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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
32VAX C will not compile perl 5.005. 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
39=head2 Introduction
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
fb73857a 55other compilers, please let us know.
56
b4bc034f 57There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
58relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
fb73857a 59document.
60
b4bc034f 61=head2 Other required software
62
63In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
fb73857a 64
b4bc034f 65=over 4
66
67=item 1 A C compiler.
68
69DEC C or gcc for VMS (AXP or VAX).
70
71=item 2 A make tool.
72
73DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
74analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
75just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
76anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
77go ahead and use that.
78
79=back
80
81=head2 Additional software that is optional
fb73857a 82
9f3f8d50 83You may also want to have on hand:
b4bc034f 84
85=over 4
86
87=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
88
89A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
90of web/ftp sites.
91
9f3f8d50 92 http://www.fsf.org/order/ftp.html
93 ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/systems/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
94 ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/diffutils*.tar.gz
95 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
96 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/GZIP/
97 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
b4bc034f 98
99=item 2 VMS TAR
100
101For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also
102available from a number of web/ftp sites.
103
9f3f8d50 104 ftp://ftp.lp.se/vms/
105 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/VMSTAR/
106 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
b4bc034f 107
108=item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
109
110A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
111Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
112
113 http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html
114 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/INFO-ZIP/
115 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
116 ftp://ftp.openvms.digital.com/
117 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
118 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/
119
120=item 4 MOST
121
122Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
123TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
124regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
125library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
126
127 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
128 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/narnia/most.zip
129
130=back
131
9f3f8d50 132Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
b4bc034f 133different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
134Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz format (this includes copies of the
9f3f8d50 135source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may wish to
136add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and VMSTAR.EXE on
137your VMS machine.
fb73857a 138
b4bc034f 139If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either
140DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic
141for more details.
fb73857a 142
b4bc034f 143=head1 Configuring the Perl build
fb73857a 144
97abc6ad 145To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
fb73857a 146
b4bc034f 147 @ Configure
fb73857a 148
b4bc034f 149from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a
150series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities
151of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
152built for your machine.
fb73857a 153
b4bc034f 154If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
155which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
156you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
fb73857a 157
b4bc034f 158If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
159interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
160will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
7bb57f25 161you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
162then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
163such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
b4bc034f 164SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table)
165otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially
166troublesome logicals and symbols are:
7bb57f25 167
168 TMP "LOGICAL"
169 LIB "LOGICAL"
170 T "LOGICAL"
171 FOO "LOGICAL"
172 EXT "LOGICAL"
173 TEST "SYMBOL"
fb73857a 174
97abc6ad 175As a handy shortcut, the command:
176
b4bc034f 177 @ Configure "-des"
178
179(note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults
180automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR
181sockets, and either over no sockets). More help with configure.com is
182available from:
183
184 @ Configure "-h"
185
186See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn
187even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important
188configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding
189then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting
190fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections
191below.
192
193=head2 Changing compile-time options (optional)
194
195Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
196[.VMS]CONFIG.VMS. There is code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that
197may end up being the wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what
198you are doing since inappropriate changes to CONFIG.VMS can render perl
199unbuildable.
200
201Odds are that there's nothing here to change, unless you're on a version of
202VMS later than 6.2 and DEC C later than 5.6. Even if you are, the correct
203values will still be chosen, most likely. Poking around here should be
204unnecessary.
205
206The one exception is the various *DIR install locations. Changing those
207requires changes in genconfig.pl as well. Be really careful if you need to
208change these, as they can cause some fairly subtle problems.
209
210=head2 Socket Support (optional)
211
212Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
213you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an
214optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available.
215How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your
216version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
217
218The most portable solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. In combination with
219either UCX or NetLib, this supports all the major TCP stacks (Multinet,
220Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS Perl runs on, with
221all the compilers on both VAX and Alpha. The socket interface is also
222consistent across versions of VMS and C compilers. It has a problem with
223UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you should be aware of
224that.
225
226The other solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC
227C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
228running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
229Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
230provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
231if your version is new enough.
232
233=head1 Building Perl
234
235The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
236command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
237the build.
97abc6ad 238
b4bc034f 239Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should
240compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the
241"CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some
242mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists"
243section of this document.
