| 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 | perlvos - Perl for Stratus OpenVOS |
| 8 | |
| 9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus OpenVOS |
| 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 books |
| 14 | on Perl. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | These are instructions for building Perl from source. This version of |
| 17 | Perl requires the dynamic linking support that is found in OpenVOS |
| 18 | Release 17.1 and thus is not supported on OpenVOS Release 17.0 or |
| 19 | earlier releases. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a |
| 22 | pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing the GNU Tools |
| 23 | product from Stratus Technologies. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | =head1 BUILDING PERL FOR OPENVOS |
| 26 | |
| 27 | To build perl from its source code on the Stratus V Series platform |
| 28 | you must have OpenVOS Release 17.1.0 or later, GNU Tools Release |
| 29 | 3.5 or later, and the C/POSIX Runtime Libraries. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Follow the normal instructions for building perl; e.g, enter bash, run |
| 32 | the Configure script, then use "gmake" to build perl. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | =head1 INSTALLING PERL IN OPENVOS |
| 35 | |
| 36 | =over 4 |
| 37 | |
| 38 | =item 1 |
| 39 | |
| 40 | After you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that you |
| 41 | have modify and default write permission to C<< >system>ported >> and |
| 42 | all subdirectories. Then type |
| 43 | |
| 44 | gmake install |
| 45 | |
| 46 | =item 2 |
| 47 | |
| 48 | While there are currently no architecture-specific extensions or |
| 49 | modules distributed with perl, the following directories can be |
| 50 | used to hold such files (replace the string VERSION by the |
| 51 | appropriate version number): |
| 52 | |
| 53 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>VERSION>i786 |
| 54 | |
| 55 | =item 3 |
| 56 | |
| 57 | Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of |
| 58 | two places. Put architecture-independent files into: |
| 59 | |
| 60 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION |
| 61 | |
| 62 | Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the |
| 63 | following directories: |
| 64 | |
| 65 | >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION>i786 |
| 66 | |
| 67 | =item 4 |
| 68 | |
| 69 | You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program |
| 70 | to see the order in which Perl searches these directories. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | =back |
| 73 | |
| 74 | =head1 USING PERL IN OPENVOS |
| 75 | |
| 76 | =head2 Restrictions of Perl on OpenVOS |
| 77 | |
| 78 | This port of Perl version 5 prefers Unix-style, slash-separated |
| 79 | pathnames over OpenVOS-style greater-than-separated pathnames. |
| 80 | OpenVOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but if you have |
| 81 | trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash characters. |
| 82 | Because the slash character is used as a pathname delimiter, Perl |
| 83 | cannot process OpenVOS pathnames containing a slash character in a |
| 84 | directory or file name; these must be renamed. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally. |
| 87 | As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string |
| 88 | representations of dates, this should not be an issue. The |
| 89 | supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the OpenVOS |
| 92 | port of Perl. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | =head1 TEST STATUS |
| 95 | |
| 96 | A number of the perl self-tests fails for various reasons; generally |
| 97 | these are minor and due to subtle differences between common |
| 98 | POSIX-based environments and the OpenVOS POSIX environment. Ensure |
| 99 | that you conduct sufficient testing of your code to guarantee that it |
| 100 | works properly in the OpenVOS environment. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | =head1 SUPPORT STATUS |
| 103 | |
| 104 | I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I |
| 105 | can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them. There are some |
| 106 | excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book |
| 107 | seller. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | If you want a supported version of perl for OpenVOS, purchase the |
| 110 | OpenVOS GNU Tools product from Stratus Technologies, along with a |
| 111 | support contract (or from anyone else who will sell you support). |
| 112 | |
| 113 | =head1 AUTHOR |
| 114 | |
| 115 | Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com) |
| 116 | |
| 117 | =head1 LAST UPDATE |
| 118 | |
| 119 | February 28, 2013 |
| 120 | |
| 121 | =cut |