1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2 It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3 designed to be readable as is. But if you have been into Perl you
4 probably already know this.
8 perlsynology - Perl 5 on Synology DSM systems
12 Synology manufactures a vast number of Network Attached Storage (NAS)
13 devices that are very popular in large organisations as well as small
16 The NAS systems are equipped with Synology Disk Storage Manager (DSM),
17 which is a trimmed-down Linux system enhanced with several tools for
18 managing the NAS. There are several flavours of hardware: Marvell
19 Armada (ARMv5tel, ARMv7l), Intel Atom (i686, x86_64), Freescale QorIQ
20 (PPC), and more. For a full list see the
21 L<Synology FAQ|http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/What_kind_of_CPU_does_my_NAS_have>.
23 Since it is based on Linux, the NAS can run many popular Linux
24 software packages, including Perl. In fact, Synology provides a
25 ready-to-install package for Perl, depending on the version of DSM
26 the installed perl ranges from 5.8.6 on DSM-4.3 to 5.18.4 on DSM-5.1.
28 There is an active user community that provides many software packages
29 for the Synology DSM systems; at the time of writing this document
30 they provide Perl version 5.18.4.
32 This document describes various features of Synology DSM operating
33 system that will affect how Perl 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
34 configured, compiled and/or runs. It has been compiled and verified by
35 Johan Vromans for the Synology DS413 (QorIQ), with feedback from
36 H.Merijn Brand (DS213, ARMv5tel).
38 =head2 Setting up the build environment
40 As DSM is a trimmed-down Linux system, it lacks many of the tools and
41 libraries commonly found on Linux. The basic tools like sh, cp, rm,
42 etc. are implemented using
43 L<BusyBox|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BusyBox>.
49 Using your favourite browser open the DSM management page and start
54 If you want to smoke test Perl, install C<Perl>.
58 In Settings, add the following Package Sources:
61 http://packages.quadrat4.de
65 Still in Settings, in Channel Update, select Beta Channel.
69 Press Refresh. In the left panel the item "Community" will appear.
70 Click it. Select "Bootstrap Installer Beta" and install it.
74 Likewise, install "iPKGui Beta".
76 The application window should now show an icon for iPKGui.
80 Start iPKGui. Install the packages C<make>, C<gcc> and C<coreutils>.
82 If you want to smoke test Perl, install C<patch>.
86 The next step is to add some symlinks to system libraries. For
87 example, the development software expect a library C<libm.so> that
88 normally is a symlink to C<libm.so.6>. Synology only provides the
89 latter and not the symlink.
91 Here the actual architecture of the Synology system matters. You have
92 to find out where the gcc libraries have been installed. Look in /opt
93 for a directory similar to arm-none-linux-gnueab or
94 powerpc-linux-gnuspe. In the instructions below I'll use
95 powerpc-linux-gnuspe as an example.
101 On the DSM management page start the Control Panel.
105 Click Terminal, and enable SSH service.
109 Close Terminal and the Control Panel.
113 Open a shell on the Synology using ssh and become root.
117 Execute the following commands:
120 ln -s libm.so.6 libm.so
121 ln -s libcrypt.so.1 libcrypt.so
122 ln -s libdl.so.2 libdl.so
123 cd /opt/powerpc-linux-gnuspe/lib (or
124 /opt/arm-none-linux-gnueabi/lib)
125 ln -s /lib/libdl.so.2 libdl.so
129 B<WARNING:> When you perform a system software upgrade, these links
130 will disappear and need to be re-established.
132 =head2 Compiling Perl 5
134 When the build environment has been set up, building and testing Perl
135 is straightforward. The only thing you need to do is download the
136 sources as usual, and add a file Policy.sh as follows:
139 perladmin="your.email@goes.here"
141 # Install Perl in a tree in /opt/perl instead of /opt/bin.
144 # Select the compiler. Note that there is no 'cc' alias or link.
148 ccflags="-DDEBUGGING"
150 # Library and include paths.
152 locincpth="/opt/include"
155 You may want to create the destination directory and give it the right
156 permissions before installing, thus eliminating the need to build Perl
159 In the directory where you unpacked the sources, issue the familiar
167 =head2 Known problems
171 No known problems yet
177 =item Error message "No error definitions found".
179 This error is generated when it is not possible to find the local
180 definitions for error codes, due to the uncommon structure of the
181 Synology file system.
183 This error was fixed in the Perl development git for version 5.19,
184 commit 7a8f1212e5482613c8a5b0402528e3105b26ff24.
192 =item F<ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t>
194 One subtest fails due to the uncommon structure of the Synology file
195 system. The file F</lib/glibc.so> is missing.
197 B<WARNING:> Do not symlink F</lib/glibc.so.6> to F</lib/glibc.so> or
198 some system components will start to fail.
202 =head2 Smoke testing Perl 5
204 If building completes successfully, you can set up smoke testing as
205 described in the Test::Smoke documentation.
207 For smoke testing you need a running Perl. You can either install the
208 Synology supplied package for Perl 5.8.6, or build and install your
209 own, much more recent version.
211 Note that I could not run successful smokes when initiated by the
212 Synology Task Scheduler. I resorted to initiating the smokes via a
213 cron job run on another system, using ssh:
215 ssh nas1 wrk/Test-Smoke/smoke/smokecurrent.sh
219 When local patches are applied with smoke testing, the test driver
220 will automatically request regeneration of certain tables after the
221 patches are applied. The Synology supplied Perl 5.8.6 (at least on the
222 DS413) B<is NOT capable> of generating these tables. It will generate
223 opcodes with bogus values, causing the build to fail.
225 You can prevent regeneration by adding the setting
229 to the smoke config, or by adding another patch that inserts
231 exit 0 if $] == 5.008006;
233 in the beginning of the C<regen.pl> program.
235 =head2 Adding libraries
237 The above procedure describes a basic environment and hence results in
238 a basic Perl. If you want to add additional libraries to Perl, you may
239 need some extra settings.
241 For example, the basic Perl does not have any of the DB libraries (db,
242 dbm, ndbm, gdsm). You can add these using iPKGui, however, you need to
243 set environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the appropriate value:
245 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:/opt/lib
246 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
248 This setting needs to be in effect while Perl is built, but also when
249 the programs are run.
253 March 2015, for Synology DSM 5.1.5022.
257 Johan Vromans <jvromans@squirrel.nl>
258 H. Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>