(?p{}) has been deprecated for a long time.
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.os400
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522b859a 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.os400 - Perl version 5 on OS/400
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes various features of IBM's OS/400 operating
12system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
13compiled and/or runs.
14
15By far the easiest way to build Perl for OS/400 is to use the PASE
16(Portable Application Solutions Environment), for more information see
17http://www.iseries.ibm.com/developer/factory/pase/index.html
18This environment allows one to use AIX APIs while programming, and it
19provides a runtime that allows AIX binaries to execute directly on the
20PowerPC iSeries.
21
22=head2 Compiling Perl for OS/400 PASE
23
24The recommended way to build Perl for the OS/400 PASE is to build the
25Perl 5 source code (release 5.8.1 or later) under AIX.
26
27The trick is to give a special parameter to the Configure shell script
28when running it on AIX:
29
30 sh Configure -DPASE ...
31
32The default installation directory of Perl under PASE is /QOpenSys/perl.
33This can be modified if needed with Configure parameter -Dprefix=/some/dir.
34
35Starting from OS/400 V5R2 the IBM Visual Age compiler is supported
36on OS/400 PASE, so it is possible to build Perl natively on OS/400.
37The easier way, however, is to compile in AIX, as just described.
38
64e35db4 39If you don't want to install the compiled Perl in AIX into /QOpenSys
40(for packaging it before copying it to PASE), you can use a Configure
41parameter: -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/QOpenSys/perl. This will cause the
42"make install" to install everything into that directory, while the
43installed files still think they are (will be) in /QOpenSys/perl.
44
522b859a 45If building natively on PASE, please do the build under the /QOpenSys
46directory, since Perl is happier when built on a case sensitive filesystem.
47
48=head2 Installing Perl in OS/400 PASE
49
50If you are compiling on AIX, simply do a "make install" on the AIX box.
51Once the install finishes, tar up the /QOpenSys/perl directory. Transfer
52the tarball to the OS/400 using FTP with the following commands:
53
54 > binary
55 > site namefmt 1
56 > put perl.tar /QOpenSys
57
58Once you have it on, simply bring up a PASE shell and extract the tarball.
59
60If you are compiling in PASE, then "make install" is the only thing you
61will need to do.
62
63The default path for perl binary is /QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl. You'll
64want to symlink /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl to this file so you don't have
65to modify your path.
66
67=head2 Using Perl in OS/400 PASE
68
69Perl in PASE may be used in the same manner as you would use Perl on AIX.
70
71Scripts starting with #!/usr/bin/perl should work if you have
72/QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl symlinked to your perl binary. This will not
73work if you've done a setuid/setgid or have environment variable
74PASE_EXEC_QOPENSYS="N". If you have V5R1, you'll need to get the
75latest PTFs to have this feature. Scripts starting with
76#!/QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl should always work.
77
954a4c1b 78=head2 Known Problems
79
61074b56 80When compiling in PASE, there is no "oslevel" command. Therefore,
81you may want to create a script called "oslevel" that echoes the
82level of AIX that your version of PASE runtime supports. If you're
83unsure, consult your documentation or use "4.3.3.0".
84
85If you have test cases that fail, check for the existence of spool files.
86The test case may be trying to use a syscall that is not implemented
87in PASE. To avoid the SIGILL, try setting the PASE_SYSCALL_NOSIGILL
88environment variable or have a handler for the SIGILL. If you can
89compile programs for PASE, run the config script and edit config.sh
90when it gives you the option. If you want to remove fchdir(), which
91isn't implement in V5R1, simply change the line that says:
92
93d_fchdir='define'
94
95to
96
97d_fchdir='undef'
98
99and then compile Perl. The places where fchdir() is used have
100alternatives for systems that do not have fchdir() available.
954a4c1b 101
522b859a 102=head2 Perl on ILE
103
104There exists a port of Perl to the ILE environment. This port, however,
105is based quite an old release of Perl, Perl 5.00502 (August 1998).
106(As of July 2002 the latest release of Perl is 5.8.0, and even 5.6.1
107has been out since April 2001.) If you need to run Perl on ILE, though,
108you may need this older port: http://www.cpan.org/ports/#os400
109Note that any Perl release later than 5.00502 has not been ported to ILE.
110
111If you need to use Perl in the ILE environment, you may want to consider
112using Qp2RunPase() to call the PASE version of Perl.
113
114=head1 AUTHORS
115
116Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
117Bryan Logan <bryanlog@us.ibm.com>
118David Larson <larson1@us.ibm.com>
119
120=cut