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b4bc034f 1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the equal signs on the left.
2This file is written in the POD format (see [.POD]PERLPOD.POD;1) which is
3specially designed to be readable as is.
fb73857a 4
b4bc034f 5=head1 NAME
6
7README.vms - Configuring, building, testing, and installing perl on VMS
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
10
11To configure, build, test, and install perl on VMS:
12
13 @ Configure
14 mms
15 mms test
16 mms install
17
18mmk may be used in place of mms in the last three steps.
19
20=head1 DESCRIPTION
21
22=head2 Important safety tip
97abc6ad 23
3a385817 24The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004
b4bc034f 25releases! Make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build", "Building
26Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before you build or
e7948fac 27install. Also please note other changes in the current release by having
28a look at L<perldelta/VMS>.
97abc6ad 29
b4bc034f 30Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant
31compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it
32died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore
1bc81404 33VAX C will not compile Perl 5.005 or later. We are sorry about that.
3bf5f72b 34
10019e56 35There have been no recent reports of builds using Gnu C, but latent
36(and most likely outdated) support for it is still present in various
37parts of the sources. Currently the HP (formerly Compaq, and even
38more formerly DEC) C compiler is the only viable alternative for
39building Perl.
40
41There is minimal support for HP C++ but this support is not complete;
e7948fac 42if you get it working please write to the vmsperl list (for info see
43L</"Mailing Lists">).
3bf5f72b 44
b4bc034f 45
a83b6f46 46=head2 Introduction to Perl on VMS
fb73857a 47
48The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port
49(and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries
50provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or
b4bc034f 51reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling
52(e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you
fb73857a 53might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and
54sub-processes very differently.
55
b4bc034f 56There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we
fb73857a 57could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
b4bc034f 58to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
fb73857a 59
b4bc034f 60There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
61relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
fb73857a 62document.
63
a83b6f46 64=head2 Other required software for Compiling Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 65
66In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
fb73857a 67
b4bc034f 68=over 4
69
70=item 1 A C compiler.
71
10019e56 72HP (formerly Compaq, more formerly DEC) C for VMS (VAX, Alpha, or Itanium).
b4bc034f 73
74=item 2 A make tool.
75
76DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
77analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
78just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
79anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
80go ahead and use that.
81
82=back
83
a83b6f46 84=head2 Additional software that is optional for Perl on VMS
fb73857a 85
9f3f8d50 86You may also want to have on hand:
b4bc034f 87
88=over 4
89
90=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
91
92A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
58979ab1 93of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM
10019e56 94from HP.
b4bc034f 95
10019e56 96 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
1bc81404 97 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
b4bc034f 98
99=item 2 VMS TAR
100
101For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also
58979ab1 102available from a number of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS
10019e56 103Freeware CD-ROM from HP.
b4bc034f 104
10019e56 105 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
b4bc034f 106
d83fac45 107Recent versions of VMS tar on ODS-5 volumes may extract tape archive
108files with ^. escaped periods in them. See below for further workarounds.
109
10019e56 110A port of GNU tar is also available as part of the GNV package:
111
112 http://gnv.sourceforge.net/
113
b4bc034f 114=item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
115
116A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
117Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
118
adc5a9a5 119 http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html
10019e56 120 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
121 ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms
b4bc034f 122 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
10019e56 123 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv
b4bc034f 124
125=item 4 MOST
126
127Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
128TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
129regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
130library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
131
132 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
adc5a9a5 133 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/narnia/
b4bc034f 134
1bc81404 135=item 5 GNU PATCH and DIFFUTILS for VMS
136
137Patches to Perl are usually distributed as GNU unified or contextual diffs.
138Such patches are created by the GNU diff program (part of the diffutils
139distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are
140available here:
141
142 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
10019e56 143 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
1bc81404 144
b4bc034f 145=back
146
9f3f8d50 147Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
b4bc034f 148different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
58979ab1 149Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz or *.tgz format (this includes copies
150of the source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may
151wish to add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and
152VMSTAR.EXE on your VMS machine.
fb73857a 153
b4bc034f 154If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either
155DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic
156for more details.
fb73857a 157
d83fac45 158=head1 Unpacking the Perl source code
159
160You may need to set up a foreign symbol for the unpacking utility of choice.
