1 This document is written in pod format hence there are punctuation
2 characters in odd places. You can read more
3 about pod in pod/perlpod.pod or the short summary in the INSTALL file.
7 perlos390 - building and installing Perl for z/OS (previously called OS/390)
11 This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
12 on z/OS Unix System Services.
16 This is a ported Perl for z/OS. It has been tested on z/OS 2.4 and
17 should work fine with z/OS 2.5.
18 It may work on other versions or releases, but those are
19 the ones it has been tested on.
21 The native character set for z/OS is EBCDIC, but it can also run in ASCII mode.
22 Perl can support either, but you have to compile it explicitly for one or the
23 other. You could have both an ASCII perl, and an EBCDIC perl on the same
24 machine. If you use ASCII mode and an ASCII perl, the Encode module shipped
25 with perl can be used to translate files from various EBCDIC code pages for
26 handling by perl, and then back on output
28 This document describes how to build a 64-bit Dynamic Perl, either ASCII or
29 EBCDIC. You can interactively choose other configurations, as well as many
30 other options in the Configure script that is run as part of the build
31 process. You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before
32 running Configure, as detailed below.
36 You will want to get GNU make 4.1 or later. GNU make can be downloaded from a
37 port that Rocket Software provides. You will need the z/OS c99 compiler from
38 IBM (though xlc in c99 mode without optimization turned on works in EBCDIC).
40 If you want the latest development version of Perl, you will need git.
41 You can use git on another platform and transfer the result via sftp or ftp to
42 z/OS. But there is a z/OS native git client port available through Rocket
45 You may also need the gunzip client port that Rocket Software provides to unzip
46 any zipped tarball you upload to z/OS.
48 =head2 Building a 64-bit Dynamic ASCII Perl
50 For building from an official stable release of Perl, go to
51 L<https://www.perl.org/get.html> and choose any one of the
52 "Download latest stable source" buttons. This will get you a tarball. The
53 name of that tarball will be something like 'perl-V.R.M,tar,gz', where V.R.M is
54 the version/release/modification of the perl you are downloading. Do
56 gunzip perl-V.R.M.tar.gz
60 tar -xvf perl-V.R.M.tar
62 pax -r -f perl-V.R.M.tar
64 Either of these will create the source directory. You can rename it to
65 whatever you like; for these instructions, 'perl' is assumed to be the name.
67 If instead you want the latest unstable development release, using the native
68 git on z/OS, clone Perl:
70 git clone https://github.com/Perl/perl5.git perl
72 Either way, once you have a 'perl' directory containing the source, cd into it,
73 and tag all the code as ASCII:
76 chtag -R -h -t -cISO8859-1 *
78 Configure the build environment as 64-bit, Dynamic, ASCII, development,
79 deploying it to F</usr/local/perl/ascii>:
81 export PATH=$PWD:$PATH
82 export LIBPATH=$PWD:$PATH
83 ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl/ascii -des -Dusedevel \
86 If you are building from a stable source, you don't need "-Dusedevel".
87 (If you run Configure without options, it will interactively ask you about
88 every possible option based on its probing of what's available on your
89 particular machine, so you can choose as you go along.)
91 Run GNU make to build Perl
95 Run tests to ensure Perl is working correctly. Currently, there are about a
96 dozen failing tests out of nearly 2500
100 Install Perl into F</usr/local/perl/ascii>:
104 =head2 Building a 64-bit Dynamic EBCDIC Perl
106 You will need a working perl on some box with connectivity to the destination
107 machine. On z/OS, it could be an ASCII perl, or a previous EBCDIC one.
108 Many machines will already have a pre-built perl already running, or one can
109 easily be downloaded from L<https://www.perl.org/get.html>.
111 Follow the directions above in "Building a 64-bit Dynamic ASCII Perl" as far as
112 getting a populated 'perl' directory. Then come back here to proceed.
114 The downloaded perl will need to be converted to 1047 EBCDIC. To do this:
119 If the Porting/makerel step fails with an error that it can not issue the tar
120 command, proceed to issue the command interactively, where V.R.M is the
121 version/release/modification of Perl you are uploading:
124 tar cf - --format=ustar perl-V.R.M | gzip --best > perl-V.R.M.tar.gz
126 Use sftp to upload the zipped tar file to z/OS:
130 put perl-V.R.M.tar.gz
132 Unzip and untar the zipped tar file on z/OS:
135 gunzip perl-V.R.M.tar.gz
139 tar -xvf perl-V.R.M.tar
141 pax -r -f perl-V.R.M.tar
143 You now have the source code for the EBCDIC Perl on z/OS and can proceed to
144 build it. This is analagous to how you would build the code for ASCII, but
145 note: you B<should not> tag the code but instead leave it untagged.
147 Configure the build environment as 64-bit, Dynamic, native, development,
148 deploying it to F</usr/local/perl/ebcdic>:
150 export PATH=$PWD:$PATH
151 export LIBPATH=$PWD:$PATH
152 ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl/ebcdic -des -Dusedevel \
153 -Duse64bitall -Dusedl
155 If you are building from a stable source, you don't need "-Dusedevel".
156 (If you run Configure without options, it will interactively ask you about
157 every possible option based on its probing of what's available on your
158 particular machine, so you can choose as you go along.)
160 Run GNU make to build Perl
164 Run tests to ensure Perl is working correctly.
168 You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before
169 running the "make install" step for Perl.
