xref: /openbsd/gnu/usr.bin/perl/README.irix (revision e0680481)
1# vim: syntax=pod
2
3If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
4see.  It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
5specifically designed to be readable as is.
6
7=head1 NAME
8
9perlirix - Perl version 5 on Irix systems
10
11=head1 DESCRIPTION
12
13This document describes various features of Irix that will affect how Perl
14version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
15
16=head2 Building 32-bit Perl in Irix
17
18Use
19
20	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32'
21
22to compile Perl 32-bit.  Don't bother with -n32 unless you have 7.1
23or later compilers (use cc -version to check).
24
25(Building 'cc -n32' is the default.)
26
27=head2 Building 64-bit Perl in Irix
28
29Use
30
31	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitint
32
33This requires require a 64-bit MIPS CPU (R8000, R10000, ...)
34
35You can also use
36
37	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitall
38
39but that makes no difference compared with the -Duse64bitint because
40of the C<cc -64>.
41
42You can also do
43
44	sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32' -Duse64bitint
45
46to use long longs for the 64-bit integer type, in case you don't
47have a 64-bit CPU.
48
49If you are using gcc, just
50
51	sh Configure -Dcc=gcc -Duse64bitint
52
53should be enough, the Configure should automatically probe for the
54correct 64-bit settings.
55
56=head2 About Compiler Versions of Irix
57
58Some Irix cc versions, e.g. 7.3.1.1m (try cc -version) have been known
59to have issues (coredumps) when compiling perl.c.  If you've used
60-OPT:fast_io=ON and this happens, try removing it.  If that fails, or
61you didn't use that, then try adjusting other optimization options
62(-LNO, -INLINE, -O3 to -O2, et cetera).  The compiler bug has been
63reported to SGI.  (Allen Smith <easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu>)
64
65=head2 Linker Problems in Irix
66
67If you get complaints about so_locations then search in the file
68hints/irix_6.sh for "lddflags" and do the suggested adjustments.
69(David Billinghurst <David.Billinghurst@riotinto.com.au>)
70
71=head2 Malloc in Irix
72
73Do not try to use Perl's malloc, this will lead into very mysterious
74errors (especially with -Duse64bitall).
75
76=head2 Building with threads in Irix
77
78Run Configure with -Duseithreads which will configure Perl with
79the Perl 5.8.0 "interpreter threads", see L<threads>.
80
81For Irix 6.2 with perl threads, you have to have the following
82patches installed:
83
84        1404 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b man pages
85        1645 Irix 6.2 & 6.3 POSIX header file updates
86        2000 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b support modules
87        2254 Pthread library fixes
88        2401 6.2 all platform kernel rollup
89
90B<IMPORTANT>: Without patch 2401, a kernel bug in Irix 6.2 will cause
91your machine to panic and crash when running threaded perl.  Irix 6.3
92and later are okay.
93
94    Thanks to Hannu Napari <Hannu.Napari@hut.fi> for the IRIX
95    pthreads patches information.
96
97=head2 Irix 5.3
98
99While running Configure and when building, you are likely to get
100quite a few of these warnings:
101
102  ld:
103  The shared object /usr/lib/libm.so did not resolve any symbols.
104        You may want to remove it from your link line.
105
106Ignore them: in IRIX 5.3 there is no way to quieten ld about this.
107
108During compilation you will see this warning from toke.c:
109
110  uopt: Warning: Perl_yylex: this procedure not optimized because it
111        exceeds size threshold; to optimize this procedure, use -Olimit
112        option with value >= 4252.
113
114Ignore the warning.
115
116In IRIX 5.3 and with Perl 5.8.1 (Perl 5.8.0 didn't compile in IRIX 5.3)
117the following failures are known.
118
119 Failed Test                  Stat Wstat Total Fail  Failed|Failing List
120 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
121 ../ext/List/Util/t/shuffle.t    0   139    ??   ??       %  ??
122 ../lib/Math/Trig.t            255 65280    29   12  41.38%  24-29
123 ../lib/sort.t                   0   138   119   72  60.50%  48-119
124 56 tests and 474 subtests skipped.
125 Failed 3/811 test scripts, 99.63% okay. 78/75813 subtests failed,
126    99.90% okay.
127
128They are suspected to be compiler errors (at least the shuffle.t
129failure is known from some IRIX 6 setups) and math library errors
130(the Trig.t failure), but since IRIX 5 is long since end-of-lifed,
131further fixes for the IRIX are unlikely.  If you can get gcc for 5.3,
132you could try that, too, since gcc in IRIX 6 is a known workaround for
133at least the shuffle.t and sort.t failures.
134
135=head1 AUTHOR
136
137Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
138
139Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to
140L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
141
142