161
718752a5 162As of version 5.10.0, Perl will still build and run on ODS-2 volumes,
163including on VAX, but there are a number of modules whose temporary
164files and tests are much happier residing on ODS-5 volumes. For
165example, CPANPLUS will fail most of its tests on an ODS-2 volume because
166it includes files with multiple dots that will have been converted to
167underscores and the tests will have difficulty finding them. So your
168best bet is to unpack the Perl source kit on an ODS-5 volume using
169recent versions of vmstar (e.g. V3.4 or later). Contrary to advice
170provided with previous versions of Perl, do I<not> use the ODS-2
171compatability qualifier. Instead, use a command like the following:
172
173 vmstar /extract/verbose perl-V^.VIII^.III.tar
d83fac45 174
175or:
176
718752a5 177 vmstar -xvf perl-5^.10^.0.tar
d83fac45 178
718752a5 179Then rename the top-level source directory like so:
d83fac45 180
718752a5 181 set security/protection=(o:rwed) perl-5^.10^.0.dir
182 rename perl-5^.10^.0.dir perl-5_10_0.dir
d83fac45 183
718752a5 184The reason for this last step is that while filenames with multiple dots
185are generally supported by Perl on VMS, I<directory> names with multiple
186dots are a special case with special problems because the dot is the
187traditional directory delimiter on VMS. Rudimentary support for
188multi-dot directory names is available, but some of the oldest and most
189essential parts of Perl (such as searching for and loading library
190modules) do not yet fully support the ODS-5 caret-escape syntax.
d83fac45 191
b4bc034f 192=head1 Configuring the Perl build
fb73857a 193
97abc6ad 194To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
fb73857a 195
b4bc034f 196 @ Configure
fb73857a 197
b4bc034f 198from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a
199series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities
200of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
201built for your machine.
fb73857a 202
b4bc034f 203If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
204which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
205you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
fb73857a 206
b4bc034f 207If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
208interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
209will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
7bb57f25 210you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
211then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
212such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
b4bc034f 213SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table)
214otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially
215troublesome logicals and symbols are:
7bb57f25 216
b3b333bf 217 COMP "LOGICAL"
218 EXT "LOGICAL"
219 FOO "LOGICAL"
220 LIB "LOGICAL"
221 LIST "LOGICAL"
222 MIME "LOGICAL"
223 POSIX "LOGICAL"
224 SYS "LOGICAL"
225 T "LOGICAL"
226 THREAD "LOGICAL"
227 THREADS "LOGICAL"
228 TIME "LOGICAL"
229 TMP "LOGICAL"
230 UNICODE "LOGICAL"
231 UTIL "LOGICAL"
232 TEST "SYMBOL"
fb73857a 233
97abc6ad 234As a handy shortcut, the command:
235
b4bc034f 236 @ Configure "-des"
237
238(note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults
239automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR
1bc81404 240sockets, and either over no sockets). Some options can be given
241explicitly on the command line; the following example specifies a
242non-default location for where Perl will be installed:
243
244 @ Configure "-d" "-Dprefix=dka100:[utils.perl5.]"
245
dab31494 246Note that the installation location would be by default where you unpacked
fe05d1a7 247the source with a "_ROOT." appended. For example if you unpacked the perl
dab31494 248source into:
249
250 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2...]
251
adc5a9a5 252Then the PERL_SETUP.COM that gets written out by CONFIGURE.COM will
dab31494 253try to DEFINE your installation PERL_ROOT to be:
254
fe05d1a7 255 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2_ROOT.]
dab31494 256
1bc81404 257More help with configure.com is available from:
b4bc034f 258
259 @ Configure "-h"
260
261See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn
262even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important
263configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding
264then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting
265fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections
266below.
267
a83b6f46 268=head2 Changing compile-time options (optional) for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 269
270Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
adc5a9a5 271configure.com, which processes the hints file config_h.SH. There is
272code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that may end up being the
273wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what you are doing since
274inappropriate changes to configure.com or config_h.SH can render perl
275unbuildable; odds are that there's nothing in there you'll need to
276change.
b4bc034f 277
a83b6f46 278=head2 Socket Support (optional) for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 279
280Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
281you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an
282optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available.
