |
961b17fa | 270 | MMK (or MMS) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are |
b4bc034f GS |
271 | a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen. |
272 | At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and | |
273 | failed, and the time taken will be displayed. | |
fb73857a | 274 | |
961b17fa | 275 | The test driver invoked via MMK TEST has a DCL wrapper ([.VMS]TEST.COM) that |
96d6186e CB |
276 | downgrades privileges to NETMBX, TMPMBX for the duration of the test run, |
277 | and then restores them to their prior state upon completion of testing. | |
278 | This is done to ensure that the tests run in a private sandbox and can do no | |
279 | harm to your system even in the unlikely event something goes badly wrong in | |
280 | one of the test scripts while running the tests from a privileged account. | |
281 | A side effect of this safety precaution is that the account used to run the | |
282 | test suite must be the owner of the directory tree in which Perl has been | |
283 | built; otherwise the manipulations of temporary files and directories | |
284 | attempted by some of the tests will fail. | |
285 | ||
718752a5 CB |
286 | If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl, or at least |
287 | with the particular module or feature that reported failure. If the test suite | |
fb73857a | 288 | hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if |
9f3f8d50 | 289 | you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so |
da80cd87 | 290 | don't be hasty), then the test I<after> the last one displayed failed. Don't |
fb73857a | 291 | install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how |
292 | confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list. | |
293 | ||
b4bc034f GS |
294 | If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by |
295 | issuing this command sequence: | |
fb73857a | 296 | |
961b17fa | 297 | @[.vms]test .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.t |
fb73857a | 298 | |
299 | where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you | |
961b17fa | 300 | didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.t" is the test |
fb73857a | 301 | that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated |
96d6186e | 302 | that t/op/time failed, then you'd do this: |
fb73857a | 303 | |
961b17fa | 304 | @ .vms]test .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.t |
fb73857a | 305 | |
96d6186e CB |
306 | Note that test names are reported in UNIX syntax and relative to the |
307 | top-level build directory. When supplying them individually to the test | |
308 | driver, you can use either UNIX or VMS syntax, but you must give the path | |
961b17fa | 309 | relative to the [.t] directory and you must also add the .t extension to the |
96d6186e CB |
310 | filename. So, for example if the test lib/Math/Trig fails, you would run: |
311 | ||
961b17fa | 312 | @[.vms]test .EXE "" -"v" [-.lib.math]trig.t |
96d6186e | 313 | |
fb73857a | 314 | When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output |
315 | from this command, which is run from the main source directory: | |
316 | ||
961b17fa | 317 | MCR []MINIPERL "-Ilib" "-V" |
b4bc034f GS |
318 | |
319 | Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a | |
320 | couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us | |
321 | diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing | |
322 | the output of: | |
323 | ||
961b17fa | 324 | MMK printconfig |
fb73857a | 325 | |
9f3f8d50 PP |
326 | If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of: |
327 | ||
961b17fa | 328 | @[.vms]myconfig |
fb73857a | 329 | |
b4bc034f GS |
330 | You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:" |
331 | with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or | |
332 | MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version | |
333 | can be identified with "make --version". | |
334 | ||
a83b6f46 | 335 | =head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) installing Perl on VMS |
fb73857a | 336 | |
337 | If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up | |
961b17fa | 338 | first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the I<exact> MMK line you used |
b4bc034f | 339 | to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this: |
fb73857a | 340 | |
b4bc034f | 341 | if the compile command was: |
fb73857a | 342 | |
961b17fa | 343 | MMK |
fb73857a | 344 | |
b4bc034f | 345 | then the cleanup command ought to be: |
fb73857a | 346 | |
961b17fa | 347 | MMK realclean |
fb73857a | 348 | |
b4bc034f GS |
349 | If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent |
350 | rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it. | |
fb73857a | 351 | |
b4bc034f | 352 | =head1 Installing Perl |
fb73857a | 353 | |
354 | There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and | |
