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.hpux - Perl version 5 on Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) systems
11 This document describes various features of HP's Unix operating system
12 (HP-UX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
15 =head2 Using perl as shipped with HP-UX
17 As of application release September 2001, HP-UX 11.00 is shipped with
18 perl-5.6.1 in /opt/perl. The first occurrence is on CD 5012-7954 and
19 can be installed using
21 swinstall -s /cdrom perl
23 assuming you have mounted that CD on /cdrom. In this version the
24 following modules are installed:
26 ActivePerl::DocTools-0.04 HTML::Parser-3.19 XML::DOM-1.25
27 Archive::Tar-0.072 HTML::Tagset-3.03 XML::Parser-2.27
28 Compress::Zlib-1.08 MIME::Base64-2.11 XML::Simple-1.05
29 Convert::ASN1-0.10 Net-1.07 XML::XPath-1.09
30 Digest::MD5-2.11 PPM-2.1.5 XML::XSLT-0.32
31 File::CounterFile-0.12 SOAP::Lite-0.46 libwww-perl-5.51
32 Font::AFM-1.18 Storable-1.011 libxml-perl-0.07
33 HTML-Tree-3.11 URI-1.11 perl-ldap-0.23
35 The build is a portable hppa-1.1 multithread build that supports large
36 files compiled with gcc-2.9-hppa-991112
38 If you perform a new installation, then Perl will be installed
41 =head2 Using perl from HP's porting centre
43 HP porting centre tries very hard to keep up with customer demand and
44 release updates from the Open Source community. Having precompiled
45 Perl binaries available is obvious.
47 The HP porting centres are limited in what systems they are allowed
48 to port to and they usually choose the two most recent OS versions
49 available. This means that at the moment of writing, there are only
50 HPUX-11.00 and 11-20/22 (IA64) ports available on the porting centres.
52 HP has asked the porting centre to move Open Source binaries
53 from /opt to /usr/local, so binaries produced since the start
54 of July 2002 are located in /usr/local.
56 One of HP porting centres URL's is http://hpux.connect.org.uk/
57 The port currently available is built with GNU gcc.
59 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on HP-UX
61 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. The C compiler
62 that ships with all HP-UX systems is a K&R compiler that should only be
63 used to build new kernels.
65 Perl can be compiled with either HP's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. The
66 former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
67 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
68 require the use of HP compiler-specific command-line flags.
70 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
71 complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific
76 HP's current Unix systems run on its own Precision Architecture
77 (PA-RISC) chip. HP-UX used to run on the Motorola MC68000 family of
78 chips, but any machine with this chip in it is quite obsolete and this
79 document will not attempt to address issues for compiling Perl on the
82 The most recent version of PA-RISC at the time of this document's last
85 A complete list of models at the time the OS was built is in the file
86 /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models. The first column corresponds to the last
87 part of the output of the "model" command. The second column is the
88 PA-RISC version and the third column is the exact chip type used.
89 (Start browsing at the bottom to prevent confusion ;-)
93 # grep L1000-44 /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models
98 The original version of PA-RISC, HP no longer sells any system with this chip.
100 The following systems contained PA-RISC 1.0 chips:
102 600, 635, 645, 808, 815, 822, 825, 832, 834, 835, 840, 842, 845, 850,
103 852, 855, 860, 865, 870, 890
107 An upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it shipped for many years in many different
110 The following systems contain with PA-RISC 1.1 chips:
112 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 722, 725, 728, 730, 735, 742, 743, 744, 745,
113 747, 750, 755, 770, 777, 778, 779, 800, 801, 803, 806, 807, 809, 811,
114 813, 816, 817, 819, 821, 826, 827, 829, 831, 837, 839, 841, 847, 849,
115 851, 856, 857, 859, 867, 869, 877, 887, 891, 892, 897, A180, A180C,
116 B115, B120, B132L, B132L+, B160L, B180L, C100, C110, C115, C120,
117 C160L, D200, D210, D220, D230, D250, D260, D310, D320, D330, D350,
118 D360, D410, DX0, DX5, DXO, E25, E35, E45, E55, F10, F20, F30, G30,
119 G40, G50, G60, G70, H20, H30, H40, H50, H60, H70, I30, I40, I50, I60,
120 I70, J200, J210, J210XC, K100, K200, K210, K220, K230, K400, K410,
121 K420, S700i, S715, S744, S760, T500, T520
125 The most recent upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it added support for
128 As of the date of this document's last update, the following systems
129 contain PA-RISC 2.0 chips:
131 700, 780, 781, 782, 783, 785, 802, 804, 810, 820, 861, 871, 879, 889,
132 893, 895, 896, 898, 899, A400, A500, B1000, B2000, C130, C140, C160,
133 C180, C180+, C180-XP, C200+, C400+, C3000, C360, C3600, CB260, D270,
134 D280, D370, D380, D390, D650, J220, J2240, J280, J282, J400, J410,
135 J5000, J5500XM, J5600, J7000, J7600, K250, K260, K260-EG, K270, K360,
136 K370, K380, K450, K460, K460-EG, K460-XP, K470, K570, K580, L1000,
137 L2000, L3000, N4000, R380, R390, RP2400, RP2430, RP2450, RP2470,
138 RP5400, RP5430, RP5450, RP5470, RP7400, RP7410, RP8400, SD16000,
139 SD32000, SD64000, T540, T600, V2000, V2200, V2250, V2500, V2600
141 Just before HP took over Compaq, some systems were renamed. Visit
142 http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/server_names.html to see what
143 the changes are, or will be.
