1 Last revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry <craig.berry@metamor.com>
2 Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org>
3 Originally by Charles Bailey <bailey@newman.upenn.edu>
7 The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004
8 releases! Make sure you read the "Building Perl" and "Installing Perl"
9 sections of this document before you build or install.
11 Also note that, as of 5.005, an ANSI C compliant compiler is required to
12 build Perl. Vax C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it died a natural death some
13 time before the standard was set. Therefore Vax C will not compile perl
14 5.005. Sorry about that.
16 If you're stuck without Dec C (the Vax C license should be good for Dec C,
17 but the media charges might prohibit an upgrade), consider getting Gnu C
22 The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port
23 (and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries
24 provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or
25 reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilites in process handling
26 (e.g the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you
27 might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and
28 sub-processes very differently.
30 There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of coursse we
31 could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
32 to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
34 The current sources and build procedures have been tested on a VAX using
35 Dec C, and on an AXP using Dec C. If you run into problems with
36 other compilers, please let us know.
38 There are issues with varions versions of Dec C, so if you're not running a
39 relatively modern version, check the Dec C issues section later on in this
42 * Other required software
44 In addition to VMS, you'll need:
45 1) A C compiler. Dec C or gcc for AXP or the VAX.
46 2) A make tool. Dec's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
47 analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
48 just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
49 anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK's free, though, so
50 go ahead and use that.
52 You may also want to have on hand:
53 1) UNZIP.EXE for VMS available from a number of web/ftp sites.
54 http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html
55 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/INFO-ZIP/
56 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
57 ftp://ftp.openvms.digital.com/
58 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
59 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/
60 2) GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS available from a number of web/ftp sites.
61 http://www.fsf.org/order/ftp.html
62 ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/systems/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
63 ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/diffutils*.tar.gz
64 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
65 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/GZIP/
66 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
67 3) VMS TAR also available from a number of web/ftp sites.
69 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/VMSTAR/
70 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
71 Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
72 different formats). Most of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
73 Perl Archive Network) are in .tar.gz format (this includes copies of the
74 source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may wish to
75 add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and VMSTAR.EXE on
78 If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP stack and either
79 Dec C, or socket libraries. See the Socket Support topic for more details.
83 Building perl has two steps, configuration and compilation.
85 To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
89 from the top of an unpacked perl directory. You'll be asked a series of
90 questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities of your C
91 compiler and network stack) will determine how perl's built.
93 If you've got multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
94 which one to use. Various older versions of Dec C had some gotchas, so if
95 you're using a version older than 5.2, check the Dec C Issues section.
97 The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
98 command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
99 the build. If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment
100 that may interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then
101 configure.com will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
102 you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
103 then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
104 such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
105 SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch) otherwise simply deasign
106 the dangerous logical names. The potentially troublesome logicals and
116 Once you issue your MMS command, sit back and wait. Perl should build and
117 link without a problem. If it doesn't, check the Gotchas to watch out for
118 section. If that doesn't help, send some mail to the VMSPERL mailing list.
119 Instructions are in the Mailing Lists section.
121 As a handy shortcut, the command:
125 (note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults. (It
126 takes Dec C over Gnu C, Dec C sockets over SOCKETSHR sockets, and either
131 Once Perl has built cleanly, you need to test it to make sure things work.
132 This step is very important--there are always things that can go wrong
133 somehow and get you a dysfunctional Perl.
135 Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
136 distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
137 compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
147 MMS will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are a lot of
148 tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen. At the end
149 of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and failed, and
150 the time taken will be displayed.
152 If any tests fail, it means something's wrong with Perl. If the test suite
153 hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
154 you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
155 don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
156 install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
157 confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
159 If one or more tests fail, you can get more info on the failure by issuing
160 this command sequence:
162 $ @[.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
164 where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
165 didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
166 that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
167 that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this:
169 $ @[.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
171 When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
172 from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
176 Note that "-V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
177 couple of screens worth of config info, and can help us diagnose the problem.
178 If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
182 * Cleaning up and starting fresh
184 If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
185 first. There's a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
186 compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
196 If you don't do this, things may behave erratically. They might not, too,
197 so it's best to be sure and do it.
201 There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
204 1) Create a directory somewhere and define the concealed logical PERL_ROOT
205 to point to it. For example, DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERL_ROOT dka200:[perl.]
207 2) Run the install script via:
215 If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
216 throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
218 The script [.VMS]PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM
219 will take care of most of the following:
221 3) Either define the symbol PERL somewhere, such as
222 SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM, to be "PERL :== $PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL.EXE", or
223 install Perl into DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl
224 into DCLTABLES" for more info), or put the image in a directory that's in
225 your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS 6.2 or higher).
227 4) Either define the logical name PERLSHR somewhere
228 (such as in PERL_SETUP.COM) like so:
229 DEFINE/NOLOG PERLSHR PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERLSHR.EXE
230 or copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:.