283How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your
284version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
285
17d4810c 286The default solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC
b4bc034f 287C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
288running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
289Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
290provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
291if your version is new enough.
292
17d4810c 293The other solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. Before VAX/VMS 5.5-2 it was
294the most portable solution. The SOCKETSHR library has not been maintained
295since VAX/VMS 5.5-2, and it is not known if will even compile with the ANSI
296C that Perl currently requires. It remains an option for historical reasons,
297just in case someone might find it useful.
298
299In combination with either UCX or NetLib, this supported all the major TCP
300stacks (Multinet, Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS
301Perl ran on up to VAX/VMS 6.2 and Alpha VMS 1.5 with all the compilers on
302both VAX and Alpha. The portion of the socket interface was also consistent
303across versions of VMS and C compilers.
304
305It has a problem with UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you
306should be aware of that.
307
308As of VAX/VMS 5.5-2 and later, CMU is the only TCP/IP program that requires
309socketshr, and the sources have been lost to the most recent CMU bug fixes,
310so CMU is limited to OpenVMS/VAX 6.2 or earlier, which is the last release
311that binaries for the last released patches are known to exist.
312
313There is currently no official web site for downloading either CMU or
314SOCKETSHR; however, copies may be found in the DECUS archives.
315
b4bc034f 316=head1 Building Perl
317
318The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
319command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
320the build.
97abc6ad 321
b4bc034f 322Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should
323compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the
324"CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some
325mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists"
326section of this document.
97abc6ad 327
b4bc034f 328=head1 Testing Perl
fb73857a 329
b4bc034f 330Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work.
331This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong
332somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
fb73857a 333
334Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
b4bc034f 335distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
fb73857a 336compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
337
b4bc034f 338If the compile command was:
fb73857a 339
b4bc034f 340 MMS
fb73857a 341
b4bc034f 342then the test command ought to be:
fb73857a 343
b4bc034f 344 MMS test
fb73857a 345
b4bc034f 346MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are
347a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen.
348At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and
349failed, and the time taken will be displayed.
fb73857a 350
96d6186e 351The test driver invoked via MMS TEST has a DCL wrapper ([.VMS]TEST.COM) that
352downgrades privileges to NETMBX, TMPMBX for the duration of the test run,
353and then restores them to their prior state upon completion of testing.
354This is done to ensure that the tests run in a private sandbox and can do no
355harm to your system even in the unlikely event something goes badly wrong in
356one of the test scripts while running the tests from a privileged account.
357A side effect of this safety precaution is that the account used to run the
358test suite must be the owner of the directory tree in which Perl has been
359built; otherwise the manipulations of temporary files and directories
360attempted by some of the tests will fail.
361
718752a5 362If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl, or at least
363with the particular module or feature that reported failure. If the test suite
fb73857a 364hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
9f3f8d50 365you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
fb73857a 366don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
367install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
368confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
369
b4bc034f 370If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by
371issuing this command sequence:
fb73857a 372
b4bc034f 373 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
fb73857a 374
375where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
376didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
377that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
96d6186e 378that t/op/time failed, then you'd do this:
fb73857a 379
b4bc034f 380 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
fb73857a 381
96d6186e 382Note that test names are reported in UNIX syntax and relative to the
383top-level build directory. When supplying them individually to the test
384driver, you can use either UNIX or VMS syntax, but you must give the path
385relative to the [.T] directory and you must also add the .T extension to the
386filename. So, for example if the test lib/Math/Trig fails, you would run:
387
388 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" -"v" [-.lib.math]trig.t
389
fb73857a 390When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
391from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
392
b4bc034f 393 MCR []MINIPERL "-V"
394
395Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
396couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us
397diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing
398the output of:
399
400 MMS printconfig
fb73857a 401
9f3f8d50 402If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
403
b4bc034f 404 @ [.vms]myconfig
fb73857a 405
b4bc034f 406You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:"
407with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or
408MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version
409can be identified with "make --version".