145 HP 9000 A-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp2400 series.
146 HP 9000 N-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp7400.
147 HP 9000 L-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp5400 series.
151 HP also ships servers with the 128-bit Itanium processor(s). As of the
152 date of this document's last update, the following systems contain
153 Itanium chips (this is very likely to be out of date):
155 RX2600, RX4610, RX5670, RX9610
157 =head2 Portability Between PA-RISC Versions
159 An executable compiled on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform will not execute on a
160 PA-RISC 1.1 platform, even if they are running the same version of
161 HP-UX. If you are building Perl on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform and want that
162 Perl to also run on a PA-RISC 1.1, the compiler flags +DAportable and
163 +DS32 should be used.
165 It is no longer possible to compile PA-RISC 1.0 executables on either
166 the PA-RISC 1.1 or 2.0 platforms. The command-line flags are accepted,
167 but the resulting executable will not run when transferred to a PA-RISC
170 =head2 Itanium Processor Family and HP-UX
172 HP-UX also runs on the new Itanium processor. This requires the use
173 of a different version of HP-UX (currently 11.20), and with the exception
174 of a few differences detailed below and in later sections, Perl should
175 compile with no problems.
177 Although PA-RISC binaries can run on Itanium systems, you should not
178 attempt to use a PA-RISC version of Perl on an Itanium system. This is
179 because shared libraries created on an Itanium system cannot be loaded
180 while running a PA-RISC executable.
182 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX
184 HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
185 Shared libraries end with the suffix .sl. On Itanium systems,
186 they end with the suffix .so.
188 Shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC
189 version are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version by
190 default. However, this backwards compatibility may be enabled using the
191 same +DAportable compiler flag (with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat
194 Shared libraries created on an Itanium platform cannot be loaded on
195 a PA-RISC platform. Shared libraries created on a PA-RISC platform
196 can only be loaded on an Itanium platform if it is a PA-RISC executable
197 that is attempting to load the PA-RISC library. A PA-RISC shared
198 library cannot be loaded into an Itanium executable nor vice-versa.
200 To create a shared library, the following steps must be performed:
202 1. Compile source modules with +z or +Z flag to create a .o module
203 which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will
204 tell you in the next step if +Z was needed.
206 2. Link the shared library using the -b flag. If the code calls
207 any functions in other system libraries (e.g., libm), it must
208 be included on this line.
210 (Note that these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's
213 If these dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation
214 time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the
217 You may create a shared library that refers to another library, which
218 may be either an archive library or a shared library. If this second
219 library is a shared library, this is called a "dependent library". The
220 dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library, but it
221 is not linked into the shared library. Instead, it is loaded when the
222 main shared library is loaded. This can cause problems if you build an
223 extension on one system and move it to another system where the
224 libraries may not be located in the same place as on the first system.
226 If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a
227 simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These
228 modules are then linked into the shared library.
230 Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent
231 library that is already linked into perl.
233 Some extensions, like DB_File and Compress::Zlib use/require prebuilt
234 libraries for the perl extensions/modules to work. If these libraries
235 are built using the default configuration, it might happen that you
236 run into an error like "invalid loader fixup" during load phase.
237 HP is aware of this problem. Search the HP-UX cxx-dev forums for
238 discussions about the subject. The short answer is that B<everything>
239 (all libraries, everything) must be compiled with C<+z> or C<+Z> to be
240 PIC (position independent code). In HP-UX 11.00 or newer the linker
241 error message should tell the name of the offending object file.
