2 This document is written in pod format hence there are punctuation
3 characters in odd places. Do not worry, you've apparently got
4 the ASCII->EBCDIC translation worked out correctly. You can read
5 more about pod in pod/perlpod.pod or the short summary in the
10 README.os390 - building and installing Perl for OS/390.
14 This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
15 on OS/390 Unix System Services.
19 This is a fully ported Perl for OS/390 Version 2 Release 3, 5, 6, 7,
20 8, and 9. It may work on other versions or releases, but those are
21 the ones we've tested it on.
23 You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before
24 running the Configure script for Perl.
28 Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:
30 http://www.s390.ibm.com/products/oe/bpxqp1.html
32 to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:
34 pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
36 =head2 Setup and utilities
38 Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
39 parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:
41 cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc
43 This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file
44 and either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place.
45 The IBM document that described such USS system setup issues was
46 SC28-1890-07 "OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular
47 Chapter 6 on customizing the OE shell.
49 GNU make for OS/390, which is required for the build of perl (as well as
50 building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from:
52 http://www.mks.com/s390/gnu/index.htm
54 Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
55 trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries. If you encounter such
56 trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
57 from source to eliminate any such trouble. You might also find GNU make
58 (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source Software
59 for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.
61 There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
62 that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9. The problem with
63 the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT constant
64 there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment like so:
66 #define SO_REUSEPORT 0x0200 /* allow local address & port
69 You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you might
70 note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the problem
71 and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and apply them.
72 If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an inability for Perl
73 to build its "Socket" extension.
75 For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
76 world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man chmod).
80 Once you've unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see INSTALL
81 for a full discussion of the Configure options). There is a "hints" file
82 for os390 that specifies the correct values for most things. Some things
83 to watch out for include:
89 A message of the form:
91 (I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
92 mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)
94 is nothing to worry about at all.
98 Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in /etc.
99 In particular be sure that you at least copy /samples/yyparse.c to /etc
100 before running Perl's Configure. This step ensures successful extraction
101 of EBCDIC versions of parser files such as perly.c. This has to be done
102 before running Configure the first time. If you failed to do so then the
103 easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to delete your misconfigured build root
104 and re extract the source from the tar ball. If for some reason you do not
105 want to do that then, after ensuring that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in place
106 run the following commands from within the Perl build directory:
108 rm -f y.tab.c y.tab.h
110 mv -f y.tab.c perly.c
112 sed -e '/^#include "perl\.h"/a\
114 #define yydebug PL_yydebug\
115 #define yynerrs PL_yynerrs\
116 #define yyerrflag PL_yyerrflag\
117 #define yychar PL_yychar\
118 #define yyval PL_yyval\
119 #define yylval PL_yylval' \
120 -e '/YYSTYPE *yyval;/D' \
121 -e '/YYSTYPE *yylval;/D' \
122 -e '/int yychar,/,/yynerrs;/D' \
123 -e 's/int yydebug = 0;/yydebug = 0;/' \
124 -e 's/[^_]realloc(/PerlMem_realloc(/g' \
125 -e 's/fprintf *( *stderr *,/PerlIO_printf(Perl_debug_log,/g' \
126 -e 's/y\.tab/perly/g' perly.c >perly.tmp
127 mv -f perly.tmp perly.c
128 mv -f y.tab.h perly.h
130 rm -f y.tab.c y.tab.h
134 sed -e 's/fprintf *( *stderr *,/PerlIO_printf(Perl_debug_log,/g' \
135 -e 's/y\.tab/a2p/g' a2p.c >a2p.tmp
140 There, easy huh? If you find typing all that in difficult then perhaps
141 you should reconsider the rm -rf of the perl build directory and
142 re extraction of the source tar ball.
146 This port doesn't support dynamic loading. Although OS/390 has support
147 for DLLs via dllload(), there are some differences that cause problems
148 for Perl. (We need a volunteer to write a ext/DynaLoader/dl_dllload.xs
153 Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There is
154 a bug in either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to
155 not work correctly when the optimizer is on.
159 Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the
160 networking APIs are either missing or have the wrong
161 names. In particular, make sure that there's either
162 an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so that
163 gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file
164 /etc/proto has been renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT
165 /etc/protocols, as used by other Unix systems).
169 =head2 Build, test, install
177 if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis) then:
181 this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending
182 on how you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether
183 or not you have write access to the directories you specified.
185 =head2 build anomalies
187 "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
188 by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
190 Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in your
191 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8 address space
192 limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS segment of a RACF
193 profile). People have reported successful builds of Perl with MAXASSIZE
194 parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be possible to build Perl
195 with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).
197 Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
198 settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
202 To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into the
203 Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
205 If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
206 Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
207 header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
209 =head2 testing anomalies
211 The `make test` step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
212 installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a successful
213 run of `make test`. Here is a guide to some of the more commonly seen
220 A message of the form:
222 comp/cpp.............ERROR CBC3191 ./.301989890.c:1 The character $ is not a
223 valid C source character.
224 FSUM3065 The COMPILE step ended with return code 12.
225 FSUM3017 Could not compile .301989890.c. Correct the errors and try again.
228 indicates that the t/comp/cpp.t test of Perl's -P command line switch has
229 passed but that the particular invocation of c89 -E in the cpp script does
230 not suppress the C compiler check of source code validity.
234 A message of the form:
236 io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
237 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
238 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
241 indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done so
242 with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.
246 A message of the form:
248 lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe
249 (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
250 File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky bit not
251 set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
254 indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory within the HFS.
255 To correct that problem issue the command:
259 from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.
265 When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
266 character sets are different. See perlebcdic.pod for more on such character
267 set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave differently under
268 EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
270 Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
271 #!/path/to/perl script invocation. There is a PTF available from
272 IBM for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!. USS
273 releases prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation.
274 If you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:
276 head `whence perldoc`
278 for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
279 have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System Services.
281 =head2 Floating point anomalies
283 There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
284 systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
285 magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
286 that number and a large magnitude number. For example, in the following
290 my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
291 my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5; # '100000'
292 print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000
294 Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and equal
295 to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000 respectively.
297 The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:
311 printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
312 /* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
315 =head2 Modules and Extensions
317 Pure pure (that is non xs) modules may be installed via the usual:
324 You can also build xs based extensions to Perl for OS/390 but will need
325 to follow the instructions in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for building
326 statically linked perl binaries. In the simplest configurations building
327 a static perl + xs extension boils down to:
334 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
336 In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
337 than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
342 David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker
343 and William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.
344 Thanks to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.
345 Thanks to Ignasi Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.
349 L<INSTALL>, L<perlport>, L<perlebcdic>, L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>.
351 http://www.mks.com/s390/gnu/index.htm
353 http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg245944.html
355 http://www.s390.ibm.com/products/oe/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc
357 http://www.s390.ibm.com/products/oe/portbk/bpxacenv.html
359 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
363 The Perl Institute (http://www.perl.org/) maintains a perl-mvs
364 mailing list of interest to all folks building and/or
365 using perl on all EBCDIC platforms (not just OS/390).
366 To subscribe, send a message of:
370 to majordomo@perl.org. See also:
372 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl-mvs
374 There are web archives of the mailing list at:
376 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
377 http://archive.develooper.com/perl-mvs@perl.org/
381 This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
384 This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March 1999.
386 Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
388 Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.