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 Application release September 2001, HP-UX 11.00 is the first to ship
18 with Perl. By the time it was perl-5.6.1 in /opt/perl. The first
19 occurrence is on CD 5012-7954 and 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 were 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 was 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 More recent (preinstalled) HP-UX systems have more recent versions of
42 Perl and the updated modules.
44 =head2 Using perl from HP's porting centre
46 HP porting centre tries very hard to keep up with customer demand and
47 release updates from the Open Source community. Having precompiled
48 Perl binaries available is obvious.
50 The HP porting centres are limited in what systems they are allowed
51 to port to and they usually choose the two most recent OS versions
52 available. This means that at the moment of writing, there are only
53 HP-UX 11.11 (pa-risc 2.0) and HP-UX 11.23 (Itanium 2) ports available
54 on the porting centres.
56 HP has asked the porting centre to move Open Source binaries
57 from /opt to /usr/local, so binaries produced since the start
58 of July 2002 are located in /usr/local.
60 One of HP porting centres URL's is http://hpux.connect.org.uk/
61 The port currently available is built with GNU gcc.
63 =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on HP-UX
65 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. The C compiler
66 that ships with all HP-UX systems is a K&R compiler that should only be
67 used to build new kernels.
69 Perl can be compiled with either HP's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. The
70 former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
71 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
72 require the use of HP compiler-specific command-line flags.
74 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
75 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific
80 HP's current Unix systems run on its own Precision Architecture
81 (PA-RISC) chip. HP-UX used to run on the Motorola MC68000 family of
82 chips, but any machine with this chip in it is quite obsolete and this
83 document will not attempt to address issues for compiling Perl on the
86 The most recent version of PA-RISC at the time of this document's last
87 update is 2.0. HP PA-RISC systems are usually refered to with model
88 description "HP 9000".
90 A complete list of models at the time the OS was built is in the file
91 /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models. The first column corresponds to the last
92 part of the output of the "model" command. The second column is the
93 PA-RISC version and the third column is the exact chip type used.
94 (Start browsing at the bottom to prevent confusion ;-)
98 # grep L1000-44 /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models
101 =head2 Portability Between PA-RISC Versions
103 An executable compiled on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform will not execute on a
104 PA-RISC 1.1 platform, even if they are running the same version of
105 HP-UX. If you are building Perl on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform and want that
106 Perl to also run on a PA-RISC 1.1, the compiler flags +DAportable and
107 +DS32 should be used.
109 It is no longer possible to compile PA-RISC 1.0 executables on either
110 the PA-RISC 1.1 or 2.0 platforms. The command-line flags are accepted,
111 but the resulting executable will not run when transferred to a PA-RISC
116 The original version of PA-RISC, HP no longer sells any system with this chip.
118 The following systems contained PA-RISC 1.0 chips:
120 600, 635, 645, 808, 815, 822, 825, 832, 834, 835, 840, 842, 845, 850,
121 852, 855, 860, 865, 870, 890
125 An upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it shipped for many years in many different
128 The following systems contain with PA-RISC 1.1 chips:
130 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 722, 725, 728, 730, 735, 742, 743, 744, 745,
131 747, 750, 755, 770, 777, 778, 779, 800, 801, 803, 806, 807, 809, 811,
132 813, 816, 817, 819, 821, 826, 827, 829, 831, 837, 839, 841, 847, 849,
133 851, 856, 857, 859, 867, 869, 877, 887, 891, 892, 897, A180, A180C,
134 B115, B120, B132L, B132L+, B160L, B180L, C100, C110, C115, C120,
135 C160L, D200, D210, D220, D230, D250, D260, D310, D320, D330, D350,
136 D360, D410, DX0, DX5, DXO, E25, E35, E45, E55, F10, F20, F30, G30,
137 G40, G50, G60, G70, H20, H30, H40, H50, H60, H70, I30, I40, I50, I60,
138 I70, J200, J210, J210XC, K100, K200, K210, K220, K230, K400, K410,
139 K420, S700i, S715, S744, S760, T500, T520
143 The most recent upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it added support for
146 As of the date of this document's last update, the following systems
147 contain PA-RISC 2.0 chips:
149 700, 780, 781, 782, 783, 785, 802, 804, 810, 820, 861, 871, 879, 889,
150 893, 895, 896, 898, 899, A400, A500, B1000, B2000, C130, C140, C160,
151 C180, C180+, C180-XP, C200+, C400+, C3000, C360, C3600, CB260, D270,
152 D280, D370, D380, D390, D650, J220, J2240, J280, J282, J400, J410,
153 J5000, J5500XM, J5600, J7000, J7600, K250, K260, K260-EG, K270, K360,
154 K370, K380, K450, K460, K460-EG, K460-XP, K470, K570, K580, L1000,
155 L2000, L3000, N4000, R380, R390, SD16000, SD32000, SD64000, T540,
156 T600, V2000, V2200, V2250, V2500, V2600
158 Just before HP took over Compaq, some systems were renamed. the link
159 that contained the explanation is dead, so here's a short summary:
161 HP 9000 A-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp2400 series.
162 HP 9000 L-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp5400 series.
163 HP 9000 N-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp7400.
165 rp2400, rp2405, rp2430, rp2450, rp2470, rp3410, rp3440, rp4410,
166 rp4440, rp5400, rp5405, rp5430, rp5450, rp5470, rp7400, rp7405,
167 rp7410, rp7420, rp8400, rp8420, Superdome
169 The current naming convention is:
172 ||||`+- 00 - 99 relative capacity & newness (upgrades, etc.)
173 |||`--- unique number for each architecture to ensure different
174 ||| systems do not have the same numbering across
176 ||`---- 1 - 9 identifies family and/or relative positioning
178 |`----- c = ia32 (cisc)
180 | x = ia-64 (Itanium & Itanium 2)
188 =head2 Itanium Processor Family and HP-UX
190 HP-UX also runs on the new Itanium processor. This requires the use
191 of a different version of HP-UX (currently 11.23 or 11i v2), and with
192 the exception of a few differences detailed below and in later sections,
193 Perl should compile with no problems.
195 Although PA-RISC binaries can run on Itanium systems, you should not
196 attempt to use a PA-RISC version of Perl on an Itanium system. This is
197 because shared libraries created on an Itanium system cannot be loaded
198 while running a PA-RISC executable.
200 HP Itanium 2 systems are usually refered to with model description
203 =head2 Itanium, Itanium 2 & Madison 6
205 HP also ships servers with the 128-bit Itanium processor(s). The cx2600
206 is told to have Madison 6. As of the date of this document's last update,
207 the following systems contain Itanium or Itanium 2 chips (this is likely
210 BL60p, cx2600, rx1600, rx1620, rx2600, rx2600hptc, rx2620, rx3600,
211 rx4610, rx4640, rx5670, rx6600, rx7620, rx7640, rx8620, rx8640,
212 rx9610, sx1000, sx2000
214 To see all about your machine, type
217 ia64 hp server rx2600
218 # /usr/contrib/bin/machinfo
220 =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX
222 HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries (shared libraries).
223 Shared libraries end with the suffix .sl. On Itanium systems,
224 they end with the suffix .so.
226 Shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC
227 version are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version by
228 default. However, this backwards compatibility may be enabled using the
229 same +DAportable compiler flag (with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat
232 Shared libraries created on an Itanium platform cannot be loaded on
233 a PA-RISC platform. Shared libraries created on a PA-RISC platform
234 can only be loaded on an Itanium platform if it is a PA-RISC executable
235 that is attempting to load the PA-RISC library. A PA-RISC shared
236 library cannot be loaded into an Itanium executable nor vice-versa.
238 To create a shared library, the following steps must be performed:
240 1. Compile source modules with +z or +Z flag to create a .o module
241 which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will
242 tell you in the next step if +Z was needed.
243 (For gcc, the appropriate flag is -fpic or -fPIC.)
245 2. Link the shared library using the -b flag. If the code calls
246 any functions in other system libraries (e.g., libm), it must
247 be included on this line.
249 (Note that these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's
252 If these dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation
253 time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the
256 You may create a shared library that refers to another library, which
257 may be either an archive library or a shared library. If this second
258 library is a shared library, this is called a "dependent library". The
259 dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library, but it
260 is not linked into the shared library. Instead, it is loaded when the
261 main shared library is loaded. This can cause problems if you build an
262 extension on one system and move it to another system where the
263 libraries may not be located in the same place as on the first system.
