1 This document is written in pod format hence there are punctuation
2 characters in odd places. Do not worry, you have apparently got the
3 ASCII->EBCDIC translation worked out correctly. You can read more
4 about pod in pod/perlpod.pod or the short summary in the INSTALL file.
8 perlos390 - building and installing Perl for OS/390 and z/OS
12 This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
13 on OS/390 (aka z/OS) Unix System Services.
15 B<This document needs to be updated, but we don't know what it should say.
16 Please submit comments to L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.>
20 This is a fully ported Perl for OS/390 Version 2 Release 3, 5, 6, 7,
21 8, and 9. It may work on other versions or releases, but those are
22 the ones we have tested it on.
24 You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before
25 running the Configure script for Perl.
30 The z/OS Unix Tools and Toys list may prove helpful and contains links
31 to ports of much of the software helpful for building Perl.
32 L<http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html>
35 =head2 Unpacking Perl distribution on OS/390
37 If using ftp remember to transfer the distribution in binary format.
39 Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:
41 http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html
43 to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:
45 pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
49 zcat latest.tar.Z | pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r
51 If you get lots of errors of the form
53 tar: FSUM7171 ...: cannot set uid/gid: EDC5139I Operation not permitted
55 you did not read the above and tried to use tar instead of pax, you'll
56 first have to remove the (now corrupt) perl directory
62 =head2 Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390
64 Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
65 parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:
67 cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc
69 This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file
70 and either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place.
71 The IBM document that described such USS system setup issues was
72 SC28-1890-07 "OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular
73 Chapter 6 on customizing the OE shell.
75 GNU make for OS/390, which is recommended for the build of perl (as
76 well as building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from the
79 Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
80 trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries. If you encounter such
81 trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
82 from source to eliminate any such trouble. You might also find GNU make
83 (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source Software
84 for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.
86 If instead of the recommended GNU make you would like to use the system
87 supplied make program then be sure to install the default rules file
88 properly via the shell command:
90 cp /samples/startup.mk /etc
92 and be sure to also set the environment variable _C89_CCMODE=1 (exporting
93 _C89_CCMODE=1 is also a good idea for users of GNU make).
95 You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before
96 running the "make install" step for Perl.
98 There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
99 that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9. The problem with
100 the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT constant
101 there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment like so:
103 #define SO_REUSEPORT 0x0200 /* allow local address & port
106 You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you might
107 note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the problem
108 and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and apply them.
109 If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an inability for Perl
110 to build its "Socket" extension.
112 For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
113 world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man chmod).
115 =head2 Configure Perl on OS/390
117 Once you have unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see INSTALL
118 for a full discussion of the Configure options). There is a "hints" file
119 for os390 that specifies the correct values for most things. Some things
120 to watch out for include:
124 A message of the form:
126 (I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
127 mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)
129 is nothing to worry about at all.
133 Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in /etc.
134 In particular be sure that you at least copy /samples/yyparse.c to /etc
135 before running Perl's Configure. This step ensures successful extraction
136 of EBCDIC versions of parser files such as perly.c and perly.h.
137 This has to be done before running Configure the first time. If you failed
138 to do so then the easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to delete your
139 misconfigured build root and re-extract the source from the tar ball.
140 Then you must ensure that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in place before
141 attempting to re-run Configure.
143 =head3 Dynamic loading
145 Dynamic loading is required if you want to use XS modules from CPAN (like
146 DBI (and DBD's), JSON::XS, and Text::CSV_XS) or update CORE modules from
147 CPAN with newer versions (like Encode) without rebuilding all of the perl
150 This port will support dynamic loading, but it is not selected by
151 default. If you would like to experiment with dynamic loading then
152 be sure to specify -Dusedl in the arguments to the Configure script.
153 See the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on dynamic loading.
154 If you build with dynamic loading then you will need to add the
155 $archlibexp/CORE directory to your LIBPATH environment variable in order
156 for perl to work. See the config.sh file for the value of $archlibexp.
157 If in trying to use Perl you see an error message similar to:
159 CEE3501S The module libperl.dll was not found.
160 From entry point __dllstaticinit at compile unit offset +00000194
163 then your LIBPATH does not have the location of libperl.x and either
164 libperl.dll or libperl.so in it. Add that directory to your LIBPATH and
167 In hints/os390.sh, selecting -Dusedl will default to *also* select
168 -Duseshrplib. Having a shared plib not only requires LIBPATH to be set to
169 the correct location of libperl.so but also makes it close to impossible
170 to run more than one different perl that was built this way at the same
173 All objects that are involved in -Dusedl builds should be compiled for
174 this, probably by adding to all ccflags
176 -qexportall -qxplink -qdll -Wc,XPLINK,dll,EXPORTALL -Wl,XPLINK,dll
180 Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There is
181 a bug in either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to
182 not work correctly when the optimizer is on.