410
a83b6f46 411=head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) installing Perl on VMS
fb73857a 412
413If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
b4bc034f 414first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
415to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
fb73857a 416
b4bc034f 417if the compile command was:
fb73857a 418
b4bc034f 419 MMS
fb73857a 420
b4bc034f 421then the cleanup command ought to be:
fb73857a 422
b4bc034f 423 MMS realclean
fb73857a 424
b4bc034f 425If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent
426rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it.
fb73857a 427
b4bc034f 428=head1 Installing Perl
fb73857a 429
430There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
3a385817 431running.
fb73857a 432
a3ef2c6f 433=over 4
b4bc034f 434
a3ef2c6f 435=item 1
fb73857a 436
a3ef2c6f 437Check your default file protections with
fb73857a 438
a3ef2c6f 439 SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT
fb73857a 440
a3ef2c6f 441and adjust if necessary with SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT.
fb73857a 442
a3ef2c6f 443=item 2
3a385817 444
1bc81404 445Decide where you want Perl to be installed (unless you have already done so
446by using the "prefix" configuration parameter -- see the example in the
447"Configuring the Perl build" section).
b4bc034f 448
1bc81404 449The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM will help you
450with the definition of the PERL_ROOT and PERLSHR logical names and the PERL
451foreign command symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you
452want to. The installation process will execute PERL_SETUP.COM and copy
453files to the directory tree pointed to by the PERL_ROOT logical name defined
454there, so make sure that you have write access to the parent directory of
455what will become the root of your Perl installation.
fb73857a 456
a3ef2c6f 457=item 3
b4bc034f 458
a3ef2c6f 459Run the install script via:
b4bc034f 460
a3ef2c6f 461 MMS install
b4bc034f 462
a3ef2c6f 463or
9f3f8d50 464
a3ef2c6f 465 MMK install
b4bc034f 466
a3ef2c6f 467If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
468throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
b4bc034f 469
a3ef2c6f 470=back
471
1bc81404 472Copy PERL_SETUP.COM to a place accessible to your perl users.
473
a3ef2c6f 474For example:
fb73857a 475
a3ef2c6f 476 COPY PERL_SETUP.COM SYS$LIBRARY:
b4bc034f 477
a3ef2c6f 478If you want to have everyone on the system have access to perl
479then add a line that reads
fb73857a 480
a3ef2c6f 481 $ @sys$library:perl_setup
491527d0 482
a3ef2c6f 483to SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM.
85988417 484
a3ef2c6f 485Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into
486DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES
487(optional)" for more information), or put the image in a
488directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher).
85988417 489
a3ef2c6f 490An alternative to having PERL_SETUP.COM define the PERLSHR logical name
491is to simply copy it into the system shareable library directory with:
492
493 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:
85988417 494
a3ef2c6f 495See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section.
491527d0 496
a83b6f46 497=head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional) on VMS
fb73857a 498
9ef4b0a6 499Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
b4bc034f 500You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe.
fb73857a 501
7bb57f25 502 $ create perl.cld
503 !
504 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
505 !
506 define verb perl
507 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
508 cliflags (foreign)
509 $!
510 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
511 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
512 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
513 $ exit
fb73857a 514
a83b6f46 515=head2 INSTALLing Perl images (optional) on VMS
9f3f8d50 516
517On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
518minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
adc5a9a5 519a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 3000 blocks
9f3f8d50 520and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
521invoked.
522
523 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
b4bc034f 524 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER
9f3f8d50 525
526should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
527while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
528
b4bc034f 529If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for
530them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
e7948fac 531DCLsym, and Stdio, and other extensions all have shared images that can be
532installed /SHARE.
9f3f8d50 533
b4bc034f 534How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing
9f3f8d50 535off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
b4bc034f 536it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl.
9f3f8d50 537
538While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
539to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
fb73857a 540
dab31494 541=head2 Running h2ph to create perl header files (optional) on VMS
542
10019e56 543If using HP C, ensure that you have extracted loose versions of your
544compiler's header or *.H files. Be sure to check the contents of:
dab31494 545
546 SYS$LIBRARY:DECC$RTLDEF.TLB
547 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB
548 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$STARLET_C.TLB
549
550etcetera.
