README.solaris

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=head1 NAME

README.solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes various features of Sun's Solaris operating system
that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just perl) is
compiled and/or runs.  Some issues relating to the older SunOS 4.x are
also discussed, though they may be out of date.

For the most part, everything should just work.

Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is supplied with the
operating system, so you might not even need to build a newer version
of perl at all.  The Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5
with a link to /usr/bin/perl.  Do not disturb that installation unless
you really know what you are doing.  If you remove the perl supplied
with the OS, there is a good chance you will render some bits of your
system inoperable.  If you wish to install a newer version of perl,
install it under a different prefix from /usr/perl5.  Common prefixes
to use are /usr/local and /opt/perl.

=head2 Solaris Version Numbers.

For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure script performs
some minor manipulations on the operating system name and version
number as reported by uname.  Here's a partial translation table:

             Sun:                      perl's Configure:
    uname    uname -r   Name           osname     osvers
    SunOS    4.1.3     SunOS 4.1.3     sunos      4.1.3
    SunOS    5.6       Solaris 2.6     solaris    2.6
    SunOS    5.8       Solaris 8       solaris    2.8

=head1 RESOURCES

There are many, many source for Solaris information.  A few of the
important ones for perl:

=over 4

=item Solaris FAQ

The Solaris FAQ is available at
L<http://www.science.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>.

=item Precompiled Binaries

Precompiled binaries, links to many sites, and much, much more is
available at L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>.

=item Solaris Documentation

All Solaris documentation is available on-line at L<http://docs.sun.com>.

=back

=head1 SETTING UP

=head2 File Extraction Problems.

Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris (not SunOS 4.x)
to extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file.  Do not use GNU tar compiled
for SunOS4 on Solaris.  (GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.)
When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system magically
alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that when tar tries to create
lib/locale.pm, a file named lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead.
If you ignore this advice and use a a SunOS4-compiled tar anyway, you
must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back to lib/locale.pm.

=head2 Compiler and Related Tools.

You must use an ANSI C compiler to build perl.  Perl can be compiled
with either Sun's add-on C compiler or with gcc.  The C compiler that
shipped with SunOS4 will not do.

=head3 Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your PATH.

Several tools needed to build perl are located in /usr/ccs/bin/:  ar,
as, ld, and make.  Make sure that /usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH.

You need to make sure the following packages are installed
(this info is extracted from the Solaris FAQ):

for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as): SUNWbtool,
SUNWsprot, SUNWtoo

for libraries & headers: SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms, SUNWdfbh,
SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc

for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux,
SUNWsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx

=head3 Avoid /usr/ucb/cc.

You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH to build perl.  If you
want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/cc is NOT
in your PATH before the real C compiler.

=head3 Sun's C Compiler

If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct directory
(usually /opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH before /usr/ucb/.

=head3 GCC

If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
complete.  As a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine with
gcc-2.8.1 on both Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8.  You'll be able to
Configure perl with

        sh Configure -Dcc=gcc

If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update
your GCC.  For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is
installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make
sure you have the appropriate directory sparc-sun-solaris2.6/.  If gcc's
directory is for a different version of Solaris than you are running,
then you will need to rebuild gcc for your new version of Solaris.

You can get a precompiled version of gcc from
L<http://www.sunfreeware.com/>.

=head3 GNU as and GNU ld

The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work fine for building
perl.  There is normally no need to install the GNU versions.

If you decide to ignore this advice and use the GNU versions anyway,
then be sure that they are relatively recent.  Versions newer than 2.7
are apparently new enough.  Older versions may have trouble with
dynamic loading.

If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and ld but you want to use the
Solaris ones instead to build perl, then you'll need to add
-B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc command line.  One convenient way to do
that is with

        sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'

Note that the trailing slash is required.  This will result in some
harmless error messages as Configure is run:

        gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used

These messages may safely be ignored.
(Note that for a SunOS4 system, you must use -B/bin/ instead.)

Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable to
ensure that Sun's as and ld are used.  Consult your gcc documentation
for further information on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.

=head3 GNU make

Sun's make works fine for building perl.
If you wish to use GNU make anyway, be sure that the set-group-id bit is not
set.  If it is, then arrange your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is
before GNU make or else have the system administrator disable the
set-group-id bit on GNU make.

=head3 Avoid libucb.

Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in /usr/ucblib/libucb.a.
Perl will not build and run correctly if linked against -lucb since it
contains routines that are incompatible with the standard Solaris libc.
Normally this is not a problem since the solaris hints file prevents
Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib for libraries, and also
explicitly omits -lucb.

=head2 Environment

=head3 PATH

Make sure your PATH includes the compiler (/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're
using Sun's compiler) as well as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other
development tools (such as make, ar, as, and ld).  Make sure your path
either doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the
compiler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris directories.
You definitely don't want /usr/ucb/cc.

=head3 LD_LIBRARY_PATH

If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, be sure that
it does NOT include /lib or /usr/lib.  If you will be building
extensions that call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB)
then make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes
the directory with that library (e.g. /usr/local/lib).

If you get an error message

        dlopen: stub interception failed

it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle.  The file
libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub
interception failed' errors!  The runtime linker intercepts links to
"/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementations of those
functions instead.  [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]

=head1 RUN CONFIGURE.

See the INSTALL file for general information regarding Configure.
Only Solaris-specific issues are discussed here.  Usually, the
defaults should be fine.

=head2 64-bit Issues.

See the INSTALL file for general information regarding 64-bit compiles.
In general, the defaults should be fine for most people.

By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a 32-bit application
with largefile and long-long support.

=head3 General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues.

Solaris 2.7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit mode, via a reboot.
You can build 64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit mode and vice-versa.
32 bit apps will run under Solaris running in either 32 or 64 bit mode.
64 bit apps require Solaris to be running 64 bit mode

Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32, i.e. Longs and
Pointers are 32 bit.  64-bit apps are more properly known as LP64.
The discriminating feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to utilise a
64-bit address space.  It is perfectly possible to have a LP32 bit app
that supports both 64-bit integers (long long) and largefiles (> 2Gb),
and this is the default for perl-5.6.0.

For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see the Solaris 64-bit
Developer's Guide at http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/

You can detect the OS mode using "isainfo -v", e.g.

      fubar$ isainfo -v   # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode
      64-bit sparcv9 applications
      32-bit sparc applications

By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application.  Unless you
want to allocate more than ~ 4Gb of memory inside Perl, you probably
don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app.

=head3 Large File Suppprt

For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different ways for 32-bit
applications to manipulate large files (files whose size is > 2Gbyte).
(A 64-bit application automatically has largefile support built in
by default.)

First is the "transitional compilation environment", described in
lfcompile64(5).  According to the man page,

    The transitional compilation  environment  exports  all  the
    explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to
    all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx()  and
    xxx64()  functions  are  available to the program source.  A
    32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in  order
    to  access  large  files.  See the lf64(5) manual page for a
    complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces.

The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the
following compiler and linker flags:

    getconf LFS64_CFLAGS        -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
    getconf LFS64_LDFLAG        # nothing special needed
    getconf LFS64_LIBS          # nothing special needed

Second is the "large file compilation environment", described in
lfcompile(5).  According to the man page,

    Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities
    to  access  large  files maps to a xxx64() call in the
    resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to  be
    of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition
    for a 64-bit entity).

    An application compiled in this environment is able  to  use
    the  xxx()  source interfaces to access both large and small
    files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the  transitional
    xxx64()  interface  calls to access large files.

Two exceptions are fseek() and ftell().  32-bit applications should
use fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C).  These will get automatically mapped
to fseeko64() and ftello64().

The large file compilation environment is obtained with

        getconf LFS_CFLAGS      -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
        getconf LFS_LDFLAGS     # nothing special needed
        getconf LFS_LIBS        # nothing special needed

By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and
relies on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces.

=head3 Building an LP64 Perl

To compile a 64-bit application with a recent Sun Compiler, you need to
use the flag "-xarch=v9".  getconf(1) will tell you this, e.g.

      fubar$ getconf -a | grep v9
      XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS:         -xarch=v9
      XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS:        -xarch=v9
      XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
      XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS:       -xarch=v9
      XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
      XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS:    -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS:        -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS:       -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS:     -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS:     -xarch=v9
      _XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS:   -xarch=v9

This flag is supported in Sun WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards when
used on Solaris 2.7 onwards.

If you are using gcc, you need to use -mcpu=v9 -m64 instead.  This
option is not supported in the installation of gcc-2.8.1 that I have
at hand, but is supported in more recent versions.  [XXX -- any
precise citations?]

All this should be handled automatically by the hints file, if
requested.

If you do want to be able to allocate more than 4Gb memory inside
perl, then you should use the Solaris malloc, since the perl
malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2Gb of memory.  You can do
this with

        sh Configure -Uusemymalloc

=head3 Long Doubles.

As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not working.

=head2 Threads.

It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on Solaris.  The entire
perl thread implementation is still experimental, however, so beware.
Perl uses the sched_yield(3RT) function.  In versions of Solaris up
to 2.6, that function is in -lposix4.  Starting with Solaris 7, it is
in -lrt.  The hints file should handle adding this automatically.

=head2 Malloc Issues.

You should not use perl's malloc if you are building with gcc.  There
are reports of core dumps, especially in the PDL module.  The problem
appears to go away under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to
track down.  Sun's compiler appears to be ok with or without perl's
malloc. [XXX further investigation is needed here.]

You should also not use perl's malloc if you are building perl as
an LP64 application, since perl's malloc has trouble allocating more
than 2Gb of memory.

You can avoid perl's malloc by Configuring with

        sh Configure -Uusemymalloc

=head1 MAKE PROBLEMS.

=over 4

=item Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as and GNU ld

If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, see the section
L<"GNU as and GNU ld"> above.

=item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:

If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
L<"GNU as and GNU ld">.

=item dlopen: stub interception failed

The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).  See
L<"LD_LIBRARY_PATH"> above.

=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"

This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1.  The Solaris header files
changed, so you need to update your gcc installation.  You can either
rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
update your gcc installation.

=item sh: ar: not found

This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
was not found.  You need to check your PATH environment variable to
make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command.  This
is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin/
directory.

=back

=head1 MAKE TEST

=head2 op/stat.t test 4

op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some sort.
Building in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior.  The
test suite detects if you are building in /tmp, but it may not be able
to catch all tmpfs situations.

=head1 PREBUILT BINARIES.

You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from
L<http://www.sunfreeware.com>, ActiveState L<http://www.activestate.com>,
and L<http://www.perl.com> under the Binaries list at the top of the page.
There are probably other sources as well.  Please note that these sites
are under the control of their respective owners, not the perl developers.

=head1 RUNTIME ISSUES.

=head2 Limits on Numbers of Open Files.

The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be opened using
fopen(), and only file descriptors 0 through 255 can be used in a
stream.  Since perl calls open() and then fdopen(3C) with the
resulting file descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open
files.

=head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES.

See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on CPAN,
L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Solaris/>.

=head1 SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES.

=head2 Proc::ProcessTable

Proc::ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with perl5.6.0 and higher
if you have LARGEFILES defined.  Since largefile support is the
default in 5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this
module.

The problem is that various structures visible via procfs use off_t,
and if you compile with largefile support these change from 32 bits to
64 bits.  Thus what you get back from procfs doesn't match up with
the structures in perl, resulting in garbage.  See proc(4) for further
discussion.

A fix for Proc::ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to
explicitly remove the largefile flags from the ones MakeMaker picks up
from Config.pm.  This will result in Proc::ProcessTable being built
under the correct environment.  Everyting should then be OK as long as
Proc::ProcessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the rest of perl,
or if it does they should be explicitly specified as off64_t.

=head2 BSD::Resource

BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile on Solaris
with perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons as Proc::ProcessTable.
BSD::Resource versions starting from 1.09 have a workaround for the problem.

=head1 AUTHOR

The original was written by Andy Dougherty F<doughera@lafayette.edu>
drawing heavily on advice from Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce,
and many other Solaris users over the years.

Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.

=head1 LAST MODIFIED

$Id: README.solaris,v 1.3 2000/11/09 19:11:27 doughera Exp $