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[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.vms
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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
27install.
97abc6ad 28
b4bc034f 29Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant
30compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it
31died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore
1bc81404 32VAX C will not compile Perl 5.005 or later. We are sorry about that.
3bf5f72b 33
b4bc034f 34If you are stuck without DEC C (the VAX C license should be good for DEC C,
3bf5f72b 35but the media charges might prohibit an upgrade), consider getting Gnu C
36instead.
37
b4bc034f 38
a83b6f46 39=head2 Introduction to Perl on VMS
fb73857a 40
41The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port
42(and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries
43provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or
b4bc034f 44reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling
45(e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you
fb73857a 46might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and
47sub-processes very differently.
48
b4bc034f 49There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we
fb73857a 50could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
b4bc034f 51to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
fb73857a 52
53The current sources and build procedures have been tested on a VAX using
b4bc034f 54DEC C, and on an AXP using DEC C. If you run into problems with
1bc81404 55other compilers, please let us know. (Note: DEC C was renamed to Compaq C
56around version 6.2).
fb73857a 57
b4bc034f 58There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
59relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
fb73857a 60document.
61
a83b6f46 62=head2 Other required software for Compiling Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 63
64In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
fb73857a 65
b4bc034f 66=over 4
67
68=item 1 A C compiler.
69
1bc81404 70DEC (now Compaq) C or gcc for VMS (AXP or VAX).
b4bc034f 71
72=item 2 A make tool.
73
74DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
75analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
76just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
77anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
78go ahead and use that.
79
80=back
81
a83b6f46 82=head2 Additional software that is optional for Perl on VMS
fb73857a 83
9f3f8d50 84You may also want to have on hand:
b4bc034f 85
86=over 4
87
88=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
89
90A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
58979ab1 91of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM
92from Compaq.
b4bc034f 93
9f3f8d50 94 http://www.fsf.org/order/ftp.html
adc5a9a5 95 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
1bc81404 96 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
b4bc034f 97
98=item 2 VMS TAR
99
100For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also
58979ab1 101available from a number of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS
102Freeware CD-ROM from Compaq.
b4bc034f 103
9f3f8d50 104 ftp://ftp.lp.se/vms/
adc5a9a5 105 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
b4bc034f 106
107=item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
108
109A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
110Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
111
adc5a9a5 112 http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html
113 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
58979ab1 114 ftp://ftp.openvms.compaq.com/
b4bc034f 115 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
adc5a9a5 116 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/
b4bc034f 117
118=item 4 MOST
119
120Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
121TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
122regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
123library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
124
125 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
adc5a9a5 126 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/narnia/
b4bc034f 127
1bc81404 128=item 5 GNU PATCH and DIFFUTILS for VMS
129
130Patches to Perl are usually distributed as GNU unified or contextual diffs.
131Such patches are created by the GNU diff program (part of the diffutils
132distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are
133available here:
134
135 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
adc5a9a5 136 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
1bc81404 137
b4bc034f 138=back
139
9f3f8d50 140Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
b4bc034f 141different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
58979ab1 142Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz or *.tgz format (this includes copies
143of the source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may
144wish to add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and
145VMSTAR.EXE on your VMS machine.
fb73857a 146
b4bc034f 147If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either
148DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic
149for more details.
fb73857a 150
b4bc034f 151=head1 Configuring the Perl build
fb73857a 152
97abc6ad 153To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
fb73857a 154
b4bc034f 155 @ Configure
fb73857a 156
b4bc034f 157from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a
158series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities
159of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
160built for your machine.