265 If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a
266 simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These
267 modules are then linked into the shared library.
269 Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent
270 library that is already linked into perl.
272 Some extensions, like DB_File and Compress::Zlib use/require prebuilt
273 libraries for the perl extensions/modules to work. If these libraries
274 are built using the default configuration, it might happen that you
275 run into an error like "invalid loader fixup" during load phase.
276 HP is aware of this problem. Search the HP-UX cxx-dev forums for
277 discussions about the subject. The short answer is that B<everything>
278 (all libraries, everything) must be compiled with C<+z> or C<+Z> to be
279 PIC (position independent code). (For gcc, that would be
280 C<-fpic> or C<-fPIC>). In HP-UX 11.00 or newer the linker
281 error message should tell the name of the offending object file.
283 A more general approach is to intervene manually, as with an example for
284 the DB_File module, which requires SleepyCat's libdb.sl:
286 # cd .../db-3.2.9/build_unix
288 ... add +Z to all cflags to create shared objects
289 CFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
290 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
291 CXXFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
292 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
299 # ld -b -o libdb-3.2.sl *.o
300 # mv libdb-3.2.sl /usr/local/lib
304 # ln -s libdb-3.2.sl libdb.sl
306 # cd .../DB_File-1.76
313 As of db-4.2.x it is no longer needed to do this by hand. Sleepycat
314 has changed the configuration process to add +z on HP-UX automatically.
316 # cd .../db-4.2.25/build_unix
317 # env CFLAGS=+DD64 LDFLAGS=+DD64 ../dist/configure
319 should work to generate 64bit shared libraries for HP-UX 11.00 and 11i.
321 It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries (even
322 though the command-line flags are still present).
324 PA-RISC and Itanium object files are not interchangeable. Although
325 you may be able to use ar to create an archive library of PA-RISC
326 object files on an Itanium system, you cannot link against it using
327 an Itanium link editor.
329 =head2 The HP ANSI C Compiler
331 When using this compiler to build Perl, you should make sure that the
332 flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the config.sh
333 file (though see the section on 64-bit perl below). If you are using a
334 recent version of the Perl distribution, these flags are set automatically.
336 Even though HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 are not actively maintained by HP
337 anymore, updates for the HP ANSI C compiler are still available from
338 time to time, and it might be advisable to see if updates are applicable.
339 At the moment of writing, the latests available patches for 11.00 that
340 should be applied are PHSS_35098, PHSS_35175, PHSS_35100, PHSS_33036,
341 and PHSS_33902). If you have a SUM account, you can use it to search
342 for updates/patches. Enter "ANSI" as keyword.
344 =head2 The GNU C Compiler
346 When you are going to use the GNU C compiler (gcc), and you don't have
347 gcc yet, you can either build it yourself from the sources (available
348 from e.g. http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/software/gcc/releases.html) or fetch
349 a prebuilt binary from the HP porting center. There are two places where
350 gcc prebuilds can be fetched; the first and best (for HP-UX 11 only) is
351 http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechSoftwareDetailPage_IDX/1,1703,547,00.html
352 the second is http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Gnu/ where you can also
353 find the GNU binutils package. (Browse through the list, because there
354 are often multiple versions of the same package available).
356 Above mentioned distributions are depots. H.Merijn Brand has made prebuilt
357 gcc binaries available on http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/ and/or
358 http://www.cmve.net/~merijn/ for HP-UX 10.20, HP-UX 11.00, and HP-UX 11.11
359 (HP-UX 11i) in both 32- and 64-bit versions. These are bzipped tar archives
360 that also include recent GNU binutils and GNU gdb. Read the instructions
361 on that page to rebuild gcc using itself.
