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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. |
4 | |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | |
7 | README.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems |
8 | |
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
10 | |
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11 | This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating |
12 | system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) |
13 | is compiled and/or runs. |
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14 | |
15 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX |
16 | |
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17 | For information on compilers on older versions of AIX, see L<Compiling |
18 | Perl 5 on older AIX>. |
19 | |
20 | When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship |
21 | an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of |
22 | gcc for AIX are widely available. |
23 | |
24 | =head2 Supported Compilers |
25 | |
26 | Currently all versions of IBM's "xlc", "xlc_r", "cc", "cc_r" or |
27 | "vac" ANSI/C compiler will work for building perl if that compiler |
28 | works on your system. |
29 | |
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30 | If you plan to link perl to any module that requires thread-support, |
31 | like DBD::Oracle, it is better to use the _r version of the compiler. |
32 | This will not build a threaded perl, but a thread-enabled perl. See |
33 | also L<Threaded perl> later on. |
34 | |
7fabfece |
35 | As of writing (2008-11) only the IBM XL C for AIX or XL C/C++ for AIX |
36 | compiler is supported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1. |
37 | |
38 | The following compiler versions are supported by IBM: |
39 | |
40 | XL C and XL C/C++ V7, V8, V9, V10 |
41 | |
42 | The XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler. |
43 | |
44 | If you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed |
45 | otherwise the integrated SDBM_File do not compile correctly due |
46 | to an optimization bug. You can circumvent this problem by |
47 | adding -qipa to the optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa'). |
48 | The PTF for APAR IZ35785 which solves this problem will be available |
49 | in 1Q 2009. IBM does provide an emergency fix for this problem. |
50 | |
51 | Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. |
52 | The former is recommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no |
53 | difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later |
54 | that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags. |
55 | |
56 | If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and |
57 | complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific |
58 | details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the |
59 | development team. |
60 | |
61 | =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX |
62 | |
63 | Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x) and AIX 4.3 |
64 | or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so |
65 | called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was |
66 | used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and |
67 | earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled |
68 | modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl |
69 | more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are |
70 | using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of |
71 | C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions, |
72 | which was not possible using the emulated interface. |
73 | |
74 | It is highly recommended to use the new interface. |
75 | |
76 | =head2 Using Large Files with Perl |
77 | |
78 | Should yield no problems. |
79 | |
80 | =head2 Threaded Perl |
81 | |
82 | Should yield no problems with AIX 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1. |
83 | |
84 | IBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.8.2 as of writing) for some AIX |
85 | system scripts. If you switches the links in /usr/bin from the |
86 | AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build Perl then you |
87 | get the same features as with the IBM AIX system Perl if the |
88 | threaded options are used. |
89 | |
90 | =head2 64-bit Perl |
91 | |
92 | If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit |
93 | configurations to work. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX 6.1 |
94 | you need a APAR for a libc.a bug which affects (n)dbm_XXX functions. |
95 | The APAR number for this problem is currently not yet available. If |
96 | the fileset bos.rte.libc is at level 6.1.1.2 or lower then the problem |
97 | is no fixed on your system. |
98 | |
99 | If you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs you |
100 | can set: |
101 | |
102 | /etc/security/limits |
103 | default: (or your user) |
104 | data = -1 (default is 262144 * 512 byte) |
105 | |
106 | With the default setting the size is limited to 128MB. |
107 | The -1 removes this limit. |
108 | |
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109 | =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/32-bit) |
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110 | |
111 | With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which |
112 | passes all make tests in threaded 32-bit mode, which is the default |
113 | configuration for the perl builds that AIX ships with. |
114 | |
115 | rm config.sh |
116 | ./Configure \ |
117 | -d \ |
118 | -Dcc=cc_r \ |
119 | -Duseshrplib \ |
120 | -Dusethreads \ |
121 | -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32 |
122 | |
123 | The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the |
124 | IBM AIX system Perl installation. |
125 | |
126 | =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (32-bit) |
127 | |
128 | With the following options you get a Perl version which passes |
129 | all make tests in 32-bit mode. |
130 | |
131 | rm config.sh |
132 | ./Configure \ |
133 | -d \ |
134 | -Dcc=cc_r \ |
135 | -Duseshrplib \ |
136 | -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32 |
137 | |
138 | The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the |
139 | IBM AIX system Perl installation. |
140 | |
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141 | =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/64-bit) |
7fabfece |
142 | |
143 | With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which |
144 | passes all make tests in 64-bit mode. |
145 | |
146 | export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell) |
147 | |
148 | rm config.sh |
149 | ./Configure \ |
150 | -d \ |
151 | -Dcc=cc_r \ |
152 | -Duseshrplib \ |
153 | -Dusethreads \ |
154 | -Duse64bitall \ |
155 | -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64 |
156 | |
157 | =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1(64-bit) |
158 | |
159 | With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all |
160 | make tests in 64-bit mode. |
161 | |
162 | export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell) |
163 | |
164 | rm config.sh |
165 | ./Configure \ |
166 | -d \ |
167 | -Dcc=cc_r \ |
168 | -Duseshrplib \ |
169 | -Duse64bitall \ |
