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 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
18 an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
19 gcc for AIX are widely available.
21 At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers,
22 for which you have to pay: B<xlc> and B<VAC>. If you decide to use eiter
23 of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to
24 upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:
27 vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.0
29 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
30 The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
31 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
32 require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
34 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
35 complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific
36 details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development
41 Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the
42 level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will
43 show the base, but is not always complete:
47 # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
48 bos.rte 4.3.2.1 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
49 bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
52 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
54 AIX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
55 Shared libraries end with the suffix .a, which is a bit misleading,
56 because *all* libraries are shared ;-).
58 =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler
60 All defaults for Configure can be used.
62 If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions
63 will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0.
65 Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest
66 level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade
67 versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups
68 are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches
69 in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the
70 `base' is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are
73 vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
74 xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)
76 # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
77 Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
79 Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
80 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
82 ... accepted login stuff
83 ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
84 ftp> dir other other.ll
85 output to local-file: other.ll? y
86 200 PORT command successful.
87 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
88 226 Transfer complete.
90 output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
91 200 PORT command successful.
92 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
93 226 Transfer complete.
97 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll
98 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll
100 On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:
102 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
103 xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
104 xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
105 # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
106 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
107 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
108 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
109 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
110 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
111 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
112 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
113 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
114 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
115 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
116 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
119 On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:
121 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'vac.C '
122 vac.C 4.4.0.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
123 vac.C 4.4.0.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
124 # grep 'vac.C.4.4.0.*.bff' other.ll
125 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13466624 May 26 1999 vac.C.4.4.0.1.bff
126 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13473792 Aug 31 1999 vac.C.4.4.0.2.bff
127 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13480960 May 19 20:32 vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff
128 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff
131 Then execute the following command, and fill in its choices
133 # smit install_update
134 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
135 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.4.4.0.3.bff ]
139 Follow the messages ... and you're done.
141 =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl
143 We're woking on this using gcc-3.0 ... (any input highly appreciated)
145 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
147 Should yield no problems.
151 Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when
152 threads are used in combination with 64bit configurations.
156 If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64bit
157 configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might still fail.
159 =head2 GDBM and Threads
163 =head2 NFS filesystems and utime(2)
169 H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@hccnet.nl>
171 Structure copied from README.hpux
175 Version 0.0.2: 12 Jul 2001