171 Install Perl into F</usr/local/perl/ebcdic>:
175 EBCDIC Perl is still a work in progress. All the core code works as far as we
176 know, but various modules you might want to download from CPAN do not. The
177 failures range from very minor to catastrophic. Many of them are simply bugs
178 in the tests, with the module actually working properly. This happens because,
179 for example, the test is coded to expect a certain character ASCII code point;
180 when it gets the EBCDIC value back instead, it complains. But the code
181 actually worked. Other potential failures that aren't really failures stem
182 from checksums coming out differently, since C<A>, for example, has a different
183 bit representation between the character sets. A test that is expecting the
184 ASCII value will show failure, even if the module is working perfectly. Also
185 in sorting, uppercase letters come before lowercase letters on ASCII systems;
186 the reverse on EBCDIC.
188 Some CPAN modules come bundled with the downloaded perl. And a few of those
189 have yet to be fixed to pass on EBCDIC platforms. As a result they are skipped
190 when you run 'make test'. The current list is:
208 PerlIO::via-QuotedPrint
215 See also F<hints/os390.sh> for other potential gotchas.
217 =head2 Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390
219 This may also be a good time to ensure that your F</etc/protocol> file
220 and either your F</etc/resolv.conf> or F</etc/hosts> files are in place.
221 The IBM document that describes such USS system setup issues is
222 "z/OS UNIX System Services Planning"
224 For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
225 world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man chmod).
227 =head2 Useful files for trouble-shooting
229 If your configuration is failing, read hints/os390.sh
230 This file provides z/OS specific options to direct the build process.
234 A message of the form:
236 (I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
237 mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell
240 is nothing to worry about at all.
242 =head3 Dynamic loading
244 Dynamic loading is required if you want to use XS modules from CPAN (like
245 DBI (and DBD's), JSON::XS, and Text::CSV_XS) or update CORE modules from
246 CPAN with newer versions (like Encode) without rebuilding all of the perl
249 The instructions above will create a dynamic Perl. If you do not want to
250 use dynamic loading, remove the -Dusedl option.
251 See the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on dynamic loading.
255 Optimization has not been turned on yet. There may be issues if Perl
258 =head2 Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
260 "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
261 by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
263 Within USS your F</etc/profile> or F<$HOME/.profile> may limit your ulimit
264 settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
268 To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into the
269 Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
271 If the compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
272 Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
273 header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
275 =head2 Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
277 The "make test" step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
278 installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a successful
279 run of "make test". Here is a guide to some of the more commonly seen
282 =head3 Out of Memory (31-bit only)
284 Out of memory problems should not be an issue, unless you are attempting to build
287 If you _are_ building a 31-bit Perl, the constrained environment may mean you
288 need to change memory options for Perl.
289 In addition to the comments
290 above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for _CEE_RUNOPTS
291 in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c) a C #pragma for 31-bit only
292 to set CEE run options, but the environment variable wins.
294 The 31-bit C code asks for:
296 #pragma runopts(HEAP(2M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K) STACK(,,ANY,) ALL31(ON))
298 The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment) to HEAP,
299 and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If the heap
300 increment is too small then when perl (for example loading unicode/Name.pl) tries
301 to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot fit in a single segment
302 and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if there is still plenty of memory
305 A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses C<sbrk()>
306 to get memory, and C<sbrk()> is limited to the first allocation so in this
309 HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)
311 is needed to get through the test suite.
313 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on z/OS
315 When using Perl on z/OS please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
316 character sets are different. See L<perlebcdic> for more on such character
317 set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave differently under
318 EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
320 If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching your
321 rlogin or telnet client. Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and ISHELL for
322 working with Perl on USS.
324 =head2 Modules and Extensions for Perl on z/OS (Static Only)
326 Pure Perl (that is non XS) modules may be installed via the usual:
333 If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
334 be the way to build XS based extensions. However, if you built perl with
335 static linking you can still build XS based extensions for z/OS
336 but you will need to follow the instructions in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
337 building statically linked perl binaries. In the simplest configurations
338 building a static perl + XS extension boils down to:
345 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
347 =head2 Running Perl on z/OS
349 To run the 64-bit Dynamic Perl environment, update your PATH and LIBPATH
350 to include the location you installed Perl into, and then run the perl you
351 installed as perlV.R.M where V/R/M is the Version/Release/Modification level
352 of the current development level.
353 If you are running the ASCII/EBCDIC Bi-Modal Perl environment, you also need to
354 set up your ASCII/EBCDIC Bi-Modal environment variables, and ensure any Perl
355 source code you run is tagged appropriately as ASCII or EBCDIC using
356 "chtag -t -c<CCSID>":
360 =item For ASCII Only:
362 export _BPXK_AUTOCVT=ON
363 export _CEE_RUNOPTS="FILETAG(AUTOCVT,AUTOTAG),POSIX(ON)"
364 export _TAG_REDIR_ERR="txt"
365 export _TAG_REDIR_IN="txt"
366 export _TAG_REDIR_OUT="txt"
368 =item For ASCII or EBCDIC:
370 export PATH=/usr/local/perl/ascii:$PATH
371 export LIBPATH=/usr/local/perl/ascii/lib:$LIBPATH
376 If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.
380 David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker
381 and William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.
382 Thanks to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.
383 Thanks to Ignasi Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.
384 Thanks to John Goodyear for dynamic loading help.
386 Mike Fulton and Karl Williamson have provided updates for UTF8, DLL, 64-bit and
387 ASCII/EBCDIC Bi-Modal support
391 L<https://github.com/ZOSOpenTools/perlport/> provides documentation and tools
392 for building various z/OS Perl configurations and has some useful tools in the
393 'bin' directory you may want to use for building z/OS Perl yourself.
397 Updated 24 December 2021 to enable initial ASCII support
399 Updated 03 October 2019 for perl-5.33.3+
401 Updated 28 November 2001 for broken URLs.
403 Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.
405 Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.
407 Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
409 Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
411 This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March 1999.
413 This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005