3a385817 | 355 | running. |
fb73857a | 356 | |
a3ef2c6f | 357 | =over 4 |
b4bc034f | 358 | |
a3ef2c6f | 359 | =item 1 |
fb73857a | 360 | |
a3ef2c6f | 361 | Check your default file protections with |
fb73857a | 362 | |
a3ef2c6f | 363 | SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT |
fb73857a | 364 | |
961b17fa | 365 | and adjust if necessary with C<SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT>. |
fb73857a | 366 | |
a3ef2c6f | 367 | =item 2 |
3a385817 | 368 | |
1bc81404 CB |
369 | Decide where you want Perl to be installed (unless you have already done so |
370 | by using the "prefix" configuration parameter -- see the example in the | |
371 | "Configuring the Perl build" section). | |
b4bc034f | 372 | |
961b17fa | 373 | The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by configure.com will help you |
1bc81404 CB |
374 | with the definition of the PERL_ROOT and PERLSHR logical names and the PERL |
375 | foreign command symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you | |
376 | want to. The installation process will execute PERL_SETUP.COM and copy | |
377 | files to the directory tree pointed to by the PERL_ROOT logical name defined | |
378 | there, so make sure that you have write access to the parent directory of | |
379 | what will become the root of your Perl installation. | |
fb73857a | 380 | |
a3ef2c6f | 381 | =item 3 |
b4bc034f | 382 | |
a3ef2c6f | 383 | Run the install script via: |
b4bc034f | 384 | |
a3ef2c6f | 385 | MMK install |
b4bc034f | 386 | |
a3ef2c6f GS |
387 | If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date, |
388 | throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command. | |
b4bc034f | 389 | |
a3ef2c6f GS |
390 | =back |
391 | ||
356230c9 CB |
392 | Installation will copy F<PERL_SETUP.COM> to the root of your installation |
393 | tree. If you want to give everyone on the system access to Perl (and you | |
394 | have, for example, installed to F<dsa0:[utils.perl_root]>) then add a line | |
395 | that reads: | |
1bc81404 | 396 | |
356230c9 | 397 | $ @dsa0:[utils.perl_root]perl_setup |
fb73857a | 398 | |
356230c9 CB |
399 | to F<SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM>. Or for your own use only, simply place |
400 | that line in F<SYS$LOGIN:LOGIN.COM>. | |
85988417 | 401 | |
a3ef2c6f GS |
402 | Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into |
403 | DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES | |
404 | (optional)" for more information), or put the image in a | |
961b17fa | 405 | directory that's in your DCL$PATH. |
85988417 | 406 | |
a3ef2c6f | 407 | See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section. |
491527d0 | 408 | |
a83b6f46 | 409 | =head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional) on VMS |
fb73857a | 410 | |
9ef4b0a6 | 411 | Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command. |
b4bc034f | 412 | You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe. |
fb73857a | 413 | |
7bb57f25 GS |
414 | $ create perl.cld |
415 | ! | |
416 | ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe | |
417 | ! | |
418 | define verb perl | |
419 | image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe | |
420 | cliflags (foreign) | |
421 | $! | |
422 | $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe - | |
423 | /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe | |
424 | $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe | |
425 | $ exit | |
fb73857a | 426 | |
a83b6f46 | 427 | =head2 INSTALLing Perl images (optional) on VMS |
9f3f8d50 PP |
428 | |
429 | On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with | |
430 | minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as | |
adc5a9a5 | 431 | a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 3000 blocks |
9f3f8d50 PP |
432 | and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is |
433 | invoked. | |
434 | ||
435 | INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE | |
b4bc034f | 436 | INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER |
9f3f8d50 | 437 | |
961b17fa CB |
438 | should be enough for F<PERLSHR.EXE> (/share implies /header and /open), |
439 | while /HEADER should do for FPERL.EXE> (perl.exe is not a shared image). | |
9f3f8d50 | 440 | |
b4bc034f GS |
441 | If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for |
442 | them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File, | |
e7948fac CB |
443 | DCLsym, and Stdio, and other extensions all have shared images that can be |
444 | installed /SHARE. | |
9f3f8d50 | 445 | |
b4bc034f | 446 | How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing |
9f3f8d50 | 447 | off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so) |
b4bc034f | 448 | it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl. |
9f3f8d50 PP |
449 | |
450 | While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised | |
961b17fa | 451 | to NOT INSTALL F<PERL.EXE> with PRIVs! |
fb73857a | 452 | |
dab31494 PP |
453 | =head2 Running h2ph to create perl header files (optional) on VMS |
454 | ||
10019e56 CB |
455 | If using HP C, ensure that you have extracted loose versions of your |
456 | compiler's header or *.H files. Be sure to check the contents of: | |
dab31494 PP |
457 | |
458 | SYS$LIBRARY:DECC$RTLDEF.TLB | |
459 | SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB | |
460 | SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$STARLET_C.TLB | |
461 | ||
462 | etcetera. | |
463 | ||
464 | If using GNU cc then also check your GNU_CC:[000000...] tree for the locations | |
465 | of the GNU cc headers. | |
466 | ||
b4bc034f | 467 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
fb73857a | 468 | |
469 | If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report | |
470 | it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through | |
471 | the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your | |
472 | installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to | |
9f3f8d50 | 473 | perlbug@perl.com. |
fb73857a | 474 | |
b4bc034f | 475 | =head1 CAVEATS |
fb73857a | 476 | |
477 | Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong | |
da80cd87 | 478 | switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use I<exactly> what the configure.com |
b4bc034f GS |
479 | script prints! |
480 | ||
b4bc034f GS |
481 | Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater |
482 | than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset | |
483 | defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before | |
484 | running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM | |
485 | procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require | |
486 | system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as | |
487 | the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have: | |
488 | ||
489 | DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000" | |
490 | ||
491 | A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed | |
492 | build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean" | |
fb73857a | 493 | before you rebuild. |
494 | ||
a83b6f46 | 495 | =head2 GNU issues with Perl on VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
496 | |
497 | It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make | |
498 | were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal | |
499 | of source code modification to work again. | |
500 | ||
e7948fac CB |
501 | =head2 Floating Point Considerations |
502 | ||
503 | Prior to 5.8.0, Perl simply accepted the default floating point options of the | |
504 | C compiler, namely representing doubles with D_FLOAT on VAX and G_FLOAT on | |
505 | Alpha. Single precision floating point values are represented in F_FLOAT | |
506 | format when either D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT is in use for doubles. Beginning with | |
507 | 5.8.0, Alpha builds now use IEEE floating point formats by default, which in | |
508 | VMS parlance are S_FLOAT for singles and T_FLOAT for doubles. IEEE is not | |
509 | available on VAX, so F_FLOAT and D_FLOAT remain the defaults for singles and | |
da80cd87 CB |
510 | doubles respectively. Itanium builds have always used IEEE by default. The |
511 | available non-default options are G_FLOAT on VAX and D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT on | |
512 | Alpha or Itanium. | |
e7948fac | 513 | |
da80cd87 | 514 | The use of IEEE on Alpha or Itanium introduces NaN, infinity, and denormalization |
e7948fac CB |
515 | capabilities not available with D_FLOAT and G_FLOAT. When using one of those |
516 | non-IEEE formats, silent underflow and overflow are emulated in the conversion | |
517 | of strings to numbers, but it is preferable to get the real thing by using | |
518 | IEEE where possible. | |
519 | ||
520 | Regardless of what floating point format you consider preferable, be aware | |
521 | that the choice may have an impact on compatibility with external libraries, | |
522 | such as database interfaces, and with existing data, such as data created with | |
523 | the C<pack> function and written to disk, or data stored via the Storable | |
524 | extension. For example, a C<pack("d", $foo)")> will create a D_FLOAT, | |
525 | G_FLOAT, or T_FLOAT depending on what your Perl was configured with. When | |
526 | written to disk, the value can only be retrieved later by a Perl configured | |
527 | with the same floating point option that was in effect when it was created. | |
528 | ||
961b17fa CB |
529 | To obtain a non-IEEE build on Alpha or Itanium, simply answer no to the |
530 | "Use IEEE math?" question during the configuration. To obtain an option | |
531 | different from the C compiler default on any platform, put in the option that | |