243 A more general approach is to intervene manually, as with an example for
244 the DB_File module, which requires SleepyCat's libdb.sl:
246 # cd .../db-3.2.9/build_unix
248 ... add +Z to all cflags to create shared objects
249 CFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
250 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
251 CXXFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
252 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
259 # ld -b -o libdb-3.2.sl *.o
260 # mv libdb-3.2.sl /usr/local/lib
264 # ln -s libdb-3.2.sl libdb.sl
266 # cd .../DB_File-1.76
273 It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries (even
274 though the command-line flags are still present).
276 PA-RISC and Itanium object files are not interchangeable. Although
277 you may be able to use ar to create an archive library of PA-RISC
278 object files on an Itanium system, you cannot link against it using
279 an Itanium link editor.
281 =head2 The HP ANSI C Compiler
283 When using this compiler to build Perl, you should make sure that the
284 flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the config.sh
285 file (though see the section on 64-bit perl below). If you are using a
286 recent version of the Perl distribution, these flags are set automatically.
288 =head2 The GNU C Compiler
290 When you are going to use the GNU C compiler (gcc), and you don't have
291 gcc yet, you can either build it yourself from the sources (available
292 from e.g. http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/software/gcc/releases.html) or fetch
293 a prebuilt binary from the HP porting center. There are two places where
294 gcc prebuilds can be fetched the first and best (for HP-UX 11 only) is
295 http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechSoftwareDetailPage_IDX/1,1703,547,00.html
296 the second is http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Gnu/ where you can also
297 find the GNU binutils package. (Browse through the list, because there
298 are often multiple versions of the same package available).
300 Building a 64bit capable gcc from source is possible only when you have
301 the HP C-ANSI C compiler available, which you should use anyway when
304 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl on HP-UX
306 Beginning with HP-UX version 10.20, files larger than 2GB (2^31 bytes)
307 may be created and manipulated. Three separate methods of doing this
308 are available. Of these methods, the best method for Perl is to compile
309 using the -Duselargefiles flag to Configure. This causes Perl to be
310 compiled using structures and functions in which these are 64 bits wide,
311 rather than 32 bits wide. (Note that this will only work with HP's ANSI
312 C compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get
313 a version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations. See above for
316 There are some drawbacks to this approach. One is that any extension
317 which calls any file-manipulating C function will need to be recompiled
318 (just follow the usual "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; make install"
321 The list of functions that will need to recompiled is:
322 creat, fgetpos, fopen,
323 freopen, fsetpos, fstat,
324 fstatvfs, fstatvfsdev, ftruncate,
327 open, prealloc, stat,
328 statvfs, statvfsdev, tmpfile,
329 truncate, getrlimit, setrlimit
331 Another drawback is only valid for Perl versions before 5.6.0. This
332 drawback is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version
333 and POSIX module version) will not perform correctly.
335 It is strongly recommended that you use this flag when you run
336 Configure. If you do not do this, but later answer the question about
337 large files when Configure asks you, you may get a configuration that
338 cannot be compiled, or that does not function as expected.
340 =head2 Threaded Perl on HP-UX
342 It is possible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of
343 HP-UX before 10.30, but it is strongly suggested that you be running on
344 HP-UX 11.00 at least.
346 To compile Perl with threads, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of
347 Configure. Verify that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is
348 automatically added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread
349 is listed before -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with. The
350 hints provided for HP-UX during Configure will try very hard to get
353 HP-UX versions before 10.30 require a separate installation of a POSIX
354 threads library package. Two examples are the HP DCE package, available
355 on "HP-UX Hardware Extensions 3.0, Install and Core OS, Release 10.20,
356 April 1999 (B3920-13941)" or the Freely available PTH package, available
357 though worldwide HP-UX mirrors of precompiled packages
358 (e.g. http://hpux.tn.tudelft.nl/hppd/hpux/)
360 If you are going to use the HP DCE package, the library used for threading
361 is /usr/lib/libcma.sl, but there have been multiple updates of that
362 library over time. Perl will build with the first version, but it
363 will not pass the test suite. Older Oracle versions might be a compelling
364 reason not to update that library, otherwise please find a newer version
365 in one of the following patches: PHSS_19739, PHSS_20608, or PHSS_23672
369 d3:/usr/lib 106 > what libcma-*.1
371 HP DCE/9000 1.5 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
372 Date: Apr 29 1996 22:11:24
374 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_19739-40 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
375 Date: Sep 4 1999 01:59:07
377 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_20608 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
378 Date: Dec 8 1999 18:41:23
380 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_23672 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
381 Date: Apr 9 2001 10:01:06
385 =head2 64-bit Perl on HP-UX
387 Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take
388 advantage of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and
389 Pointers are 64 bits wide).
391 Work is being performed on Perl to make it 64-bit compliant on all
392 versions of Unix. Once this is complete, scalar variables will be able
393 to hold numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision.