186 Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the
187 networking APIs are either missing or have the wrong
188 names. In particular, make sure that there's either
189 an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so that
190 gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file
191 /etc/proto has been renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT
192 /etc/protocols, as used by other Unix systems).
193 You may have to look for things like HOSTNAME and DOMAINORIGIN
194 in the "//'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'" PDS member in order to
195 properly set up your /etc networking files.
197 =head2 Build, Test, Install Perl on OS/390
205 if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis) then:
209 this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending
210 on how you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether
211 or not you have write access to the directories you specified.
213 =head2 Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
215 "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
216 by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
218 Building debugging-enabled binaries (with -g or -g3) will increase the
219 chance of getting these errors. Prevent -g if possible.
221 Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in your
222 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8 address space
223 limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS segment of a RACF
224 profile). People have reported successful builds of Perl with MAXASSIZE
225 parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be possible to build Perl
226 with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).
228 Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
229 settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
233 To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into the
234 Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
236 If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
237 Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
238 header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
240 =head2 Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
242 The "make test" step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
243 installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a successful
244 run of "make test". Here is a guide to some of the more commonly seen
249 A message of the form:
251 io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
252 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
253 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
256 indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done so
257 with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.
261 A message of the form:
263 lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/)
264 is not safe (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at
265 lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
266 File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky
267 bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
270 indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory within the HFS.
271 To correct that problem issue the command:
275 from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.
277 =head3 Out of Memory!
279 Recent perl test suite is quite memory hungry. In addition to the comments
280 above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for _CEE_RUNOPTS
281 in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c) a C #pragma
282 to set CEE run options, but the environment variable wins.
286 #pragma runopts(HEAP(2M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K) STACK(,,ANY,) ALL31(ON))
288 The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment) to HEAP,
289 and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If the heap
290 increment is too small then when perl (for example loading unicode/Name.pl) tries
291 to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot fit in a single segment
292 and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if there is still plenty of memory
295 A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses C<sbrk()>
296 to get memory, and C<sbrk()> is limited to the first allocation so in this
299 HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)
301 is needed to get through the test suite.
303 =head2 Installation Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
305 The installman script will try to run on OS/390. There will be fewer errors
306 if you have a roff utility installed. You can obtain GNU groff from the
307 Redbook SG24-5944-00 ftp site.
309 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on OS/390
311 When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
312 character sets are different. See perlebcdic.pod for more on such character
313 set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave differently under
314 EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
316 Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
317 #!/path/to/perl script invocation. There is a PTF available from
318 IBM for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!. USS
319 releases prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation.
320 If you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:
322 head `whence perldoc`
324 for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
325 have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System Services.
327 If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching your
328 rlogin or telnet client. Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and ISHELL for
329 working with Perl on USS.
331 =head2 Floating Point Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
333 There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
334 systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
335 magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
336 that number and a large magnitude number. For example, in the following
340 my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
341 my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5; # '100000'
342 print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000
344 Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and equal
345 to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000 respectively.
347 The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:
361 printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
362 /* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
365 =head2 Modules and Extensions for Perl on OS/390
367 Pure Perl (that is non XS) modules may be installed via the usual:
374 If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
375 be the way to build XS based extensions. However, if you built perl with
376 the default static linking you can still build XS based extensions for OS/390
377 but you will need to follow the instructions in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
378 building statically linked perl binaries. In the simplest configurations
379 building a static perl + XS extension boils down to:
386 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
388 In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
389 than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
392 If the make process encounters trouble with either compilation or
393 linking then try setting the _C89_CCMODE to 1. Assuming sh is your
394 login shell then run:
398 If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.
402 David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker
403 and William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.
404 Thanks to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.
405 Thanks to Ignasi Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.
406 Thanks to John Goodyear for dynamic loading help.
410 L<INSTALL>, L<perlport>, L<perlebcdic>, L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>.
412 http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html
414 http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/SG245944.html
416 http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc
418 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
420 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3030/
422 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/CBCUG030/
424 =head2 Mailing list for Perl on OS/390
426 If you are interested in the z/OS (formerly known as OS/390)
427 and POSIX-BC (BS2000) ports of Perl then see the perl-mvs mailing list.
428 To subscribe, send an empty message to perl-mvs-subscribe@perl.org.
432 https://lists.perl.org/list/perl-mvs.html
434 There are web archives of the mailing list at:
436 https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.mvs/
440 This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
443 This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March 1999.
445 Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
447 Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
449 Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.
451 Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.
453 Updated 28 November 2001 for broken URLs.
455 Updated 03 October 2019 for perl-5.33.1+