551
552If using GNU cc then also check your GNU_CC:[000000...] tree for the locations
553of the GNU cc headers.
554
b4bc034f 555=head1 Reporting Bugs
fb73857a 556
557If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
558it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
559the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
560installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
9f3f8d50 561perlbug@perl.com.
fb73857a 562
b4bc034f 563=head1 CAVEATS
fb73857a 564
565Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
b4bc034f 566switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
567script prints!
568
569The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
570five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
dab31494 571too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for ODS 2 volumes which were
572common on versions of VMS prior to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX).
573It is best to do:
b4bc034f 574
575 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
576 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000]
577
578before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep
579(note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules
580from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's
581configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on
582a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not
583warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
584
d83fac45 585As noted above ODS-5 escape sequences such as ^. can break the perl
586build. Solutions include renaming files and directories as needed or
587being careful to use the -o switch or /ODS2 qualifier with latter
588versions of the vmstar utility when unpacking perl or CPAN modules
589on ODS-5 volumes.
590
b4bc034f 591Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
592than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
593defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before
594running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM
595procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require
596system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as
597the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have:
598
599 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000"
600
601A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed
602build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
fb73857a 603before you rebuild.
604
a83b6f46 605=head2 DEC C issues with Perl on VMS
fb73857a 606
b4bc034f 607Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
c54e8273 608C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
fb73857a 609contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
b4bc034f 610
611=over 4
612
613=item - pipes
614
615Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
616This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
617work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
618then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
619fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
620
621=item - modf()
622
623The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
624INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
625these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
626
627=item - ALPACRT ECO
628
629On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
630changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
631though the call specified that the change should not persist after
632Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
633See also:
634
172b4273 635 http://ftp.support.compaq.com/patches/.new/openvms.shtml
b4bc034f 636
637=back
638
639Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
640"Compaq C".
641
a83b6f46 642=head2 GNU issues with Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 643
644It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
645were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
646of source code modification to work again.
647
648 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
649 http://www.progis.de/
b4bc034f 650 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
651
e7948fac 652=head2 Floating Point Considerations
653
654Prior to 5.8.0, Perl simply accepted the default floating point options of the
655C compiler, namely representing doubles with D_FLOAT on VAX and G_FLOAT on
656Alpha. Single precision floating point values are represented in F_FLOAT
657format when either D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT is in use for doubles. Beginning with
6585.8.0, Alpha builds now use IEEE floating point formats by default, which in
659VMS parlance are S_FLOAT for singles and T_FLOAT for doubles. IEEE is not
660available on VAX, so F_FLOAT and D_FLOAT remain the defaults for singles and
661doubles respectively. The available non-default options are G_FLOAT on VAX
662and D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT on Alpha.
663
664The use of IEEE on Alpha introduces NaN, infinity, and denormalization
665capabilities not available with D_FLOAT and G_FLOAT. When using one of those
666non-IEEE formats, silent underflow and overflow are emulated in the conversion
667of strings to numbers, but it is preferable to get the real thing by using
668IEEE where possible.
669
670Regardless of what floating point format you consider preferable, be aware
671that the choice may have an impact on compatibility with external libraries,
672such as database interfaces, and with existing data, such as data created with
673the C<pack> function and written to disk, or data stored via the Storable
674extension. For example, a C<pack("d", $foo)")> will create a D_FLOAT,
675G_FLOAT, or T_FLOAT depending on what your Perl was configured with. When
676written to disk, the value can only be retrieved later by a Perl configured
677with the same floating point option that was in effect when it was created.
678
679To obtain a non-IEEE build on Alpha, simply answer no to the "Use IEEE math?"
680question during the configuration. To obtain an option different from the C
681compiler default on either VAX or Alpha, put in the option that you want in
682answer to the "Any additional cc flags?" question. For example, to obtain a
683G_FLOAT build on VAX, put in C</FLOAT=G_FLOAT>.
