1 This document is written in pod format hence there are punctuation
2 characters in odd places. Do not worry, you've apparently got the
3 ASCII->EBCDIC translation worked out correctly. You can read more
4 about pod in pod/perlpod.pod or the short summary in the INSTALL file.
8 README.os390 - building and installing Perl for OS/390.
12 This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
13 on OS/390 Unix System Services.
17 This is a fully ported Perl for OS/390 Version 2 Release 3, 5, 6, 7,
18 8, and 9. It may work on other versions or releases, but those are
19 the ones we've tested it on.
21 You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before
22 running the Configure script for Perl.
24 =head2 Unpacking Perl distribution on OS/390
26 Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:
28 http://www.s390.ibm.com/products/oe/bpxqp1.html
30 to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:
32 pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
34 =head2 Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390
36 Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
37 parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:
39 cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc
41 This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file
42 and either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place.
43 The IBM document that described such USS system setup issues was
44 SC28-1890-07 "OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular
45 Chapter 6 on customizing the OE shell.
47 GNU make for OS/390, which is recommended for the build of perl (as well as
48 building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from:
50 http://www.mks.com/s390/gnu/index.htm
52 Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
53 trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries. If you encounter such
54 trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
55 from source to eliminate any such trouble. You might also find GNU make
56 (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source Software
57 for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.
59 If instead of the recommended GNU make you would like to use the system
60 supplied make program then be sure to install the default rules file
61 properly via the shell command:
63 cp /samples/startup.mk /etc
65 and be sure to also set the environment variable _C89_CCMODE=1 (exporting
66 _C89_CCMODE=1 is also a good idea for users of GNU make).
68 You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before
69 running the `make install` step for Perl.
71 There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
72 that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9. The problem with
73 the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT constant
74 there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment like so:
76 #define SO_REUSEPORT 0x0200 /* allow local address & port
79 You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you might
80 note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the problem
81 and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and apply them.
82 If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an inability for Perl
83 to build its "Socket" extension.
85 For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
86 world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man chmod).
88 =head2 Configure Perl on OS/390
90 Once you've unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see INSTALL
91 for a full discussion of the Configure options). There is a "hints" file
92 for os390 that specifies the correct values for most things. Some things
93 to watch out for include:
99 A message of the form:
101 (I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
102 mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)
104 is nothing to worry about at all.
108 Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in /etc.
109 In particular be sure that you at least copy /samples/yyparse.c to /etc
110 before running Perl's Configure. This step ensures successful extraction
111 of EBCDIC versions of parser files such as perly.c, perly.h, and x2p/a2p.c.
112 This has to be done before running Configure the first time. If you failed
113 to do so then the easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to delete your
114 misconfigured build root and re-extract the source from the tar ball.
115 Then you must ensure that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in place before
116 attempting to re-run Configure.
120 This port will support dynamic loading, but it is not selected by
121 default. If you would like to experiment with dynamic loading then
122 be sure to specify -Dusedl in the arguments to the Configure script.
123 See the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on dynamic loading.
124 If you build with dynamic loading then you will need to add the
125 $archlibexp/CORE directory to your LIBPATH environment variable in order
126 for perl to work. See the config.sh file for the value of $archlibexp.
127 If in trying to use Perl you see an error message similar to:
129 CEE3501S The module libperl.dll was not found.
130 From entry point __dllstaticinit at compile unit offset +00000194 at
132 then your LIBPATH does not have the location of libperl.x and either
133 libperl.dll or libperl.so in it. Add that directory to your LIBPATH and
138 Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There is
139 a bug in either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to
140 not work correctly when the optimizer is on.
144 Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the
145 networking APIs are either missing or have the wrong
146 names. In particular, make sure that there's either
147 an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so that
148 gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file
149 /etc/proto has been renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT
150 /etc/protocols, as used by other Unix systems).
151 You may have to look for things like HOSTNAME and DOMAINORIGIN
152 in the "//'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'" PDS member in order to
153 properly set up your /etc networking files.
157 =head2 Build, Test, Install Perl on OS/390
165 if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis) then:
169 this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending
170 on how you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether
171 or not you have write access to the directories you specified.
