- Threading
- Calls to external programs
- Memory allocation
+ - Threads
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO
*nixish shell (like F<sh.exe> supplied in the binary distribution),
you need to follow the syntax specified in L<perlrun/"Switches">.
+Note that B<-S> switch enables a search with additional extensions
+F<.cmd>, F<.btm>, F<.bat>, F<.pl> as well.
+
=head2 Starting OS/2 (and DOS) programs under Perl
This is what system() (see L<perlfunc/system>), C<``> (see
L<"Frequently asked questions">), and perl should be able to find it
(see L<"PERL_SH_DIR">).
-The only cases when the shell is not used is the multi-argument
-system() (see L<perlfunc/system>)/exec() (see L<perlfunc/exec>), and
-one-argument version thereof without redirection and shell
-meta-characters.
+The cases when the shell is used are:
+
+=over
+
+=item 1
+
+One-argument system() (see L<perlfunc/system>), exec() (see L<perlfunc/exec>)
+with redirection or shell meta-characters;
+
+=item 2
+
+Pipe-open (see L<perlfunc/open>) with the command which contains redirection
+or shell meta-characters;
+
+=item 3
+
+Backticks C<``> (see L<perlop/"I/O Operators">) with the command which contains
+redirection or shell meta-characters;
+
+=item 4
+
+If the executable called by system()/exec()/pipe-open()/C<``> is a script
+with the "magic" C<#!> line or C<extproc> line which specifies shell;
+
+=item 5
+
+If the executable called by system()/exec()/pipe-open()/C<``> is a script
+without "magic" line, and C<$ENV{EXECSHELL}> is set to shell;
+
+=item 6
+
+If the executable called by system()/exec()/pipe-open()/C<``> is not
+found;
+
+=item 7
+
+For globbing (see L<perlfunc/glob>, L<perlop/"I/O Operators">).
+
+=back
+
+For the sake of speed for a common case, in the above algorithms
+backslashes in the command name are not considered as shell metacharacters.
+
+Perl starts scripts which begin with cookies
+C<extproc> or C<#!> directly, without an intervention of shell. Perl uses the
+same algorithm to find the executable as F<pdksh>: if the path
+on C<#!> line does not work, and contains C</>, then the executable
+is searched in F<.> and on C<PATH>. To find arguments for these scripts
+Perl uses a different algorithm than F<pdksh>: up to 3 arguments are
+recognized, and trailing whitespace is stripped.
+
+If a script
+does not contain such a cooky, then to avoid calling F<sh.exe>, Perl uses
+the same algorithm as F<pdksh>: if C<$ENV{EXECSHELL}> is set, the
+script is given as the first argument to this command, if not set, then
+C<$ENV{COMSPEC} /c> is used (or a hardwired guess if C<$ENV{COMSPEC}> is
+not set).
+
+If starting scripts directly, Perl will use exactly the same algorithm as for
+the search of script given by B<-S> command-line option: it will look in
+the current directory, then on components of C<$ENV{PATH}> using the
+following order of appended extensions: no extension, F<.cmd>, F<.btm>,
+F<.bat>, F<.pl>.
+
+Note that Perl will start to look for scripts only if OS/2 cannot start the
+specified application, thus C<system 'blah'> will not look for a script if
+there is an executable file F<blah.exe> I<anywhere> on C<PATH>.
+
+Note also that executable files on OS/2 can have an arbitrary extension,
+but F<.exe> will be automatically appended if no dot is present in the name.
+The workaround as as simple as that: since F<blah.> and F<blah> denote the
+same file, to start an executable residing in file F<n:/bin/blah> (no
+extension) give an argument C<n:/bin/blah.> to system().
+
+The last note is that currently it is not straightforward to start PM
+programs from VIO (=text-mode) Perl process and visa versa. Either ensure
+that shell will be used, as in C<system 'cmd /c epm'>, or start it using
+optional arguments to system() documented in C<OS2::Process> module. This
+is considered a bug and should be fixed soon.
