Perl/iX for HP 3000 MPE http://www.cccd.edu/~markb/perlix.html Perl language for MPE Last updated July 8, 1998 @ 2030 UTC ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's New * July 8, 1998 o Updated to version 5.004_70 (internal developer release) which is now MPE-ready. The next public freeware release of Perl should compile "straight out of the box" on MPE. Note that this version of Perl/iX was strictly internal to me and never publicly released. * November 6, 1997 o Updated to version 5.004_04. No changes in MPE-specific functionality. * October 16, 1997 o Added Demos section to the Perl/iX home page so you can see some sample Perl applications running on my 3000. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome This is the official home page for the HP 3000 MPE port of the Perl scripting language which gives you all of the power of C, awk, sed, and sh in a single language. Check here for the latest news, implemented functionality, known bugs, to-do list, etc. Status reports about major milestones will also be posted to the HP3000-L mailing list and its associated gatewayed newsgroup comp.sys.hp.mpe. I'm doing this port because I can't live without Perl on the HPUX machines that I administer for the Coast Community College District, and I want to have the same power available to me on MPE. Please send your comments, questions, and bug reports directly to me, Mark Bixby, by e-mailing to markb@cccd.edu. Or just post them to HP3000-L. You can also telephone me at +1 714 438-4647 Monday-Friday 0815-1745 PDT (1615-0145 UTC). The platform I'm using to do this port is an HP 3000 969KS200 running MPE/iX 5.5 and using the gcc 2.8 compiler from http://www.interex.org/sources/freeware.html. The combined porting wisdom from all of my ports can be found in my MPE/iX Porting Guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ System Requirements * MPE/iX 5.5 or later. This version of Perl/iX does NOT run on MPE/iX 5.0 or earlier, nor does it run on "classic" MPE/V machines. * The Perl binary requires that you must have converted your NMRL libraries in /lib/lib*.a and /usr/lib/lib*.a to NMXL libraries /lib/lib*.sl and /usr/lib/lib*.sl via the LIBSHP3K script that comes with the GNUCORE portion of the FREEWARE tape. * If you wish to recompile Perl, you must install both GNUCORE and GNUGCC from the FREEWARE tape. * Perl/iX will be happier if you install the MPEKX76A additional POSIX filename characters patch, but this is optional. * If you will be compiling Perl/iX yourself, you will also need the /BIND/PUB/include and /BIND/PUB/lib portions of BIND/iX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Demos Here is a brief selection of some sample Perl/iX uses: * A web feedback CGI form that lets a web browser user enter some data and send e-mail to the person responsible for reading the feedback comments. The CGI is written in Perl and requires Sendmail/iX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to Obtain Perl/iX 1. Download Perl using either FTP.ARPA.SYS or some other client 2. Extract the installation script 3. Edit the installation script 4. Run the installation script Download Perl using FTP.ARPA.SYS from your HP 3000 (the preferred method)..... :HELLO MANAGER.SYS :XEQ FTP.ARPA.SYS open ftp.cccd.edu anonymous your@email.address bytestream cd /pub/mpe get perl5.004_70.tar.Z /tmp/perl.tar.Z exit .....Or download using some other generic web or ftp client (the alternate method) Download the following files (make sure that you use "binary mode" or whatever client feature that is 8-bit clean): * Perl from http://www.cccd.edu/ftp/pub/mpe/perl5.004_70.tar.Z or ftp://ftp.cccd.edu/pub/mpe/perl5.004_70.tar.Z Upload those files to your HP 3000 in an 8-bit clean bytestream manner to: * /tmp/perl.tar.Z Then extract the installation script (after both download methods) :CHDIR /tmp :XEQ TAR.HPBIN.SYS 'xvfopz /tmp/perl.tar.Z INSTALL' Edit the installation script Examine the accounting structure creation commands and modify if necessary (adding additional capabilities, choosing a non-system volume set, etc). :XEQ VI.HPBIN.SYS /tmp/INSTALL Run the installation script The accounting structure will be created and then all files will be extracted from the archive. :XEQ SH.HPBIN.SYS /tmp/INSTALL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Distribution Contents Highlights README The file you're reading now. INSTALL Perl/iX Installation script. PERL Perl NMPRG executable. A version-numbered backup copy also exists. You might wish to "ln -s /PERL/PUB/PERL /usr/local/bin/perl". lib/ Perl libraries, both core and add-on. man/ Perl man page documentation. public_html/feedback.cgi Sample feedback CGI form written in Perl. src/perl5.004_70 Source code. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to Compile Perl/iX 1. cd src/perl5.004_70 2. Read the INSTALL file for the official instructions 3. ./Configure 4. make 5. ./mpeix/relink 6. make test (expect 31 out of 5899 subtests to fail, mostly due to MPE not supporting hard links and handling exit() return codes improperly) 7. make install 8. Optionally create symbolic links that point to the Perl executable, i.e. ln -s /usr/local/bin/perl /PERL/PUB/PERL The summary test results from "cd t; ./perl -I../lib harness": Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- io/fs.t 26 8 30.77% 2-5, 7-9, 11 io/pipe.t 12 2 16.67% 11-12 lib/posix.t 18 1 5.56% 12 op/die_exit.t 16 16 100.00% 1-16 op/exec.t 8 2 25.00% 5-6 op/stat.t 58 2 3.45% 3, 35 Failed 6/183 test scripts, 96.72% okay. 31/5899 subtests failed, 99.47% okay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Getting Started with Perl/iX Create your Perl script files with "#!/PERL/PUB/PERL" (or an equivalent symbolic link) as the first line. Use the chmod command to make sure that your script has execute permission. Run your script! If you want to use Perl to write web server CGI scripts, obtain and install CGI.pm. Build CGI.pm and all other add-on modules below /PERL/PUB/src/. Be sure to take a look at the CPAN module list. A wide variety of free Perl software is available. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MPE/iX Implementation Considerations There some minor functionality issues to be aware of when comparing Perl for Unix (Perl/UX) to Perl/iX: * MPE gcc/ld doesn't properly support linking NMPRG executables against NMXL dynamic libraries, so you must manually run mpeix/relink after each re-build of Perl. * Perl/iX File::Copy will use MPE's /bin/cp command to copy files by name in order to preserve file attributes like file code. * MPE (and thus Perl/iX) lacks support for setgrent(), endgrent(), setpwent(), endpwent(). * MPE (and thus Perl/iX) lacks support for hard links. * MPE requires GETPRIVMODE() in order to bind() to ports less than 1024. Perl/iX will call GETPRIVMODE() automatically on your behalf if you attempt to bind() to these low-numbered ports. Note that the Perl/iX executable and the PERL account do not normally have CAP=PM, so if you will be bind()-ing to these privileged ports, you will manually need to add PM capability as appropriate. * MPE requires that you bind() to an IP address of zero. Perl/iX automatically replaces the IP address that you pass to bind() with a zero. * If you use Perl/iX fcntl() against a socket it will fail, because MPE requires that you use sfcntl() instead. Perl/iX does not presently support sfcntl(). * MPE requires GETPRIVMODE() in order to setuid(). There are too many calls to setuid() within Perl/iX, so I have not attempted an automatic GETPRIVMODE() solution similar to bind(). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Known Bugs Under Investigation * None ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To-Do List * Make setuid()/setgid() support work. * Make sure that fcntl() against a socket descriptor is redirected to sfcntl(). * Add support for Berkeley DB once I've finished porting Berkeley DB. * Write an MPE XS extension library containing miscellaneous important MPE functions like GETPRIVMODE(), GETUSERMODE(), and sfcntl(). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Change History * October 3, 1997 o Added System Requirements section to the Perl/iX home page just so the prerequisites stand out more. Various other home page tweaks. * October 2, 1997 o Initial public release. * September 1997 o Porting begins. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Bixby, markb@cccd.edu