170 | -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64 |
171 | |
172 | The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the |
173 | IBM AIX system Perl installation. |
174 | |
175 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX |
176 | |
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177 | When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship |
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178 | an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of |
179 | gcc for AIX are widely available. |
180 | |
181 | At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers, |
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182 | for which you have to pay: B<xlC> and B<vac>. If you decide to use either |
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183 | of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to |
184 | upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently: |
185 | |
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186 | xlC.C 3.1.4.10 or 3.6.6.0 or 4.0.2.2 or 5.0.2.9 or 6.0.0.3 |
187 | vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1 |
188 | |
189 | note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so |
190 | you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package |
191 | |
192 | xlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3 |
193 | |
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194 | subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example, |
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195 | the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7. |
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196 | |
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197 | Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. |
198 | The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no |
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199 | difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that |
200 | require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags. |
201 | |
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202 | The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler |
203 | optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c, |
204 | respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch |
205 | levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files. |
206 | Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended. |
207 | |
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208 | If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and |
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209 | complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific |
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210 | details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development |
211 | team. |
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212 | |
213 | =head2 OS level |
214 | |
215 | Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the |
216 | level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will |
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217 | show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows |
218 | 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE): |
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219 | |
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220 | # oslevel |
221 | 4.3.0.0 |
222 | # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte ' |
e41d30bc |
223 | bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime |
224 | bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime |
225 | # |
226 | |
64cb7701 |
227 | The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, perl |
228 | cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed |
1a3e4d88 |
229 | |
230 | # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm" |
231 | bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development |
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232 | bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application |
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233 | # |
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234 | |
235 | =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX |
236 | |
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237 | AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries. |
238 | Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit |
239 | misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members. |
240 | For perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix also used on |
241 | many other platforms. |
242 | |
243 | Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3 |
244 | or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so |
245 | called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was |
246 | used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and |
247 | earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled |
248 | modules from earlier perl releases. The change was made to make Perl |
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249 | more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are |
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250 | using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++ |
251 | code with static constructors and destructors in perl extensions, which |
252 | was not possible using the emulated interface. |
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253 | |
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254 | =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler |
255 | |
256 | All defaults for Configure can be used. |
257 | |
258 | If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions |
4951a6f9 |
259 | will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0, |
c67773d0 |
260 | but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has |
261 | removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot, these |
262 | versions should be considered obsolete. |
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263 | |
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264 | Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest |
265 | level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade |
266 | versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups |
267 | are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches |
268 | in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the |
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269 | "base" is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are |
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270 | cumulative. |
271 | |
272 | vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed) |
273 | xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available) |
274 | |
275 | # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com |
276 | Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com. |
277 | : welcome message ... |
278 | Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous |
279 | 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. |
280 | Password: |
281 | ... accepted login stuff |
282 | ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/ |
