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
3specifically designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7perlirix - Perl version 5 on Irix systems
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes various features of Irix that will affect how Perl
12version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
13
14=head2 Building 32-bit Perl in Irix
15
16Use
17
18	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32'
19
20to compile Perl 32-bit.  Don't bother with -n32 unless you have 7.1
21or later compilers (use cc -version to check).
22
23(Building 'cc -n32' is the default.)
24
25=head2 Building 64-bit Perl in Irix
26
27Use
28
29	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitint
30
31This requires require a 64-bit MIPS CPU (R8000, R10000, ...)
32
33You can also use
34
35	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitall
36
37but that makes no difference compared with the -Duse64bitint because
38of the C<cc -64>.
39
40You can also do
41
42	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32' -Duse64bitint
43
44to use long longs for the 64-bit integer type, in case you don't
45have a 64-bit CPU.
46
47If you are using gcc, just
48
49	sh Configure -Dcc=gcc -Duse64bitint
50
51should be enough, the Configure should automatically probe for the
52correct 64-bit settings.
53
54=head2 About Compiler Versions of Irix
55
56Some Irix cc versions, e.g. 7.3.1.1m (try cc -version) have been known
57to have issues (coredumps) when compiling perl.c.  If you've used
58-OPT:fast_io=ON and this happens, try removing it.  If that fails, or
59you didn't use that, then try adjusting other optimization options
60(-LNO, -INLINE, -O3 to -O2, et cetera).  The compiler bug has been
61reported to SGI.  (Allen Smith <easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu>)
62
63=head2 Linker Problems in Irix
64
65If you get complaints about so_locations then search in the file
66hints/irix_6.sh for "lddflags" and do the suggested adjustments.
67(David Billinghurst <David.Billinghurst@riotinto.com.au>)
68
69=head2 Malloc in Irix
70
71Do not try to use Perl's malloc, this will lead into very mysterious
72errors (especially with -Duse64bitall).
73
74=head2 Building with threads in Irix
75
76Run Configure with -Duseithreads which will configure Perl with
77the Perl 5.8.0 "interpreter threads", see L<threads>.
78
79For Irix 6.2 with perl threads, you have to have the following
80patches installed:
81
82        1404 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b man pages
83        1645 Irix 6.2 & 6.3 POSIX header file updates
84        2000 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b support modules
85        2254 Pthread library fixes
86        2401 6.2 all platform kernel rollup
87
88B<IMPORTANT>: Without patch 2401, a kernel bug in Irix 6.2 will cause
89your machine to panic and crash when running threaded perl.  Irix 6.3
90and later are okay.
91
92    Thanks to Hannu Napari <Hannu.Napari@hut.fi> for the IRIX
93    pthreads patches information.
94
95=head2 Irix 5.3
96
97While running Configure and when building, you are likely to get
98quite a few of these warnings:
99
100  ld:
101  The shared object /usr/lib/libm.so did not resolve any symbols.
102        You may want to remove it from your link line.
103
104Ignore them: in IRIX 5.3 there is no way to quieten ld about this.
105
106During compilation you will see this warning from toke.c:
107
108  uopt: Warning: Perl_yylex: this procedure not optimized because it
109        exceeds size threshold; to optimize this procedure, use -Olimit
110        option with value >= 4252.
111
112Ignore the warning.
113
114In IRIX 5.3 and with Perl 5.8.1 (Perl 5.8.0 didn't compile in IRIX 5.3)
115the following failures are known.
116
117 Failed Test                  Stat Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of Failed
118 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
119 ../ext/List/Util/t/shuffle.t    0   139    ??   ??       %  ??
120 ../lib/Math/Trig.t            255 65280    29   12  41.38%  24-29
121 ../lib/sort.t                   0   138   119   72  60.50%  48-119
122 56 tests and 474 subtests skipped.
123 Failed 3/811 test scripts, 99.63% okay. 78/75813 subtests failed,
124    99.90% okay.
125
126They are suspected to be compiler errors (at least the shuffle.t
127failure is known from some IRIX 6 setups) and math library errors
128(the Trig.t failure), but since IRIX 5 is long since end-of-lifed,
129further fixes for the IRIX are unlikely.  If you can get gcc for 5.3,
130you could try that, too, since gcc in IRIX 6 is a known workaround for
131at least the shuffle.t and sort.t failures.
132
133=head1 AUTHOR
134
135Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
136
137Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to
138L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
139
140