363 On PA-RISC you need a different compiler for 32-bit applications and for
364 64-bit applications. On PA-RISC, 32-bit objects and 64-bit objects do
365 not mix. Period. There is no different behaviour for HP C-ANSI-C or GNU
366 gcc. So if you require your perl binary to use 64-bit libraries, like
367 Oracle-64bit, you MUST build a 64-bit perl.
369 Building a 64-bit capable gcc on PA-RISC from source is possible only when
370 you have the HP C-ANSI C compiler or an already working 64-bit binary of
371 gcc available. Best performance for perl is achieved with HP's native
374 =head2 Using Large Files with Perl on HP-UX
376 Beginning with HP-UX version 10.20, files larger than 2GB (2^31 bytes)
377 may be created and manipulated. Three separate methods of doing this
378 are available. Of these methods, the best method for Perl is to compile
379 using the -Duselargefiles flag to Configure. This causes Perl to be
380 compiled using structures and functions in which these are 64 bits wide,
381 rather than 32 bits wide. (Note that this will only work with HP's ANSI
382 C compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get
383 a version of the compiler that supports 64-bit operations. See above for
386 There are some drawbacks to this approach. One is that any extension
387 which calls any file-manipulating C function will need to be recompiled
388 (just follow the usual "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; make install"
391 The list of functions that will need to recompiled is:
392 creat, fgetpos, fopen,
393 freopen, fsetpos, fstat,
394 fstatvfs, fstatvfsdev, ftruncate,
397 open, prealloc, stat,
398 statvfs, statvfsdev, tmpfile,
399 truncate, getrlimit, setrlimit
401 Another drawback is only valid for Perl versions before 5.6.0. This
402 drawback is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version
403 and POSIX module version) will not perform correctly.
405 It is strongly recommended that you use this flag when you run
406 Configure. If you do not do this, but later answer the question about
407 large files when Configure asks you, you may get a configuration that
408 cannot be compiled, or that does not function as expected.
410 =head2 Threaded Perl on HP-UX
412 It is possible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of
413 HP-UX before 10.30, but it is strongly suggested that you be running on
414 HP-UX 11.00 at least.
416 To compile Perl with threads, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of
417 Configure. Verify that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is
418 automatically added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread
419 is listed before -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with. The
420 hints provided for HP-UX during Configure will try very hard to get
423 HP-UX versions before 10.30 require a separate installation of a POSIX
424 threads library package. Two examples are the HP DCE package, available
425 on "HP-UX Hardware Extensions 3.0, Install and Core OS, Release 10.20,
426 April 1999 (B3920-13941)" or the Freely available PTH package, available
427 on H.Merijn's site (http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/).
429 If you are going to use the HP DCE package, the library used for threading
430 is /usr/lib/libcma.sl, but there have been multiple updates of that
431 library over time. Perl will build with the first version, but it
432 will not pass the test suite. Older Oracle versions might be a compelling
433 reason not to update that library, otherwise please find a newer version
434 in one of the following patches: PHSS_19739, PHSS_20608, or PHSS_23672
438 d3:/usr/lib 106 > what libcma-*.1
440 HP DCE/9000 1.5 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
441 Date: Apr 29 1996 22:11:24
443 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_19739-40 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
444 Date: Sep 4 1999 01:59:07
446 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_20608 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
447 Date: Dec 8 1999 18:41:23
449 HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_23672 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
450 Date: Apr 9 2001 10:01:06
453 If you choose for the PTH package, use swinstall to install pth in
454 the default location (/opt/pth), and then make symbolic links to the
455 libraries from /usr/lib
458 # ln -s /opt/pth/lib/libpth* .
460 For building perl to support Oracle, it needs to be linked with libcl
461 and libpthread. So even if your perl is an unthreaded build, these
462 libraries might be required. See "Oracle on HP-UX" below.
464 =head2 64-bit Perl on HP-UX
466 Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take
467 advantage of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and
468 Pointers are 64 bits wide), in which scalar variables will be able
469 to hold numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision. Perl has
470 proven to be consistent and reliable in 64bit mode since 5.8.1 on
473 As of the date of this document, Perl is fully 64-bit compliant on
474 HP-UX 11.00 and up for both cc- and gcc builds. If you are about to
475 build a 64-bit perl with GNU gcc, please read the gcc section carefully.
477 Should a user have the need for compiling Perl in the LP64 environment,
478 use the -Duse64bitall flag to Configure. This will force Perl to be
479 compiled in a pure LP64 environment (with the +DD64 flag for HP C-ANSI-C,
480 with no additional options for GNU gcc 64-bit on PA-RISC, and with
481 -mlp64 for GNU gcc on Itanium).