97abc6ad 244
b4bc034f 245=head1 Testing Perl
fb73857a 246
b4bc034f 247Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work.
248This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong
249somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
fb73857a 250
251Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
b4bc034f 252distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
fb73857a 253compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
254
b4bc034f 255If the compile command was:
fb73857a 256
b4bc034f 257 MMS
fb73857a 258
b4bc034f 259then the test command ought to be:
fb73857a 260
b4bc034f 261 MMS test
fb73857a 262
b4bc034f 263MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are
264a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen.
265At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and
266failed, and the time taken will be displayed.
fb73857a 267
b4bc034f 268If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite
fb73857a 269hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
9f3f8d50 270you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
fb73857a 271don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
272install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
273confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
274
b4bc034f 275If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by
276issuing this command sequence:
fb73857a 277
b4bc034f 278 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
fb73857a 279
280where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
281didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
282that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
283that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this:
284
b4bc034f 285 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
fb73857a 286
287When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
288from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
289
b4bc034f 290 MCR []MINIPERL "-V"
291
292Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
293couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us
294diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing
295the output of:
296
297 MMS printconfig
fb73857a 298
9f3f8d50 299If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
300
b4bc034f 301 @ [.vms]myconfig
fb73857a 302
b4bc034f 303You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:"
304with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or
305MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version
306can be identified with "make --version".
307
308=head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional)
fb73857a 309
310If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
b4bc034f 311first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
312to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
fb73857a 313
b4bc034f 314if the compile command was:
fb73857a 315
b4bc034f 316 MMS
fb73857a 317
b4bc034f 318then the cleanup command ought to be:
fb73857a 319
b4bc034f 320 MMS realclean
fb73857a 321
b4bc034f 322If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent
323rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it.
fb73857a 324
b4bc034f 325=head1 Installing Perl
fb73857a 326
327There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
3a385817 328running.
fb73857a 329
a3ef2c6f 330=over 4
b4bc034f 331
a3ef2c6f 332=item 1
fb73857a 333
a3ef2c6f 334Check your default file protections with
fb73857a 335
a3ef2c6f 336 SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT
fb73857a 337
a3ef2c6f 338and adjust if necessary with SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT.
fb73857a 339
a3ef2c6f 340=item 2
3a385817 341
a3ef2c6f 342Create a directory somewhere and either run @perl_setup or
343define the concealed logical PERL_ROOT to point to it by hand.
344For example,
3a385817 345
a3ef2c6f 346 CREATE/DIRECTORY dka200:[perl]
347 @PERL_SETUP
348 SHOW LOGICAL PERL_ROOT
9f3f8d50 349
a3ef2c6f 350or,
b4bc034f 351
a3ef2c6f 352 CREATE/DIRECTORY dka200:[perl]
353 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERL_ROOT dka200:[perl.]
b4bc034f 354
fb73857a 355
a3ef2c6f 356=item 3
b4bc034f 357
a3ef2c6f 358Run the install script via:
b4bc034f 359
a3ef2c6f 360 MMS install
b4bc034f 361
a3ef2c6f 362or
9f3f8d50 363
a3ef2c6f 364 MMK install
b4bc034f 365
a3ef2c6f 366If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
367throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
b4bc034f 368
a3ef2c6f 369=back
370
371The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM
372will help you with the definition of PERL_ROOT, PERLSHR and the PERL
373Foreign symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you want
374to. Then copy PERL_SETUP.COM to a place accessible to your perl users.
375For example:
fb73857a 376
a3ef2c6f 377 COPY PERL_SETUP.COM SYS$LIBRARY:
b4bc034f 378
a3ef2c6f 379If you want to have everyone on the system have access to perl
380then add a line that reads
fb73857a 381
a3ef2c6f 382 $ @sys$library:perl_setup
491527d0 383
a3ef2c6f 384to SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM.
85988417 385
a3ef2c6f 386Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into
387DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES
388(optional)" for more information), or put the image in a
389directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher).
85988417 390
a3ef2c6f 391An alternative to having PERL_SETUP.COM define the PERLSHR logical name
392is to simply copy it into the system shareable library directory with:
393
394 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:
85988417 395
a3ef2c6f 396See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section.
491527d0 397
b4bc034f 398=head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional)
fb73857a 399
9ef4b0a6 400Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
b4bc034f 401You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe.
fb73857a 402
7bb57f25 403 $ create perl.cld
404 !