+
=head1 Frequently asked questions
). You need the latest version of F<pdksh> installed as F<sh.exe>.
+Check that you have B<BSD> libraries and headers installed, and -
+optionally - Berkeley DB headers and libraries, and crypt.
+
Possible locations to get this from are
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/dev32/
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/emx09c/
+It is reported that the following archives contain enough utils to
+build perl: gnufutil.zip, gnusutil.zip, gnututil.zip, gnused.zip,
+gnupatch.zip, gnuawk.zip, gnumake.zip and ksh527rt.zip. Note that
+all these utilities are known to be available from LEO:
+
+ ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/leo/gnu
Make sure that no copies or perl are currently running. Later steps
of the build may fail since an older version of perl.dll loaded into
ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/os2/db_mt.zip
+To make C<-p> filetest work, one may also need to apply the following patch
+to EMX headers:
+
+ --- /emx/include/sys/stat.h.orig Thu May 23 13:48:16 1996
+ +++ /emx/include/sys/stat.h Sun Jul 12 14:11:32 1998
+ @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ struct stat
+ #endif
+
+ #if !defined (S_IFMT)
+ -#define S_IFMT 0160000 /* Mask for file type */
+ +#define S_IFMT 0170000 /* Mask for file type */
+ #define S_IFIFO 0010000 /* Pipe */
+ #define S_IFCHR 0020000 /* Character device */
+ #define S_IFDIR 0040000 /* Directory */
+
+
=head2 Hand-editing
You may look into the file F<./hints/os2.sh> and correct anything
=head2 Testing
+If you haven't yet moved perl.dll onto LIBPATH, do it now (alternatively, if
+you have a previous perl installation you'd rather not disrupt until this one
+is installed, copy perl.dll to the t directory).
+
Now run
make test
-Some tests (4..6) should fail. Some perl invocations should end in a
-segfault (system error C<SYS3175>). To get finer error reports,
+All tests should succeed (with some of them skipped). Note that on one
+of the systems I see intermittent failures of F<io/pipe.t> subtest 9.
+Any help to track what happens with this test is appreciated.
- cd t
- perl harness
+Some tests may generate extra messages similar to
-The report you get may look like
+=over 4
- Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
- io/fs.t 26 11 42.31% 2-5, 7-11, 18, 25
- lib/io_pipe.t 3 768 6 ?? % ??
- lib/io_sock.t 3 768 5 ?? % ??
- op/stat.t 56 5 8.93% 3-4, 20, 35, 39
- Failed 4/140 test scripts, 97.14% okay. 27/2937 subtests failed, 99.08% okay.
+=item A lot of C<bad free>
-Note that using `make test' target two more tests may fail: C<op/exec:1>
-because of (mis)feature of pdksh, and C<lib/posix:15>, which checks
-that the buffers are not flushed on C<_exit> (this is a bug in the test
-which assumes that tty output is buffered).
+in database tests related to Berkeley DB. This is a confirmed bug of
+DB. You may disable this warnings, see L<"PERL_BADFREE">.
-I submitted a patch to EMX which makes it possible to fork() with EMX
-dynamic libraries loaded, which makes F<lib/io*> tests pass. This means
-that soon the number of failing tests may decrease yet more.
+There is not much we can do with it (but apparently it does not cause
+any real error with data).
-However, the test F<lib/io_udp.t> is disabled, since it never terminates, I
-do not know why. Comments/fixes welcome.
+=item Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT
-The reasons for failed tests are:
+This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications. *nix
+applications die in silence. It is considered a feature. One can
+easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers.
-=over 8
+However the test engine bleeds these message to screen in unexpected
+moments. Two messages of this kind I<should> be present during
+testing.
+
+=back
+
+Two F<lib/io_*> tests may generate popups (system error C<SYS3175>),
+but should succeed anyway. This is due to a bug of EMX related to
+fork()ing with dynamically loaded libraries.