fb73857a 161
b4bc034f 162If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
163which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
164you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
fb73857a 165
b4bc034f 166If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
167interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
168will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
7bb57f25 169you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
170then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
171such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
b4bc034f 172SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table)
173otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially
174troublesome logicals and symbols are:
7bb57f25 175
176 TMP "LOGICAL"
177 LIB "LOGICAL"
178 T "LOGICAL"
179 FOO "LOGICAL"
180 EXT "LOGICAL"
a3bd614a 181 SOME_LOGICAL_NAME_NOT_LIKELY "LOGICAL"
182 DOWN_LOGICAL_NAME_NOT_LIKELY "LOGICAL"
7bb57f25 183 TEST "SYMBOL"
fb73857a 184
97abc6ad 185As a handy shortcut, the command:
186
b4bc034f 187 @ Configure "-des"
188
189(note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults
190automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR
1bc81404 191sockets, and either over no sockets). Some options can be given
192explicitly on the command line; the following example specifies a
193non-default location for where Perl will be installed:
194
195 @ Configure "-d" "-Dprefix=dka100:[utils.perl5.]"
196
dab31494 197Note that the installation location would be by default where you unpacked
fe05d1a7 198the source with a "_ROOT." appended. For example if you unpacked the perl
dab31494 199source into:
200
201 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2...]
202
adc5a9a5 203Then the PERL_SETUP.COM that gets written out by CONFIGURE.COM will
dab31494 204try to DEFINE your installation PERL_ROOT to be:
205
fe05d1a7 206 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2_ROOT.]
dab31494 207
1bc81404 208More help with configure.com is available from:
b4bc034f 209
210 @ Configure "-h"
211
212See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn
213even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important
214configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding
215then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting
216fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections
217below.
218
a83b6f46 219=head2 Changing compile-time options (optional) for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 220
221Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
adc5a9a5 222configure.com, which processes the hints file config_h.SH. There is
223code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that may end up being the
224wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what you are doing since
225inappropriate changes to configure.com or config_h.SH can render perl
226unbuildable; odds are that there's nothing in there you'll need to
227change.
b4bc034f 228
229The one exception is the various *DIR install locations. Changing those
230requires changes in genconfig.pl as well. Be really careful if you need to
231change these, as they can cause some fairly subtle problems.
232
a83b6f46 233=head2 Socket Support (optional) for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 234
235Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
236you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an
237optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available.
238How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your
239version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
240
241The most portable solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. In combination with
242either UCX or NetLib, this supports all the major TCP stacks (Multinet,
243Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS Perl runs on, with
244all the compilers on both VAX and Alpha. The socket interface is also
245consistent across versions of VMS and C compilers. It has a problem with
246UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you should be aware of
247that.
248
249The other solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC
250C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
251running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
252Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
253provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
254if your version is new enough.
255
256=head1 Building Perl
257
258The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
259command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
260the build.
97abc6ad 261
b4bc034f 262Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should
263compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the
264"CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some
265mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists"
266section of this document.
97abc6ad 267
b4bc034f 268=head1 Testing Perl
fb73857a 269
b4bc034f 270Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work.
271This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong
272somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
fb73857a 273
274Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
b4bc034f 275distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
fb73857a 276compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
277
b4bc034f 278If the compile command was:
fb73857a 279
b4bc034f 280 MMS
fb73857a 281
b4bc034f 282then the test command ought to be:
fb73857a 283
b4bc034f 284 MMS test
fb73857a 285
b4bc034f 286MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are
287a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen.
288At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and
289failed, and the time taken will be displayed.
fb73857a 290
b4bc034f 291If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite
fb73857a 292hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
9f3f8d50 293you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
fb73857a 294don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
295install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
296confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
297
b4bc034f 298If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by
299issuing this command sequence:
fb73857a 300
b4bc034f 301 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
fb73857a 302
303where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
304didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
305that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
306that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this:
307
b4bc034f 308 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
fb73857a 309
310When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
311from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
312
b4bc034f 313 MCR []MINIPERL "-V"
314
315Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
316couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us
317diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing
318the output of:
319
320 MMS printconfig
fb73857a 321
9f3f8d50 322If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
323
b4bc034f 324 @ [.vms]myconfig
fb73857a 325
b4bc034f 326You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:"
327with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or
328MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version
329can be identified with "make --version".
