(?p{}) has been deprecated for a long time.
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.vos
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9a997319 1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3specially designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.vos - Perl for Stratus VOS
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
24e8e380 10
050dfae0 11This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus VOS
12operating system. Perl is a scripting or macro language that is
13popular on many systems. See L<perlbook> for a number of good
14books on Perl.
4f3de37c 15
3fd80bd6 16These are instructions for building Perl from source. Most
17people can simply download a pre-compiled distribution from the
18VOS anonymous FTP site. This version of Perl is not supported
19on VOS Release 14.2.0 or earlier releases. If you are running
20VOS Release 14.3.0 or later, download Perl from
21ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/ga.html. Instructions
22for unbundling the Perl distribution file are at
23ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/utility/utility.html.
495c5fdc 24
050dfae0 25If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a
26pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing Release 2.0.1
8f8d40ab 27(or later) of the VOS GNU C++ and GNU Tools product from Stratus
050dfae0 28Technologies.
29
3fd80bd6 30=head1 BUILDING PERL FOR VOS
050dfae0 31
3fd80bd6 32To build perl from its source code, you must have a Continuum
33platform running VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the STCP product,
34and the GNU C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or later.
24e8e380 35
c71882ca 36To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and
37makefiles, change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the command
38"compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl". This
8f8d40ab 39will configure, build, and test perl.
9a997319 40
3fd80bd6 41=head1 INSTALLING PERL IN VOS
9a997319 42
050dfae0 43=over 4
24e8e380 44
050dfae0 45=item 1
24e8e380 46
050dfae0 47If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that
cc07ed0b 48you have modify permission to C<< >system>ported >> and type
9a997319 49
050dfae0 50 gmake install
24e8e380 51
050dfae0 52=item 2
24e8e380 53
9a997319 54While there are currently no architecture-specific
55extensions or modules distributed with perl, the following
56directories can be used to hold such files:
24e8e380 57
3fd80bd6 58 >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>7100
59 >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>8000
24e8e380 60
3fd80bd6 61=item 3
9a997319 62
63Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of
64two places. Put architecture-independent files into:
24e8e380 65
3fd80bd6 66 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0
24e8e380 67
050dfae0 68Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the
69following directories:
24e8e380 70
3fd80bd6 71 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>7100
72 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>8000
24e8e380 73
3fd80bd6 74=item 4
9a997319 75
76You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program
77to see the order in which Perl searches these directories.
495c5fdc 78
9a997319 79=back
80
81=head1 USING PERL IN VOS
82
a83b6f46 83=head2 Restrictions of Perl on VOS
495c5fdc 84
24e8e380 85This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style,
86slash-separated pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated
87pathnames. VOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but
88if you have trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash
89characters. Because the slash character is used as a pathname
90delimiter, Perl cannot process VOS pathnames containing a slash
91character in a directory or file name; these must be renamed.
495c5fdc 92
24e8e380 93This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally.
94As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string
95representations of dates, this should not be an issue. The
96supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038.
495c5fdc 97
24e8e380 98See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS
99port of Perl.
495c5fdc 100
11d33b1d 101=head2 Handling of underflow and overflow
102
46ff39aa 103Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically
104mapping overflowed floating-point values to +infinity, nor
105automatically mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero,
106unlike many other platforms. The Perl pack function has been
107modified to perform such mapping in software on VOS. Performing
108other floating-point computations that underflow or overflow
109will probably result in SIGFPE. Don't push your luck.
110
111As of VOS Release 14.7.0, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the
112PA-RISC hardware floating-point status register so that the
113overflow and underflow exceptions do not trap, but instead
114automatically convert the result to infinity or zero, as
115appropriate. As of this writing, there are still floating-point
116operations that can trap, for example, subtracting two infinite
117values. This is recorded as suggestion posix-1022, which is not
118yet fixed.
11d33b1d 119
120=head1 TEST STATUS
121
8f8d40ab 122When Perl 5.9.0 is built using the native build process on VOS
123Release 14.7.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.2a, all but nine
46ff39aa 124attempted tests either pass or result in TODO (ignored)
125failures. The tests that fail are:
126
8f8d40ab 127t/io/dup, test 2
128t/io/tell, test 28
129t/op/pack, test 0
130ext/B/t/bytecode, test 1
131ext/Devel/Peek/t/Peek, test 1
132ext/Encode/t/enc_module, test 1
133ext/IO/t/io_dup, test 2
134lib/ExtUtils/t/MM_Unix, test 94
135lib/Net/ing/t/450_service, test 8
11d33b1d 136
9a997319 137=head1 SUPPORT STATUS
495c5fdc 138
495c5fdc 139I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I
5b8c1387 140can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them. There are some
24e8e380 141excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book
142seller.
495c5fdc 143
8f8d40ab 144If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the
145VOS GNU C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 (or later) product from
146Stratus Technologies, along with a support contract (or from
147anyone else who will sell you support).
050dfae0 148
9a997319 149=head1 AUTHOR
150
4f3de37c 151Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com)
9a997319 152
153=head1 LAST UPDATE
154
8f8d40ab 155January 15, 2004
9a997319 156
157=cut