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 Compiling Perl 5 on HP-UX
17 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. The C compiler
18 that ships with all HP-UX systems is a K&R compiler that should only be
19 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
23 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
24 require the use of HP compiler-specific command-line flags.
26 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
27 complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific
32 HP's current Unix systems run on its own Precision Architecture
33 (PA-RISC) chip. HP-UX used to run on the Motorola MC68000 family of
34 chips, but any machine with this chip in it is quite obsolete and this
35 document will not attempt to address issues for compiling Perl on the
38 The most recent version of PA-RISC at the time of this document's last
43 The original version of PA-RISC, HP no longer sells any system with this chip.
45 The following systems contained PA-RISC 1.0 chips:
47 600, 635, 645, 808, 815, 822, 825, 832, 834, 835, 840, 842, 845, 850, 852,
48 855, 860, 865, 870, 890
52 An upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it shipped for many years in many different
55 The following systems contain with PA-RISC 1.1 chips:
57 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 722, 725, 728, 730, 735, 742, 743, 745, 747, 750,
58 755, 770, 777, 778, 779, 800, 801, 803, 806, 807, 809, 811, 813, 816, 817,
59 819, 821, 826, 827, 829, 831, 837, 839, 841, 847, 849, 851, 856, 857, 859,
60 867, 869, 877, 887, 891, 892, 897, A180, A180C, B115, B120, B132L, B132L+,
61 B160L, B180L, C100, C110, C115, C120, C160L, D200, D210, D220, D230, D250,
62 D260, D310, D320, D330, D350, D360, D410, DX0, DX5, DZO, E25, E35, E45,
63 E55, F10, F20, F30, G30, G40, G50, G60, G70, H20, H30, H40, H50, H60, H70,
64 I30, I40, I50, I60, I70, J200, J210, J210XC, K100, K200, K210, K220, K230,
65 K400, K410, K420, S700i, S715, S724, S760, T500, T520
69 The most recent upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it added support for
72 As of the date of this document's last update, the following systems
73 contain PA-RISC 2.0 chips (this is very likely to be out of date):
75 700, 780, 781, 782, 783, 785, 802, 804, 810, 820, 861, 871, 879, 889, 893,
76 895, 896, 898, 899, B1000, C130, C140, C160, C180, C180+, C180-XP, C200+,
77 C400+, C3000, C360, CB260, D270, D280, D370, D380, D390, D650, J220, J2240,
78 J280, J282, J400, J410, J5000, J7000, K250, K260, K260-EG, K270, K360,
79 K370, K380, K450, K460, K460-EG, K460-XP, K470, K570, K580, L1000, L2000,
80 N4000, R380, R390, T540, T600, V2000, V2200, V2250, V2500
82 A complete list of models at the time the OS was built is in the file
83 /opt/langtools/lib/sched.models. The first column corresponds to the
84 output of the "uname -m" command (without the leading "9000/"). The
85 second column is the PA-RISC version and the third column is the exact
86 chip type used. (Start browsing at the bottom to prevent confusion ;-)
88 =head2 Portability Between PA-RISC Versions
90 An executable compiled on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform will not execute on a
91 PA-RISC 1.1 platform, even if they are running the same version of
92 HP-UX. If you are building Perl on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform and want that
93 Perl to to also run on a PA-RISC 1.1, the compiler flags +DAportable and
96 It is no longer possible to compile PA-RISC 1.0 executables on either
97 the PA-RISC 1.1 or 2.0 platforms. The command-line flags are accepted,
98 but the resulting executable will not run when transferred to a PA-RISC
101 =head2 Itanium Processor Family
103 HP-UX also runs on the new Itanium processor. This requires the use
104 of a different version of HP-UX (currently 11.20), and with the exception
105 of a few differences detailed below and in later sections, Perl should
106 compile with no problems.
108 Although PA-RISC binaries can run on Itanium systems, you should not
109 attempt to use a PA-RISC version of Perl on an Itanium system. This is
110 because shared libraries created on an Itanium system cannot be loaded
111 while running a PA-RISC executable.
