1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 perlhpux - Perl version 5 on Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) systems
11 This document describes various features of HP's Unix operating system (HP-UX)
12 that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or
15 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on HP-UX
17 When compiling Perl, the use of an ANSI C compiler is highly recommended.
18 The C compiler that ships with all HP-UX systems is a K&R compiler that
19 should only be used to build new kernels.
21 Perl can be compiled with either HP's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. The
22 former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no difficulty,
23 but also can take advantage of features listed later that require the use
24 of HP compiler-specific command-line flags.
26 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete,
27 and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific details.
31 HP's current Unix systems run on its own Precision Architecture (PA-RISC) chip.
32 HP-UX used to run on the Motorola MC68000 family of chips, but any machine with
33 this chip in it is quite obsolete and this document will not attempt to address
34 issues for compiling Perl on the Motorola chipset.
36 The most recent version of PA-RISC at the time of this document's last update
41 The original version of PA-RISC, HP no longer sells any system with this chip.
43 The following systems contain PA-RISC 1.0 chips:
45 600, 635, 645, 800, 808, 815, 822, 825, 832, 834, 835, 840,
46 842, 845, 850, 852, 855, 860, 865, 870, 890
50 An upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it shipped for many years in many different
53 The following systems contain with PA-RISC 1.1 chips:
55 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 722, 725, 728, 730, 735, 743, 745, 747, 750,
56 755, 770, 807S, 817S, 827S, 837S, 847S, 857S, 867S, 877S, 887S, 897S,
57 D200, D210, D220, D230, D250, D260, D310, D320, D330, D350, D360, D400,
58 E25, E35, E45, E55, F10, F20, F30, G30, G40, G50, G60, G70, H30, H40,
59 H50, H60, H70, I30, I40, I50, I60, I70, K100, K200, K210, K220, K400,
60 K410, K420, T500, T520
65 The most recent upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it added support for 64-bit
68 The following systems contain PA-RISC 2.0 chips:
70 D270, D280, D370, D380, K250, K260, K370, K380, K450, K460, K570, K580,
73 =head2 Portability Between PA-RISC Versions
75 An executable compiled on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform will not execute on a
76 PA-RISC 1.1 platform, even if they are running the same version of HP-UX.
77 If you are building Perl on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform and want that Perl to
78 to also run on a PA-RISC 1.1, the compiler flag +DAportable should be used.
80 It is no longer possible to compile PA-RISC 1.0 executables on either the
81 PA-RISC 1.1 and 2.0 platforms.
83 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX
85 HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
86 Shared libraries end with the suffix .sl.
88 Shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC version
89 are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version by default.
90 However, this backwards compatibility may be enabled using the same
91 +DAportable compiler flag (with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat mentioned above).
93 To create a shared library, the following steps must be performed:
95 1. Compile source modules with +z or +Z flag to create a .o module
96 which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will
97 tell you in the next step if +Z was needed.
99 2. Link the shared library using the -b flag. If the code calls
100 any functions in other system libraries (e.g., libm), it must
101 be included on this line.
103 (Note that these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's
106 If these dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation
107 time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the
110 You may create a shared library that referers to another library, which
111 may be either an archive library or a shared library. If it is a
112 shared library, this is called a "dependent library".
113 The dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library,
114 but it is not linked into the shared library.
115 Instead, it is loaded when the main shared library is loaded.
117 If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a
118 simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These
119 modules are then linked into the shared library.
121 Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent library
122 that is already linked into perl.
124 It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries.
126 =head2 The HP ANSI C Compiler
128 When using this compiler to build Perl, you should make sure that
129 the flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the
132 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
134 Beginning with HP-UX version 10.10, files larger than 2GB (2^31) may be
135 created and manipulated.
136 Three separate methods of doing this are available.
137 The best method is to compile Perl using the -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
139 This causes Perl to be compiled using structures and functions in which
140 these are 64 bits wide, rather than 32 bits wide.
142 There are only two drawbacks to this approach:
143 the first is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version
144 and the POSIX module's version) will not correctly
145 function for these large files
146 (POSIX declared the offset arguments in seek and tell as being of type long).
147 The second is that any extension which calls any file-manipulating C function
148 will need to be recompiled.
152 It is impossible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of
153 HP-UX before 10.30, and it is strongly suggested that you be running on
154 HP-UX 11.00 at least.
156 To compile Perl with thread, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of Configure.
157 Ensure that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is automatically
158 added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread is listed before
159 -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with.
161 As of the date of this document, Perl threads are not fully supported on HP-UX.
165 Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take advantage
166 of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and Pointers are 64 bits
169 Work is being performed on Perl to make it 64-bit compliant on all versions
170 of Unix. Once this is complete, scalar variables will be able to hold
171 numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision.
173 As of the date of this document, Perl is not 64-bit compliant on HP-UX.
175 Should a user wish to experiment with compiling Perl in the LP64 environment,
176 the following steps must be taken: libraries must be searched only within
177 /lib/pa20_64, the compiler flag +DD64 must be used, and the C library is
178 now located at /lib/pa20_64/libc.sl.
180 On the brighter side, the large file problem goes away, as longs are now
185 Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
187 With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella.
191 Version 0.1: 1999/2/22