+
+I submitted a patch to EMX which makes it possible to fork() with EMX
+dynamic libraries loaded, which makes F<lib/io*> tests pass without
+skipping offended tests. This means that soon the number of skipped tests
+may decrease yet more.
-=item F<io/fs.t>
+To get finer test reports, call
-Checks I<file system> operations. Tests:
+ perl t/harness
-=over 10
+The report with F<io/pipe.t> failing may look like this:
-=item 2-5, 7-11
+ Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
+ ------------------------------------------------------------
+ io/pipe.t 12 1 8.33% 9
+ 7 tests skipped, plus 56 subtests skipped.
+ Failed 1/195 test scripts, 99.49% okay. 1/6542 subtests failed, 99.98% okay.
+
+The reasons for most important skipped tests are:
+
+=over 8
-Check C<link()> and C<inode count> - nonesuch under OS/2.
+=item F<op/fs.t>
=item 18
-Checks C<atime> and C<mtime> of C<stat()> - I could not understand this test.
+Checks C<atime> and C<mtime> of C<stat()> - unfortunately, HPFS
+provides only 2sec time granularity (for compatibility with FAT?).
=item 25
=over 4
-=item 3
-
-Checks C<inode count> - nonesuch under OS/2.
-
=item 4
-Checks C<mtime> and C<ctime> of C<stat()> - I could not understand this test.
-
-=item 20
-
-Checks C<-x> - determined by the file extension only under OS/2.
-
-=item 35
-
-Needs F</usr/bin>.
-
-=item 39
-
-Checks C<-t> of F</dev/null>. Should not fail!
-
-=back
+Checks C<atime> and C<mtime> of C<stat()> - unfortunately, HPFS
+provides only 2sec time granularity (for compatibility with FAT?).
=back
-In addition to errors, you should get a lot of warnings.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item A lot of `bad free'
-
-in databases related to Berkeley DB. This is a confirmed bug of
-DB. You may disable this warnings, see L<"PERL_BADFREE">.
-
-=item Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT
-
-This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications. *nix
-applications die in silence. It is considered a feature. One can
-easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers.
-
-However the test engine bleeds these message to screen in unexpected
-moments. Two messages of this kind I<should> be present during
-testing.
-
-=item F<*/sh.exe>: ln: not found
-
-=item C<ls>: /dev: No such file or directory
+=item F<lib/io_udp.t>
-The last two should be self-explanatory. The test suite discovers that
-the system it runs on is not I<that much> *nixish.
+It never terminates, apparently some bug in storing the last socket from
+which we obtained a message.
=back
-A lot of `bad free'... in databases, bug in DB confirmed on other
-platforms. You may disable it by setting PERL_BADFREE environment variable
-to 1.
-
=head2 Installing the built perl
+If you haven't yet moved perl.dll onto LIBPATH, do it now.
+
Run
make install
You do not have MT-safe F<db.lib>. See L<Prerequisites>.
-=head2 Problems with tr
+=head2 Problems with tr or sed
-reported with very old version of tr.
+reported with very old version of tr and sed.
=head2 Some problem (forget which ;-)
=head2 Additional modules:
-L<OS2::Process>, L<OS2::REXX>, L<OS2::PrfDB>, L<OS2::ExtAttr>. This
-modules provide access to additional numeric argument for C<system>,
+L<OS2::Process>, L<OS2::REXX>, L<OS2::PrfDB>, L<OS2::ExtAttr>. These
+modules provide access to additional numeric argument for C<system>
+and to the list of the running processes,
to DLLs having functions with REXX signature and to REXX runtime, to
OS/2 databases in the F<.INI> format, and to Extended Attributes.
=item
-Since L<flock(3)> is present in EMX, but is not functional, the same is
-true for perl. Here is the list of things which may be "broken" on
+Since L<flock(3)> is present in EMX, but is not functional, it is
+emulated by perl. To disable the emulations, set environment variable
+C<USE_PERL_FLOCK=0>.
+
+=item
+
+Here is the list of things which may be "broken" on
EMX (from EMX docs):
=over
=item *
-L<flock(3)> is not yet implemented (dummy function).