113 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX
115 HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
116 Shared libraries end with the suffix .sl. On Itanium systems,
117 they end with the suffix .so.
119 Shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC
120 version are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version by
121 default. However, this backwards compatibility may be enabled using the
122 same +DAportable compiler flag (with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat
125 Shared libraries created on an Itanium platform cannot be loaded on
126 a PA-RISC platform. Shared libraries created on a PA-RISC platform
127 can only be loaded on an Itanium platform if it is a PA-RISC executable
128 that is attempting to load the PA-RISC library. A PA-RISC shared
129 library cannot be loaded into an Itanium executable nor vice-versa.
131 To create a shared library, the following steps must be performed:
133 1. Compile source modules with +z or +Z flag to create a .o module
134 which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will
135 tell you in the next step if +Z was needed.
137 2. Link the shared library using the -b flag. If the code calls
138 any functions in other system libraries (e.g., libm), it must
139 be included on this line.
141 (Note that these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's
144 If these dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation
145 time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the
148 You may create a shared library that refers to another library, which
149 may be either an archive library or a shared library. If this second
150 library is a shared library, this is called a "dependent library". The
151 dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library, but it
152 is not linked into the shared library. Instead, it is loaded when the
153 main shared library is loaded. This can cause problems if you build an
154 extension on one system and move it to another system where the
155 libraries may not be located in the same place as on the first system.
157 If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a
158 simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These
159 modules are then linked into the shared library.
161 Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent
162 library that is already linked into perl.
164 Some extensions, like DB_File and Compress::Zlib use/require prebuilt
165 libraries for the perl extensions/modules to work. If these libraries
166 are built using the default configuration, it might happen that you run
167 into an error like "invalid loader fixup" during load phase. HP is aware
168 of this problem and address it at
169 http://devresource.hp.com/devresource/Docs/TechTips/cxxTips.html#tip13
171 A more general approach is to intervene manually, as with an example for
172 the DB_File module, which requires SleepyCat's libdb.sl:
174 # cd .../db-3.2.9/build_unix
176 ... add +Z to all cflags to create shared objects
177 CFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
178 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
179 CXXFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
180 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
187 # ld -b -o libdb-3.2.sl *.o
188 # mv libdb-3.2.sl /usr/local/lib
192 # ln -s libdb-3.2.sl libdb.sl
194 # cd .../DB_File-1.76
201 It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries (even
202 though the command-line flags are still present).
204 PA-RISC and Itanium object files are not interchangeable. Although
205 you may be able to use ar to create an archive library of PA-RISC
206 object files on an Itanium system, you cannot link against it using
207 an Itanium link editor.
209 =head2 The HP ANSI C Compiler
211 When using this compiler to build Perl, you should make sure that the
212 flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the config.sh
213 file (though see the section on 64-bit perl below). If you are using a
214 recent version of the Perl distribution, these flags are set automatically.
216 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
218 Beginning with HP-UX version 10.20, files larger than 2GB (2^31 bytes)
219 may be created and manipulated. Three separate methods of doing this
220 are available. Of these methods, the best method for Perl is to compile
221 using the -Duselargefiles flag to Configure. This causes Perl to be
222 compiled using structures and functions in which these are 64 bits wide,
223 rather than 32 bits wide. (Note that this will only work with HP's ANSI
224 C compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get
225 a version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations.)
227 There are some drawbacks to this approach. One is that any extension
228 which calls any file-manipulating C function will need to be recompiled
229 (just follow the usual "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; make install"
232 The list of functions that will need to recompiled is:
233 creat, fgetpos, fopen,
234 freopen, fsetpos, fstat,
235 fstatvfs, fstatvfsdev, ftruncate,
238 open, prealloc, stat,
239 statvfs, statvfsdev, tmpfile,
240 truncate, getrlimit, setrlimit
242 Another drawback is only valid for Perl versions before 5.6.0. This
243 drawback is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version
244 and POSIX module version) will not perform correctly.
