1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the equal signs on the left. 2This file is written in the POD format (see [.POD]PERLPOD.POD;1) which is 3specially designed to be readable as is. 4 5=head1 NAME 6 7README.vms - Configuring, building, testing, and installing perl on VMS 8 9=head1 SYNOPSIS 10 11To configure, build, test, and install perl on VMS: 12 13 @ Configure 14 mms 15 mms test 16 mms install 17 18mmk may be used in place of mms in the last three steps. 19 20=head1 DESCRIPTION 21 22=head2 Important safety tip 23 24The build and install procedures have changed significantly from the 5.004 25releases! Make sure you read the "Configuring the Perl Build", "Building 26Perl", and "Installing Perl" sections of this document before you build or 27install. 28 29Also note that, as of Perl version 5.005 and later, an ANSI C compliant 30compiler is required to build Perl. VAX C is *not* ANSI compliant, as it 31died a natural death some time before the standard was set. Therefore 32VAX C will not compile Perl 5.005 or later. We are sorry about that. 33 34If you are stuck without DEC C (the VAX C license should be good for DEC C, 35but the media charges might prohibit an upgrade), consider getting Gnu C 36instead. 37 38 39=head2 Introduction 40 41The 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 43provide all the Perl system calls that are either available under VMS or 44reasonably emulated. There are some incompatibilities in process handling 45(e.g. the fork/exec model for creating subprocesses doesn't do what you 46might expect under Unix), mainly because VMS and Unix handle processes and 47sub-processes very differently. 48 49There are still some unimplemented system functions, and of course we 50could use modules implementing useful VMS system services, so if you'd like 51to lend a hand we'd love to have you. Join the Perl Porting Team Now! 52 53The current sources and build procedures have been tested on a VAX using 54DEC C, and on an AXP using DEC C. If you run into problems with 55other compilers, please let us know. (Note: DEC C was renamed to Compaq C 56around version 6.2). 57 58There are issues with various versions of DEC C, so if you're not running a 59relatively modern version, check the "DEC C issues" section later on in this 60document. 61 62=head2 Other required software 63 64In addition to VMS and DCL you will need two things: 65 66=over 4 67 68=item 1 A C compiler. 69 70DEC (now Compaq) C or gcc for VMS (AXP or VAX). 71 72=item 2 A make tool. 73 74DEC's MMS (v2.6 or later), or MadGoat's free MMS 75analog MMK (available from ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat) both work 76just fine. Gnu Make might work, but it's been so long since 77anyone's tested it that we're not sure. MMK is free though, so 78go ahead and use that. 79 80=back 81 82=head2 Additional software that is optional 83 84You may also want to have on hand: 85 86=over 4 87 88=item 1 GUNZIP/GZIP.EXE for VMS 89 90A de-compressor for *.gz and *.tgz files available from a number 91of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM 92from Compaq. 93 94 http://www.fsf.org/order/ftp.html 95 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/GZIP/ 96 ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/VMS/ 97 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/ 98 99=item 2 VMS TAR 100 101For reading and writing unix tape archives (*.tar files). Vmstar is also 102available from a number of web/ftp sites and is distributed on the OpenVMS 103Freeware CD-ROM from Compaq. 104 105 ftp://ftp.lp.se/vms/ 106 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/VMSTAR/ 107 ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/VMS/ 108 109=item 3 UNZIP.EXE for VMS 110 111A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files. 112Unzip is available from a number of web/ftp sites. 113 114 http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/UnZip.html 115 http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/INFO-ZIP/ 116 ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/VMS/ 117 ftp://ftp.openvms.compaq.com/ 118 ftp://ftp.madgoat.com/madgoat/ 119 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/ 120 121=item 4 MOST 122 123Most is an optional pager that is convenient to use with perldoc (unlike 124TYPE/PAGE, MOST can go forward and backwards in a document and supports 125regular expression searching). Most builds with the slang 126library on VMS. Most and slang are available from: 127 128 ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/ 129 ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/narnia/most.zip 130 131=item 5 GNU PATCH and DIFFUTILS for VMS 132 133Patches to Perl are usually distributed as GNU unified or contextual diffs. 134Such patches are created by the GNU diff program (part of the diffutils 135distribution) and applied with GNU patch. VMS ports of these utilities are 136available here: 137 138 http://www.crinoid.com/utils/ 139 140=back 141 142Please note that UNZIP and GUNZIP are not the same thing (they work with 143different formats). Many of the useful files from CPAN (the Comprehensive 144Perl Archive Network) are in *.tar.gz or *.tgz format (this includes copies 145of the source code for perl as well as modules and scripts that you may 146wish to add later) hence you probably want to have GUNZIP.EXE and 147VMSTAR.EXE on your VMS machine. 148 149If you want to include socket support, you'll need a TCP/IP stack and either 150DEC C, or socket libraries. See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic 151for more details. 152 153=head1 Configuring the Perl build 154 155To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command 156 157 @ Configure 158 159from the top of an unpacked perl source directory. You will be asked a 160series of questions, and the answers to them (along with the capabilities 161of your C compiler and network stack) will determine how perl is custom 162built for your machine. 163 164If you have multiple C compilers installed, you'll have your choice of 165which one to use. Various older versions of DEC C had some caveats, so if 166you're using a version older than 5.2, check the "DEC C Issues" section. 167 168If you have any symbols or logical names in your environment that may 169interfere with the build or regression testing of perl then configure.com 170will try to warn you about them. If a logical name is causing 171you trouble but is in an LNM table that you do not have write access to 172then try defining your own to a harmless equivalence string in a table 173such that it is resolved before the other (e.g. if TMP is defined in the 174SYSTEM table then try DEFINE TMP "NL:" or somesuch in your process table) 175otherwise simply deassign the dangerous logical names. The potentially 176troublesome logicals and symbols are: 177 178 TMP "LOGICAL" 179 LIB "LOGICAL" 180 T "LOGICAL" 181 FOO "LOGICAL" 182 EXT "LOGICAL" 183 TEST "SYMBOL" 184 185As a handy shortcut, the command: 186 187 @ Configure "-des" 188 189(note the quotation marks and case) will choose reasonable defaults 190automatically (it takes DEC C over Gnu C, DEC C sockets over SOCKETSHR 191sockets, and either over no sockets). Some options can be given 192explicitly on the command line; the following example specifies a 193non-default location for where Perl will be installed: 194 195 @ Configure "-d" "-Dprefix=dka100:[utils.perl5.]" 196 197More help with configure.com is available from: 198 199 @ Configure "-h" 200 201See the "Changing compile-time options (optional)" section below to learn 202even more details about how to influence the outcome of the important 203configuration step. If you find yourself reconfiguring and rebuilding 204then be sure to also follow the advice in the "Cleaning up and starting 205fresh (optional)" and the checklist of items in the "CAVEATS" sections 206below. 207 208=head2 Changing compile-time options (optional) 209 210Most of the user definable features of Perl are enabled or disabled in 211[.VMS]CONFIG.VMS. There is code in there to Do The Right Thing, but that 212may end up being the wrong thing for you. Make sure you understand what 213you are doing since inappropriate changes to CONFIG.VMS can render perl 214unbuildable. 215 216Odds are that there's nothing here to change, unless you're on a version of 217VMS later than 6.2 and DEC C later than 5.6. Even if you are, the correct 218values will still be chosen, most likely. Poking around here should be 219unnecessary. 220 221The one exception is the various *DIR install locations. Changing those 222requires changes in genconfig.pl as well. Be really careful if you need to 223change these, as they can cause some fairly subtle problems. 224 225=head2 Socket Support (optional) 226 227Perl includes a number of functions for IP sockets, which are available if 228you choose to compile Perl with socket support. Since IP networking is an 229optional addition to VMS, there are several different IP stacks available. 230How well integrated they are into the system depends on the stack, your 231version of VMS, and the version of your C compiler. 232 233The most portable solution uses the SOCKETSHR library. In combination with 234either UCX or NetLib, this supports all the major TCP stacks (Multinet, 235Pathways, TCPWare, UCX, and CMU) on all versions of VMS Perl runs on, with 236all the compilers on both VAX and Alpha. The socket interface is also 237consistent across versions of VMS and C compilers. It has a problem with 238UDP sockets when used with Multinet, though, so you should be aware of 239that. 240 241The other solution available is to use the socket routines built into DEC 242C. Which routines are available depend on the version of VMS you're 243running, and require proper UCX emulation by your TCP/IP vendor. 244Relatively current versions of Multinet, TCPWare, Pathway, and UCX all 245provide the required libraries--check your manuals or release notes to see 246if your version is new enough. 247 248=head1 Building Perl 249 250The configuration script will print out, at the very end, the MMS or MMK 251command you need to compile perl. Issue it (exactly as printed) to start 252the build. 253 254Once you issue your MMS or MMK command, sit back and wait. Perl should 255compile and link without a problem. If a problem does occur check the 256"CAVEATS" section of this document. If that does not help send some 257mail to the VMSPERL mailing list. Instructions are in the "Mailing Lists" 258section of this document. 259 260=head1 Testing Perl 261 262Once Perl has built cleanly you need to test it to make sure things work. 263This step is very important since there are always things that can go wrong 264somehow and yield a dysfunctional Perl for you. 265 266Testing is very easy, though, as there's a full test suite in the perl 267distribution. To run the tests, enter the *exact* MMS line you used to 268compile Perl and add the word "test" to the end, like this: 269 270If the compile command was: 271 272 MMS 273 274then the test command ought to be: 275 276 MMS test 277 278MMS (or MMK) will run all the tests. This may take some time, as there are 279a lot of tests. If any tests fail, there will be a note made on-screen. 280At the end of all the tests, a summary of the tests, the number passed and 281failed, and the time taken will be displayed. 282 283If any tests fail, it means something is wrong with Perl. If the test suite 284hangs (some tests can take upwards of two or three minutes, or more if 285you're on an especially slow machine, depending on your machine speed, so 286don't be hasty), then the test *after* the last one displayed failed. Don't 287install Perl unless you're confident that you're OK. Regardless of how 288confident you are, make a bug report to the VMSPerl mailing list. 289 290If one or more tests fail, you can get more information on the failure by 291issuing this command sequence: 292 293 @ [.VMS]TEST .typ "" "-v" [.subdir]test.T 294 295where ".typ" is the file type of the Perl images you just built (if you 296didn't do anything special, use .EXE), and "[.subdir]test.T" is the test 297that failed. For example, with a normal Perl build, if the test indicated 298that [.op]time failed, then you'd do this: 299 300 @ [.VMS]TEST .EXE "" "-v" [.OP]TIME.T 301 302When you send in a bug report for failed tests, please include the output 303from this command, which is run from the main source directory: 304 305 MCR []MINIPERL "-V" 306 307Note that -"V" really is a capital V in double quotes. This will dump out a 308couple of screens worth of configuration information, and can help us 309diagnose the problem. If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing 310the output of: 311 312 MMS printconfig 313 314If (and only if) that did not work then try enclosing the output of: 315 316 @ [.vms]myconfig 317 318You may also be asked to provide your C compiler version ("CC/VERSION NL:" 319with DEC C, "gcc --version" with GNU CC). To obtain the version of MMS or 320MMK you are running try "MMS/ident" or "MMK /ident". The GNU make version 321can be identified with "make --version". 322 323=head2 Cleaning up and starting fresh (optional) 324 325If you need to recompile from scratch, you have to make sure you clean up 326first. There is a procedure to do it--enter the *exact* MMS line you used 327to compile and add "realclean" at the end, like this: 328 329if the compile command was: 330 331 MMS 332 333then the cleanup command ought to be: 334 335 MMS realclean 336 337If you do not do this things may behave erratically during the subsequent 338rebuild attempt. They might not, too, so it is best to be sure and do it. 339 340=head1 Installing Perl 341 342There are several steps you need to take to get Perl installed and 343running. 344 345=over 4 346 347=item 1 348 349Check your default file protections with 350 351 SHOW PROTECTION /DEFAULT 352 353and adjust if necessary with SET PROTECTION=(code)/DEFAULT. 354 355=item 2 356 357Decide where you want Perl to be installed (unless you have already done so 358by using the "prefix" configuration parameter -- see the example in the 359"Configuring the Perl build" section). 360 361The DCL script PERL_SETUP.COM that is written by CONFIGURE.COM will help you 362with the definition of the PERL_ROOT and PERLSHR logical names and the PERL 363foreign command symbol. Take a look at PERL_SETUP.COM and modify it if you 364want to. The installation process will execute PERL_SETUP.COM and copy 365files to the directory tree pointed to by the PERL_ROOT logical name defined 366there, so make sure that you have write access to the parent directory of 367what will become the root of your Perl installation. 368 369=item 3 370 371Run the install script via: 372 373 MMS install 374 375or 376 377 MMK install 378 379If for some reason it complains about target INSTALL being up to date, 380throw a /FORCE switch on the MMS or MMK command. 381 382=back 383 384Copy PERL_SETUP.COM to a place accessible to your perl users. 385 386For example: 387 388 COPY PERL_SETUP.COM SYS$LIBRARY: 389 390If you want to have everyone on the system have access to perl 391then add a line that reads 392 393 $ @sys$library:perl_setup 394 395to SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM. 396 397Two alternatives to the foreign symbol would be to install PERL into 398DCLTABLES.EXE (Check out the section "Installing Perl into DCLTABLES 399(optional)" for more information), or put the image in a 400directory that's in your DCL$PATH (if you're using VMS V6.2 or higher). 401 402An alternative to having PERL_SETUP.COM define the PERLSHR logical name 403is to simply copy it into the system shareable library directory with: 404 405 copy perl_root:[000000]perlshr.exe sys$share: 406 407See also the "INSTALLing images (optional)" section. 408 409=head2 Installing Perl into DCLTABLES (optional) 410 411Execute the following command file to define PERL as a DCL command. 412You'll need CMKRNL privilege to install the new dcltables.exe. 413 414 $ create perl.cld 415 ! 416 ! modify to reflect location of your perl.exe 417 ! 418 define verb perl 419 image perl_root:[000000]perl.exe 420 cliflags (foreign) 421 $! 422 $ set command perl /table=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe - 423 /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe 424 $ install replace sys$common:[syslib]dcltables.exe 425 $ exit 426 427=head2 INSTALLing images (optional) 428 429On systems that are using perl quite a bit, and particularly those with 430minimal RAM, you can boost the performance of perl by INSTALLing it as 431a known image. PERLSHR.EXE is typically larger than 2500 blocks 432and that is a reasonably large amount of IO to load each time perl is 433invoked. 434 435 INSTALL ADD PERLSHR/SHARE 436 INSTALL ADD PERL/HEADER 437 438should be enough for PERLSHR.EXE (/share implies /header and /open), 439while /HEADER should do for PERL.EXE (perl.exe is not a shared image). 440 441If your code 'use's modules, check to see if there is a shareable image for 442them, too. In the base perl build, POSIX, IO, Fcntl, Opcode, SDBM_File, 443DCLsym, and Stdio all have shared images that can be installed /SHARE. 444 445How much of a win depends on your memory situation, but if you are firing 446off perl with any regularity (like more than once every 20 seconds or so) 447it is probably beneficial to INSTALL at least portions of perl. 448 449While there is code in perl to remove privileges as it runs you are advised 450to NOT INSTALL PERL.EXE with PRIVs! 451 452=head1 Reporting Bugs 453 454If you come across what you think might be a bug in Perl, please report 455it. There's a script in PERL_ROOT:[UTILS], perlbug, that walks you through 456the process of creating a bug report. This script includes details of your 457installation, and is very handy. Completed bug reports should go to 458perlbug@perl.com. 459 460=head1 CAVEATS 461 462Probably the single biggest gotcha in compiling Perl is giving the wrong 463switches to MMS/MMK when you build. Use *exactly* what the configure.com 464script prints! 465 466The next big gotcha is directory depth. Perl can create directories four, 467five, or even six levels deep during the build, so you don't have to be 468too deep to start to hit the RMS 8 level limit (for versions of VMS prior 469to V7.2 and even with V7.2 on the VAX). It is best to do 470 471 DEFINE/TRANS=(CONC,TERM) PERLSRC "disk:[dir.dir.dir.perldir.]" 472 SET DEFAULT PERLSRC:[000000] 473 474before building in cases where you have to unpack the distribution so deep 475(note the trailing period in the definition of PERLSRC). Perl modules 476from CPAN can be just as bad (or worse), so watch out for them, too. Perl's 477configuration script will warn if it thinks you are too deep (at least on 478a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2). But MakeMaker will not 479warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory. 480 481Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater 482than 100000. Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset 483defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before 484running the regression test suite. The SYS$MANAGER:UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM 485procedure will help you set that logical for your system but may require 486system privileges. For example, a location 5 hours west of UTC (such as 487the US East coast while not on daylight savings time) would have: 488 489 DEFINE SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL "-18000" 490 491A final thing that causes trouble is leftover pieces from a failed 492build. If things go wrong make sure you do a "(MMK|MMS|make) realclean" 493before you rebuild. 494 495=head2 DEC C issues 496 497Note to DEC C users: Some early versions (pre-5.2, some pre-4. If you're DEC 498C 5.x or higher, with current patches if any, you're fine) of the DECCRTL 499contained a few bugs which affect Perl performance: 500 501=over 4 502 503=item - pipes 504 505Newlines are lost on I/O through pipes, causing lines to run together. 