1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3 specifically designed to be readable as is.
7 README.solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems
11 This document describes various features of Sun's Solaris operating system
12 that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just perl) is
13 compiled and/or runs. Some issues relating to the older SunOS 4.x are
14 also discussed, though they may be out of date.
16 For the most part, everything should just work.
18 Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is supplied with the
19 operating system, so you might not even need to build a newer version
20 of perl at all. The Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5
21 with a link to /usr/bin/perl. Do not disturb that installation unless
22 you really know what you are doing. If you remove the perl supplied
23 with the OS, there is a good chance you will render some bits of your
24 system inoperable. If you wish to install a newer version of perl,
25 install it under a different prefix from /usr/perl5. Common prefixes
26 to use are /usr/local and /opt/perl.
28 =head2 Solaris Version Numbers.
30 For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure script performs
31 some minor manipulations on the operating system name and version
32 number as reported by uname. Here's a partial translation table:
34 Sun: perl's Configure:
35 uname uname -r Name osname osvers
36 SunOS 4.1.3 SunOS 4.1.3 sunos 4.1.3
37 SunOS 5.6 Solaris 2.6 solaris 2.6
38 SunOS 5.8 Solaris 8 solaris 2.8
42 There are many, many source for Solaris information. A few of the
43 important ones for perl:
49 The Solaris FAQ is available at
50 L<http://www.science.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>.
52 =item Precompiled Binaries
54 Precompiled binaries, links to many sites, and much, much more is
55 available at L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>.
57 =item Solaris Documentation
59 All Solaris documentation is available on-line at L<http://docs.sun.com>.
65 =head2 File Extraction Problems.
67 Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris (not SunOS 4.x)
68 to extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file. Do not use GNU tar compiled
69 for SunOS4 on Solaris. (GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.)
70 When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system magically
71 alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that when tar tries to create
72 lib/locale.pm, a file named lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead.
73 If you ignore this advice and use a a SunOS4-compiled tar anyway, you
74 must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back to lib/locale.pm.
76 =head2 Compiler and Related Tools.
78 You must use an ANSI C compiler to build perl. Perl can be compiled
79 with either Sun's add-on C compiler or with gcc. The C compiler that
80 shipped with SunOS4 will not do.
82 =head3 Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your PATH.
84 Several tools needed to build perl are located in /usr/ccs/bin/: ar,
85 as, ld, and make. Make sure that /usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH.
87 You need to make sure the following packages are installed
88 (this info is extracted from the Solaris FAQ):
90 for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as): SUNWbtool,
93 for libraries & headers: SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms, SUNWdfbh,
94 SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc
96 for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux,
97 SUNWsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx
99 =head3 Avoid /usr/ucb/cc.
101 You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH to build perl. If you
102 want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/cc is NOT
103 in your PATH before the real C compiler.
105 =head3 Sun's C Compiler
107 If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct directory
108 (usually /opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH before /usr/ucb/.
112 If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
113 complete. As a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine with
114 gcc-2.8.1 on both Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8. You'll be able to
117 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
119 If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update
120 your GCC. For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is
121 installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make
122 sure you have the appropriate directory sparc-sun-solaris2.6/. If gcc's
123 directory is for a different version of Solaris than you are running,
124 then you will need to rebuild gcc for your new version of Solaris.
126 You can get a precompiled version of gcc from
127 L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>.
129 =head3 GNU as and GNU ld
131 The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work fine for building
132 perl. There is normally no need to install the GNU versions.
134 If you decide to ignore this advice and use the GNU versions anyway,
135 then be sure that they are relatively recent. Versions newer than 2.7
136 are apparently new enough. Older versions may have trouble with
139 If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and ld but you want to use the
140 Solaris ones instead to build perl, then you'll need to add
141 -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc command line. One convenient way to do
144 sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
146 Note that the trailing slash is required. This will result in some
147 harmless error messages as Configure is run:
149 gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used
151 These messages may safely be ignored.
152 (Note that for a SunOS4 system, you must use -B/bin/ instead.)
