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d420ca49 1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3specifically designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes various features of Sun's Solaris operating system
12that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just perl) is
13compiled and/or runs. Some issues relating to the older SunOS 4.x are
14also discussed, though they may be out of date.
15
16For the most part, everything should just work.
17
18Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is supplied with the
19operating system, so you might not even need to build a newer version
20of perl at all. The Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5
2a5ccb22 21with /usr/bin/perl pointing to /usr/perl5/bin/perl. Do not disturb
22that installation unless you really know what you are doing. If you
23remove the perl supplied with the OS, there is a good chance you will
24render some bits of your system inoperable. If you wish to install a
25newer version of perl, install it under a different prefix from
26/usr/perl5. Common prefixes to use are /usr/local and /opt/perl.
27
28You may wish to put your version of perl in the PATH of all users by
b29a8fb9 29changing the link /usr/bin/perl. This is OK, as all Perl scripts
2a5ccb22 30shipped with Solaris use /usr/perl5/bin/perl.
d420ca49 31
32=head2 Solaris Version Numbers.
33
34For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure script performs
35some minor manipulations on the operating system name and version
36number as reported by uname. Here's a partial translation table:
37
38 Sun: perl's Configure:
39 uname uname -r Name osname osvers
2a5ccb22 40 SunOS 4.1.3 Solaris 1.1 sunos 4.1.3
d420ca49 41 SunOS 5.6 Solaris 2.6 solaris 2.6
42 SunOS 5.8 Solaris 8 solaris 2.8
43
2a5ccb22 44The complete table can be found in the Sun Managers' FAQ
37a78d01 45L<ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/jdd/sunmanagers/faq> under
2a5ccb22 46"9.1) Which Sun models run which versions of SunOS?".
47
d420ca49 48=head1 RESOURCES
49
5511f325 50There are many, many sources for Solaris information. A few of the
d420ca49 51important ones for perl:
52
53=over 4
54
55=item Solaris FAQ
56
57The Solaris FAQ is available at
58L<http://www.science.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>.
59
2a5ccb22 60The Sun Managers' FAQ is available at
37a78d01 61L<ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/jdd/sunmanagers/faq>
2a5ccb22 62
d420ca49 63=item Precompiled Binaries
64
65Precompiled binaries, links to many sites, and much, much more is
5511f325 66available at L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>.
d420ca49 67
68=item Solaris Documentation
69
5511f325 70All Solaris documentation is available on-line at L<http://docs.sun.com/>.
d420ca49 71
72=back
73
74=head1 SETTING UP
75
a83b6f46 76=head2 File Extraction Problems on Solaris.
d420ca49 77
78Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris (not SunOS 4.x)
79to extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file. Do not use GNU tar compiled
80for SunOS4 on Solaris. (GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.)
81When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system magically
82alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that when tar tries to create
83lib/locale.pm, a file named lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead.
5511f325 84If you found this advice too late and used a SunOS4-compiled tar
2a5ccb22 85anyway, you must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back
86to lib/locale.pm.
d420ca49 87
a83b6f46 88=head2 Compiler and Related Tools on Solaris.
d420ca49 89
90You must use an ANSI C compiler to build perl. Perl can be compiled
91with either Sun's add-on C compiler or with gcc. The C compiler that
92shipped with SunOS4 will not do.
93
94=head3 Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your PATH.
95
96Several tools needed to build perl are located in /usr/ccs/bin/: ar,
97as, ld, and make. Make sure that /usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH.
98
99You need to make sure the following packages are installed
100(this info is extracted from the Solaris FAQ):
101
102for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as): SUNWbtool,
103SUNWsprot, SUNWtoo
104
105for libraries & headers: SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms, SUNWdfbh,
106SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc
107
108for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux,
109SUNWsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx
110
2a5ccb22 111If you are in doubt which package contains a file you are missing,
112try to find an installation that has that file. Then do a
113
114 grep /my/missing/file /var/sadm/install/contents
115
116This will display a line like this:
117
118/usr/include/sys/errno.h f none 0644 root bin 7471 37605 956241356 SUNWhea
119
b29a8fb9 120The last item listed (SUNWhea in this example) is the package you need.
2a5ccb22 121
d420ca49 122=head3 Avoid /usr/ucb/cc.
