Socket::my_inet_aton() tweak
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.aix
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20d11268 1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
a318903f 11This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating
12system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)
13is compiled and/or runs.
20d11268 14
15=head2 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX
16
d5d9880c 17When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
20d11268 18an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
19gcc for AIX are widely available.
20
21At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers,
210b36aa 22for which you have to pay: B<xlc> and B<VAC>. If you decide to use either
20d11268 23of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to
24upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:
25
26 xlC.C 3.1.4.0
60ecc970 27 vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.0
20d11268 28
a318903f 29Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
30The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
20d11268 31difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
32require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
33
12f54d27 34The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler
35optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c,
36respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch
37levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files.
38Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.
39
20d11268 40If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
41complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific
60ecc970 42details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development
43team.
20d11268 44
45=head2 OS level
46
47Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the
48level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will
a318903f 49show the base, but is not always complete:
20d11268 50
51 # oslevel
52 4.3.0.0
53 # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
54 bos.rte 4.3.2.1 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
55 bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
56 #
57
58=head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
59
60AIX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
61Shared libraries end with the suffix .a, which is a bit misleading,
a318903f 62because *all* libraries are shared ;-).
20d11268 63
12f54d27 64Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX
654.3 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface
66instead of the emulated interface that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1
67and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and earlier. This change will
68probably break backward compatibility with compiled modules.
69The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other applications
70like modperl which are using the AIX native interface.
71
20d11268 72=head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler
73
74All defaults for Configure can be used.
75
76If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions
60ecc970 77will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0.
20d11268 78
a318903f 79Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest
80level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade
81versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups
82are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches
83in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the
84`base' is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are
85cumulative.
86
87 vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
88 xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)
89
90 # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
91 Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
92 : welcome message ...
93 Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
94 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
95 Password:
96 ... accepted login stuff
97 ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
98 ftp> dir other other.ll
99 output to local-file: other.ll? y
100 200 PORT command successful.
101 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
102 226 Transfer complete.
103 ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll
104 output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
105 200 PORT command successful.
106 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
107 226 Transfer complete.
108 ftp> bye
109 ... goodbye messages
110 # ls -l *.ll
111 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll
112 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll
113
114On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:
115
116 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
117 xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
118 xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
119 # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
120 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
121 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
122 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
123 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
124 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
125 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
126 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
127 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
128 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
129 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
130 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
131 #
132
133On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:
134
135 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'vac.C '
136 vac.C 4.4.0.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
137 vac.C 4.4.0.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
138 # grep 'vac.C.4.4.0.*.bff' other.ll
139 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13466624 May 26 1999 vac.C.4.4.0.1.bff
140 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13473792 Aug 31 1999 vac.C.4.4.0.2.bff
141 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13480960 May 19 20:32 vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff
142 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff
143 #
144
145Then execute the following command, and fill in its choices
146
147 # smit install_update
148 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
149 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff ]
150 [ OK ]
151 [ OK ]
152
153Follow the messages ... and you're done.
154
20d11268 155=head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl
156
210b36aa 157We're working on this using gcc-3.0 ... (any input highly appreciated)
20d11268 158
20d11268 159=head2 Using Large Files with Perl
160
60ecc970 161Should yield no problems.
20d11268 162
163=head2 Threaded Perl
164
60ecc970 165Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when
166threads are used in combination with 64bit configurations.
20d11268 167
168=head2 64-bit Perl
169
60ecc970 170If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64bit
12f54d27 171configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might
172still fail.
20d11268 173
12f54d27 174=head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics
20d11268 175
12f54d27 176In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics
177may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized.
178In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with
179the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library
180has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time
181(such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and
182therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r.
20d11268 183
184=head1 AUTHOR
185
186H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@hccnet.nl>
187
188Structure copied from README.hpux
189
190=head1 DATE
191
12f54d27 192Version 0.0.3: 12 Jul 2001
20d11268 193
194=cut