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
29 Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant
30 compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it
31 died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore
32 VAX C will not compile perl 5.005. We are sorry about that.
34 If you are stuck without DEC C (the VAX C license should be good for DEC C,
35 but the media charges might prohibit an upgrade), consider getting Gnu C
41 The VMS port of Perl is as functionally complete as any other Perl port
42 (and as complete as the ports on some Unix systems). The Perl binaries
43 provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or
44 reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling
45 (e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you
46 might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and
47 sub-processes very differently.
49 There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we
50 could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like
51 to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now!
53 The current sources and build procedures have been tested on a VAX using
54 DEC C, and on an AXP using DEC C. If you run into problems with
55 other compilers, please let us know.
57 There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a
58 relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this
61 =head2 Other required software
63 In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things:
69 DEC C or gcc for VMS (AXP or VAX).
73 DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS
74 analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work
75 just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since
76 anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so
77 go ahead and use that.
81 =head2 Additional software that is optional
83 You may also want to have on hand:
87 =item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS
89 A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number
92 http://www.fsf.org/order/ftp.html
93 ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/systems/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
94 ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/diffutils*.tar.gz
95 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/diffutils*.tar.gz
96 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/GZIP/
97 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
101 For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also
102 available from a number of web/ftp sites.
105 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/VMSTAR/
106 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
108 =item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS
110 A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.
111 Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites.
113 http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html
114 http://www.openvms.digital.com/cd/INFO-ZIP/
115 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/
116 ftp://ftp.openvms.digital.com/
117 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/
118 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/
122 Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike
123 TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports
124 regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang
125 library on VMS. Most and slang are available from:
127 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/
128 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/narnia/most.zip
132 Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with
133 different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive
134 Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz format (this includes copies of the
135 source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may wish to
136 add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and VMSTAR.EXE on
139 If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either
140 DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic
143 =head1 Configuring the Perl build
145 To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
149 from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a
150 series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities
151 of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom
152 built for your machine.
154 If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of
155 which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if
156 you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section.
158 If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may
159 interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com
160 will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing
161 you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to
162 then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table
163 such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the
164 SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table)
165 otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially
166 troublesome logicals and symbols are:
175 As a handy shortcut, the command:
179 (note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults
180 automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR
181 sockets, and either over no sockets). More help with configure.com is
186 See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn
187 even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important
188 configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding
189 then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting
190 fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections
193 =head2 Changing compile-time options (optional)
195 Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in
196 [.VMS]CONFIG.VMS. There is code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that
197 may end up being the wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what
198 you are doing since inappropriate changes to CONFIG.VMS can render perl
201 Odds are that there's nothing here to change, unless you're on a version of
202 VMS later than 6.2 and DEC C later than 5.6. Even if you are, the correct
203 values will still be chosen, most likely. Poking around here should be
206 The one exception is the various *DIR install locations. Changing those
207 requires changes in genconfig.pl as well. Be really careful if you need to
208 change these, as they can cause some fairly subtle problems.
210 =head2 Socket Support (optional)
212 Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if
213 you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an
214 optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available.
215 How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your
216 version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler.
218 The most portable solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. In combination with
219 either UCX or NetLib, this supports all the major TCP stacks (Multinet,
220 Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS Perl runs on, with
221 all the compilers on both VAX and Alpha. The socket interface is also
222 consistent across versions of VMS and C compilers. It has a problem with
223 UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you should be aware of
226 The other solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC
227 C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're
228 running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor.
229 Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all
230 provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see
231 if your version is new enough.
235 The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK
236 command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start
239 Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should
240 compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the
241 "CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some
242 mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists"
243 section of this document.
247 Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work.
248 This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong
249 somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you.
251 Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl
252 distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to
253 compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this:
255 If the compile command was:
259 then the test command ought to be:
263 MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are
264 a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen.
265 At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and
266 failed, and the time taken will be displayed.
268 If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite
269 hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if
270 you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so
271 don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't
272 install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how
273 confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list.
275 If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by
276 issuing this command sequence:
278 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T
280 where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you
281 didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test
282 that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated
283 that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this:
285 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T
287 When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output
288 from this command, which is run from the main source directory:
292 Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a
293 couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us
294 diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing
299 If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of:
303 You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:"
304 with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or
305 MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version
306 can be identified with "make --version".
308 =head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional)
310 If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up
311 first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used
312 to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this:
314 if the compile command was:
318 then the cleanup command ought to be:
322 If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent
323 rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it.
325 =head1 Installing Perl
327 There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and
330 1) Create a directory somewhere and define the concealed logical PERL_ROOT
331 to point to it. For example,
333 CREATE/DIRECTORY dka200:[perl]
334 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERL_ROOT dka200:[perl.]