123
124You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH to build perl. If you
2a5ccb22 125want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/ is NOT
126in your PATH before the directory containing the right C compiler.
d420ca49 127
128=head3 Sun's C Compiler
129
130If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct directory
2a5ccb22 131(usually /opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH (before /usr/ucb/).
d420ca49 132
133=head3 GCC
134
135If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
136complete. As a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine with
c6093fed 137gcc-2.8.1 on both Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8. You should
d420ca49 138Configure perl with
139
140 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
141
142If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update
143your GCC. For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is
144installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make
2a5ccb22 145sure you have the appropriate directory, sparc-sun-solaris2.6/ or
146i386-pc-solaris2.6/. If gcc's directory is for a different version of
147Solaris than you are running, then you will need to rebuild gcc for
148your new version of Solaris.
d420ca49 149
150You can get a precompiled version of gcc from
2a5ccb22 151L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>. Make sure you pick up the package for
152your Solaris release.
d420ca49 153
154=head3 GNU as and GNU ld
155
74144837 156The following information applies to gcc version 2. Volunteers to
157update it as appropropriate for gcc version 3 would be appreciated.
158
d420ca49 159The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work fine for building
74144837 160perl. There is normally no need to install the GNU versions to
161compile perl.
d420ca49 162
163If you decide to ignore this advice and use the GNU versions anyway,
164then be sure that they are relatively recent. Versions newer than 2.7
165are apparently new enough. Older versions may have trouble with
166dynamic loading.
167
74144837 168If you wish to use GNU ld, then you need to pass it the -Wl,-E flag.
169The hints/solaris_2.sh file tries to do this automatically by executing
170the following commands:
171
172 ccdlflags="$ccdlflags -Wl,-E"
173 lddlflags="$lddlflags -Wl,-E -G"
174
175However, over the years, changes in gcc, GNU ld, and Solaris ld have made
176it difficult to automatically detect which ld ultimately gets called.
177You may have to manually edit config.sh and add the -Wl,-E flags
178yourself, or else run Configure interactively and add the flags at the
179appropriate prompts.
180
d420ca49 181If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and ld but you want to use the
182Solaris ones instead to build perl, then you'll need to add
183-B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc command line. One convenient way to do
184that is with
185
186 sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
187
188Note that the trailing slash is required. This will result in some
2a5ccb22 189harmless warnings as Configure is run:
d420ca49 190
191 gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used
192
193These messages may safely be ignored.
194(Note that for a SunOS4 system, you must use -B/bin/ instead.)
195
196Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable to
197ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult your gcc documentation
198for further information on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
199
200=head3 GNU make
201
202Sun's make works fine for building perl.
203If you wish to use GNU make anyway, be sure that the set-group-id bit is not
204set. If it is, then arrange your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is
205before GNU make or else have the system administrator disable the
206set-group-id bit on GNU make.
207
208=head3 Avoid libucb.
209
210Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in /usr/ucblib/libucb.a.
211Perl will not build and run correctly if linked against -lucb since it
212contains routines that are incompatible with the standard Solaris libc.
213Normally this is not a problem since the solaris hints file prevents
214Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib for libraries, and also
215explicitly omits -lucb.
216
a83b6f46 217=head2 Environment for Compiling Perl on Solaris
d420ca49 218
219=head3 PATH
220
221Make sure your PATH includes the compiler (/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're
222using Sun's compiler) as well as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other
223development tools (such as make, ar, as, and ld). Make sure your path
224either doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the
225compiler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris directories.
226You definitely don't want /usr/ucb/cc.
227
228=head3 LD_LIBRARY_PATH
229
230If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, be sure that
231it does NOT include /lib or /usr/lib. If you will be building
232extensions that call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB)
233then make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes
234the directory with that library (e.g. /usr/local/lib).
235
236If you get an error message
237
238 dlopen: stub interception failed
239
240it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
241includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
242The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file
243libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub
244interception failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
245"/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementations of those
246functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
247
248=head1 RUN CONFIGURE.
249
250See the INSTALL file for general information regarding Configure.
251Only Solaris-specific issues are discussed here. Usually, the
252defaults should be fine.
253
a83b6f46 254=head2 64-bit Issues with Perl on Solaris.
d420ca49 255
256See the INSTALL file for general information regarding 64-bit compiles.
257In general, the defaults should be fine for most people.
258
259By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a 32-bit application
260with largefile and long-long support.
261
262=head3 General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues.
