RE: [PATCH] compress 2.018
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.vos
CommitLineData
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
3722f0dc 27(or later) of the VOS GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools product from
28Stratus Technologies.
050dfae0 29
3fd80bd6 30=head1 BUILDING PERL FOR VOS
050dfae0 31
3722f0dc 32To build perl from its source code on the Stratus Continuum
33platform, you must be have VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the STCP
34product, and the GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or
35later. On the V Series platform you must have VOS Release
3615.0.0 or later, and any version of the GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools
37product.
24e8e380 38
c71882ca 39To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and
40makefiles, change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the command
41"compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl". This
8f8d40ab 42will configure, build, and test perl.
9a997319 43
3fd80bd6 44=head1 INSTALLING PERL IN VOS
9a997319 45
050dfae0 46=over 4
24e8e380 47
050dfae0 48=item 1
24e8e380 49
050dfae0 50If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that
3722f0dc 51you have modify and default write permission to C<<
52>system>ported >> and all subdirectories. Then type
9a997319 53
050dfae0 54 gmake install
24e8e380 55
050dfae0 56=item 2
24e8e380 57
9a997319 58While there are currently no architecture-specific
59extensions or modules distributed with perl, the following
60directories can be used to hold such files:
24e8e380 61
3fd80bd6 62 >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>7100
63 >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>8000
3722f0dc 64 >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>i786
24e8e380 65
3fd80bd6 66=item 3
9a997319 67
68Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of
69two places. Put architecture-independent files into:
24e8e380 70
3fd80bd6 71 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0
24e8e380 72
050dfae0 73Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the
74following directories:
24e8e380 75
3fd80bd6 76 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>7100
77 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>8000
3722f0dc 78 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>i786
24e8e380 79
3fd80bd6 80=item 4
9a997319 81
82You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program
83to see the order in which Perl searches these directories.
495c5fdc 84
9a997319 85=back
86
87=head1 USING PERL IN VOS
88
a83b6f46 89=head2 Restrictions of Perl on VOS
495c5fdc 90
24e8e380 91This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style,
92slash-separated pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated
93pathnames. VOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but
94if you have trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash
95characters. Because the slash character is used as a pathname
96delimiter, Perl cannot process VOS pathnames containing a slash
97character in a directory or file name; these must be renamed.
495c5fdc 98
24e8e380 99This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally.
100As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string
101representations of dates, this should not be an issue. The
102supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038.
495c5fdc 103
24e8e380 104See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS
105port of Perl.
495c5fdc 106
11d33b1d 107=head2 Handling of underflow and overflow
108
46ff39aa 109Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically
110mapping overflowed floating-point values to +infinity, nor
111automatically mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero,
112unlike many other platforms. The Perl pack function has been
113modified to perform such mapping in software on VOS. Performing
114other floating-point computations that underflow or overflow
115will probably result in SIGFPE. Don't push your luck.
116
117As of VOS Release 14.7.0, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the
3722f0dc 118PA-RISC and IA-32 hardware floating-point status register so
119that the overflow and underflow exceptions do not trap, but
120instead automatically convert the result to infinity or zero, as
46ff39aa 121appropriate. As of this writing, there are still floating-point
122operations that can trap, for example, subtracting two infinite
3722f0dc 123values. This is recorded as suggestion posix-1022, which has
124been fixed in VOS Release 15.2 and higher.
11d33b1d 125
126=head1 TEST STATUS
127
8f8d40ab 128When Perl 5.9.0 is built using the native build process on VOS
129Release 14.7.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.2a, all but nine
46ff39aa 130attempted tests either pass or result in TODO (ignored)
131failures. The tests that fail are:
132
8f8d40ab 133t/io/dup, test 2
134t/io/tell, test 28
135t/op/pack, test 0
136ext/B/t/bytecode, test 1
137ext/Devel/Peek/t/Peek, test 1
138ext/Encode/t/enc_module, test 1
139ext/IO/t/io_dup, test 2
140lib/ExtUtils/t/MM_Unix, test 94
141lib/Net/ing/t/450_service, test 8
11d33b1d 142
9a997319 143=head1 SUPPORT STATUS
495c5fdc 144
495c5fdc 145I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I
5b8c1387 146can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them. There are some
24e8e380 147excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book
148seller.
495c5fdc 149
8f8d40ab 150If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the
3722f0dc 151VOS GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 (or later) product from
8f8d40ab 152Stratus Technologies, along with a support contract (or from
153anyone else who will sell you support).
050dfae0 154
9a997319 155=head1 AUTHOR
156
4f3de37c 157Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com)
9a997319 158
159=head1 LAST UPDATE
160
3722f0dc 161February 7, 2008
9a997319 162
163=cut