330
a83b6f46 331=head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) installing Perl on VMS
fb73857a 332
333If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
b4bc034f 334first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
335to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
fb73857a 336
b4bc034f 337if the compile command was:
fb73857a 338
b4bc034f 339 MMS
fb73857a 340
b4bc034f 341then the cleanup command ought to be:
fb73857a 342
b4bc034f 343 MMS realclean
fb73857a 344
b4bc034f 345If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent
346rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it.
fb73857a 347
b4bc034f 348=head1 Installing Perl
fb73857a 349
350There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
3a385817 351running.
fb73857a 352
a3ef2c6f 353=over 4
b4bc034f 354
a3ef2c6f 355=item 1
fb73857a 356
a3ef2c6f 357Check your default file protections with
fb73857a 358
a3ef2c6f 359 SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT
fb73857a 360
a3ef2c6f 361and adjust if necessary with SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT.
fb73857a 362
a3ef2c6f 363=item 2
3a385817 364
1bc81404 365Decide where you want Perl to be installed (unless you have already done so
366by using the "prefix" configuration parameter -- see the example in the
367"Configuring the Perl build" section).
b4bc034f 368
1bc81404 369The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM will help you
370with the definition of the PERL_ROOT and PERLSHR logical names and the PERL
371foreign command symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you
372want to. The installation process will execute PERL_SETUP.COM and copy
373files to the directory tree pointed to by the PERL_ROOT logical name defined
374there, so make sure that you have write access to the parent directory of
375what will become the root of your Perl installation.
fb73857a 376
a3ef2c6f 377=item 3
b4bc034f 378
a3ef2c6f 379Run the install script via:
b4bc034f 380
a3ef2c6f 381 MMS install
b4bc034f 382
a3ef2c6f 383or
9f3f8d50 384
a3ef2c6f 385 MMK install
b4bc034f 386
a3ef2c6f 387If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
388throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
b4bc034f 389
a3ef2c6f 390=back
391
1bc81404 392Copy PERL_SETUP.COM to a place accessible to your perl users.
393
a3ef2c6f 394For example:
fb73857a 395
a3ef2c6f 396 COPY PERL_SETUP.COM SYS$LIBRARY:
b4bc034f 397
a3ef2c6f 398If you want to have everyone on the system have access to perl
399then add a line that reads
fb73857a 400
a3ef2c6f 401 $ @sys$library:perl_setup
491527d0 402
a3ef2c6f 403to SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM.
85988417 404
a3ef2c6f 405Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into
406DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES
407(optional)" for more information), or put the image in a
408directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher).
85988417 409
a3ef2c6f 410An alternative to having PERL_SETUP.COM define the PERLSHR logical name
411is to simply copy it into the system shareable library directory with:
412
413 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:
85988417 414
a3ef2c6f 415See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section.
491527d0 416
a83b6f46 417=head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional) on VMS
fb73857a 418
9ef4b0a6 419Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
b4bc034f 420You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe.
fb73857a 421
7bb57f25 422 $ create perl.cld
423 !
424 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
425 !
426 define verb perl
427 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
428 cliflags (foreign)
429 $!
430 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
431 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
432 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
433 $ exit
fb73857a 434
a83b6f46 435=head2 INSTALLing Perl images (optional) on VMS
9f3f8d50 436
437On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
438minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
adc5a9a5 439a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 3000 blocks
9f3f8d50 440and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
441invoked.
442
443 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
b4bc034f 444 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER
9f3f8d50 445
446should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
447while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
448
b4bc034f 449If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for
450them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
9f3f8d50 451DCLsym, and Stdio all have shared images that can be installed /SHARE.
452
b4bc034f 453How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing
9f3f8d50 454off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
b4bc034f 455it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl.
9f3f8d50 456
457While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
458to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
fb73857a 459
dab31494 460=head2 Running h2ph to create perl header files (optional) on VMS
461
462If using DEC C or Compaq C ensure that you have extracted loose versions
463of your compiler's header or *.H files. Be sure to check the contents of:
464
465 SYS$LIBRARY:DECC$RTLDEF.TLB
466 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB
467 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$STARLET_C.TLB
468
469etcetera.