154 Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable to
155 ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult your gcc documentation
156 for further information on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
160 Sun's make works fine for building perl.
161 If you wish to use GNU make anyway, be sure that the set-group-id bit is not
162 set. If it is, then arrange your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is
163 before GNU make or else have the system administrator disable the
164 set-group-id bit on GNU make.
168 Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in /usr/ucblib/libucb.a.
169 Perl will not build and run correctly if linked against -lucb since it
170 contains routines that are incompatible with the standard Solaris libc.
171 Normally this is not a problem since the solaris hints file prevents
172 Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib for libraries, and also
173 explicitly omits -lucb.
179 Make sure your PATH includes the compiler (/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're
180 using Sun's compiler) as well as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other
181 development tools (such as make, ar, as, and ld). Make sure your path
182 either doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the
183 compiler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris directories.
184 You definitely don't want /usr/ucb/cc.
186 =head3 LD_LIBRARY_PATH
188 If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, be sure that
189 it does NOT include /lib or /usr/lib. If you will be building
190 extensions that call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB)
191 then make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes
192 the directory with that library (e.g. /usr/local/lib).
194 If you get an error message
196 dlopen: stub interception failed
198 it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
199 includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
200 The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file
201 libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub
202 interception failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
203 "/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementations of those
204 functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
206 =head1 RUN CONFIGURE.
208 See the INSTALL file for general information regarding Configure.
209 Only Solaris-specific issues are discussed here. Usually, the
210 defaults should be fine.
212 =head2 64-bit Issues.
214 See the INSTALL file for general information regarding 64-bit compiles.
215 In general, the defaults should be fine for most people.
217 By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a 32-bit application
218 with largefile and long-long support.
220 =head3 General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues.
222 Solaris 2.7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit mode, via a reboot.
223 You can build 64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit mode and vice-versa.
224 32 bit apps will run under Solaris running in either 32 or 64 bit mode.
225 64 bit apps require Solaris to be running 64 bit mode
227 Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32, i.e. Longs and
228 Pointers are 32 bit. 64-bit apps are more properly known as LP64.
229 The discriminating feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to utilise a
230 64-bit address space. It is perfectly possible to have a LP32 bit app
231 that supports both 64-bit integers (long long) and largefiles (> 2Gb),
232 and this is the default for perl-5.6.0.
234 For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see the Solaris 64-bit
235 Developer's Guide at http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/
237 You can detect the OS mode using "isainfo -v", e.g.
239 fubar$ isainfo -v # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode
240 64-bit sparcv9 applications
241 32-bit sparc applications
243 By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application. Unless you
244 want to allocate more than ~ 4Gb of memory inside Perl, you probably
245 don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app.
247 =head3 Large File Suppprt
249 For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different ways for 32-bit
250 applications to manipulate large files (files whose size is > 2Gbyte).
251 (A 64-bit application automatically has largefile support built in
254 First is the "transitional compilation environment", described in
255 lfcompile64(5). According to the man page,
257 The transitional compilation environment exports all the
258 explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to
259 all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx() and
260 xxx64() functions are available to the program source. A
261 32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in order
262 to access large files. See the lf64(5) manual page for a
263 complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces.
265 The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the
266 following compiler and linker flags:
268 getconf LFS64_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
269 getconf LFS64_LDFLAG # nothing special needed
270 getconf LFS64_LIBS # nothing special needed
272 Second is the "large file compilation environment", described in
273 lfcompile(5). According to the man page,
275 Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities
276 to access large files maps to a xxx64() call in the
277 resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to be
278 of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition
279 for a 64-bit entity).
281 An application compiled in this environment is able to use
282 the xxx() source interfaces to access both large and small
283 files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the transitional
284 xxx64() interface calls to access large files.
286 Two exceptions are fseek() and ftell(). 32-bit applications should
287 use fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C). These will get automatically mapped
288 to fseeko64() and ftello64().
290 The large file compilation environment is obtained with
292 getconf LFS_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
293 getconf LFS_LDFLAGS # nothing special needed
294 getconf LFS_LIBS # nothing special needed
296 By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and
297 relies on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces.
299 =head3 Building an LP64 Perl
301 To compile a 64-bit application with a recent Sun Compiler, you need to
302 use the flag "-xarch=v9". getconf(1) will tell you this, e.g.
304 fubar$ getconf -a | grep v9
305 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
306 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
307 XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
308 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
309 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
310 XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
311 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
312 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
313 _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
314 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
315 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
316 _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
318 This flag is supported in Sun WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards when
319 used on Solaris 2.7 onwards.
321 If you are using gcc, you need to use -mcpu=v9 -m64 instead. This
322 option is not supported in the installation of gcc-2.8.1 that I have
323 at hand, but is supported in more recent versions. [XXX -- any
326 All this should be handled automatically by the hints file, if
329 If you do want to be able to allocate more than 4Gb memory inside
330 perl, then you should use the Solaris malloc, since the perl
331 malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2Gb of memory. You can do
334 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
338 As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not working.
342 It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on Solaris. The entire
343 perl thread implementation is still experimental, however, so beware.
344 Perl uses the sched_yield(3RT) function. In versions of Solaris up
345 to 2.6, that function is in -lposix4. Starting with Solaris 7, it is
346 in -lrt. The hints file should handle adding this automatically.
348 =head2 Malloc Issues.
350 You should not use perl's malloc if you are building with gcc. There
351 are reports of core dumps, especially in the PDL module. The problem
352 appears to go away under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to
353 track down. Sun's compiler appears to be ok with or without perl's
354 malloc. [XXX further investigation is needed here.]
356 You should also not use perl's malloc if you are building perl as
357 an LP64 application, since perl's malloc has trouble allocating more
360 You can avoid perl's malloc by Configuring with
362 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
364 =head1 MAKE PROBLEMS.
368 =item Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as and GNU ld
370 If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
371 Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, see the section
372 L<"GNU as and GNU ld"> above.
374 =item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
376 If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
377 it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
378 L<"GNU as and GNU ld">.
380 =item dlopen: stub interception failed
382 The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
383 that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
384 which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). See
385 L<"LD_LIBRARY_PATH"> above.
387 =item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
389 This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
390 gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
391 changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
392 rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
393 update your gcc installation.
395 =item sh: ar: not found
397 This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
398 was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
399 make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
400 is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin/
407 =head2 op/stat.t test 4
409 op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some sort.
410 Building in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior. The
411 test suite detects if you are building in /tmp, but it may not be able
412 to catch all tmpfs situations.
414 =head1 PREBUILT BINARIES.
416 You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from
417 L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>, ActiveState L<http://www.activestate.com>,
418 and L<http://www.perl.com> under the Binaries list at the top of the page.
419 There are probably other sources as well. Please note that these sites
420 are under the control of their respective owners, not the perl developers.
422 =head1 RUNTIME ISSUES.
424 =head2 Limits on Numbers of Open Files.
426 The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be opened using
427 fopen(), and only file descriptors 0 through 255 can be used in a
428 stream. Since perl calls open() and then fdopen(3C) with the
429 resulting file descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open
432 =head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES.
434 See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on CPAN,
435 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Solaris/>.
437 =head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES.
439 =head2 Proc::ProcessTable
441 Proc::ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with perl5.6.0 and higher
442 if you have LARGEFILES defined. Since largefile support is the
443 default in 5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this
446 The problem is that various structures visible via procfs use off_t,
447 and if you compile with largefile support these change from 32 bits to
448 64 bits. Thus what you get back from procfs doesn't match up with
449 the structures in perl, resulting in garbage. See proc(4) for further
452 A fix for Proc::ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to
453 explicitly remove the largefile flags from the ones MakeMaker picks up
454 from Config.pm. This will result in Proc::ProcessTable being built
455 under the correct environment. Everyting should then be OK as long as
456 Proc::ProcessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the rest of perl,
457 or if it does they should be explicitly specified as off64_t.
461 BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile on Solaris
462 with perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons as Proc::ProcessTable.
463 BSD::Resource versions starting from 1.09 have a workaround for the problem.
467 The original was written by Andy Dougherty F<doughera@lafayette.edu>
468 drawing heavily on advice from Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce,
469 and many other Solaris users over the years.
471 Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.
475 $Id: README.solaris,v 1.3 2000/11/09 19:11:27 doughera Exp $