=head2 Important safety tip
-The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004
-releases! Make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build", "Building
-Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before you build or
-install. Also please note other changes in the current release by having
-a look at L<perldelta/VMS>.
+For best results, make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build",
+"Building Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before
+you build or install. Also please note other changes in the current
+release by having a look at L<perldelta/VMS>.
Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant
-compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it
+compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is I<not> ANSI compliant, as it
died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore
VAX C will not compile Perl 5.005 or later. We are sorry about that.
could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
-There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
-relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
-document.
-
=head2 Other required software for Compiling Perl on VMS
In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
=item 1 A C compiler.
HP (formerly Compaq, more formerly DEC) C for VMS (VAX, Alpha, or Itanium).
+Various ancient versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if you're using a
+version older than 7.x on Alpha or Itanium or 6.x on VAX, you may need to
+upgrade to get a successful build.
=item 2 A make tool.
-DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
-analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
-just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
-anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
-go ahead and use that.
+HP's MMS may work, but MadGoat's free MMS analog MMK (available from
+http://www.kednos.com/kednos/Resources/MMK) has consistently worked
+better. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since anyone's tested
+it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so go ahead and use that.
=back
=over 4
-=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
+=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP for VMS
A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM
from HP.
http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
- http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
=item 2 VMS TAR
A port of GNU tar is also available as part of the GNV package:
- http://gnv.sourceforge.net/
+ http://h71000.www7.hp.com/opensource/gnv.html
-=item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
+=item 3 UNZIP for VMS
A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html
http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
- ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms
- ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
- ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv
-
-=item 4 MOST
-
-Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
-TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
-regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
-library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
-
- ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
- ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/narnia/
+ ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv/
=item 5 GNU PATCH and DIFFUTILS for VMS
distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are
available here:
- http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
+ http://www.antinode.info/dec/sw/diffutils.html
http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
=back
You may need to set up a foreign symbol for the unpacking utility of choice.
-If you unpack a perl source kit with a name containing multiple periods on
-an ODS-5 volume using recent versions of vmstar (e.g. V3.4 or later) you may
-need to be especially careful in unpacking the tape archive file. Try to use
-the ODS-2 compatability qualifiers such as:
-
- vmstar /extract/verbose/ods2 perl-V^.VIII^.III.tar
+As of version 5.10.0, Perl will still build and run on ODS-2 volumes,
+including on VAX, but there are a number of modules whose temporary
+files and tests are much happier residing on ODS-5 volumes. For
+example, CPANPLUS will fail most of its tests on an ODS-2 volume because
+it includes files with multiple dots that will have been converted to
+underscores and the tests will have difficulty finding them. So your
+best bet is to unpack the Perl source kit on an ODS-5 volume using
+recent versions of vmstar (e.g. V3.4 or later). Contrary to advice
+provided with previous versions of Perl, do I<not> use the ODS-2
+compatability qualifier. Instead, use a command like the following:
-or:
+ vmstar -xvf perl-5^.13^.2.tar
- vmstar -xvof perl-5^.8^.3.tar
+Then rename the top-level source directory like so:
-If you neglected to use the /ODS2 qualifier or the -o switch then you
-could rename the source directory:
+ set security/protection=(o:rwed) perl-5^.13^.2.dir
+ rename perl-5^.13^.2.dir perl-5_12_0.dir
- set security/protection=(o:rwed) perl-5^.8^.3.dir
- rename perl-5^.8^.3.dir perl-5_8_3.dir
-
-Perl on VMS as of 5.8.3 does not completely handle extended file
-parse styles such as are encountered on ODS-5. While it can be built,
-installed, and run on ODS-5 filesystems; it may encounter
-trouble with characters that are otherwise illegal on ODS-2
-volumes (notably the ^. escaped period sequence).
+The reason for this last step is that while filenames with multiple dots
+are generally supported by Perl on VMS, I<directory> names with multiple
+dots are a special case with special problems because the dot is the
+traditional directory delimiter on VMS. Rudimentary support for
+multi-dot directory names is available, but some of the oldest and most
+essential parts of Perl (such as searching for and loading library
+modules) do not yet fully support the ODS-5 caret-escape syntax.
=head1 Configuring the Perl build
of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
built for your machine.
-If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
-which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
-you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
-
If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
-distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
+distribution. To run the tests, enter the I<exact> MMS line you used to
compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
If the compile command was:
built; otherwise the manipulations of temporary files and directories
attempted by some of the tests will fail.
-If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite
+If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl, or at least
+with the particular module or feature that reported failure. If the test suite
hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
-don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
+don't be hasty), then the test I<after> the last one displayed failed. Don't
install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
=head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) installing Perl on VMS
If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
-first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
+first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the I<exact> MMS line you used
to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
if the compile command was:
=head1 CAVEATS
Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
-switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
+switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use I<exactly> what the configure.com
script prints!
