| 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
| 2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is |
| 3 | specially designed to be readable as is. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | =head1 NAME |
| 6 | |
| 7 | README.vos - Perl for Stratus VOS |
| 8 | |
| 9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus VOS |
| 12 | operating system. Perl is a scripting or macro language that is |
| 13 | popular on many systems. See L<perlbook> for a number of good |
| 14 | books on Perl. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | These are instructions for building Perl from source. Most |
| 17 | people can simply download a pre-compiled distribution from the |
| 18 | VOS anonymous FTP site. This version of Perl is not supported |
| 19 | on VOS Release 14.2.0 or earlier releases. If you are running |
| 20 | VOS Release 14.3.0 or later, download Perl from |
| 21 | ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/ga.html. Instructions |
| 22 | for unbundling the Perl distribution file are at |
| 23 | ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/utility/utility.html. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a |
| 26 | pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing Release 2.0.1 |
| 27 | of the VOS GNU C++ and GNU Tools product from Stratus |
| 28 | Technologies. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | =head1 BUILDING PERL FOR VOS |
| 31 | |
| 32 | To build perl from its source code, you must have a Continuum |
| 33 | platform running VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the STCP product, |
| 34 | and the GNU C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or later. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and |
| 37 | makefiles, change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the command |
| 38 | "compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl". This |
| 39 | will configure, build, and test perl. All of the test cases |
| 40 | that are executed should pass. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | =head1 INSTALLING PERL IN VOS |
| 43 | |
| 44 | =over 4 |
| 45 | |
| 46 | =item 1 |
| 47 | |
| 48 | If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that |
| 49 | you have modify permission to C<< >system>ported >> and type |
| 50 | |
| 51 | gmake install |
| 52 | |
| 53 | =item 2 |
| 54 | |
| 55 | While there are currently no architecture-specific |
| 56 | extensions or modules distributed with perl, the following |
| 57 | directories can be used to hold such files: |
| 58 | |
| 59 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>68k |
| 60 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>860 |
| 61 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>7100 |
| 62 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>8000 |
| 63 | |
| 64 | =item 3 |
| 65 | |
| 66 | Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of |
| 67 | two places. Put architecture-independent files into: |
| 68 | |
| 69 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0 |
| 70 | |
| 71 | Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the |
| 72 | following directories: |
| 73 | |
| 74 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>68k |
| 75 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>860 |
| 76 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>7100 |
| 77 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>8000 |
| 78 | |
| 79 | =item 4 |
| 80 | |
| 81 | You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program |
| 82 | to see the order in which Perl searches these directories. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | =back |
| 85 | |
| 86 | =head1 USING PERL IN VOS |
| 87 | |
| 88 | =head2 Restrictions of Perl on VOS |
| 89 | |
| 90 | This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style, |
| 91 | slash-separated pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated |
| 92 | pathnames. VOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but |
| 93 | if you have trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash |
| 94 | characters. Because the slash character is used as a pathname |
| 95 | delimiter, Perl cannot process VOS pathnames containing a slash |
| 96 | character in a directory or file name; these must be renamed. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally. |
| 99 | As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string |
| 100 | representations of dates, this should not be an issue. The |
| 101 | supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS |
| 104 | port of Perl. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | =head2 Handling of underflow and overflow |
| 107 | |
| 108 | Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically |
| 109 | mapping overflowed floating-point values to +infinity, nor |
| 110 | automatically mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero, |
| 111 | unlike many other platforms. The Perl pack function has been |
| 112 | modified to perform such mapping in software on VOS. Performing |
| 113 | other floating-point computations that underflow or overflow |
| 114 | will probably result in SIGFPE. Don't push your luck. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | As of VOS Release 14.7.0, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the |
| 117 | PA-RISC hardware floating-point status register so that the |
| 118 | overflow and underflow exceptions do not trap, but instead |
| 119 | automatically convert the result to infinity or zero, as |
| 120 | appropriate. As of this writing, there are still floating-point |
| 121 | operations that can trap, for example, subtracting two infinite |
| 122 | values. This is recorded as suggestion posix-1022, which is not |
| 123 | yet fixed. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | =head1 TEST STATUS |
| 126 | |
| 127 | When Perl 5.8.1 is built using the native build process on VOS |
| 128 | Release 14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all but five |
| 129 | attempted tests either pass or result in TODO (ignored) |
| 130 | failures. The tests that fail are: |
| 131 | |
| 132 | ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes, tests 8, 11, 20, and 21. |
| 133 | lib/Net/Ping/t/450_service, test 8. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | =head1 SUPPORT STATUS |
| 136 | |
| 137 | I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I |
| 138 | can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them. There are some |
| 139 | excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book |
| 140 | seller. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the VOS |
| 143 | GNU C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 product from Stratus |
| 144 | Technologies, along with a support contract (or from anyone else |
| 145 | who will sell you support). |
| 146 | |
| 147 | =head1 AUTHOR |
| 148 | |
| 149 | Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com) |
| 150 | |
| 151 | =head1 LAST UPDATE |
| 152 | |
| 153 | March 26, 2003 |
| 154 | |
| 155 | =cut |