173 =head2 Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
175 "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
176 by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
178 Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in your
179 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8 address space
180 limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS segment of a RACF
181 profile). People have reported successful builds of Perl with MAXASSIZE
182 parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be possible to build Perl
183 with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).
185 Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
186 settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
190 To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into the
191 Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
193 If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
194 Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
195 header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
197 =head2 Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
199 The `make test` step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
200 installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a successful
201 run of `make test`. Here is a guide to some of the more commonly seen
208 A message of the form:
210 comp/cpp.............ERROR CBC3191 ./.301989890.c:1 The character $ is not a
211 valid C source character.
212 FSUM3065 The COMPILE step ended with return code 12.
213 FSUM3017 Could not compile .301989890.c. Correct the errors and try again.
216 indicates that the t/comp/cpp.t test of Perl's -P command line switch has
217 passed but that the particular invocation of c89 -E in the cpp script does
218 not suppress the C compiler check of source code validity.
222 A message of the form:
224 io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
225 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
226 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
229 indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done so
230 with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.
234 A message of the form:
236 lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe
237 (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
238 File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky bit not
239 set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
242 indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory within the HFS.
243 To correct that problem issue the command:
247 from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.
253 Recent perl test suite is quite memory hunrgy. In addition to the comments
254 above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for _CEE_RUNOPTS
255 in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c) a C #pragma
256 to set CEE run options, but the enviroment variable wins.
260 #pragma runopts(HEAP(2M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K) STACK(,,ANY,) ALL31(ON))
262 The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment) to HEAP,
263 and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If the heap
264 increment is too small then when perl (for example loading unicode/Name.pl) trys
265 to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot fit in a single segement
266 and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if there is still plenty of memory
269 A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses C<sbrk()>
270 to get memory, and C<sbrk()> is limited to the first allocation so in this
273 HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)
275 is needed to get through the test suite.
280 =head2 Installation Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
282 The installman script will try to run on OS/390. There will be fewer errors
283 if you have a roff utility installed. You can obtain GNU groff from the
284 Redbook SG24-5944-00 ftp site.
286 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on OS/390
288 When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
289 character sets are different. See perlebcdic.pod for more on such character
290 set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave differently under
291 EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
293 Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
294 #!/path/to/perl script invocation. There is a PTF available from
295 IBM for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!. USS
296 releases prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation.
297 If you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:
299 head `whence perldoc`
301 for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
302 have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System Services.
304 If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching your
305 rlogin or telnet client. Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and ISHELL for
306 working with Perl on USS.
308 =head2 Floating Point Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
310 There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
311 systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
312 magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
313 that number and a large magnitude number. For example, in the following
317 my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
318 my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5; # '100000'
319 print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000
321 Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and equal
322 to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000 respectively.
324 The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:
338 printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
339 /* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
342 =head2 Modules and Extensions for Perl on OS/390
344 Pure pure (that is non xs) modules may be installed via the usual:
351 If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
352 be the way to build xs based extensions. However, if you built perl with
353 the default static linking you can still build xs based extensions for OS/390
354 but you will need to follow the instructions in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
355 building statically linked perl binaries. In the simplest configurations
356 building a static perl + xs extension boils down to:
363 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
365 In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
366 than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
369 If the make process encounters trouble with either compilation or
370 linking then try setting the _C89_CCMODE to 1. Assuming sh is your
371 login shell then run:
375 If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.
379 David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker
380 and William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.
381 Thanks to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.
382 Thanks to Ignasi Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.
383 Thanks to John Goodyear for dynamic loading help.
387 L<INSTALL>, L<perlport>, L<perlebcdic>, L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>.
389 http://www.mks.com/s390/gnu/index.htm
391 http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg245944.html
393 http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc
395 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
397 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3030/
399 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/CBCUG030/
401 =head2 Mailing list for Perl on OS/390
403 The Perl Institute (http://www.perl.org/) maintains a perl-mvs
404 mailing list of interest to all folks building and/or
405 using perl on all EBCDIC platforms (not just OS/390).
406 To subscribe, send a message of:
410 to majordomo@perl.org. See also:
412 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl-mvs
414 There are web archives of the mailing list at:
416 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
417 http://archive.develooper.com/perl-mvs@perl.org/
421 This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
424 This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March 1999.
426 Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
428 Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
430 Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.
432 Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.