336 2) Run the install script via:
344 If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date,
345 throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command.
347 The DCL script [.VMS]PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM
348 will take care of most of the following:
350 3) Either create the global foreign symbol PERL somewhere, such as
351 SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM, to be
353 $ PERL :== "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL.EXE"
355 or install Perl into DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl
356 into DCLTABLES (optional)" for more information), or put the image in a
357 directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher).
359 4) Either define the logical name PERLSHR somewhere
360 (such as in PERL_SETUP.COM) like so
362 $ DEFINE/NOLOG PERLSHR PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERLSHR.EXE
364 or copy the file into the system shareable library directory with
366 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share:
368 5) Optionally define the command PERLDOC as
370 $ PERLDOC == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]PERLDOC.COM -t"
372 (See above for where to find the B<most> pager for use with perldoc).
374 6) Optionally define the command PERLBUG (the Perl bug report generator) as
376 $ PERLBUG == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL PERL_ROOT:[LIB]PERLBUG.COM"
378 7) Optionally define the command POD2MAN (Converts POD files to nroff
379 source suitable for converting to man pages. Also quiets complaints during
382 $ DEFINE/NOLOG POD2MAN PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2MAN.COM
383 $ POD2MAN == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2MAN"
385 8) Optionally define the command POD2TEXT (Converts POD files to text,
386 which is required for B<perldoc -f> to work properly) as
388 $ DEFINE/NOLOG POD2TEXT PERL_ROOT:[LIB.POD]POD2TEXT.COM
389 $ POD2TEXT == "$PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL POD2TEXT"
391 In all these cases, if you've got PERL defined as a foreign command symbol,
392 you can replace $PERL_ROOT:[000000]PERL with ''perl'. If you have installed
393 perl into DCLTABLES, replace it with just perl.
395 =head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional)
397 Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command.
398 You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe.
402 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe
405 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe
408 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe -
409 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
410 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe
413 =head2 INSTALLing images (optional)
415 On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with
416 minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as
417 a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 2000 blocks
418 and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is
421 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE
422 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER
424 should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open),
425 while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image).
427 If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for
428 them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File,
429 DCLsym, and Stdio all have shared images that can be installed /SHARE.
431 How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing
432 off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so)
433 it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl.
435 While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised
436 to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs!
438 =head1 Reporting Bugs
440 If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report
441 it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through
442 the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your
443 installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to
448 Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong
449 switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com
452 The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four,
453 five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be
454 too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for versions of VMS prior
455 to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX). It is best to do
457 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]"
458 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000]
460 before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep
461 (note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules
462 from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's
463 configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on
464 a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not
465 warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
467 Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
468 than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
469 defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before
470 running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM
471 procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require
472 system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as
473 the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have:
475 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000"
477 A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed
478 build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean"
483 Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC
484 C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL
485 contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance:
491 Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together.
492 This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can
493 work around this by having one process write data to a file, and
494 then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is
495 fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
499 The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above
500 INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in
501 these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C.
505 On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine
506 changes the process default device and directory permanently, even
507 though the call specified that the change should not persist after
508 Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later.
511 http://ftp.service.digital.com/patches/.new/openvms.html
515 Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as
520 It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make
521 were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal
522 of source code modification to work again.
524 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC
525 http://www.progis.de/
527 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html
531 There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS
532 specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems)
533 there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12
534 messages a week) mailing list.
536 The subscription address is MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Send a mail message with
537 just the words SUBSCRIBE VMSPERL in the body of the message.
539 The VMSPERL mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there
540 gets echoed to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of
541 the list on the web at:
543 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
545 To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send the message UNSUBSCRIBE VMSPERL to
546 MAJORDOMO@PERL.ORG. Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that
551 Vmsperl pages on the web include:
553 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html
554 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx
555 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/
556 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/
557 http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/htbin/software_list.cgi
558 http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/
559 http://bkfug.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html
563 Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is
564 available from the [.VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>.
565 For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion
566 of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed.
570 Last revised 13-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com.
571 Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craig.berry@metamorgs.com.
572 Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org.
573 Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu.
575 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
577 A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey
578 bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004
579 running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at
582 There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing
583 of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've
584 missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following:
586 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk
587 for the VMS emulations of getpw*()
588 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk
589 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code,
590 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com
591 for the getredirection() code
592 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com
593 for readdir() and related routines
594 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com
595 for extensive testing, as well as development work on
596 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl,
597 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
598 for extensive contributions to recent version support,
599 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination
600 of information about VMS Perl,
601 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the
602 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for
603 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP,
605 and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In
606 addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and
607 willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of
608 gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which
609 have made our sleepless nights possible.