Add a test for [perl #17753].
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.vmesa
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0f5a2e59 1
2This document is written in pod format hence there are punctuation
3characters in odd places. Do not worry, you've apparently got
4the ASCII->EBCDIC translation worked out correctly. You can read
5more about pod in pod/perlpod.pod or the short summary in the
6INSTALL file.
7
8=head1 NAME
9
10README.vmesa - building and installing Perl for VM/ESA.
11
12=head1 SYNOPSIS
13
14This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
15on VM/ESA.
16
17=head1 DESCRIPTION
7c5ffed3 18
19This is a fully ported perl for VM/ESA 2.3.0. It may work on
20other versions, but that's the one we've tested it on.
21
22If you've downloaded the binary distribution, it needs to be
23installed below /usr/local. Source code distributions have an
24automated `make install` step that means you do not need to extract
25the source code below /usr/local (though that is where it will be
26installed by default). You may need to worry about the networking
27configuration files discussed in the last bullet below.
28
a83b6f46 29=head2 Unpacking Perl Distribution on VM/ESA
0f5a2e59 30
7c5ffed3 31To extract an ASCII tar archive on VM/ESA, try this:
32
33 pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
34
a83b6f46 35=head2 Setup Perl and utilities on VM/ESA
0f5a2e59 36
7c5ffed3 37GNU make for VM/ESA, which may be required for the build of perl,
38is available from:
39
3a1825b5 40 http://vm.marist.edu/~neale/vmoe.html
7c5ffed3 41
a83b6f46 42=head2 Configure Perl on VM/ESA
0f5a2e59 43
7c5ffed3 44Once you've unpacked the distribution, run Configure (see INSTALL for
45full discussion of the Configure options), and then run make, then
46"make test" then "make install" (this last step may require UID=0
0f5a2e59 47privileges).
7c5ffed3 48
49There is a "hints" file for vmesa that specifies the correct values
0f5a2e59 50for most things. Some things to watch out for are:
7c5ffed3 51
0f5a2e59 52=over 4
7c5ffed3 53
0f5a2e59 54=item *
55
56this port does support dynamic loading but it's not had much testing
57
58=item *
b5ab5069 59
982b7775 60Don't turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There's
61a bug in the compiler (APAR PQ18812) that generates some bad code
62the optimizer is on.
7c5ffed3 63
0f5a2e59 64=item *
b5ab5069 65
982b7775 66As VM/ESA doesn't fully support the fork() API programs relying on
67this call will not work. I've replaced fork()/exec() with spawn()
68and the standalone exec() with spawn(). This has a side effect when
69opening unnamed pipes in a shell script: there is no child process
70generated under.
7c5ffed3 71
0f5a2e59 72=item *
73
74At the moment the hints file for VM/ESA basically bypasses all of the
75automatic configuration process. This is because Configure relies on:
761. The header files living in the Byte File System (you could put the
77there if you want); 2. The C preprocessor including the #include
78statements in the preprocessor output (.i) file.
79
80=back
81
a83b6f46 82=head2 Testing Anomalies of Perl on VM/ESA
0f5a2e59 83
84The `make test` step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
d1be9408 85installation. As the 5.6.1 kit was being assembled
0f5a2e59 86the following "failures" were known to appear on some machines
87during `make test` (mostly due to ASCII vs. EBCDIC conflicts),
88your results may differ:
89
90[the list of failures being compiled]
91
a83b6f46 92=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on VM/ESA
b5ab5069 93
7c5ffed3 94When using perl on VM/ESA please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
95character sets are different. Perl builtin functions that may behave
96differently under EBCDIC are mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
97
98OpenEdition (UNIX System Services) does not (yet) support the #! means
0f5a2e59 99of script invocation.
7c5ffed3 100See:
101
102 head `whence perldoc`
103
104for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
105have perl run your scripts for you.
106
0f5a2e59 107=head1 AUTHORS
108
109Neale Ferguson.
110
111=head1 SEE ALSO
112
113L<INSTALL>, L<perlport>, L<perlebcdic>.
114
a83b6f46 115=head2 Mailing list for Perl on VM/ESA
0f5a2e59 116
a83b6f46 117If you are interested in the VM/ESA, z/OS (formerly known as OS/390)
3f66d419 118and POSIX-BC (BS2000) ports of Perl then see the perl-mvs mailing list.
119To subscribe, send an empty message to perl-mvs-subscribe@perl.org.
7c5ffed3 120
3f66d419 121See also:
0f5a2e59 122
123 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl-mvs
124
125There are web archives of the mailing list at:
126
127 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
128 http://archive.develooper.com/perl-mvs@perl.org/
129
130=cut
7c5ffed3 131