470
471If using GNU cc then also check your GNU_CC:[000000...] tree for the locations
472of the GNU cc headers.
473
b4bc034f 474=head1 Reporting Bugs
fb73857a 475
476If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
477it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
478the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
479installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
9f3f8d50 480perlbug@perl.com.
fb73857a 481
b4bc034f 482=head1 CAVEATS
fb73857a 483
484Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
b4bc034f 485switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
486script prints!
487
488The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
489five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
dab31494 490too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for ODS 2 volumes which were
491common on versions of VMS prior to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX).
492It is best to do:
b4bc034f 493
494 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
495 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000]
496
497before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep
498(note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules
499from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's
500configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on
501a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not
502warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
503
504Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
505than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
506defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before
507running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM
508procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require
509system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as
510the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have:
511
512 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000"
513
514A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed
515build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
fb73857a 516before you rebuild.
517
a83b6f46 518=head2 DEC C issues with Perl on VMS
fb73857a 519
b4bc034f 520Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
c54e8273 521C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
fb73857a 522contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
b4bc034f 523
524=over 4
525
526=item - pipes
527
528Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
529This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
530work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
531then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
532fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
533
534=item - modf()
535
536The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
537INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
538these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
539
540=item - ALPACRT ECO
541
542On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
543changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
544though the call specified that the change should not persist after
545Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
546See also:
547
172b4273 548 http://ftp.support.compaq.com/patches/.new/openvms.shtml
b4bc034f 549
550=back
551
552Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
553"Compaq C".
554
a83b6f46 555=head2 GNU issues with Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 556
557It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
558were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
559of source code modification to work again.
560
561 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
562 http://www.progis.de/
b4bc034f 563 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
564
565=head1 Mailing Lists
566
567There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
fb73857a 568specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
b4bc034f 569there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12
fb73857a 570messages a week) mailing list.
571
1bc81404 572To subscribe, send a mail message to VMSPERL-SUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. The VMSPERL
573mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there gets echoed
574to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of the list
575on the web at:
b4bc034f 576
577 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
a83b6f46 578
1bc81404 579To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send a message to VMSPERL-UNSUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG.
580Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that you are canceling.
b4bc034f 581
a83b6f46 582=head2 Web sites for Perl on VMS
b4bc034f 583
584Vmsperl pages on the web include:
585
586 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
1bc81404 587 http://www.crinoid.com/
b4bc034f 588 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
468f45d5 589 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
60d9c7be 590 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
b4bc034f 591 http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/
adc5a9a5 592 http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
60d9c7be 593 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=vmsperl
594 http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/
adc5a9a5 595 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html
fb73857a 596
b4bc034f 597=head1 SEE ALSO
598
599Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
600available from the [.VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
601For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
602of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
603
604=head1 AUTHORS
605
adc5a9a5 606Revised 10-October-2001 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
1bc81404 607Revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
608Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
b4bc034f 609Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
610Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
611
612=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
fb73857a 613
614A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
b4bc034f 615bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
fb73857a 616running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
617all important.
618
619There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
620of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
621missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
b4bc034f 622
623 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk
fb73857a 624 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
b4bc034f 625 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk
fb73857a 626 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
b4bc034f 627 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com
fb73857a 628 for the getredirection() code
b4bc034f 629 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com
fb73857a 630 for readdir() and related routines
b4bc034f 631 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com
fb73857a 632 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
633 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
b4bc034f 634 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
fb73857a 635 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
636 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
637 of information about VMS Perl,
638 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
639 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
9f3f8d50 640 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
a3ef2c6f 641 John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu
642 for VAX VMS V7.2 support
b4bc034f 643
fb73857a 644and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
645addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
646willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
b4bc034f 647gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which
fb73857a 648have made our sleepless nights possible.
649
650Thanks,
651The VMSperl group
b4bc034f 652
653=cut
654