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 and z/OS
12 This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl
13 on OS/390 (aka z/OS) 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.
27 The z/OS Unix Tools and Toys list may prove helpful and contains links
28 to ports of much of the software helpful for building Perl.
29 http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html
32 =head2 Unpacking Perl distribution on OS/390
34 If using ftp remember to transfer the distribution in binary format.
36 Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:
38 http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/faq/bpxqp1.html
40 to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:
42 pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
46 zcat latest.tar.Z | pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r
48 If you get lots of errors of the form
50 tar: FSUM7171 ...: cannot set uid/gid: EDC5139I Operation not permitted.
52 you didn't read the above and tried to use tar instead of pax, you'll
53 first have to remove the (now corrupt) perl directory
59 =head2 Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390
61 Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
62 parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:
64 cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc
66 This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file
67 and either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place.
68 The IBM document that described such USS system setup issues was
69 SC28-1890-07 "OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular
70 Chapter 6 on customizing the OE shell.
72 GNU make for OS/390, which is recommended for the build of perl (as
73 well as building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from the
76 Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
77 trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries. If you encounter such
78 trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
79 from source to eliminate any such trouble. You might also find GNU make
80 (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source Software
81 for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.
83 If instead of the recommended GNU make you would like to use the system
84 supplied make program then be sure to install the default rules file
85 properly via the shell command:
87 cp /samples/startup.mk /etc
89 and be sure to also set the environment variable _C89_CCMODE=1 (exporting
90 _C89_CCMODE=1 is also a good idea for users of GNU make).
92 You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before
93 running the `make install` step for Perl.
95 There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
96 that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9. The problem with
97 the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT constant
98 there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment like so:
100 #define SO_REUSEPORT 0x0200 /* allow local address & port
103 You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you might
104 note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the problem
105 and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and apply them.
106 If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an inability for Perl
107 to build its "Socket" extension.
109 For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
110 world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man chmod).
112 =head2 Configure Perl on OS/390
114 Once you've unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see INSTALL
115 for a full discussion of the Configure options). There is a "hints" file
116 for os390 that specifies the correct values for most things. Some things
117 to watch out for include:
123 A message of the form:
125 (I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
126 mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)
128 is nothing to worry about at all.
132 Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in /etc.
133 In particular be sure that you at least copy /samples/yyparse.c to /etc
134 before running Perl's Configure. This step ensures successful extraction
135 of EBCDIC versions of parser files such as perly.c, perly.h, and x2p/a2p.c.
136 This has to be done before running Configure the first time. If you failed
137 to do so then the easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to delete your
138 misconfigured build root and re-extract the source from the tar ball.
139 Then you must ensure that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in place before
140 attempting to re-run Configure.
144 This port will support dynamic loading, but it is not selected by
145 default. If you would like to experiment with dynamic loading then
146 be sure to specify -Dusedl in the arguments to the Configure script.
147 See the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on dynamic loading.
148 If you build with dynamic loading then you will need to add the
149 $archlibexp/CORE directory to your LIBPATH environment variable in order
150 for perl to work. See the config.sh file for the value of $archlibexp.
151 If in trying to use Perl you see an error message similar to:
153 CEE3501S The module libperl.dll was not found.
154 From entry point __dllstaticinit at compile unit offset +00000194 at
156 then your LIBPATH does not have the location of libperl.x and either
157 libperl.dll or libperl.so in it. Add that directory to your LIBPATH and
162 Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There is
163 a bug in either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to
164 not work correctly when the optimizer is on.
168 Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the
169 networking APIs are either missing or have the wrong
170 names. In particular, make sure that there's either
171 an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so that
172 gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file
173 /etc/proto has been renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT
174 /etc/protocols, as used by other Unix systems).
175 You may have to look for things like HOSTNAME and DOMAINORIGIN
176 in the "//'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'" PDS member in order to
177 properly set up your /etc networking files.
181 =head2 Build, Test, Install Perl on OS/390
189 if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis) then:
193 this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending
194 on how you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether
195 or not you have write access to the directories you specified.
197 =head2 Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
199 "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
200 by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
202 Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in your
203 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8 address space
204 limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS segment of a RACF
205 profile). People have reported successful builds of Perl with MAXASSIZE
206 parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be possible to build Perl
207 with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).
209 Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
210 settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
214 To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into the
215 Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
217 If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
218 Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
219 header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
221 =head2 Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
223 The `make test` step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
224 installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a successful
225 run of `make test`. Here is a guide to some of the more commonly seen
232 A message of the form:
234 comp/cpp.............ERROR CBC3191 ./.301989890.c:1 The character $ is not a
235 valid C source character.
236 FSUM3065 The COMPILE step ended with return code 12.
237 FSUM3017 Could not compile .301989890.c. Correct the errors and try again.
240 indicates that the t/comp/cpp.t test of Perl's -P command line switch has
241 passed but that the particular invocation of c89 -E in the cpp script does
242 not suppress the C compiler check of source code validity.
246 A message of the form:
248 io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
249 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
250 CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
253 indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done so
254 with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.
258 A message of the form:
260 lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe
261 (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
262 File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky bit not
263 set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
266 indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory within the HFS.
267 To correct that problem issue the command:
271 from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.
277 Recent perl test suite is quite memory hunrgy. In addition to the comments
278 above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for _CEE_RUNOPTS
279 in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c) a C #pragma
280 to set CEE run options, but the environment variable wins.
284 #pragma runopts(HEAP(2M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K) STACK(,,ANY,) ALL31(ON))
286 The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment) to HEAP,
287 and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If the heap
288 increment is too small then when perl (for example loading unicode/Name.pl) tries
289 to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot fit in a single segment
290 and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if there is still plenty of memory
293 A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses C<sbrk()>
294 to get memory, and C<sbrk()> is limited to the first allocation so in this
297 HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)
299 is needed to get through the test suite.
304 =head2 Installation Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
306 The installman script will try to run on OS/390. There will be fewer errors
307 if you have a roff utility installed. You can obtain GNU groff from the
308 Redbook SG24-5944-00 ftp site.
310 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on OS/390
312 When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
313 character sets are different. See perlebcdic.pod for more on such character
314 set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave differently under
315 EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.
317 Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
318 #!/path/to/perl script invocation. There is a PTF available from
319 IBM for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!. USS
320 releases prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation.
321 If you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:
323 head `whence perldoc`
325 for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
326 have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System Services.
328 If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching your
329 rlogin or telnet client. Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and ISHELL for
330 working with Perl on USS.
332 =head2 Floating Point Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
334 There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
335 systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
336 magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
337 that number and a large magnitude number. For example, in the following
341 my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
342 my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5; # '100000'
343 print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000
345 Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and equal
346 to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000 respectively.
348 The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:
362 printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
363 /* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
366 =head2 Modules and Extensions for Perl on OS/390
368 Pure pure (that is non xs) modules may be installed via the usual:
375 If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
376 be the way to build xs based extensions. However, if you built perl with
377 the default static linking you can still build xs based extensions for OS/390
378 but you will need to follow the instructions in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
379 building statically linked perl binaries. In the simplest configurations
380 building a static perl + xs extension boils down to:
387 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
389 In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
390 than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
393 If the make process encounters trouble with either compilation or
394 linking then try setting the _C89_CCMODE to 1. Assuming sh is your
395 login shell then run:
399 If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.
403 David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker
404 and William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.
405 Thanks to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.
406 Thanks to Ignasi Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.
407 Thanks to John Goodyear for dynamic loading help.
411 L<INSTALL>, L<perlport>, L<perlebcdic>, L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>.
413 http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html
415 http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg245944.html
417 http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc
419 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
421 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3030/
423 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/CBCUG030/
425 =head2 Mailing list for Perl on OS/390
427 If you are interested in the VM/ESA, z/OS (formerly known as OS/390)
428 and POSIX-BC (BS2000) ports of Perl then see the perl-mvs mailing list.
429 To subscribe, send an empty message to perl-mvs-subscribe@perl.org.
433 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl-mvs
435 There are web archives of the mailing list at:
437 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
438 http://archive.develooper.com/perl-mvs@perl.org/
442 This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
445 This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March 1999.
447 Updated 28 November 2001 for broken URLs.
449 Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
451 Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
453 Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.
455 Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.