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 contain 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.
99 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX
101 HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
102 Shared libraries end with the suffix .sl.
104 Shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC
105 version are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version by
106 default. However, this backwards compatibility may be enabled using the
107 same +DAportable compiler flag (with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat
110 To create a shared library, the following steps must be performed:
112 1. Compile source modules with +z or +Z flag to create a .o module
113 which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will
114 tell you in the next step if +Z was needed.
116 2. Link the shared library using the -b flag. If the code calls
117 any functions in other system libraries (e.g., libm), it must
118 be included on this line.
120 (Note that these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's
123 If these dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation
124 time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the
127 You may create a shared library that refers to another library, which
128 may be either an archive library or a shared library. If this second
129 library is a shared library, this is called a "dependent library". The
130 dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library, but it
131 is not linked into the shared library. Instead, it is loaded when the
132 main shared library is loaded. This can cause problems if you build an
133 extension on one system and move it to another system where the
134 libraries may not be located in the same place as on the first system.
136 If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a
137 simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These
138 modules are then linked into the shared library.
140 Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent
141 library that is already linked into perl.
143 Some extensions, like DB_File and Compress::Zlib use/require prebuilt
144 libraries for the perl extensions/modules to work. If these libraries
145 are built using the default configuration, it might happen that you run
146 into an error like "invalid loader fixup" during load phase. HP is aware
147 of this problem and address it at
148 http://devresource.hp.com/devresource/Docs/TechTips/cxxTips.html#tip13
150 A more general approach is to intervene manually, as with an example for
151 the DB_File module, which requires SleepyCat's libdb.sl:
153 # cd .../db-3.2.9/build_unix
155 ... add +Z to all cflags to create shared objects
156 CFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
157 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
158 CXXFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
159 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
166 # ld -b -o libdb-3.2.sl *.o
167 # mv libdb-3.2.sl /usr/local/lib
171 # ln -s libdb-3.2.sl libdb.sl
173 # cd .../DB_File-1.76
180 It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries.
182 =head2 The HP ANSI C Compiler
184 When using this compiler to build Perl, you should make sure that the
185 flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the config.sh
186 file (though see the section on 64-bit perl below). If you are using a
187 recent version of the Perl distribution, these flags are set automatically.
189 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl
191 Beginning with HP-UX version 10.20, files larger than 2GB (2^31 bytes)
192 may be created and manipulated. Three separate methods of doing this
193 are available. Of these methods, the best method for Perl is to compile
194 using the -Duselargefiles flag to Configure. This causes Perl to be
195 compiled using structures and functions in which these are 64 bits wide,
196 rather than 32 bits wide. (Note that this will only work with HP's ANSI
197 C compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get
198 a version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations.)
200 There are some drawbacks to this approach. One is that any extension
201 which calls any file-manipulating C function will need to be recompiled
202 (just follow the usual "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; make install"
205 The list of functions that will need to recompiled is:
206 creat, fgetpos, fopen,
207 freopen, fsetpos, fstat,
208 fstatvfs, fstatvfsdev, ftruncate,
211 open, prealloc, stat,
212 statvfs, statvfsdev, tmpfile,
213 truncate, getrlimit, setrlimit
215 Another drawback is only valid for Perl versions before 5.6.0. This
216 drawback is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version
217 and POSIX module version) will not perform correctly.
219 It is strongly recommended that you use this flag when you run
220 Configure. If you do not do this, but later answer the question about
221 large files when Configure asks you, you may get a configuration that
222 cannot be compiled, or that does not function as expected.
226 It is possible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of
227 HP-UX before 10.30, but it is strongly suggested that you be running on
228 HP-UX 11.00 at least.
230 To compile Perl with threads, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of
231 Configure. Verify that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is
232 automatically added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread
233 is listed before -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with. The
234 hints provided for HP-UX during Configure will try very hard to get
237 HP-UX versions before 10.30 require a seperate installation of a POSIX
238 threads library package. Two examples are the HP DCE package, available
239 on "HP-UX Hardware Extensions 3.0, Install and Core OS, Release 10.20,
240 April 1999 (B3920-13941)" or the Freely available PTH package, available
241 though worldwide HP-UX mirrors of precompiled packages
242 (e.g. http://hpux.tn.tudelft.nl/hppd/hpux/alpha.html)
246 Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take
247 advantage of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and
248 Pointers are 64 bits wide).
250 Work is being performed on Perl to make it 64-bit compliant on all
251 versions of Unix. Once this is complete, scalar variables will be able
252 to hold numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision.
254 As of the date of this document, Perl is not 64-bit compliant on HP-UX.
256 Should a user wish to experiment with compiling Perl in the LP64
257 environment, use the -Duse64bitall flag to Configure. This will force
258 Perl to be compiled in a pure LP64 environment (via the +DD64 flag).
260 You can also use the -Duse64bitint flag to Configure. Although there
261 are some minor differences between compiling Perl with this flag versus
262 the -Duse64bitall flag, they should not be noticeable from a Perl user's
265 In both cases, it is strongly recommended that you use these flags when
266 you run Configure. If you do not use do this, but later answer the
267 questions about 64-bit numbers when Configure asks you, you may get a
268 configuration that cannot be compiled, or that does not function as
271 (Note that these Configure flags will only work with HP's ANSI C
272 compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get a
273 version of the compiler that support 64-bit operations.)
275 =head2 GDBM and Threads
277 If you attempt to compile Perl with threads on an 11.X system and also
278 link in the GDBM library, then Perl will immediately core dump when it
279 starts up. The only workaround at this point is to relink the GDBM
280 library under 11.X, then relink it into Perl.
282 =head2 NFS filesystems and utime(2)
284 If you are compiling Perl on a remotely-mounted NFS filesystem, the test
285 io/fs.t may fail on test #18. This appears to be a bug in HP-UX and no
286 fix is currently available.
288 =head2 perl -P and //
290 In HP-UX Perl is compiled with flags that will cause problems if the
291 -P flag of Perl (preprocess Perl code with the C preprocessor before
292 perl sees it) is used. The problem is that C<//>, being a C++-style
293 until-end-of-line comment, will disappear along with the remainder
294 of the line. This means that common Perl constructs like
298 will turn into illegal code
302 The workaround is to use some other quoting separator than C<"/">,
303 like for example C<"!">:
309 Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
311 With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella.
315 Version 0.6.2: 2001-02-02