232 5) Optionally define the command PERLDOC as
233 PERLDOC == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]PERLDOC.COM -t"
234 Note that if you wish to use most as a pager please see
235 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/ for both most and slang (or perhaps
236 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/narnia/most.zip ).
238 6) Optionally define the command PERLBUG (the Perl bug report generator) as
239 PERLBUG == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB]PERLBUG.COM"
241 7) Optionally define the command POD2MAN (Converts POD files to nroff
242 source suitable for converting to man pages. Also quiets complaints during
245 DEFINE/NOLOG POD2MAN PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2MAN.COM
246 POD2MAN == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2MAN"
248 8) Optionally define the command POD2TEXT (Converts POD files to text,
249 which is required for perldoc -f to work properly) as
251 DEFINE/NOLOG POD2TEXT PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2TEXT.COM
252 POD2TEXT == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2TEXT"
254 In all these cases, if you've got PERL defined as a foreign command, you
255 can replace $PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL with ''perl'. If you've installed perl
256 into DCLTABLES, replace it with just perl.
258 * Installing Perl into DCLTABLES
260 Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
261 You'll need CMKRNL priv to install the new dcltables.exe.
265 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
268 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
271 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
272 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
273 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
276 * Changing compile-time things
278 Most of the user-definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
279 [.VMS]CONFIG.VMS. There's code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that may
280 end up being the wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what you're
281 doing, since changes here can get you a busted perl.
283 Odds are that there's nothing here to change, unless you're on a version of
284 VMS later than 6.2 and Dec C later than 5.6. Even if you are, the correct
285 values will still be chosen, most likely. Poking around here should be
288 The one exception is the various *DIR install locations. Changing those
289 requires changes in genconfig.pl as well. Be really careful if you need to
290 change these, as they can cause some fairly subtle problems.
294 On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
295 minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
296 a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 2000 blocks
297 and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
300 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
302 should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
303 while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
305 If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there's an executable for
306 them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
307 DCLsym, and Stdio all have shared images that can be installed /SHARE.
309 How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you're firing
310 off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
313 While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
314 to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
316 * Extra things in the Perl distribution
318 In addition to the standard stuff that gets installed, there are two
319 optional extensions, DCLSYM and STDIO, that are handy. Instructions for
320 these two modules are in [.VMS.EXT.DCLSYM] and [.VMS.EXT.STDIO],
321 respectively. They are built automatically for versions of perl >= 5.005.
325 Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
326 you choose to compile Perl with socket support (see the section Compiling
327 Perl for more info on selecting a socket stack). Since IP networking is an
328 optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks
329 available. How well integrated they are into the system depends on the
330 stack, your version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
332 The most portable solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. In combination with
333 either UCX or NetLib, this supports all the major TCP stacks (Multinet,
334 Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS Perl runs on, with
335 all the compilers on both VAX and Alpha. The socket interface is also
336 consistent across versions of VMS and C compilers. It has a problem with
337 UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you should be aware of
340 The other solution available is to use the socket routines built into Dec
341 C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
342 running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
343 Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
344 provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
345 if your version is new enough.
349 If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
350 it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
351 the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
352 installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
355 * Gotchas to watch out for
357 Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
358 switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure script
361 The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four
362 and five levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be too deep to
363 start to hit the RMS 8 level point. It's best to do a
364 $DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]" (note the
365 trailing period) and $SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000] before building. Perl
366 modules can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. The
367 configuration script will warn if it thinks you're too deep (at least on
368 versions of VMS prior to 7.2).
370 Finally, the third thing that bites people is leftover pieces from a failed
371 build. If things go wrong, make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
376 Note to DECC users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're Dec
377 C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
378 contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
379 - Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
380 This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
381 work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
382 then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
383 fixed in version 4 of DECC.
384 - The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
385 INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
386 these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DECC.
387 - On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
388 changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
389 though the call specified that the change should not persist after
390 Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch AXPACRT04_061.
394 There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
395 specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
396 there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It's usually a low-volume (10-12
397 messages a week) mailing list.
399 The subscription address is MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Send a mail message with just
400 the words SUBSCRIBE VMSPERL in the body of the message.
402 The VMSPERL mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there
403 gets echoed to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of
404 the list at <http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/>.
406 To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send the message UNSUBSCRIBE VMSPERL to
407 MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that
412 A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
413 <bailey@newman.upenn.edu>, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
414 running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
417 There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
418 of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
419 missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
420 Tim Adye <T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk>
421 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
422 David Denholm <denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk>
423 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
424 Mark Pizzolato <mark@infocomm.com>
425 for the getredirection() code
426 Rich Salz <rsalz@bbn.com>
427 for readdir() and related routines
428 Peter Prymmer <pvhp@forte.com>
429 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
430 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
431 Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org>
432 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
433 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
434 of information about VMS Perl,
435 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
436 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
437 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
438 and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
439 addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
440 willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
441 gratitude is due to Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, for having the ideas which
442 have made our sleepless nights possible.