246 It is strongly recommended that you use this flag when you run
247 Configure. If you do not do this, but later answer the question about
248 large files when Configure asks you, you may get a configuration that
249 cannot be compiled, or that does not function as expected.
253 It is possible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of
254 HP-UX before 10.30, but it is strongly suggested that you be running on
255 HP-UX 11.00 at least.
257 To compile Perl with threads, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of
258 Configure. Verify that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is
259 automatically added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread
260 is listed before -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with. The
261 hints provided for HP-UX during Configure will try very hard to get
264 HP-UX versions before 10.30 require a seperate installation of a POSIX
265 threads library package. Two examples are the HP DCE package, available
266 on "HP-UX Hardware Extensions 3.0, Install and Core OS, Release 10.20,
267 April 1999 (B3920-13941)" or the Freely available PTH package, available
268 though worldwide HP-UX mirrors of precompiled packages
269 (e.g. http://hpux.tn.tudelft.nl/hppd/hpux/alpha.html)
273 Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take
274 advantage of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and
275 Pointers are 64 bits wide).
277 Work is being performed on Perl to make it 64-bit compliant on all
278 versions of Unix. Once this is complete, scalar variables will be able
279 to hold numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision.
281 As of the date of this document, Perl is not 64-bit compliant on HP-UX.
283 Should a user wish to experiment with compiling Perl in the LP64
284 environment, use the -Duse64bitall flag to Configure. This will force
285 Perl to be compiled in a pure LP64 environment (via the +DD64 flag).
287 You can also use the -Duse64bitint flag to Configure. Although there
288 are some minor differences between compiling Perl with this flag versus
289 the -Duse64bitall flag, they should not be noticeable from a Perl user's
292 In both cases, it is strongly recommended that you use these flags when
293 you run Configure. If you do not use do this, but later answer the
294 questions about 64-bit numbers when Configure asks you, you may get a
295 configuration that cannot be compiled, or that does not function as
298 (Note that these Configure flags will only work with HP's ANSI C
299 compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get a
300 version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations.)
302 =head2 GDBM and Threads
304 If you attempt to compile Perl with threads on an 11.X system and also
305 link in the GDBM library, then Perl will immediately core dump when it
306 starts up. The only workaround at this point is to relink the GDBM
307 library under 11.X, then relink it into Perl.
309 =head2 NFS filesystems and utime(2)
311 If you are compiling Perl on a remotely-mounted NFS filesystem, the test
312 io/fs.t may fail on test #18. This appears to be a bug in HP-UX and no
313 fix is currently available.
315 =head2 perl -P and //
317 In HP-UX Perl is compiled with flags that will cause problems if the
318 -P flag of Perl (preprocess Perl code with the C preprocessor before
319 perl sees it) is used. The problem is that C<//>, being a C++-style
320 until-end-of-line comment, will disappear along with the remainder
321 of the line. This means that common Perl constructs like
325 will turn into illegal code
329 The workaround is to use some other quoting separator than C<"/">,
330 like for example C<"!">:
334 =head2 Kernel parameters (maxdsiz)
336 By default, HP-UX comes configured with a maximum data segment size of
337 64MB. This is too small to correctly compile Perl with the maximum
338 optimization levels. You can increase the size of the maxdsiz kernel
339 parameter through the use of SAM.
341 When using the GUI version of SAM, click on the Kernel Configuration
342 icon, then the Configurable Parameters icon. Scroll down and select
343 the maxdsiz line. From the Actions menu, select the Modify Configurable
344 Parameter item. Insert the new formula into the Formula/Value box.
345 Then follow the instructions to rebuild your kernel and reboot your
348 In general, a value of 256MB (or "256*1024*1024") is sufficient for
349 Perl to compile at maximum optimization.
353 Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
355 With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella.
359 Version 0.6.3: 2001-05-16