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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is |
3 | specifically designed to be readable as is. |
4 | |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | |
7 | README.solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems |
8 | |
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
10 | |
11 | This document describes various features of Sun's Solaris operating system |
12 | that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just perl) is |
13 | compiled and/or runs. Some issues relating to the older SunOS 4.x are |
14 | also discussed, though they may be out of date. |
15 | |
16 | For the most part, everything should just work. |
17 | |
18 | Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is supplied with the |
19 | operating system, so you might not even need to build a newer version |
20 | of perl at all. The Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5 |
21 | with a link to /usr/bin/perl. Do not disturb that installation unless |
22 | you really know what you are doing. If you remove the perl supplied |
23 | with the OS, there is a good chance you will render some bits of your |
24 | system inoperable. If you wish to install a newer version of perl, |
25 | install it under a different prefix from /usr/perl5. Common prefixes |
26 | to use are /usr/local and /opt/perl. |
27 | |
28 | =head2 Solaris Version Numbers. |
29 | |
30 | For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure script performs |
31 | some minor manipulations on the operating system name and version |
32 | number as reported by uname. Here's a partial translation table: |
33 | |
34 | Sun: perl's Configure: |
35 | uname uname -r Name osname osvers |
36 | SunOS 4.1.3 SunOS 4.1.3 sunos 4.1.3 |
37 | SunOS 5.6 Solaris 2.6 solaris 2.6 |
38 | SunOS 5.8 Solaris 8 solaris 2.8 |
39 | |
40 | =head1 RESOURCES |
41 | |
42 | There are many, many source for Solaris information. A few of the |
43 | important ones for perl: |
44 | |
45 | =over 4 |
46 | |
47 | =item Solaris FAQ |
48 | |
49 | The Solaris FAQ is available at |
50 | L<http://www.science.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>. |
51 | |
52 | =item Precompiled Binaries |
53 | |
54 | Precompiled binaries, links to many sites, and much, much more is |
55 | available at L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>. |
56 | |
57 | =item Solaris Documentation |
58 | |
59 | All Solaris documentation is available on-line at L<http://docs.sun.com>. |
60 | |
61 | =back |
62 | |
63 | =head1 SETTING UP |
64 | |
65 | =head2 File Extraction Problems. |
66 | |
67 | Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris (not SunOS 4.x) |
68 | to extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file. Do not use GNU tar compiled |
69 | for SunOS4 on Solaris. (GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.) |
70 | When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system magically |
71 | alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that when tar tries to create |
72 | lib/locale.pm, a file named lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead. |
73 | If you ignore this advice and use a a SunOS4-compiled tar anyway, you |
74 | must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back to lib/locale.pm. |
75 | |
76 | =head2 Compiler and Related Tools. |
77 | |
78 | You must use an ANSI C compiler to build perl. Perl can be compiled |
79 | with either Sun's add-on C compiler or with gcc. The C compiler that |
80 | shipped with SunOS4 will not do. |
81 | |
82 | =head3 Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your PATH. |
83 | |
84 | Several tools needed to build perl are located in /usr/ccs/bin/: ar, |
85 | as, ld, and make. Make sure that /usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH. |
86 | |
87 | You need to make sure the following packages are installed |
88 | (this info is extracted from the Solaris FAQ): |
89 | |
90 | for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as): SUNWbtool, |
91 | SUNWsprot, SUNWtoo |
92 | |
93 | for libraries & headers: SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms, SUNWdfbh, |
94 | SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc |
95 | |
96 | for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux, |
97 | SUNWsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx |
98 | |
99 | =head3 Avoid /usr/ucb/cc. |
100 | |
101 | You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH to build perl. If you |
102 | want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/cc is NOT |
103 | in your PATH before the real C compiler. |
104 | |
105 | =head3 Sun's C Compiler |
106 | |
107 | If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct directory |
108 | (usually /opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH before /usr/ucb/. |
109 | |
110 | =head3 GCC |
111 | |
112 | If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and |
113 | complete. As a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine with |
114 | gcc-2.8.1 on both Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8. You'll be able to |
115 | Configure perl with |
116 | |
117 | sh Configure -Dcc=gcc |
118 | |
119 | If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update |
120 | your GCC. For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is |
121 | installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make |
122 | sure you have the appropriate directory sparc-sun-solaris2.6/. If gcc's |
123 | directory is for a different version of Solaris than you are running, |