405 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
406 !
407 define verb perl
408 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
409 cliflags (foreign)
410 $!
411 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
412 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
413 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
414 $ exit
fb73857a 415
b4bc034f 416=head2 INSTALLing images (optional)
9f3f8d50 417
418On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
419minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
c54e8273 420a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 2000 blocks
9f3f8d50 421and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
422invoked.
423
424 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
b4bc034f 425 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER
9f3f8d50 426
427should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
428while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
429
b4bc034f 430If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for
431them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
9f3f8d50 432DCLsym, and Stdio all have shared images that can be installed /SHARE.
433
b4bc034f 434How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing
9f3f8d50 435off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
b4bc034f 436it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl.
9f3f8d50 437
438While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
439to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
fb73857a 440
b4bc034f 441=head1 Reporting Bugs
fb73857a 442
443If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
444it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
445the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
446installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
9f3f8d50 447perlbug@perl.com.
fb73857a 448
b4bc034f 449=head1 CAVEATS
fb73857a 450
451Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
b4bc034f 452switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
453script prints!
454
455The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
456five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
457too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for versions of VMS prior
458to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX). It is best to do
459
460 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
461 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000]
462
463before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep
464(note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules
465from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's
466configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on
467a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not
468warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
469
470Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
471than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
472defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before
473running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM
474procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require
475system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as
476the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have:
477
478 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000"
479
480A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed
481build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
fb73857a 482before you rebuild.
483
b4bc034f 484=head2 DEC C issues
fb73857a 485
b4bc034f 486Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
c54e8273 487C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
fb73857a 488contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
b4bc034f 489
490=over 4
491
492=item - pipes
493
494Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
495This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
496work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
497then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
498fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
499
500=item - modf()
501
502The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
503INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
504these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
505
506=item - ALPACRT ECO
507
508On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
509changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
510though the call specified that the change should not persist after
511Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
512See also:
513
514 http://ftp.service.digital.com/patches/.new/openvms.html
515
516=back
517
518Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
519"Compaq C".
520
521=head2 GNU issues
522
523It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
524were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
525of source code modification to work again.
526
527 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
528 http://www.progis.de/
529 http://vms.gnu.org/
530 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
531
532=head1 Mailing Lists
533
534There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
fb73857a 535specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
b4bc034f 536there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12
fb73857a 537messages a week) mailing list.
538
b4bc034f 539The subscription address is MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Send a mail message with
540just the words SUBSCRIBE VMSPERL in the body of the message.
c54e8273 541
542The VMSPERL mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there
543gets echoed to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of
b4bc034f 544the list on the web at:
545
546 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
c54e8273 547
9f3f8d50 548To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send the message UNSUBSCRIBE VMSPERL to
c54e8273 549MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that
b4bc034f 550you are canceling.
551
552=head2 Web sites
553
554Vmsperl pages on the web include:
555
556 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
557 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
558 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
559 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
560 http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/htbin/software_list.cgi
561 http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/
562 http://bkfug.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
fb73857a 563
b4bc034f 564=head1 SEE ALSO
565
566Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
567available from the [.VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
568For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
569of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
570
571=head1 AUTHORS
572
a3ef2c6f 573Last revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
b4bc034f 574Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craig.berry@metamorgs.com.
575Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
576Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
577
578=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
fb73857a 579
580A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
b4bc034f 581bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
fb73857a 582running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
583all important.
584
585There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
586of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
587missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
b4bc034f 588
589 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk
fb73857a 590 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
b4bc034f 591 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk
fb73857a 592 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
b4bc034f 593 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com
fb73857a 594 for the getredirection() code
b4bc034f 595 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com
fb73857a 596 for readdir() and related routines
b4bc034f 597 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com
fb73857a 598 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
599 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
b4bc034f 600 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
fb73857a 601 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
602 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
603 of information about VMS Perl,
604 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
605 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
9f3f8d50 606 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
a3ef2c6f 607 John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu
608 for VAX VMS V7.2 support
b4bc034f 609
fb73857a 610and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
611addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
612willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
b4bc034f 613gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which
fb73857a 614have made our sleepless nights possible.
615
616Thanks,
617The VMSperl group
b4bc034f 618
619=cut
620