-Last Revised 21-July-1998 by Dan Sugalski <sugalskd@ous.edu>
+Last revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry <craig.berry@metamor.com>
+Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org>
Originally by Charles Bailey <bailey@newman.upenn.edu>
* Important safety tip
The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004
releases! Make sure you read the "Building Perl" and "Installing Perl"
-sections before you build or install.
+sections of this document before you build or install.
Also note that, as of 5.005, an ANSI C compliant compiler is required to
build Perl. Vax C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it died a natural death some
To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
-@CONFIGURE
+ @CONFIGURE
from the top of an unpacked perl directory. You'll be asked a series of
questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities of your C
The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
-the build.
+the build. 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
+you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
+then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
+such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
+SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch) otherwise simply deasign
+the dangerous logical names. The potentially troublesome logicals and
+symbols are:
+
+ TMP "LOGICAL"
+ LIB "LOGICAL"
+ T "LOGICAL"
+ FOO "LOGICAL"
+ EXT "LOGICAL"
+ TEST "SYMBOL"
Once you issue your MMS command, sit back and wait. Perl should build and
link without a problem. If it doesn't, check the Gotchas to watch out for
As a handy shortcut, the command:
-@CONFIGURE "-des"
+ @CONFIGURE "-des"
(note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults. (It
takes Dec C over Gnu C, Dec C sockets over SOCKETSHR sockets, and either
Compile Command:
-$MMS/Macro=("__AXP__=1","decc=1","DECCRTL_SOCKETS=1")
+$MMS
Test Command:
-$MMS/Macro=("__AXP__=1","decc=1","DECCRTL_SOCKETS=1") test
+$MMS test
MMS will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are a lot of
tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen. At the end
If one or more tests fail, you can get more info on the failure by issuing
this command sequence:
-$ @[.VMS]TEST .typ "-v" [.subdir]test.T
+$ @[.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this:
-$ @[.VMS]TEST .EXE "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
+$ @[.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
Compile Command:
-$MMS/Macro=("__AXP__=1","decc=1","DECCRTL_SOCKETS=1")
+$MMS
Cleanup Command:
-$MMS/Macro=("__AXP__=1","decc=1","DECCRTL_SOCKETS=1") realclean
+$MMS realclean
If you don't do this, things may behave erratically. They might not, too,
so it's best to be sure and do it.
or copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:.
5) Optionally define the command PERLDOC as
-PERLDOC :== "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]PERLDOC.COM -t"
+PERLDOC == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]PERLDOC.COM -t"
Note that if you wish to use most as a pager please see
ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/ for both most and slang (or perhaps
ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/narnia/most.zip ).
6) Optionally define the command PERLBUG (the Perl bug report generator) as
-PERLBUG :== "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB]PERLBUG.COM"
+PERLBUG == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB]PERLBUG.COM"
7) Optionally define the command POD2MAN (Converts POD files to nroff
source suitable for converting to man pages. Also quiets complaints during
module builds) as
DEFINE/NOLOG POD2MAN PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2MAN.COM
-POD2MAN :== "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2MAN"
+POD2MAN == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2MAN"
8) Optionally define the command POD2TEXT (Converts POD files to text,
which is required for perldoc -f to work properly) as
DEFINE/NOLOG POD2TEXT PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2TEXT.COM
-POD2TEXT :== "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2TEXT"
+POD2TEXT == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2TEXT"
In all these cases, if you've got PERL defined as a foreign command, you
can replace $PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL with ''perl'. If you've installed perl
Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
You'll need CMKRNL priv to install the new dcltables.exe.
-$ create perl.cld
-!
-! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
-!
-define verb perl
- image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
- cliflags (foreign)
-$!
-$ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
- /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
-$ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
-$ exit
+ $ create perl.cld
+ !
+ ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
+ !
+ define verb perl
+ image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
+ cliflags (foreign)
+ $!
+ $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
+ /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
+ $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
+ $ exit
* Changing compile-time things
On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
-a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 1500 blocks
+a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 2000 blocks
and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
invoked.
* Dec C issues
Note to DECC users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're Dec
-C 5.x or higher, with current patches if anym you're fine) of the DECCRTL
+C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
- 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
there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It's usually a low-volume (10-12
messages a week) mailing list.
-The subscription address is VMSPERL-REQUEST@NEWMAN.UPENN.EDU. Send a mail
-message with just the words SUBSCRIBE VMSPERL in the body of the message.
-
-The VMSPERL mailing list address is VMSPERL@NEWMAN.UPENN.EDU. Any mail
-sent there gets echoed to all subscribers of the list.
-
+The subscription address is MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Send a mail message with just
+the words SUBSCRIBE VMSPERL in the body of the message.
+
+The VMSPERL mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there
+gets echoed to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of
+the list at <http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/>.
+
To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send the message UNSUBSCRIBE VMSPERL to
-VMSPERL-REQUEST@NEWMAN.UPENN.EDU. Be sure to do so from the subscribed
-account that you are cancelling.
-
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+you are cancelling.
* Acknowledgements
for the getredirection() code
Rich Salz <rsalz@bbn.com>
for readdir() and related routines
- Peter Prymmer <pvhp@forte.com> or <pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu>
+ Peter Prymmer <pvhp@forte.com>
for extensive testing, as well as development work on
configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
- Dan Sugalski <sugalskd@ous.edu>
+ Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org>
for extensive contributions to recent version support,
development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
of information about VMS Perl,
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff