Perl extensions are packages which provide both XS and Perl code
to add new functionality to perl. (XS is a meta-language which
simplifies writing C code which interacts with Perl, see
-L<perlapi> for more details.) The Perl code for an
+L<perlxs> for more details.) The Perl code for an
extension is treated like any other library module - it's
made available in your script through the appropriate
C<use> or C<require> statement, and usually defines a Perl
during the build process for the Perl extension.
By default, the shareable image for an extension is placed
-in the F<[.Lib.Auto.>I<Arch>.I<Extname>F<]> directory of the
+F<[.lib.site_perl.auto>I<Arch>.I<Extname>F<]> directory of the
installed Perl directory tree (where I<Arch> is F<VMS_VAX> or
-F<VMS_AXP>, followed by the Perl version number, and I<Extname>
-is the name of the extension, with each C<::> translated to C<.>).
+F<VMS_AXP>, and I<Extname> is the name of the extension, with
+each C<::> translated to C<.>). (See the MakeMaker documentation
+for more details on installation options for extensions.)
However, it can be manually placed in any of several locations:
- - the F<[.Lib.Auto.>I<Extname>F<]> subdirectory of one of
- the directories in C<@INC>, or
+ - the F<[.Lib.Auto.>I<Arch>I<$PVers>I<Extname>F<]> subdirectory
+ of one of the directories in C<@INC> (where I<PVers>
+ is the version of Perl you're using, as supplied in C<$]>,
+ with '.' converted to '_'), or
- one of the directories in C<@INC>, or
- a directory which the extensions Perl library module
passes to the DynaLoader when asking it to map
Perl for VMS supports redirection of input and output on the
command line, using a subset of Bourne shell syntax:
+
<F<file> reads stdin from F<file>,
>F<file> writes stdout to F<file>,
>>F<file> appends stdout to F<file>,
them in double-quotes on the command line, since the CRTL
downcases all unquoted strings.
+=over 4
+
=item -i
If the C<-i> switch is present but no extension for a backup
after the Perl program is compiled, but before it has
run. It does not create a core dump file.
+=back
+
=head1 Perl functions
As of the time this document was last revised, the following
Perl functions were implemented in the VMS port of Perl
(functions marked with * are discussed in more detail below):
- file tests*, abs, alarm, atan, binmode*, bless,
+ file tests*, abs, alarm, atan, backticks*, binmode*, bless,
caller, chdir, chmod, chown, chomp, chop, chr,
close, closedir, cos, crypt*, defined, delete,
die, do, dump*, each, endpwent, eof, eval, exec*,
last, lc, lcfirst, length, local, localtime, log, m//,
map, mkdir, my, next, no, oct, open, opendir, ord, pack,
pipe, pop, pos, print, printf, push, q//, qq//, qw//,
- qx//, quotemeta, rand, read, readdir, redo, ref, rename,
+ qx//*, quotemeta, rand, read, readdir, redo, ref, rename,
require, reset, return, reverse, rewinddir, rindex,
rmdir, s///, scalar, seek, seekdir, select(internal),
select (system call)*, setpwent, shift, sin, sleep,
getgrnam, setgrent, endgrent, ioctl, link, lstat,
msgctl, msgget, msgsend, msgrcv, readlink, semctl,
semget, semop, setpgrp, setpriority, shmctl, shmget,
- shmread, shmwrite, socketpair, symlink, syscall, truncate
+ shmread, shmwrite, socketpair, symlink, syscall
+
+The following functions are available on Perls compiled with Dec C 5.2 or
+greater and running VMS 7.0 or greater
+
+ truncate
The following functions may or may not be implemented,
depending on what type of socket support you've built into
getsockopt, listen, recv, select(system call)*,
send, setsockopt, shutdown, socket
+=over 4
=item File tests
your C compiler's F<stat.h>, in the mode value it returns, if you
need an approximation of the file's protections.
+=item backticks
+
+Backticks create a subprocess, and pass the enclosed string
+to it for execution as a DCL command. Since the subprocess is
+created directly via C<lib$spawn()>, any valid DCL command string
+may be specified.
+
=item binmode FILEHANDLE
The C<binmode> operator will attempt to insure that no translation
In most cases, C<kill> kill is implemented via the CRTL's C<kill()>
function, so it will behave according to that function's
documentation. If you send a SIGKILL, however, the $DELPRC system
-service is is called directly. This insures that the target
+service is called directly. This insures that the target
process is actually deleted, if at all possible. (The CRTL's C<kill()>
function is presently implemented via $FORCEX, which is ignored by
supervisor-mode images like DCL.)
Also, negative signal values don't do anything special under
VMS; they're just converted to the corresponding positive value.
+=item qx//
+
+See the entry on C<backticks> above.
+
=item select (system call)
If Perl was not built with socket support, the system call
of the empty string, C<system> spawns an interactive DCL subprocess,
in the same fashion as typiing B<SPAWN> at the DCL prompt.
Perl waits for the subprocess to complete before continuing
-execution in the current process.