124 | then you will need to rebuild gcc for your new version of Solaris. |
125 | |
126 | You can get a precompiled version of gcc from |
127 | L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>. |
128 | |
129 | =head3 GNU as and GNU ld |
130 | |
131 | The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work fine for building |
132 | perl. There is normally no need to install the GNU versions. |
133 | |
134 | If you decide to ignore this advice and use the GNU versions anyway, |
135 | then be sure that they are relatively recent. Versions newer than 2.7 |
136 | are apparently new enough. Older versions may have trouble with |
137 | dynamic loading. |
138 | |
139 | If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and ld but you want to use the |
140 | Solaris ones instead to build perl, then you'll need to add |
141 | -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc command line. One convenient way to do |
142 | that is with |
143 | |
144 | sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/' |
145 | |
146 | Note that the trailing slash is required. This will result in some |
147 | harmless error messages as Configure is run: |
148 | |
149 | gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used |
150 | |
151 | These messages may safely be ignored. |
152 | (Note that for a SunOS4 system, you must use -B/bin/ instead.) |
153 | |
154 | Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable to |
155 | ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult your gcc documentation |
156 | for further information on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable. |
157 | |
158 | =head3 GNU make |
159 | |
160 | Sun's make works fine for building perl. |
161 | If you wish to use GNU make anyway, be sure that the set-group-id bit is not |
162 | set. If it is, then arrange your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is |
163 | before GNU make or else have the system administrator disable the |
164 | set-group-id bit on GNU make. |
165 | |
166 | =head3 Avoid libucb. |
167 | |
168 | Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in /usr/ucblib/libucb.a. |
169 | Perl will not build and run correctly if linked against -lucb since it |
170 | contains routines that are incompatible with the standard Solaris libc. |
171 | Normally this is not a problem since the solaris hints file prevents |
172 | Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib for libraries, and also |
173 | explicitly omits -lucb. |
174 | |
175 | =head2 Environment |
176 | |
177 | =head3 PATH |
178 | |
179 | Make sure your PATH includes the compiler (/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're |
180 | using Sun's compiler) as well as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other |
181 | development tools (such as make, ar, as, and ld). Make sure your path |
182 | either doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the |
183 | compiler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris directories. |
184 | You definitely don't want /usr/ucb/cc. |
185 | |
186 | =head3 LD_LIBRARY_PATH |
187 | |
188 | If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, be sure that |
189 | it does NOT include /lib or /usr/lib. If you will be building |
190 | extensions that call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB) |
191 | then make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes |
192 | the directory with that library (e.g. /usr/local/lib). |
193 | |
194 | If you get an error message |
195 | |
196 | dlopen: stub interception failed |
197 | |
198 | it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable |
199 | includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). |
200 | The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file |
201 | libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub |
202 | interception failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to |
203 | "/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementations of those |
204 | functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.] |
205 | |
206 | =head1 RUN CONFIGURE. |
207 | |
208 | See the INSTALL file for general information regarding Configure. |
209 | Only Solaris-specific issues are discussed here. Usually, the |
210 | defaults should be fine. |
211 | |
212 | =head2 64-bit Issues. |
213 | |
214 | See the INSTALL file for general information regarding 64-bit compiles. |
215 | In general, the defaults should be fine for most people. |
216 | |
217 | By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a 32-bit application |
218 | with largefile and long-long support. |
219 | |
220 | =head3 General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues. |
221 | |
222 | Solaris 2.7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit mode, via a reboot. |
223 | You can build 64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit mode and vice-versa. |
224 | 32 bit apps will run under Solaris running in either 32 or 64 bit mode. |
225 | 64 bit apps require Solaris to be running 64 bit mode |
226 | |
227 | Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32, i.e. Longs and |
228 | Pointers are 32 bit. 64-bit apps are more properly known as LP64. |
229 | The discriminating feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to utilise a |
230 | 64-bit address space. It is perfectly possible to have a LP32 bit app |
231 | that supports both 64-bit integers (long long) and largefiles (> 2Gb), |
232 | and this is the default for perl-5.6.0. |
233 | |
234 | For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see the Solaris 64-bit |
