1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you 2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is 3specially designed to be readable as is. 4 5=head1 NAME 6 7perlvos - Perl for Stratus OpenVOS 8 9=head1 SYNOPSIS 10 11This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus OpenVOS 12operating system. Perl is a scripting or macro language that is 13popular on many systems. See L<perlbook> for a number of good books 14on Perl. 15 16These are instructions for building Perl from source. This version of 17Perl requires the dynamic linking support that is found in OpenVOS 18Release 17.1 and thus is not supported on OpenVOS Release 17.0 or 19earlier releases. 20 21If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a 22pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing the GNU Tools 23product from Stratus Technologies. 24 25=head1 BUILDING PERL FOR OPENVOS 26 27To build perl from its source code on the Stratus V Series platform 28you must have OpenVOS Release 17.1.0 or later, GNU Tools Release 293.5 or later, and the C/POSIX Runtime Libraries. 30 31Follow the normal instructions for building perl; e.g, enter bash, run 32the Configure script, then use "gmake" to build perl. 33 34=head1 INSTALLING PERL IN OPENVOS 35 36=over 4 37 38=item 1 39 40After you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that you 41have modify and default write permission to C<< >system>ported >> and 42all subdirectories. Then type 43 44 gmake install 45 46=item 2 47 48While there are currently no architecture-specific extensions or 49modules distributed with perl, the following directories can be 50used to hold such files (replace the string VERSION by the 51appropriate version number): 52 53 >system>ported>lib>perl5>VERSION>i786 54 55=item 3 56 57Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of 58two places. Put architecture-independent files into: 59 60 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION 61 62Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the 63following directories: 64 65 >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION>i786 66 67=item 4 68 69You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program 70to see the order in which Perl searches these directories. 71 72=back 73 74=head1 USING PERL IN OPENVOS 75 76=head2 Restrictions of Perl on OpenVOS 77 78This port of Perl version 5 prefers Unix-style, slash-separated 79pathnames over OpenVOS-style greater-than-separated pathnames. 80OpenVOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but if you have 81trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash characters. 82Because the slash character is used as a pathname delimiter, Perl 83cannot process OpenVOS pathnames containing a slash character in a 84directory or file name; these must be renamed. 85 86This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally. 87As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string 88representations of dates, this should not be an issue. The 89supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038. 90 91See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the OpenVOS 92port of Perl. 93 94=head1 TEST STATUS 95 96A number of the perl self-tests fails for various reasons; generally 97these are minor and due to subtle differences between common 98POSIX-based environments and the OpenVOS POSIX environment. Ensure 99that you conduct sufficient testing of your code to guarantee that it 100works properly in the OpenVOS environment. 101 102=head1 SUPPORT STATUS 103 104I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I 105can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them. There are some 106excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book 107seller. 108 109If you want a supported version of perl for OpenVOS, purchase the 110OpenVOS GNU Tools product from Stratus Technologies, along with a 111support contract (or from anyone else who will sell you support). 112 113=head1 AUTHOR 114 115Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com) 116 117=head1 LAST UPDATE 118 119February 28, 2013 120 121=cut 122