1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2 It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3 designed to be readable as is.
7 README.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems
11 This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating
12 system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)
13 is compiled and/or runs.
15 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX
17 For information on compilers on older versions of AIX, see L<Compiling
20 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
21 an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
22 gcc for AIX are widely available.
24 =head2 Supported Compilers
26 Currently all versions of IBM's "xlc", "xlc_r", "cc", "cc_r" or
27 "vac" ANSI/C compiler will work for building perl if that compiler
30 If you plan to link perl to any module that requires thread-support,
31 like DBD::Oracle, it is better to use the _r version of the compiler.
32 This will not build a threaded perl, but a thread-enabled perl. See
33 also L<Threaded perl> later on.
35 As of writing (2008-11) only the IBM XL C for AIX or XL C/C++ for AIX
36 compiler is supported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1.
38 The following compiler versions are supported by IBM:
40 XL C and XL C/C++ V7, V8, V9, V10
42 The XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler.
44 If you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed
45 otherwise the integrated SDBM_File do not compile correctly due
46 to an optimization bug. You can circumvent this problem by
47 adding -qipa to the optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa').
48 The PTF for APAR IZ35785 which solves this problem will be available
49 in 1Q 2009. IBM does provide an emergency fix for this problem.
51 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
52 The former is recommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no
53 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later
54 that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
56 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
57 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific
58 details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the
61 =head2 Perl 5.8.9 was successfully compiled and tested on:
63 AIX Level | Compiler Level | w th | w/o th
64 --------------------------+-------------------------+------+-------
65 5.1 TL9 32 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
66 5.1 TL9 32 bit | gcc 3.2.2 | OK | OK
67 5.1 TL9 64 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
68 5.2 TL10 32 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
69 5.2 TL10 64 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
70 5.3 TL7 32 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
71 5.3 TL7 32 bit | gcc 4.2.4 | OK | OK
72 5.3 TL7 64 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
73 6.1 TL1 32 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
74 6.1 TL1 64 bit + IZ39077 | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
77 w/o th = without thread
79 Successfully tested means that all make test runs with an result of 100% OK.
80 All tests were conducted with -Duseshrplib set.
82 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
84 Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x) and AIX 4.3
85 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so
86 called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was
87 used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and
88 earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled
89 modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl
90 more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are
91 using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of
92 C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions,
93 which was not possible using the emulated interface.
95 It is highly recommended to use the new interface.
97 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
99 Should yield no problems.
103 Should yield no problems with AIX 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1.
105 IBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.8.2 as of writing) for some AIX
106 system scripts. If you switches the links in /usr/bin from the
107 AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build Perl then you
108 get the same features as with the IBM AIX system Perl if the
109 threaded options are used.
113 If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit
114 configurations to work. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX 6.1
115 you need a APAR for a libc.a bug which affects (n)dbm_XXX functions.
116 The APAR number for this problem is currently not yet available. If
117 the fileset bos.rte.libc is at level 6.1.1.2 or lower then the problem
118 is no fixed on your system.
120 If you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs you
124 default: (or your user)
125 data = -1 (default is 262144 * 512 byte)
127 With the default setting the size is limited to 128MB.
128 The -1 removes this limit.
130 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/32-bit)
132 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which
133 passes all make tests in threaded 32-bit mode, which is the default
134 configuration for the perl builds that AIX ships with.
142 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
144 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
145 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
147 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (32-bit)
149 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes
150 all make tests in 32-bit mode.
157 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
159 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
160 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
162 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/64-bit)
164 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which
165 passes all make tests in 64-bit mode.
167 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
176 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
178 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1(64-bit)
180 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all
181 make tests in 64-bit mode.
183 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
191 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
193 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
194 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
196 If you choose gcc to compile 64-bit Perl then you need to use the
202 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3
204 Due to the fact that AIX 4.3.3 reached end-of-service in December 31,
205 2003 this information is provided as is. The Perl versions prior to
206 Perl 5.8.9 could be compiled on AIX up to 4.3.3 with the following
207 settings (your mileage may vary):
209 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
210 an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
211 gcc for AIX are widely available.
213 At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers,
214 for which you have to pay: B<xlC> and B<vac>. If you decide to use either
215 of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to
216 upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:
218 xlC.C 3.1.4.10 or 3.6.6.0 or 4.0.2.2 or 5.0.2.9 or 6.0.0.3
219 vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1
221 note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so
222 you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package
224 xlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3
226 subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example,
227 the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7.
229 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
230 The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
231 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
232 require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
234 The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler
235 optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c,
236 respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch
237 levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files.
238 Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.
240 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
241 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific
242 details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development
247 Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the
248 level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will
249 show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows
250 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE):
254 # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
255 bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
256 bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
259 The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, perl
260 cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed
262 # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm"
263 bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development
264 bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application
267 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
269 AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries.
270 Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit
271 misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members.
272 For perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix also used on
273 many other platforms.
275 Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3
276 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so
277 called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was
278 used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and
279 earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled
280 modules from earlier perl releases. The change was made to make Perl
281 more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are
282 using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++
283 code with static constructors and destructors in perl extensions, which
284 was not possible using the emulated interface.
286 =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler
288 All defaults for Configure can be used.
290 If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions
291 will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0,
292 but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has
293 removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot, these
294 versions should be considered obsolete.
296 Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest
297 level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade
298 versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups
299 are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches
300 in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the
301 "base" is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are
304 vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
305 xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)
307 # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
308 Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
309 : welcome message ...
310 Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
311 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
313 ... accepted login stuff
314 ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
315 ftp> dir other other.ll
316 output to local-file: other.ll? y
317 200 PORT command successful.
318 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
319 226 Transfer complete.
321 output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
322 200 PORT command successful.
323 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
324 226 Transfer complete.
328 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll
329 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll
331 On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:
333 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
334 xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
335 xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
336 # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
337 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
338 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
339 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
340 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
341 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
342 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
343 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
344 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
345 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
346 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
347 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
350 On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:
352 # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C '
353 vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
354 vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
355 # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll
356 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff
357 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff
358 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff
359 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
360 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
363 Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and
366 # smit install_update
367 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
368 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ]
372 Follow the messages ... and you're done.
374 If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be
375 http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click
376 "C for AIX", and follow the instructions.
378 =head2 The usenm option
382 cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ...
384 causes error like this
386 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl
387 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl
388 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall
389 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess
390 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid
391 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid
392 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle
393 ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information.
399 ./Configure -Dusenm ...
401 which makes Configure to use the C<nm> tool when scanning for library
402 symbols, which usually is not done in AIX.
404 Related to this, you probably should not use the C<-r> option of
405 Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the C<nm> tool is used.
407 =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl
409 Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box,
410 as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their
411 Linux compatibility packages, available here:
413 http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/
415 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
417 Should yield no problems.
421 Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when
422 threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations.
424 You may get a warning when doing a threaded build:
426 "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed.
428 The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line
431 hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype);
433 in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning
434 is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly
435 different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference
436 is not really significant here.
440 If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit
441 configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might
444 =head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics
446 In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics
447 may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized.
448 In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with
449 the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library
450 has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time
451 (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and
452 therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r.
456 H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>
457 Rainer Tammer <tammer@tammer.net>
461 Version 0.0.8: 01 Dec 2008