395 As of the date of this document, Perl is not 64-bit compliant on HP-UX.
397 Should a user wish to experiment with compiling Perl in the LP64
398 environment, use the -Duse64bitall flag to Configure. This will force
399 Perl to be compiled in a pure LP64 environment (via the +DD64 flag).
401 You can also use the -Duse64bitint flag to Configure. Although there
402 are some minor differences between compiling Perl with this flag versus
403 the -Duse64bitall flag, they should not be noticeable from a Perl user's
406 In both cases, it is strongly recommended that you use these flags when
407 you run Configure. If you do not use do this, but later answer the
408 questions about 64-bit numbers when Configure asks you, you may get a
409 configuration that cannot be compiled, or that does not function as
412 (Note that these Configure flags will only work with HP's ANSI C
413 compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get a
414 version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations.)
416 =head2 Oracle on HP-UX
418 Using perl to connect to Oracle databases through DBI and DBD::Oracle
419 has caused a lot of people many headaches. Read README.hpux in the
420 DBD::Oracle for much more information. The reason to mention it here
421 is that Oracle requires a perl built with libcl and libpthread, the
422 latter even when perl is build without threads. Building perl using
423 all defaults, but still enabling to build DBD::Oracle later on can be
426 Configure -A prepend:libswanted='cl pthread ' ...
428 Do not forget the space before the trailing quote.
430 Also note that this does not (yet) work with all configurations,
431 it is known to fail with 64bit versions of GCC.
433 =head2 GDBM and Threads on HP-UX
435 If you attempt to compile Perl with threads on an 11.X system and also
436 link in the GDBM library, then Perl will immediately core dump when it
437 starts up. The only workaround at this point is to relink the GDBM
438 library under 11.X, then relink it into Perl.
440 =head2 NFS filesystems and utime(2) on HP-UX
442 If you are compiling Perl on a remotely-mounted NFS filesystem, the test
443 io/fs.t may fail on test #18. This appears to be a bug in HP-UX and no
444 fix is currently available.
446 =head2 perl -P and // and HP-UX
448 In HP-UX Perl is compiled with flags that will cause problems if the
449 -P flag of Perl (preprocess Perl code with the C preprocessor before
450 perl sees it) is used. The problem is that C<//>, being a C++-style
451 until-end-of-line comment, will disappear along with the remainder
452 of the line. This means that common Perl constructs like
456 will turn into illegal code
460 The workaround is to use some other quoting separator than C<"/">,
461 like for example C<"!">:
465 =head2 HP-UX Kernel Parameters (maxdsiz) for Compiling Perl
467 By default, HP-UX comes configured with a maximum data segment size of
468 64MB. This is too small to correctly compile Perl with the maximum
469 optimization levels. You can increase the size of the maxdsiz kernel
470 parameter through the use of SAM.
472 When using the GUI version of SAM, click on the Kernel Configuration
473 icon, then the Configurable Parameters icon. Scroll down and select
474 the maxdsiz line. From the Actions menu, select the Modify Configurable
475 Parameter item. Insert the new formula into the Formula/Value box.
476 Then follow the instructions to rebuild your kernel and reboot your
479 In general, a value of 256MB (or "256*1024*1024") is sufficient for
480 Perl to compile at maximum optimization.
482 =head1 nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent
484 You may get a bus error core dump from the op/pwent or op/grent
485 tests. If compiled with -g you will see a stack trace much like
488 #0 0xc004216c in () from /usr/lib/libc.2
489 #1 0xc00d7550 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
490 #2 0xc00d7768 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
491 #3 0xc00d78a8 in nss_delete () from /usr/lib/libc.2
492 #4 0xc01126d8 in endpwent () from /usr/lib/libc.2
493 #5 0xd1950 in Perl_pp_epwent () from ./perl
494 #6 0x94d3c in Perl_runops_standard () from ./perl
495 #7 0x23728 in S_run_body () from ./perl
496 #8 0x23428 in perl_run () from ./perl
497 #9 0x2005c in main () from ./perl
499 The key here is the C<nss_delete> call. One workaround for this
500 bug seems to be to create add to the file F</etc/nsswitch.conf>
501 (at least) the following lines
506 Whether you are using NIS does not matter. Amazingly enough,
507 the same bug affects also Solaris.
511 Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
512 H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@hccnet.nl>
514 With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella.
518 Version 0.6.6: 2002-05-30