263
2a5ccb22 264Solaris 7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit mode on SPARC
265CPUs, via a reboot. You can build 64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit
266mode and vice-versa. 32 bit apps will run under Solaris running in
267either 32 or 64 bit mode. 64 bit apps require Solaris to be running
b29a8fb9 26864 bit mode.
d420ca49 269
270Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32, i.e. Longs and
271Pointers are 32 bit. 64-bit apps are more properly known as LP64.
272The discriminating feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to utilise a
27364-bit address space. It is perfectly possible to have a LP32 bit app
2a5ccb22 274that supports both 64-bit integers (long long) and largefiles (> 2GB),
d420ca49 275and this is the default for perl-5.6.0.
276
277For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see the Solaris 64-bit
5511f325 278Developer's Guide at L<http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/>
d420ca49 279
280You can detect the OS mode using "isainfo -v", e.g.
281
282 fubar$ isainfo -v # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode
283 64-bit sparcv9 applications
284 32-bit sparc applications
285
286By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application. Unless you
2a5ccb22 287want to allocate more than ~ 4GB of memory inside Perl, you probably
d420ca49 288don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app.
289
5511f325 290=head3 Large File Support
d420ca49 291
292For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different ways for 32-bit
2a5ccb22 293applications to manipulate large files (files whose size is > 2GByte).
d420ca49 294(A 64-bit application automatically has largefile support built in
295by default.)
296
297First is the "transitional compilation environment", described in
298lfcompile64(5). According to the man page,
299
300 The transitional compilation environment exports all the
301 explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to
302 all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx() and
303 xxx64() functions are available to the program source. A
304 32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in order
305 to access large files. See the lf64(5) manual page for a
306 complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces.
307
308The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the
309following compiler and linker flags:
310
311 getconf LFS64_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
312 getconf LFS64_LDFLAG # nothing special needed
313 getconf LFS64_LIBS # nothing special needed
314
315Second is the "large file compilation environment", described in
316lfcompile(5). According to the man page,
317
318 Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities
319 to access large files maps to a xxx64() call in the
320 resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to be
321 of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition
322 for a 64-bit entity).
323
324 An application compiled in this environment is able to use
325 the xxx() source interfaces to access both large and small
326 files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the transitional
327 xxx64() interface calls to access large files.
328
329Two exceptions are fseek() and ftell(). 32-bit applications should
330use fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C). These will get automatically mapped
331to fseeko64() and ftello64().
332
333The large file compilation environment is obtained with
334
335 getconf LFS_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
336 getconf LFS_LDFLAGS # nothing special needed
337 getconf LFS_LIBS # nothing special needed
338
339By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and
340relies on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces.
341
342=head3 Building an LP64 Perl
343
b29a8fb9 344To compile a 64-bit application on an UltraSparc with a recent Sun Compiler,
345you need to use the flag "-xarch=v9". getconf(1) will tell you this, e.g.
d420ca49 346
347 fubar$ getconf -a | grep v9
348 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
349 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
350 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
351 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
352 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
353 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
354 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
355 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
356 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
357 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
358 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
359 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
360
b29a8fb9 361This flag is supported in Sun WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards
362(now marketed under the name Forte) when used on Solaris 7 or later on
363UltraSparc systems.
2a5ccb22 364
365If you are using gcc, you would need to use -mcpu=v9 -m64 instead. This
366option is not yet supported as of gcc 2.95.2; from install/SPECIFIC
367in that release:
d420ca49 368
2a5ccb22 369GCC version 2.95 is not able to compile code correctly for sparc64
370targets. Users of the Linux kernel, at least, can use the sparc32
371program to start up a new shell invocation with an environment that
372causes configure to recognize (via uname -a) the system as sparc-*-*
373instead.
d420ca49 374
375All this should be handled automatically by the hints file, if
376requested.
377
d420ca49 378=head3 Long Doubles.
379
380As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not working.
381
a83b6f46 382=head2 Threads in Perl on Solaris.
d420ca49 383
384It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on Solaris. The entire
385perl thread implementation is still experimental, however, so beware.
386Perl uses the sched_yield(3RT) function. In versions of Solaris up
387to 2.6, that function is in -lposix4. Starting with Solaris 7, it is
388in -lrt. The hints file should handle adding this automatically.
389
a83b6f46 390=head2 Malloc Issues with Perl on Solaris.
d420ca49 391
83bd2f30 392Starting from Perl 5.7.1 Perl uses the Solaris malloc, since the perl
393malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2GB of memory, and the Solaris
394malloc also seems to be faster.