+execution in the current process. As described in L<perlfunc>,
+the return value of C<system> is a fake "status" which follows
+POSIX semantics; see the description of C<$?> in this document
+for more detail. The actual VMS exit status of the subprocess
+is available in C<$^S> (as long as you haven't used another Perl
+function that resets C<$?> and C<$^S> in the meantime).
=item time
The FLAGS argument is ignored in all cases.
+=back
+
=head1 Perl variables
+The following VMS-specific information applies to the indicated
+"special" Perl variables, in addition to the general information
+in L<perlvar>. Where there is a conflict, this infrmation
+takes precedence.
+
+=over 4
+
=item %ENV
Reading the elements of the %ENV array returns the
Perl will print C<ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS>.
-The %ENV keys C<home>, C<path>,C<term>, and C<user>
-return the CRTL "environment variables" of the same
-names, if these logical names are not defined. The
-key C<default> returns the current default device
+The key C<default> returns the current default device
and directory specification, regardless of whether
-there is a logical name DEFAULT defined..
+there is a logical name DEFAULT defined. If you try to
+read an element of %ENV for which there is no corresponding
+logical name, and for which no corresponding CLI symbol
+exists (this is to identify "blocking" symbols only; to
+manipulate CLI symbols, see L<VMS::DCLSym>) then the key
+will be looked up in the CRTL-local environment array, and
+the corresponding value, if any returned. This lets you
+get at C-specific keys like C<home>, C<path>,C<term>, and
+C<user>, as well as other keys which may have been passed
+directly into the C-specific array if Perl was called from
+another C program using the version of execve() or execle()
+present in recent revisions of the DECCRTL.
Setting an element of %ENV defines a supervisor-mode logical
name in the process logical name table. C<Undef>ing or
logical name or a name in another logical name table will
replace the logical name just deleted. It is not possible
at present to define a search list logical name via %ENV.
+It is also not possible to delete an element from the
+C-local environ array.
+
+Note that if you want to pass on any elements of the
+C-local environ array to a subprocess which isn't
+started by fork/exec, or isn't running a C program, you
+can "promote" them to logical names in the current
+process, which will then be inherited by all subprocesses,
+by saying
+
+ foreach my $key (qw[C-local keys you want promoted]) {
+ my $temp = $ENV{$key}; # read from C-local array
+ $ENV{$key} = $temp; # and define as logical name
+ }
+
+(You can't just say C<$ENV{$key} = $ENV{$key}>, since the
+Perl optimizer is smart enough to elide the expression.)
At present, the first time you iterate over %ENV using
C<keys>, or C<values>, you will incur a time penalty as all
were entirely uppercase, regardless of the case actually
specified in the Perl expression.
-=item $?
-
-Since VMS status values are 32 bits wide, the value of C<$?>
-is simply the final status value of the last subprocess to
-complete. This differs from the behavior of C<$?> under Unix,
-and under VMS' POSIX environment, in that the low-order 8 bits
-of C<$?> do not specify whether the process terminated normally
-or due to a signal, and you do not need to shift C<$?> 8 bits
-to the right in order to find the process' exit status.
-
=item $!
The string value of C<$!> is that returned by the CRTL's
corresponding VMS message string, as retrieved by sys$getmsg().
Setting C<$^E> sets vaxc$errno to the value specified.
+=item $?
+
+The "status value" returned in C<$?> is synthesized from the
+actual exit status of the subprocess in a way that approximates
+POSIX wait(5) semantics, in order to allow Perl programs to
+portably test for successful completion of subprocesses. The
+low order 8 bits of C<$?> are always 0 under VMS, since the
+termination status of a process may or may not have been
+generated by an exception. The next 8 bits are derived from
+severity portion of the subprocess' exit status: if the
+severity was success or informational, these bits are all 0;
+otherwise, they contain the severity value shifted left one bit.
+As a result, C<$?> will always be zero if the subprocess' exit
+status indicated successful completion, and non-zero if a
+warning or error occurred. The actual VMS exit status may
+be found in C<$^S> (q.v.).
+
+=item $^S
+
+Under VMS, this is the 32-bit VMS status value returned by the
+last subprocess to complete. Unlink C<$?>, no manipulation
+is done to make this look like a POSIX wait(5) value, so it
+may be treated as a normal VMS status value.
+
=item $|
Setting C<$|> for an I/O stream causes data to be flushed
the underlying RMS buffers for a file). In other words,
it's equivalent to calling fflush() and fsync() from C.
+=back
+
+=head1 Standard modules with VMS-specific differences
+
+=head2 SDBM_File
+
+SDBM_File works peroperly on VMS. It has, however, one minor
+difference. The database directory file created has a L<.sdbm_dir>
+extension rather than a L<.dir> extension. L<.dir> files are VMS filesystem
+directory files, and using them for other purposes could cause unacceptable
+problems.
+
=head1 Revision date
-This document was last updated on 28-Feb-1996, for Perl 5,
-patchlevel 2.
+This document was last updated on 26-Feb-1998, for Perl 5,
+patchlevel 5.
=head1 AUTHOR
-Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu
+Charles Bailey bailey@cor.newman.upenn.edu
+Last revision by Dan Sugalski sugalskd@ous.edu
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