506This shows up as RMS RTB errors when reading from a pipe. You can 507work around this by having one process write data to a file, and 508then having the other read the file, instead of the pipe. This is 509fixed in version 4 of DEC C. 510 511=item - modf() 512 513The modf() routine returns a non-integral value for some values above 514INT_MAX; the Perl "int" operator will return a non-integral value in 515these cases. This is fixed in version 4 of DEC C. 516 517=item - ALPACRT ECO 518 519On the AXP, if SYSNAM privilege is enabled, the CRTL chdir() routine 520changes the process default device and directory permanently, even 521though the call specified that the change should not persist after 522Perl exited. This is fixed by DEC CSC patch ALPACRT04_061 or later. 523See also: 524 525 http://ftp.service.compaq.com/patches/.new/openvms.html 526 527=back 528 529Please note that in later versions "DEC C" may also be known as 530"Compaq C". 531 532=head2 GNU issues 533 534It has been a while since the GNU utilities such as GCC or GNU make 535were used to build perl on VMS. Hence they may require a great deal 536of source code modification to work again. 537 538 http://slacvx.slac.stanford.edu/HELP/GCC 539 http://www.progis.de/ 540 http://vms.gnu.org/ 541 http://www.lp.se/products/gnu.html 542 543=head1 Mailing Lists 544 545There are several mailing lists available to the Perl porter. For VMS 546specific issues (including both Perl questions and installation problems) 547there is the VMSPERL mailing list. It is usually a low-volume (10-12 548messages a week) mailing list. 549 550To subscribe, send a mail message to VMSPERL-SUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. The VMSPERL 551mailing list address is VMSPERL@PERL.ORG. Any mail sent there gets echoed 552to all subscribers of the list. There is a searchable archive of the list 553on the web at: 554 555 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/ 556 557To unsubscribe from VMSPERL send a message to VMSPERL-UNSUBSCRIBE@PERL.ORG. 558Be sure to do so from the subscribed account that you are canceling. 559 560=head2 Web sites 561 562Vmsperl pages on the web include: 563 564 http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/index.html 565 http://www.crinoid.com/ 566 http://duphy4.physics.drexel.edu/pub/cgi_info.htmlx 567 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/VMS/ 568 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl/ 569 http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/htbin/software_list.cgi 570 http://www.best.com/~pvhp/vms/ 571 http://bkfug.kfunigraz.ac.at/~binder/perl.html 572 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=vmsperl 573 http://archive.develooper.com/vmsperl@perl.org/ 574 575=head1 SEE ALSO 576 577Perl information for users and programmers about the port of perl to VMS is 578available from the [.VMS]PERLVMS.POD file that gets installed as L<perlvms>. 579For administrators the perlvms document also includes a detailed discussion 580of extending vmsperl with CPAN modules after Perl has been installed. 581 582=head1 AUTHORS 583 584Revised 5-April-2001 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com. 585Revised 25-February-2000 by Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com. 586Revised 27-October-1999 by Craig Berry craigberry@mac.com. 587Revised 01-March-1999 by Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org. 588Originally by Charles Bailey bailey@newman.upenn.edu. 589 590=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 591 592A real big thanks needs to go to Charles Bailey 593bailey@newman.upenn.edu, who is ultimately responsible for Perl 5.004 594running on VMS. Without him, nothing the rest of us have done would be at 595all important. 596 597There are, of course, far too many people involved in the porting and testing 598of Perl to mention everyone who deserves it, so please forgive us if we've 599missed someone. That said, special thanks are due to the following: 600 601 Tim Adye T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk 602 for the VMS emulations of getpw*() 603 David Denholm denholm@conmat.phys.soton.ac.uk 604 for extensive testing and provision of pipe and SocketShr code, 605 Mark Pizzolato mark@infocomm.com 606 for the getredirection() code 607 Rich Salz rsalz@bbn.com 608 for readdir() and related routines 609 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com 610 for extensive testing, as well as development work on 611 configuration and documentation for VMS Perl, 612 Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org 613 for extensive contributions to recent version support, 614 development of VMS-specific extensions, and dissemination 615 of information about VMS Perl, 616 the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the 617 Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University for 618 the opportunity to test and develop for the AXP, 619 John Hasstedt John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu 620 for VAX VMS V7.2 support 621 622and to the entire VMSperl group for useful advice and suggestions. In 623addition the perl5-porters deserve credit for their creativity and 624willingness to work with the VMS newcomers. Finally, the greatest debt of 625gratitude is due to Larry Wall larry@wall.org, for having the ideas which 626have made our sleepless nights possible. 627 628Thanks, 629The VMSperl group 630 631=cut 632 633