684
49fd6f17 685=head2 Multinet issues with Perl on VMS
686
687Prior to the release of Perl 5.8.0 it was noted that the regression
688test for lib/Net/hostent (in file [.lib.Net]hostent.t) will fail owing
689to problems with the hostent structure returned by C calls to either
690gethostbyname() or gethostbyaddr() using DEC or Compaq C with a
691Multinet TCP/IP stack. The problem was noted in Multinet 4.3A
692using either Compaq C 6.5 or DEC C 6.0, and with Multinet 4.2A
693using DEC C 5.2, but could easily affect other versions of Multinet.
c2a352b2 694Process Software Inc. has acknowledged a bug in the Multinet version
695of UCX$IPC_SHR and has provided an ECO for it. The ECO is called
696UCX_LIBRARY_EMULATION-010_A044 and is available from:
49fd6f17 697
698 http://www.multinet.process.com/eco.html
699
c2a352b2 700As of this writing, the ECO is only available for Multinet versions
7014.3A and later. You may determine the version of Multinet that you
702are running using the command:
49fd6f17 703
704 multinet show /version
705
706from the DCL command prompt.
707
c2a352b2 708If the ECO is unavailable for your version of Multinet and you are
709unable to upgrade, you might try using Perl programming constructs
710such as:
49fd6f17 711
712 $address = substr($gethostbyname_addr,0,4);
713
714to temporarily work around the problem, or if you are brave
715and do not mind the possibility of breaking IPv6 addresses,
716you might modify the pp_sys.c file to add an ad-hoc correction
717like so:
718
719
720 --- pp_sys.c;1 Thu May 30 14:42:17 2002
721 +++ pp_sys.c Thu May 30 12:54:02 2002
722 @@ -4684,6 +4684,10 @@
723 }
724 #endif
725
726 + if (hent) {
727 + hent->h_length = 4;
728 + }
729 +
730 if (GIMME != G_ARRAY) {
731 PUSHs(sv = sv_newmortal());
732 if (hent) {
733
734then re-compile and re-test your perl. After the installation
735of the Multinet ECO you ought to back out any such changes though.
736
b4bc034f 737=head1 Mailing Lists
738
739There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
fb73857a 740specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
b4bc034f 741there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12
fb73857a 742messages a week) mailing list.
743
1bc81404 744To subscribe, send a mail message to VMSPERL-SUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. The VMSPERL
745mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there gets echoed
746to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of the list
747on the web at:
b4bc034f 748
749 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
a83b6f46 750
1bc81404 751To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send a message to VMSPERL-UNSUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG.
752Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that you are canceling.
b4bc034f 753
a83b6f46 754=head2 Web sites for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 755
756Vmsperl pages on the web include:
757
758 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
1bc81404 759 http://www.crinoid.com/
b4bc034f 760 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
468f45d5 761 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
60d9c7be 762 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
adc5a9a5 763 http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
60d9c7be 764 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=vmsperl
765 http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/
10019e56 766 http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html
fb73857a 767
b4bc034f 768=head1 SEE ALSO
769
770Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
3bc8f799 771available from the [.POD]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
b4bc034f 772For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
773of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
774
775=head1 AUTHORS
776
718752a5 777Revised 3-December-2007 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
1bc81404 778Revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
779Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
b4bc034f 780Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
781Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
782
783=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
fb73857a 784
785A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
b4bc034f 786bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
fb73857a 787running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
788all important.
789
790There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
791of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
792missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
b4bc034f 793
794 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk
fb73857a 795 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
b4bc034f 796 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk
fb73857a 797 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
b4bc034f 798 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com
fb73857a 799 for the getredirection() code
b4bc034f 800 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com
fb73857a 801 for readdir() and related routines
b4bc034f 802 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com
fb73857a 803 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
804 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
b4bc034f 805 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
fb73857a 806 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
807 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
808 of information about VMS Perl,
809 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
810 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
9f3f8d50 811 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
a3ef2c6f 812 John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu
813 for VAX VMS V7.2 support
b4bc034f 814
fb73857a 815and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
816addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
817willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
b4bc034f 818gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which
fb73857a 819have made our sleepless nights possible.
820
821Thanks,
822The VMSperl group
b4bc034f 823
824=cut
825