235 | Developer's Guide at http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/ |
236 | |
237 | You can detect the OS mode using "isainfo -v", e.g. |
238 | |
239 | fubar$ isainfo -v # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode |
240 | 64-bit sparcv9 applications |
241 | 32-bit sparc applications |
242 | |
243 | By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application. Unless you |
244 | want to allocate more than ~ 4Gb of memory inside Perl, you probably |
245 | don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app. |
246 | |
247 | =head3 Large File Suppprt |
248 | |
249 | For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different ways for 32-bit |
250 | applications to manipulate large files (files whose size is > 2Gbyte). |
251 | (A 64-bit application automatically has largefile support built in |
252 | by default.) |
253 | |
254 | First is the "transitional compilation environment", described in |
255 | lfcompile64(5). According to the man page, |
256 | |
257 | The transitional compilation environment exports all the |
258 | explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to |
259 | all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx() and |
260 | xxx64() functions are available to the program source. A |
261 | 32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in order |
262 | to access large files. See the lf64(5) manual page for a |
263 | complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces. |
264 | |
265 | The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the |
266 | following compiler and linker flags: |
267 | |
268 | getconf LFS64_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE |
269 | getconf LFS64_LDFLAG # nothing special needed |
270 | getconf LFS64_LIBS # nothing special needed |
271 | |
272 | Second is the "large file compilation environment", described in |
273 | lfcompile(5). According to the man page, |
274 | |
275 | Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities |
276 | to access large files maps to a xxx64() call in the |
277 | resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to be |
278 | of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition |
279 | for a 64-bit entity). |
280 | |
281 | An application compiled in this environment is able to use |
282 | the xxx() source interfaces to access both large and small |
283 | files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the transitional |
284 | xxx64() interface calls to access large files. |
285 | |
286 | Two exceptions are fseek() and ftell(). 32-bit applications should |
287 | use fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C). These will get automatically mapped |
288 | to fseeko64() and ftello64(). |
289 | |
290 | The large file compilation environment is obtained with |
291 | |
292 | getconf LFS_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 |
293 | getconf LFS_LDFLAGS # nothing special needed |
294 | getconf LFS_LIBS # nothing special needed |
295 | |
296 | By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and |
297 | relies on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces. |
298 | |
299 | =head3 Building an LP64 Perl |
300 | |
301 | To compile a 64-bit application with a recent Sun Compiler, you need to |
302 | use the flag "-xarch=v9". getconf(1) will tell you this, e.g. |
303 | |
304 | fubar$ getconf -a | grep v9 |
305 | XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
306 | XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
307 | XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
308 | XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
309 | XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
310 | XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
311 | _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
312 | _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
313 | _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
314 | _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
315 | _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
316 | _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9 |
317 | |
318 | This flag is supported in Sun WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards when |
319 | used on Solaris 2.7 onwards. |
320 | |
321 | If you are using gcc, you need to use -mcpu=v9 -m64 instead. This |
322 | option is not supported in the installation of gcc-2.8.1 that I have |
323 | at hand, but is supported in more recent versions. [XXX -- any |
324 | precise citations?] |
325 | |
326 | All this should be handled automatically by the hints file, if |
327 | requested. |
328 | |
329 | If you do want to be able to allocate more than 4Gb memory inside |
330 | perl, then you should use the Solaris malloc, since the perl |
331 | malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2Gb of memory. You can do |
332 | this with |
333 | |
334 | sh Configure -Uusemymalloc |
335 | |
336 | =head3 Long Doubles. |
337 | |
338 | As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not working. |
339 | |
340 | =head2 Threads. |
341 | |
342 | It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on Solaris. The entire |
343 | perl thread implementation is still experimental, however, so beware. |
344 | Perl uses the sched_yield(3RT) function. In versions of Solaris up |
345 | to 2.6, that function is in -lposix4. Starting with Solaris 7, it is |
346 | in -lrt. The hints file should handle adding this automatically. |
347 | |
348 | =head2 Malloc Issues. |
349 | |
350 | You should not use perl's malloc if you are building with gcc. There |
351 | are reports of core dumps, especially in the PDL module. The problem |