283 | ftp> dir other other.ll |
284 | output to local-file: other.ll? y |
285 | 200 PORT command successful. |
286 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. |
287 | 226 Transfer complete. |
288 | ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll |
289 | output to local-file: xlc.ll? y |
290 | 200 PORT command successful. |
291 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. |
292 | 226 Transfer complete. |
293 | ftp> bye |
294 | ... goodbye messages |
295 | # ls -l *.ll |
296 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll |
297 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll |
298 | |
299 | On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue: |
300 | |
301 | # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C ' |
302 | xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
303 | xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
304 | # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll |
305 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff |
306 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff |
307 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff |
308 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff |
309 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff |
310 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff |
311 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff |
312 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff |
313 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff |
314 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff |
315 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff |
316 | # |
317 | |
318 | On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue: |
319 | |
64cb7701 |
320 | # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C ' |
321 | vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
322 | vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
323 | # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll |
324 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff |
325 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff |
326 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff |
c67773d0 |
327 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff |
328 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff |
a318903f |
329 | # |
330 | |
64cb7701 |
331 | Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and |
332 | fill in its choices |
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333 | |
334 | # smit install_update |
335 | -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software |
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336 | * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ] |
a318903f |
337 | [ OK ] |
338 | [ OK ] |
339 | |
340 | Follow the messages ... and you're done. |
341 | |
8381f7b7 |
342 | If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be |
343 | http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click |
344 | "C for AIX", and follow the instructions. |
345 | |
e083a1cd |
346 | =head2 The usenm option |
347 | |
348 | If linking miniperl |
349 | |
350 | cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ... |
351 | |
352 | causes error like this |
353 | |
354 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl |
355 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl |
356 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall |
357 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess |
358 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid |
359 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid |
360 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle |
361 | ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information. |
362 | |
363 | you could retry with |
364 | |
365 | make realclean |
366 | rm config.sh |
367 | ./Configure -Dusenm ... |
368 | |
369 | which makes Configure to use the C<nm> tool when scanning for library |
370 | symbols, which usually is not done in AIX. |
371 | |
dd993642 |
372 | Related to this, you probably should not use the C<-r> option of |
373 | Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the C<nm> tool is used. |
374 | |
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375 | =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl |
376 | |
c67773d0 |
377 | Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box, |
378 | as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their |
379 | Linux compatibility packages, available here: |
818c4caa |
380 | |
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381 | http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/ |
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382 | |
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383 | =head2 Using Large Files with Perl |
384 | |
60ecc970 |
385 | Should yield no problems. |
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386 | |
387 | =head2 Threaded Perl |
388 | |
60ecc970 |
389 | Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when |
1d69df2b |
390 | threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations. |
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391 | |
bef58541 |
392 | You may get a warning when doing a threaded build: |
393 | |
394 | "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed. |
395 | |
396 | The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line |
397 | line this |
398 | |
399 | hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype); |
400 | |
401 | in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning |
402 | is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly |
403 | different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference |
404 | is not really significant here. |
405 | |
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406 | =head2 64-bit Perl |
407 | |
1d69df2b |
408 | If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit |
12f54d27 |
409 | configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might |
410 | still fail. |
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411 | |
12f54d27 |
412 | =head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics |
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413 | |
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414 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics |
415 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. |
416 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with |
417 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library |
418 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time |
419 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and |
420 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r. |
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421 | |
7fabfece |
422 | =head1 AUTHORS |
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423 | |
3bd76f0a |
424 | H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl> |
7fabfece |
425 | Rainer Tammer <tammer@tammer.net> |
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426 | |
20d11268 |
427 | =head1 DATE |
428 | |
e1051f11 |
429 | Version 0.0.8: 01 Dec 2008 |
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430 | |
431 | =cut |