The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for ODS 2 volumes which were
-common on versions of VMS prior to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX).
+common on versions of VMS prior to V7.2 and even with V7.3 on the VAX).
It is best to do:
DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
As noted above ODS-5 escape sequences such as ^. can break the perl
-build. Solutions include renaming files and directories as needed or
-being careful to use the -o switch or /ODS2 qualifier with latter
-versions of the vmstar utility when unpacking perl or CPAN modules
-on ODS-5 volumes.
+build. Solutions include renaming files and directories as needed
+when unpacking perl or CPAN modules on ODS-5 volumes.
Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
before you rebuild.
-=head2 DEC C issues with Perl on VMS
-
-Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
-C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
-contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item - pipes
-
-Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
-This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
-work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
-then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
-fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
-
-=item - modf()
-
-The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
-INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
-these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
-
-=item - ALPACRT ECO
-
-On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
-changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
-though the call specified that the change should not persist after
-Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
-See also:
-
- http://ftp.support.compaq.com/patches/.new/openvms.shtml
-
-=back
-
-Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
-"Compaq C".
-
=head2 GNU issues with Perl on VMS
It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
of source code modification to work again.
- http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
http://www.progis.de/
- http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
=head2 Floating Point Considerations
5.8.0, Alpha builds now use IEEE floating point formats by default, which in
VMS parlance are S_FLOAT for singles and T_FLOAT for doubles. IEEE is not
available on VAX, so F_FLOAT and D_FLOAT remain the defaults for singles and
-doubles respectively. The available non-default options are G_FLOAT on VAX
-and D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT on Alpha.
+doubles respectively. Itanium builds have always used IEEE by default. The
+available non-default options are G_FLOAT on VAX and D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT on
+Alpha or Itanium.
-The use of IEEE on Alpha introduces NaN, infinity, and denormalization
+The use of IEEE on Alpha or Itanium introduces NaN, infinity, and denormalization
capabilities not available with D_FLOAT and G_FLOAT. When using one of those
non-IEEE formats, silent underflow and overflow are emulated in the conversion
of strings to numbers, but it is preferable to get the real thing by using
answer to the "Any additional cc flags?" question. For example, to obtain a
G_FLOAT build on VAX, put in C</FLOAT=G_FLOAT>.
-=head2 Multinet issues with Perl on VMS
-
-Prior to the release of Perl 5.8.0 it was noted that the regression
-test for lib/Net/hostent (in file [.lib.Net]hostent.t) will fail owing
-to problems with the hostent structure returned by C calls to either
-gethostbyname() or gethostbyaddr() using DEC or Compaq C with a
-Multinet TCP/IP stack. The problem was noted in Multinet 4.3A
-using either Compaq C 6.5 or DEC C 6.0, and with Multinet 4.2A
-using DEC C 5.2, but could easily affect other versions of Multinet.
-Process Software Inc. has acknowledged a bug in the Multinet version
-of UCX$IPC_SHR and has provided an ECO for it. The ECO is called
-UCX_LIBRARY_EMULATION-010_A044 and is available from:
-
- http://www.multinet.process.com/eco.html
-
-As of this writing, the ECO is only available for Multinet versions
-4.3A and later. You may determine the version of Multinet that you
-are running using the command:
-
- multinet show /version
-
-from the DCL command prompt.
-
-If the ECO is unavailable for your version of Multinet and you are
-unable to upgrade, you might try using Perl programming constructs
-such as:
-
- $address = substr($gethostbyname_addr,0,4);
-
-to temporarily work around the problem, or if you are brave
-and do not mind the possibility of breaking IPv6 addresses,
-you might modify the pp_sys.c file to add an ad-hoc correction
-like so:
-
-
- --- pp_sys.c;1 Thu May 30 14:42:17 2002
- +++ pp_sys.c Thu May 30 12:54:02 2002
- @@ -4684,6 +4684,10 @@
- }
- #endif
-
- + if (hent) {
- + hent->h_length = 4;
- + }
- +
- if (GIMME != G_ARRAY) {
- PUSHs(sv = sv_newmortal());
- if (hent) {
-
-then re-compile and re-test your perl. After the installation
-of the Multinet ECO you ought to back out any such changes though.
-
=head1 Mailing Lists
There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
Vmsperl pages on the web include:
http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
- http://www.crinoid.com/
- http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
- http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/
http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
- http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=vmsperl
http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html
=head1 SEE ALSO
Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
-available from the [.
VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
+available from the [.
POD]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
=head1 AUTHORS
-Revised 10-October-2001 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
-Revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
-Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
-Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
-Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
+Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu. See the git repository
+for history.
=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu
for VAX VMS V7.2 support
+ John Malmberg wb8tyw@qsl.net
+ for ODS-5 filename handling and other modernizations
and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff