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 AIX (UNIX) 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
18 Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3>.
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. A version of gcc is also included in
23 the AIX Toolbox which is shipped with AIX.
25 =head2 Supported Compilers
27 Currently all versions of IBM's "xlc", "xlc_r", "cc", "cc_r" or
28 "vac" ANSI/C compiler will work for building Perl if that compiler
31 If you plan to link Perl to any module that requires thread-support,
32 like DBD::Oracle, it is better to use the _r version of the compiler.
33 This will not build a threaded Perl, but a thread-enabled Perl. See
34 also L<Threaded Perl> later on.
36 As of writing (2010-05) only the I<IBM XL C for AIX> or I<IBM XL C/C++
37 for AIX> compiler is supported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1.
39 The following compiler versions are currently supported by IBM:
41 IBM XL C and IBM XL C/C++ V8, V9, V10
43 The XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler and
44 therefore also supported.
46 If you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed
47 otherwise the integrated SDBM_File do not compile correctly due
48 to an optimization bug. You can circumvent this problem by
49 adding -qipa to the optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa').
50 The PTF for APAR IZ35785 which solves this problem is available
51 from IBM (April 2009 PTF for XL C/C++ Enterprise Edition for AIX, V9.0).
53 If you choose XL C/C++ V11 you need the April 2010 PTF installed
54 otherwise you will not get a working Perl version.
56 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
57 The former is recommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no
58 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later
59 that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
61 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
62 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific
63 details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the
66 =head2 Incompatibility with AIX Toolbox lib gdbm
68 If the AIX Toolbox version of lib gdbm < 1.8.3-5 is installed on your
69 system then Perl will not work. This library contains the header files
70 /opt/freeware/include/gdbm/dbm.h|ndbm.h which conflict with the AIX
71 system versions. The lib gdbm will be automatically removed from the
72 wanted libraries if the presence of one of these two header files is
73 detected. If you want to build Perl with GDBM support then please install
74 at least gdbm-devel-1.8.3-5 (or higher).
76 =head2 Perl 5.12 was successfully compiled and tested on:
78 AIX Level | Compiler Level | w th | w/o th
79 ---------------------+---------------------------+------+-------
80 5.1 TL9 32 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
81 5.1 TL9 64 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
82 5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
83 5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | gcc 3.2.2 | OK | OK
84 5.2 TL10 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
85 5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
86 5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | gcc 4.2.4 | OK | OK
87 5.3 TL8 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
88 5.3 TL10 SP3 32 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + April 2010 | OK | OK
89 5.3 TL10 SP3 64 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + April 2010 | OK | OK
90 6.1 TL1 SP7 32 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
91 6.1 TL1 SP7 64 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
93 w th = with thread support
94 w/o th = without thread support
97 Successfully tested means that all "make test" runs finish with a
98 result of 100% OK. All tests were conducted with -Duseshrplib set.
100 All tests were conducted on the oldest supported AIX technology level
101 with the latest support package applied. If the tested AIX version is
102 out of support (AIX 4.3.3, 5.1, 5.2) then the last available support
105 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
107 Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x / 5.12.x)
108 and AIX 4.3 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface
109 in the so called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface
110 that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases
111 4.2 and earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with
112 compiled modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make
113 Perl more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are
114 using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of
115 C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions,
116 which was not possible using the emulated interface.
118 It is highly recommended to use the new interface.
120 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
122 Should yield no problems.
126 Should yield no problems with AIX 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1.
128 IBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.6.0 on AIX 5.1 and V5.8.2 on
129 AIX 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1; V5.8.8 on AIX 5.3 TL11 and AIX 6.1 TL4) for
130 some AIX system scripts. If you switch the links in /usr/bin from the
131 AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build Perl then you
132 get the same features as with the IBM AIX system Perl if the threaded
135 The threaded Perl build works also on AIX 5.1 but the IBM Perl
136 build (Perl v5.6.0) is not threaded on AIX 5.1.
138 Perl 5.12 is not compatible with the IBM fileset perl.libext.
142 If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit
143 configurations to work. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX 6.1
144 you need an APAR for a libc.a bug which affects (n)dbm_XXX functions.
145 The APAR number for this problem is IZ39077.
147 If you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs you
151 default: (or your user)
152 data = -1 (default is 262144 * 512 byte)
154 With the default setting the size is limited to 128MB.
155 The -1 removes this limit. If the "make test" fails please change
156 your /etc/security/limits as stated above.
158 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/32-bit)
160 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which
161 passes all make tests in threaded 32-bit mode, which is the default
162 configuration for the Perl builds that AIX ships with.
170 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
172 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
173 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
175 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (32-bit)
177 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes
178 all make tests in 32-bit mode.
185 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
187 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
188 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
190 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/64-bit)
192 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which
193 passes all make tests in 64-bit mode.
195 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
204 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
206 =head2 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1(64-bit)
208 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all
209 make tests in 64-bit mode.
211 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
219 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
221 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
222 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
224 If you choose gcc to compile 64-bit Perl then you need to add the
230 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3
232 Due to the fact that AIX 4.3.3 reached end-of-service in December 31,
233 2003 this information is provided as is. The Perl versions prior to
234 Perl 5.8.9 could be compiled on AIX up to 4.3.3 with the following
235 settings (your mileage may vary):
237 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
238 an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
239 gcc for AIX are widely available.
241 At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers,
242 for which you have to pay: B<xlC> and B<vac>. If you decide to use either
243 of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to
244 upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:
246 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
247 vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1
249 note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so
250 you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package
252 xlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3
254 subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example,
255 the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7.
257 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
258 The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
259 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
260 require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
262 The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler
263 optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c,
264 respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch
265 levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files.
266 Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.
268 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
269 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific
270 details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development
275 Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the
276 level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will
277 show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows
278 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE):
282 # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
283 bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
284 bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
287 The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, Perl
288 cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed
290 # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm"
291 bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development
292 bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application
295 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX E<lt> 5L
297 AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries.
298 Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit
299 misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members.
300 For Perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix also used on
301 many other platforms.
303 Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3
304 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so
305 called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was
306 used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and
307 earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled
308 modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl
309 more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are
310 using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++
311 code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions, which
312 was not possible using the emulated interface.
314 =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler
316 All defaults for Configure can be used.
318 If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions
319 will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0,
320 but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has
321 removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot, these
322 versions should be considered obsolete.
324 Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest
325 level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade
326 versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups
327 are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches
328 in the developer snapshots of Perl), or to one version up where the
329 "base" is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are
332 vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
333 xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)
335 # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
336 Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
337 : welcome message ...
338 Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
339 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
341 ... accepted login stuff
342 ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
343 ftp> dir other other.ll
344 output to local-file: other.ll? y
345 200 PORT command successful.
346 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
347 226 Transfer complete.
349 output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
350 200 PORT command successful.
351 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
352 226 Transfer complete.
356 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll
357 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll
359 On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:
361 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
362 xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
363 xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
364 # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
365 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
366 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
367 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
368 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
369 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
370 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
371 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
372 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
373 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
374 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
375 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
378 On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:
380 # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C '
381 vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
382 vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
383 # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll
384 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff
385 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff
386 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff
387 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
388 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
391 Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and
394 # smit install_update
395 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
396 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ]
400 Follow the messages ... and you're done.
402 If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be
403 http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click
404 "C for AIX", and follow the instructions.
406 =head2 The usenm option
410 cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ...
412 causes error like this
414 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl
415 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl
416 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall
417 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess
418 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid
419 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid
420 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle
421 ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information.
427 ./Configure -Dusenm ...
429 which makes Configure to use the C<nm> tool when scanning for library
430 symbols, which usually is not done in AIX.
432 Related to this, you probably should not use the C<-r> option of
433 Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the C<nm> tool is used.
435 =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building Perl
437 Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box,
438 as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their
439 Linux compatibility packages, available here:
441 http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/
443 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl E<lt> 5L
445 Should yield no problems.
447 =head2 Threaded Perl E<lt> 5L
449 Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when
450 threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations.
452 You may get a warning when doing a threaded build:
454 "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment
455 between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed.
457 The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line
460 hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype);
462 in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning
463 is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly
464 different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference
465 is not really significant here.
467 =head2 64-bit Perl E<lt> 5L
469 If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit
470 configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might
473 =head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics
475 In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics
476 may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized.
477 In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with
478 the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library
479 has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time
480 (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and
481 therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r.
485 H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>
486 Rainer Tammer <tammer@tammer.net>
490 Version 5.13.0 / 2010-05-14