+L<flock(3)> is not yet implemented (dummy function). (Perl has a workaround.)
=item *
C<os2_stat> special-cases F</dev/tty> and F</dev/con>.
+=item C<flock>
+
+Since L<flock(3)> is present in EMX, but is not functional, it is
+emulated by perl. To disable the emulations, set environment variable
+C<USE_PERL_FLOCK=0>.
+
=back
=head1 Perl flavors
Should be used if the perl library is moved from the default
location in preference to C<PERL(5)LIB>, since this would not leave wrong
-entries in <@INC>.
+entries in @INC. Say, if the compiled version of perl looks for @INC
+in F<f:/perllib/lib>, and you want to install the library in
+F<h:/opt/gnu>, do
+
+ set PERLLIB_PREFIX=f:/perllib/lib;h:/opt/gnu
=head2 C<PERL_BADLANG>
Specific for EMX port. Gives the directory part of the location for
F<sh.exe>.
+=head2 C<USE_PERL_FLOCK>
+
+Specific for EMX port. Since L<flock(3)> is present in EMX, but is not
+functional, it is emulated by perl. To disable the emulations, set
+environment variable C<USE_PERL_FLOCK=0>.
+
=head2 C<TMP> or C<TEMP>
Specific for EMX port. Used as storage place for temporary files, most
=head2 Threading
As of release 5.003_01 perl is linked to multithreaded CRT
-DLL. Perl itself is not multithread-safe, as is not perl
+DLL. If perl itself is not compiled multithread-enabled, so will not be perl
malloc(). However, extensions may use multiple thread on their own
risk.
whatever is the override, see L<"PERL_SH_DIR">.
Thus means that you need to get some copy of a F<sh.exe> as well (I
-use one from pdksh). The drive F: above is set up automatically during
+use one from pdksh). The drive F<F:> above is set up automatically during
the build to a correct value on the builder machine, but is
overridable at runtime,
I will include it into distribution. I have no need for such a module, so
cannot test it.
+For the details of the current situation with calling external programs,
+see L<Starting OS/2 (and DOS) programs under Perl>.
+
+=over
+
+=item
+
+External scripts may be called by name. Perl will try the same extensions
+as when processing B<-S> command-line switch.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Memory allocation
Perl uses its own malloc() under OS/2 - interpreters are usually malloc-bound
-for speed, but perl is not, since its malloc is lightning-fast.
-Unfortunately, it is also quite frivolous with memory usage as well.
-
-Since kitchen-top machines are usually low on memory, perl is compiled with
-all the possible memory-saving options. This probably makes perl's
-malloc() as greedy with memory as the neighbor's malloc(), but still
-much quickier. Note that this is true only for a "typical" usage,
-it is possible that the perl malloc will be worse for some very special usage.
+for speed, but perl is not, since its malloc is lightning-fast.
+Perl-memory-usage-tuned benchmarks show that Perl's malloc is 5 times quickier
+than EMX one. I do not have convincing data about memory footpring, but
+a (pretty random) benchmark showed that Perl one is 5% better.
Combination of perl's malloc() and rigid DLL name resolution creates
a special problem with library functions which expect their return value to
the prefix C<emx_> added. (Currently only DLL perl has this, it should
propagate to F<perl_.exe> shortly.)
+=head2 Threads
+
+One can build perl with thread support enabled by providing C<-D usethreads>
+option to F<Configure>. Currently OS/2 support of threads is very
+preliminary.
+
+Most notable problems:
+
+=over
+
+=item C<COND_WAIT>
+
+may have a race condition. Needs a reimplementation (in terms of chaining
+waiting threads, with linker list stored in per-thread structure?).
+
+=item F<os2.c>
+
+has a couple of static variables used in OS/2-specific functions. (Need to be
+moved to per-thread structure, or serialized?)
+
+=back
+
+Note that these problems should not discourage experimenting, since they
+have a low probability of affecting small programs.
+
=cut
OS/2 extensions
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff