1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the equal signs on the left.
2 This file is written in the POD format (see [.POD]PERLPOD.POD;1) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 README.vms - Configuring, building, testing, and installing perl on VMS
11 To configure, build, test, and install perl on VMS:
18 mmk may be used in place of mms in the last three steps.
22 =head2 Important safety tip
24 The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004
25 releases! Make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build", "Building
26 Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before you build or
27 install. Also please note other changes in the current release by having
28 a look at L<perldelta/VMS>.
30 Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant
31 compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it
32 died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore
33 VAX C will not compile Perl 5.005 or later. We are sorry about that.
35 There have been no recent reports of builds using Gnu C, but latent
36 (and most likely outdated) support for it is still present in various
37 parts of the sources. Currently the HP (formerly Compaq, and even
38 more formerly DEC) C compiler is the only viable alternative for
41 There is minimal support for HP C++ but this support is not complete;
42 if you get it working please write to the vmsperl list (for info see
46 =head2 Introduction to Perl on VMS
48 The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port
49 (and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries
50 provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or
51 reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling
52 (e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you
53 might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and
54 sub-processes very differently.
56 There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we
57 could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
58 to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
60 There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
61 relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
64 =head2 Other required software for Compiling Perl on VMS
66 In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
72 HP (formerly Compaq, more formerly DEC) C for VMS (VAX, Alpha, or Itanium).
76 DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
77 analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
78 just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
79 anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
80 go ahead and use that.
84 =head2 Additional software that is optional for Perl on VMS
86 You may also want to have on hand:
90 =item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
92 A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
93 of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM
96 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
97 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
101 For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also
102 available from a number of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS
103 Freeware CD-ROM from HP.
105 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
107 Recent versions of VMS tar on ODS-5 volumes may extract tape archive
108 files with ^. escaped periods in them. See below for further workarounds.
110 A port of GNU tar is also available as part of the GNV package:
112 http://gnv.sourceforge.net/
114 =item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
116 A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
117 Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
119 http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html
120 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
121 ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms
122 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
123 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv
127 Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
128 TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
129 regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
130 library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
132 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
133 ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/narnia/
135 =item 5 GNU PATCH and DIFFUTILS for VMS
137 Patches to Perl are usually distributed as GNU unified or contextual diffs.
138 Such patches are created by the GNU diff program (part of the diffutils
139 distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are
142 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/
143 http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
147 Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
148 different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
149 Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz or *.tgz format (this includes copies
150 of the source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may
151 wish to add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and
152 VMSTAR.EXE on your VMS machine.
154 If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either
155 DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic
158 =head1 Unpacking the Perl source code
160 You may need to set up a foreign symbol for the unpacking utility of choice.
162 If you unpack a perl source kit with a name containing multiple periods on
163 an ODS-5 volume using recent versions of vmstar (e.g. V3.4 or later) you may
164 need to be especially careful in unpacking the tape archive file. Try to use
165 the ODS-2 compatability qualifiers such as:
167 vmstar /extract/verbose/ods2 perl-V^.VIII^.III.tar
171 vmstar -xvof perl-5^.8^.3.tar
173 If you neglected to use the /ODS2 qualifier or the -o switch then you
174 could rename the source directory:
176 set security/protection=(o:rwed) perl-5^.8^.3.dir
177 rename perl-5^.8^.3.dir perl-5_8_3.dir
179 Perl on VMS as of 5.8.3 does not completely handle extended file
180 parse styles such as are encountered on ODS-5. While it can be built,
181 installed, and run on ODS-5 filesystems; it may encounter
182 trouble with characters that are otherwise illegal on ODS-2
183 volumes (notably the ^. escaped period sequence).
185 =head1 Configuring the Perl build
187 To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
191 from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a
192 series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities
193 of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
194 built for your machine.
196 If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
197 which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
198 you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
200 If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
201 interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
202 will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
203 you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
204 then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
205 such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
206 SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table)
207 otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially
208 troublesome logicals and symbols are:
227 As a handy shortcut, the command:
231 (note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults
232 automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR
233 sockets, and either over no sockets). Some options can be given
234 explicitly on the command line; the following example specifies a
235 non-default location for where Perl will be installed:
237 @ Configure "-d" "-Dprefix=dka100:[utils.perl5.]"
239 Note that the installation location would be by default where you unpacked
240 the source with a "_ROOT." appended. For example if you unpacked the perl
243 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2...]
245 Then the PERL_SETUP.COM that gets written out by CONFIGURE.COM will
246 try to DEFINE your installation PERL_ROOT to be:
248 DKA200:[PERL-5_10_2_ROOT.]
250 More help with configure.com is available from:
254 See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn
255 even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important
256 configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding
257 then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting
258 fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections
261 =head2 Changing compile-time options (optional) for Perl on VMS
263 Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
264 configure.com, which processes the hints file config_h.SH. There is
265 code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that may end up being the
266 wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what you are doing since
267 inappropriate changes to configure.com or config_h.SH can render perl
268 unbuildable; odds are that there's nothing in there you'll need to
271 =head2 Socket Support (optional) for Perl on VMS
273 Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
274 you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an
275 optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available.
276 How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your
277 version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
279 The default solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC
280 C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
281 running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
282 Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
283 provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
284 if your version is new enough.
286 The other solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. Before VAX/VMS 5.5-2 it was
287 the most portable solution. The SOCKETSHR library has not been maintained
288 since VAX/VMS 5.5-2, and it is not known if will even compile with the ANSI
289 C that Perl currently requires. It remains an option for historical reasons,
290 just in case someone might find it useful.
292 In combination with either UCX or NetLib, this supported all the major TCP
293 stacks (Multinet, Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS
294 Perl ran on up to VAX/VMS 6.2 and Alpha VMS 1.5 with all the compilers on
295 both VAX and Alpha. The portion of the socket interface was also consistent
296 across versions of VMS and C compilers.
298 It has a problem with UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you
299 should be aware of that.
301 As of VAX/VMS 5.5-2 and later, CMU is the only TCP/IP program that requires
302 socketshr, and the sources have been lost to the most recent CMU bug fixes,
303 so CMU is limited to OpenVMS/VAX 6.2 or earlier, which is the last release
304 that binaries for the last released patches are known to exist.
306 There is currently no official web site for downloading either CMU or
307 SOCKETSHR; however, copies may be found in the DECUS archives.
311 The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
312 command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
315 Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should
316 compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the
317 "CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some
318 mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists"
319 section of this document.
323 Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work.
324 This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong
325 somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
327 Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
328 distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
329 compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
331 If the compile command was:
335 then the test command ought to be:
339 MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are
340 a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen.
341 At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and
342 failed, and the time taken will be displayed.
344 The test driver invoked via MMS TEST has a DCL wrapper ([.VMS]TEST.COM) that
345 downgrades privileges to NETMBX, TMPMBX for the duration of the test run,
346 and then restores them to their prior state upon completion of testing.
347 This is done to ensure that the tests run in a private sandbox and can do no
348 harm to your system even in the unlikely event something goes badly wrong in
349 one of the test scripts while running the tests from a privileged account.
350 A side effect of this safety precaution is that the account used to run the
351 test suite must be the owner of the directory tree in which Perl has been
352 built; otherwise the manipulations of temporary files and directories
353 attempted by some of the tests will fail.
355 If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite
356 hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
357 you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
358 don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
359 install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
360 confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
362 If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by
363 issuing this command sequence:
365 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
367 where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
368 didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
369 that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
370 that t/op/time failed, then you'd do this:
372 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
374 Note that test names are reported in UNIX syntax and relative to the
375 top-level build directory. When supplying them individually to the test
376 driver, you can use either UNIX or VMS syntax, but you must give the path
377 relative to the [.T] directory and you must also add the .T extension to the
378 filename. So, for example if the test lib/Math/Trig fails, you would run:
380 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" -"v" [-.lib.math]trig.t
382 When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
383 from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
387 Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
388 couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us
389 diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing
394 If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
398 You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:"
399 with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or
400 MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version
401 can be identified with "make --version".
403 =head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) installing Perl on VMS
405 If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
406 first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
407 to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
409 if the compile command was:
413 then the cleanup command ought to be:
417 If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent
418 rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it.
420 =head1 Installing Perl
422 There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
429 Check your default file protections with
431 SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT
433 and adjust if necessary with SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT.
437 Decide where you want Perl to be installed (unless you have already done so
438 by using the "prefix" configuration parameter -- see the example in the
439 "Configuring the Perl build" section).
441 The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM will help you
442 with the definition of the PERL_ROOT and PERLSHR logical names and the PERL
443 foreign command symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you
444 want to. The installation process will execute PERL_SETUP.COM and copy
445 files to the directory tree pointed to by the PERL_ROOT logical name defined
446 there, so make sure that you have write access to the parent directory of
447 what will become the root of your Perl installation.
451 Run the install script via:
459 If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
460 throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
464 Copy PERL_SETUP.COM to a place accessible to your perl users.
468 COPY PERL_SETUP.COM SYS$LIBRARY:
470 If you want to have everyone on the system have access to perl
471 then add a line that reads
473 $ @sys$library:perl_setup
475 to SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM.
477 Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into
478 DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES
479 (optional)" for more information), or put the image in a
480 directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher).
482 An alternative to having PERL_SETUP.COM define the PERLSHR logical name
483 is to simply copy it into the system shareable library directory with:
485 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:
487 See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section.
489 =head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional) on VMS
491 Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
492 You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe.
496 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
499 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
502 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
503 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
504 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
507 =head2 INSTALLing Perl images (optional) on VMS
509 On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
510 minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
511 a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 3000 blocks
512 and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
515 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
516 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER
518 should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
519 while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
521 If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for
522 them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
523 DCLsym, and Stdio, and other extensions all have shared images that can be
526 How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing
527 off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
528 it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl.
530 While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
531 to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
533 =head2 Running h2ph to create perl header files (optional) on VMS
535 If using HP C, ensure that you have extracted loose versions of your
536 compiler's header or *.H files. Be sure to check the contents of:
538 SYS$LIBRARY:DECC$RTLDEF.TLB
539 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB
540 SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$STARLET_C.TLB
544 If using GNU cc then also check your GNU_CC:[000000...] tree for the locations
545 of the GNU cc headers.
547 =head1 Reporting Bugs
549 If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
550 it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
551 the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
552 installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
557 Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
558 switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
561 The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
562 five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
563 too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for ODS 2 volumes which were
564 common on versions of VMS prior to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX).
567 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
568 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000]
570 before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep
571 (note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules
572 from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's
573 configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on
574 a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not
575 warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
577 As noted above ODS-5 escape sequences such as ^. can break the perl
578 build. Solutions include renaming files and directories as needed or
579 being careful to use the -o switch or /ODS2 qualifier with latter
580 versions of the vmstar utility when unpacking perl or CPAN modules
583 Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
584 than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
585 defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before
586 running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM
587 procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require
588 system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as
589 the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have:
591 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000"
593 A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed
594 build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
597 =head2 DEC C issues with Perl on VMS
599 Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
600 C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
601 contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
607 Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
608 This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
609 work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
610 then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
611 fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
615 The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
616 INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
617 these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
621 On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
622 changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
623 though the call specified that the change should not persist after
624 Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
627 http://ftp.support.compaq.com/patches/.new/openvms.shtml
631 Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
634 =head2 GNU issues with Perl on VMS
636 It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
637 were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
638 of source code modification to work again.
640 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
641 http://www.progis.de/
642 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
644 =head2 Floating Point Considerations
646 Prior to 5.8.0, Perl simply accepted the default floating point options of the
647 C compiler, namely representing doubles with D_FLOAT on VAX and G_FLOAT on
648 Alpha. Single precision floating point values are represented in F_FLOAT
649 format when either D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT is in use for doubles. Beginning with
650 5.8.0, Alpha builds now use IEEE floating point formats by default, which in
651 VMS parlance are S_FLOAT for singles and T_FLOAT for doubles. IEEE is not
652 available on VAX, so F_FLOAT and D_FLOAT remain the defaults for singles and
653 doubles respectively. The available non-default options are G_FLOAT on VAX
654 and D_FLOAT or G_FLOAT on Alpha.
656 The use of IEEE on Alpha introduces NaN, infinity, and denormalization
657 capabilities not available with D_FLOAT and G_FLOAT. When using one of those
658 non-IEEE formats, silent underflow and overflow are emulated in the conversion
659 of strings to numbers, but it is preferable to get the real thing by using
662 Regardless of what floating point format you consider preferable, be aware
663 that the choice may have an impact on compatibility with external libraries,
664 such as database interfaces, and with existing data, such as data created with
665 the C<pack> function and written to disk, or data stored via the Storable
666 extension. For example, a C<pack("d", $foo)")> will create a D_FLOAT,
667 G_FLOAT, or T_FLOAT depending on what your Perl was configured with. When
668 written to disk, the value can only be retrieved later by a Perl configured
669 with the same floating point option that was in effect when it was created.
671 To obtain a non-IEEE build on Alpha, simply answer no to the "Use IEEE math?"
672 question during the configuration. To obtain an option different from the C
673 compiler default on either VAX or Alpha, put in the option that you want in
674 answer to the "Any additional cc flags?" question. For example, to obtain a
675 G_FLOAT build on VAX, put in C</FLOAT=G_FLOAT>.
677 =head2 Multinet issues with Perl on VMS
679 Prior to the release of Perl 5.8.0 it was noted that the regression
680 test for lib/Net/hostent (in file [.lib.Net]hostent.t) will fail owing
681 to problems with the hostent structure returned by C calls to either
682 gethostbyname() or gethostbyaddr() using DEC or Compaq C with a
683 Multinet TCP/IP stack. The problem was noted in Multinet 4.3A
684 using either Compaq C 6.5 or DEC C 6.0, and with Multinet 4.2A
685 using DEC C 5.2, but could easily affect other versions of Multinet.
686 Process Software Inc. has acknowledged a bug in the Multinet version
687 of UCX$IPC_SHR and has provided an ECO for it. The ECO is called
688 UCX_LIBRARY_EMULATION-010_A044 and is available from:
690 http://www.multinet.process.com/eco.html
692 As of this writing, the ECO is only available for Multinet versions
693 4.3A and later. You may determine the version of Multinet that you
694 are running using the command:
696 multinet show /version
698 from the DCL command prompt.
700 If the ECO is unavailable for your version of Multinet and you are
701 unable to upgrade, you might try using Perl programming constructs
704 $address = substr($gethostbyname_addr,0,4);
706 to temporarily work around the problem, or if you are brave
707 and do not mind the possibility of breaking IPv6 addresses,
708 you might modify the pp_sys.c file to add an ad-hoc correction
712 --- pp_sys.c;1 Thu May 30 14:42:17 2002
713 +++ pp_sys.c Thu May 30 12:54:02 2002
714 @@ -4684,6 +4684,10 @@
719 + hent->h_length = 4;
722 if (GIMME != G_ARRAY) {
723 PUSHs(sv = sv_newmortal());
726 then re-compile and re-test your perl. After the installation
727 of the Multinet ECO you ought to back out any such changes though.
731 There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
732 specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
733 there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12
734 messages a week) mailing list.
736 To subscribe, send a mail message to VMSPERL-SUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. The VMSPERL
737 mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there gets echoed
738 to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of the list
741 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
743 To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send a message to VMSPERL-UNSUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG.
744 Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that you are canceling.
746 =head2 Web sites for Perl on VMS
748 Vmsperl pages on the web include:
750 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
751 http://www.crinoid.com/
752 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
753 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
754 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
755 http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/
756 http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
757 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=vmsperl
758 http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/
759 http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html
763 Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
764 available from the [.VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
765 For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
766 of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
770 Revised 10-October-2001 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
771 Revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
772 Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com.
773 Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
774 Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
776 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
778 A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
779 bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
780 running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
783 There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
784 of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
785 missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
787 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk
788 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
789 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk
790 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
791 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com
792 for the getredirection() code
793 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com
794 for readdir() and related routines
795 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com
796 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
797 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
798 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
799 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
800 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
801 of information about VMS Perl,
802 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
803 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
804 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
805 John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu
806 for VAX VMS V7.2 support
808 and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
809 addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
810 willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
811 gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which
812 have made our sleepless nights possible.