482 If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get a version of
483 the compiler that supports 64-bit operations.)
485 You can also use the -Duse64bitint flag to Configure. Although there
486 are some minor differences between compiling Perl with this flag versus
487 the -Duse64bitall flag, they should not be noticeable from a Perl user's
488 perspective. When configuring -Duse64bitint using a 64bit gcc on a
489 pa-risc architecture, -Duse64bitint is silently promoted to -Duse64bitall.
491 In both cases, it is strongly recommended that you use these flags when
492 you run Configure. If you do not use do this, but later answer the
493 questions about 64-bit numbers when Configure asks you, you may get a
494 configuration that cannot be compiled, or that does not function as
497 =head2 Oracle on HP-UX
499 Using perl to connect to Oracle databases through DBI and DBD::Oracle
500 has caused a lot of people many headaches. Read README.hpux in the
501 DBD::Oracle for much more information. The reason to mention it here
502 is that Oracle requires a perl built with libcl and libpthread, the
503 latter even when perl is build without threads. Building perl using
504 all defaults, but still enabling to build DBD::Oracle later on can be
507 Configure -A prepend:libswanted='cl pthread ' ...
509 Do not forget the space before the trailing quote.
511 Also note that this does not (yet) work with all configurations,
512 it is known to fail with 64-bit versions of GCC.
514 =head2 GDBM and Threads on HP-UX
516 If you attempt to compile Perl with threads on an 11.X system and also
517 link in the GDBM library, then Perl will immediately core dump when it
518 starts up. The only workaround at this point is to relink the GDBM
519 library under 11.X, then relink it into Perl.
521 =head2 NFS filesystems and utime(2) on HP-UX
523 If you are compiling Perl on a remotely-mounted NFS filesystem, the test
524 io/fs.t may fail on test #18. This appears to be a bug in HP-UX and no
525 fix is currently available.
527 =head2 perl -P and // and HP-UX
529 If HP-UX Perl is compiled with flags that will cause problems if the
530 -P flag of Perl (preprocess Perl code with the C preprocessor before
531 perl sees it) is used. The problem is that C<//>, being a C++-style
532 until-end-of-line comment, will disappear along with the remainder
533 of the line. This means that common Perl constructs like
537 will turn into illegal code
541 The workaround is to use some other quoting separator than C<"/">,
542 like for example C<"!">:
546 =head2 HP-UX Kernel Parameters (maxdsiz) for Compiling Perl
548 By default, HP-UX comes configured with a maximum data segment size of
549 64MB. This is too small to correctly compile Perl with the maximum
550 optimization levels. You can increase the size of the maxdsiz kernel
551 parameter through the use of SAM.
553 When using the GUI version of SAM, click on the Kernel Configuration
554 icon, then the Configurable Parameters icon. Scroll down and select
555 the maxdsiz line. From the Actions menu, select the Modify Configurable
556 Parameter item. Insert the new formula into the Formula/Value box.
557 Then follow the instructions to rebuild your kernel and reboot your
560 In general, a value of 256MB (or "256*1024*1024") is sufficient for
561 Perl to compile at maximum optimization.
563 =head1 nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent
565 You may get a bus error core dump from the op/pwent or op/grent
566 tests. If compiled with -g you will see a stack trace much like
569 #0 0xc004216c in () from /usr/lib/libc.2
570 #1 0xc00d7550 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
571 #2 0xc00d7768 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
572 #3 0xc00d78a8 in nss_delete () from /usr/lib/libc.2
573 #4 0xc01126d8 in endpwent () from /usr/lib/libc.2
574 #5 0xd1950 in Perl_pp_epwent () from ./perl
575 #6 0x94d3c in Perl_runops_standard () from ./perl
576 #7 0x23728 in S_run_body () from ./perl
577 #8 0x23428 in perl_run () from ./perl
578 #9 0x2005c in main () from ./perl
580 The key here is the C<nss_delete> call. One workaround for this
581 bug seems to be to create add to the file F</etc/nsswitch.conf>
582 (at least) the following lines
587 Whether you are using NIS does not matter. Amazingly enough,
588 the same bug also affects Solaris.
592 Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
593 H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>
595 With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella.
599 Version 0.7.8.01: 2007-01-12