352 | appears to go away under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to |
353 | track down. Sun's compiler appears to be ok with or without perl's |
354 | malloc. [XXX further investigation is needed here.] |
355 | |
356 | You should also not use perl's malloc if you are building perl as |
357 | an LP64 application, since perl's malloc has trouble allocating more |
358 | than 2Gb of memory. |
359 | |
360 | You can avoid perl's malloc by Configuring with |
361 | |
362 | sh Configure -Uusemymalloc |
363 | |
364 | =head1 MAKE PROBLEMS. |
365 | |
366 | =over 4 |
367 | |
368 | =item Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as and GNU ld |
369 | |
370 | If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or |
371 | Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, see the section |
372 | L<"GNU as and GNU ld"> above. |
373 | |
374 | =item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error: |
375 | |
376 | If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc, |
377 | it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item |
378 | L<"GNU as and GNU ld">. |
379 | |
380 | =item dlopen: stub interception failed |
381 | |
382 | The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is |
383 | that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory |
384 | which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). See |
385 | L<"LD_LIBRARY_PATH"> above. |
386 | |
387 | =item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified" |
388 | |
389 | This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a |
390 | gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files |
391 | changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either |
392 | rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to |
393 | update your gcc installation. |
394 | |
395 | =item sh: ar: not found |
396 | |
397 | This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar' |
398 | was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to |
399 | make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This |
400 | is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin/ |
401 | directory. |
402 | |
403 | =back |
404 | |
405 | =head1 MAKE TEST |
406 | |
407 | =head2 op/stat.t test 4 |
408 | |
409 | op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some sort. |
410 | Building in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior. The |
411 | test suite detects if you are building in /tmp, but it may not be able |
412 | to catch all tmpfs situations. |
413 | |
414 | =head1 PREBUILT BINARIES. |
415 | |
416 | You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from |
417 | L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>, ActiveState L<http://www.activestate.com>, |
418 | and L<http://www.perl.com> under the Binaries list at the top of the page. |
419 | There are probably other sources as well. Please note that these sites |
420 | are under the control of their respective owners, not the perl developers. |
421 | |
422 | =head1 RUNTIME ISSUES. |
423 | |
424 | =head2 Limits on Numbers of Open Files. |
425 | |
426 | The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be opened using |
427 | fopen(), and only file descriptors 0 through 255 can be used in a |
428 | stream. Since perl calls open() and then fdopen(3C) with the |
429 | resulting file descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open |
430 | files. |
431 | |
432 | =head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES. |
433 | |
434 | See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on CPAN, |
435 | L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Solaris/>. |
436 | |
437 | =head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES. |
438 | |
439 | =head2 Proc::ProcessTable |
440 | |
441 | Proc::ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with perl5.6.0 and higher |
442 | if you have LARGEFILES defined. Since largefile support is the |
443 | default in 5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this |
444 | module. |
445 | |
446 | The problem is that various structures visible via procfs use off_t, |
447 | and if you compile with largefile support these change from 32 bits to |
448 | 64 bits. Thus what you get back from procfs doesn't match up with |
449 | the structures in perl, resulting in garbage. See proc(4) for further |
450 | discussion. |
451 | |
452 | A fix for Proc::ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to |
453 | explicitly remove the largefile flags from the ones MakeMaker picks up |
454 | from Config.pm. This will result in Proc::ProcessTable being built |
455 | under the correct environment. Everyting should then be OK as long as |
456 | Proc::ProcessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the rest of perl, |
457 | or if it does they should be explicitly specified as off64_t. |
458 | |
459 | =head2 BSD::Resource |
460 | |
461 | BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile on Solaris |
462 | with perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons as Proc::ProcessTable. |
463 | BSD::Resource versions starting from 1.09 have a workaround for the problem. |
464 | |
465 | =head1 AUTHOR |
466 | |
467 | The original was written by Andy Dougherty F<doughera@lafayette.edu> |
468 | drawing heavily on advice from Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce, |
469 | and many other Solaris users over the years. |
470 | |
471 | Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>. |
472 | |
473 | =head1 LAST MODIFIED |
474 | |
475 | $Id: README.solaris,v 1.3 2000/11/09 19:11:27 doughera Exp $ |