395
396If you for some reason (such as binary backward compatibility) really
397need to use perl's malloc, you can rebuild Perl from the sources
398and Configure the build with
399
400 sh Configure -Dusemymalloc
210b36aa 401
d420ca49 402You should not use perl's malloc if you are building with gcc. There
403are reports of core dumps, especially in the PDL module. The problem
404appears to go away under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to
5511f325 405track down. Sun's compiler appears to be okay with or without perl's
d420ca49 406malloc. [XXX further investigation is needed here.]
407
d420ca49 408=head1 MAKE PROBLEMS.
409
410=over 4
411
412=item Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as and GNU ld
413
414If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
415Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, see the section
416L<"GNU as and GNU ld"> above.
417
418=item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
419
420If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
421it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
422L<"GNU as and GNU ld">.
423
424=item dlopen: stub interception failed
425
426The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
427that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
428which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). See
429L<"LD_LIBRARY_PATH"> above.
430
431=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
432
433This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
434gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
435changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
436rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
437update your gcc installation.
438
439=item sh: ar: not found
440
441This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
442was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
443make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
444is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin/
445directory.
446
447=back
448
449=head1 MAKE TEST
450
a83b6f46 451=head2 op/stat.t test 4 in Solaris
d420ca49 452
453op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some sort.
454Building in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior. The
455test suite detects if you are building in /tmp, but it may not be able
456to catch all tmpfs situations.
457
1081c3b9 458=head2 nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent
459
460See L<perlhpux/"nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent">.
461
a83b6f46 462=head1 PREBUILT BINARIES OF PERL FOR SOLARIS.
d420ca49 463
464You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from
2a5ccb22 465L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>, ActiveState L<http://www.activestate.com/>,
466and L<http://www.perl.com/> under the Binaries list at the top of the page.
d420ca49 467There are probably other sources as well. Please note that these sites
468are under the control of their respective owners, not the perl developers.
469
a83b6f46 470=head1 RUNTIME ISSUES FOR PERL ON SOLARIS.
d420ca49 471
a83b6f46 472=head2 Limits on Numbers of Open Files on Solaris.
d420ca49 473
474The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be opened using
475fopen(), and only file descriptors 0 through 255 can be used in a
476stream. Since perl calls open() and then fdopen(3C) with the
477resulting file descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open
478files.
479
480=head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES.
481
482See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on CPAN,
483L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Solaris/>.
484
485=head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES.
486
a83b6f46 487=head2 Proc::ProcessTable on Solaris
d420ca49 488
489Proc::ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with perl5.6.0 and higher
490if you have LARGEFILES defined. Since largefile support is the
491default in 5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this
492module.
493
494The problem is that various structures visible via procfs use off_t,
495and if you compile with largefile support these change from 32 bits to
49664 bits. Thus what you get back from procfs doesn't match up with
497the structures in perl, resulting in garbage. See proc(4) for further
498discussion.
499
500A fix for Proc::ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to
501explicitly remove the largefile flags from the ones MakeMaker picks up
502from Config.pm. This will result in Proc::ProcessTable being built
2a5ccb22 503under the correct environment. Everything should then be OK as long as
d420ca49 504Proc::ProcessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the rest of perl,
505or if it does they should be explicitly specified as off64_t.
506
5511f325 507=head2 BSD::Resource on Solaris
d420ca49 508
509BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile on Solaris
510with perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons as Proc::ProcessTable.
511BSD::Resource versions starting from 1.09 have a workaround for the problem.
512
5511f325 513=head2 Net::SSLeay on Solaris
2a5ccb22 514
515Net::SSLeay requires a /dev/urandom to be present. This device is not
516part of Solaris. You can either get the package SUNWski (packaged with
517several Sun software products, for example the Sun WebServer, which is
518part of the Solaris Server Intranet Extension, or the Sun Directory
519Services, part of Solaris for ISPs) or download the ANDIrand package
520from L<http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~andi/>. If you use SUNWski, make a
521symbolic link /dev/urandom pointing to /dev/random.
522
523It may be possible to use the Entropy Gathering Daemon (written in
524Perl!), available from L<http://www.lothar.com/tech/crypto/>.
525
d420ca49 526=head1 AUTHOR
527
528The original was written by Andy Dougherty F<doughera@lafayette.edu>
529drawing heavily on advice from Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce,
530and many other Solaris users over the years.
531
532Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.
533
534=head1 LAST MODIFIED
535
b29a8fb9 536$Id: README.solaris,v 1.4 2000/11/11 20:29:58 doughera Exp $