532 | you want in answer to the "Any additional cc flags?" question. For example, to | |
533 | obtain a G_FLOAT build on VAX, put in C</FLOAT=G_FLOAT>. | |
e7948fac | 534 | |
b4bc034f GS |
535 | =head1 Mailing Lists |
536 | ||
537 | There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS | |
fb73857a | 538 | specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems) |
b4bc034f | 539 | there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12 |
fb73857a | 540 | messages a week) mailing list. |
541 | ||
1bc81404 CB |
542 | To subscribe, send a mail message to VMSPERL-SUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. The VMSPERL |
543 | mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there gets echoed | |
544 | to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of the list | |
545 | on the web at: | |
b4bc034f | 546 | |
961b17fa | 547 | L<http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/> |
a83b6f46 | 548 | |
1bc81404 CB |
549 | To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send a message to VMSPERL-UNSUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. |
550 | Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that you are canceling. | |
b4bc034f | 551 | |
a83b6f46 | 552 | =head2 Web sites for Perl on VMS |
b4bc034f GS |
553 | |
554 | Vmsperl pages on the web include: | |
555 | ||
961b17fa CB |
556 | L<http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html> |
557 | L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/> | |
558 | L<http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/> | |
559 | L<http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/> | |
560 | L<http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html> | |
fb73857a | 561 | |
b4bc034f GS |
562 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
563 | ||
564 | Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is | |
3bc8f799 | 565 | available from the [.POD]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>. |
b4bc034f GS |
566 | For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion |
567 | of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed. | |
568 | ||
569 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
570 | ||
ec55d5e4 CB |
571 | Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu. See the git repository |
572 | for history. | |
b4bc034f GS |
573 | |
574 | =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | |
fb73857a | 575 | |
576 | A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey | |
b4bc034f | 577 | bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004 |
fb73857a | 578 | running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at |
579 | all important. | |
580 | ||
581 | There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing | |
582 | of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've | |
583 | missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following: | |
b4bc034f GS |
584 | |
585 | Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk | |
fb73857a | 586 | for the VMS emulations of getpw*() |
b4bc034f | 587 | David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk |
fb73857a | 588 | for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code, |
b4bc034f | 589 | Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com |
fb73857a | 590 | for the getredirection() code |
b4bc034f | 591 | Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com |
fb73857a | 592 | for readdir() and related routines |
b4bc034f | 593 | Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com |
fb73857a | 594 | for extensive testing, as well as development work on |
595 | configuration and documentation for VMS Perl, | |
b4bc034f | 596 | Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org |
fb73857a | 597 | for extensive contributions to recent version support, |
598 | development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination | |
599 | of information about VMS Perl, | |
600 | the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the | |
601 | Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for | |
9f3f8d50 | 602 | the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP, |
a3ef2c6f GS |
603 | John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu |
604 | for VAX VMS V7.2 support | |
ec55d5e4 CB |
605 | John Malmberg wb8tyw@qsl.net |
606 | for ODS-5 filename handling and other modernizations | |
b4bc034f | 607 | |
fb73857a | 608 | and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In |
609 | addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and | |
610 | willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of | |
b4bc034f | 611 | gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which |
fb73857a | 612 | have made our sleepless nights possible. |
613 | ||
614 | Thanks, | |
615 | The VMSperl group | |
b4bc034f GS |
616 | |
617 | =cut | |
618 |