1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. 2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially 3designed to be readable as is. 4 5=head1 NAME 6 7perltru64 - Perl version 5 on Tru64 (formerly known as Digital UNIX formerly known as DEC OSF/1) systems 8 9=head1 DESCRIPTION 10 11This document describes various features of HP's (formerly Compaq's, 12formerly Digital's) Unix operating system (Tru64) that will affect 13how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is configured, compiled 14and/or runs. 15 16=head2 Compiling Perl 5 on Tru64 17 18The recommended compiler to use in Tru64 is the native C compiler. 19The native compiler produces much faster code (the speed difference is 20noticeable: several dozen percentages) and also more correct code: if 21you are considering using the GNU C compiler you should use at the 22very least the release of 2.95.3 since all older gcc releases are 23known to produce broken code when compiling Perl. One manifestation 24of this brokenness is the lib/sdbm test dumping core; another is many 25of the op/regexp and op/pat, or ext/Storable tests dumping core 26(the exact pattern of failures depending on the GCC release and 27optimization flags). 28 29Both the native cc and gcc seem to consume lots of memory when 30building Perl. toke.c is a known trouble spot when optimizing: 31256 megabytes of data section seems to be enough. Another known 32trouble spot is the mktables script which builds the Unicode support 33tables. The default setting of the process data section in Tru64 34should be one gigabyte, but some sites/setups might have lowered that. 35The configuration process of Perl checks for too low process limits, 36and lowers the optimization for the toke.c if necessary, and also 37gives advice on how to raise the process limits 38(for example: C<ulimit -d 262144>) 39 40Also, Configure might abort with 41 42 Build a threading Perl? [n] 43 Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : 'config.sh' is not expected. 44 45This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell 46(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using 47"sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported 48to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is 49being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to 50'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh 51(a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure. 52 53=head2 Using Large Files with Perl on Tru64 54 55In Tru64 Perl is automatically able to use large files, that is, 56files larger than 2 gigabytes, there is no need to use the Configure 57-Duselargefiles option as described in INSTALL (though using the option 58is harmless). 59 60=head2 Threaded Perl on Tru64 61 62If you want to use threads, you should primarily use the Perl 635.8.0 threads model by running Configure with -Duseithreads. 64 65Perl threading is going to work only in Tru64 4.0 and newer releases, 66older operating releases like 3.2 aren't probably going to work 67properly with threads. 68 69In Tru64 V5 (at least V5.1A, V5.1B) you cannot build threaded Perl with gcc 70because the system header <pthread.h> explicitly checks for supported 71C compilers, gcc (at least 3.2.2) not being one of them. But the 72system C compiler should work just fine. 73 74=head2 Long Doubles on Tru64 75 76You cannot Configure Perl to use long doubles unless you have at least 77Tru64 V5.0, the long double support simply wasn't functional enough 78before that. Perl's Configure will override attempts to use the long 79doubles (you can notice this by Configure finding out that the modfl() 80function does not work as it should). 81 82At the time of this writing (June 2002), there is a known bug in the 83Tru64 libc printing of long doubles when not using "e" notation. 84The values are correct and usable, but you only get a limited number 85of digits displayed unless you force the issue by using C<printf 86"%.33e",$num> or the like. For Tru64 versions V5.0A through V5.1A, a 87patch is expected sometime after perl 5.8.0 is released. If your libc 88has not yet been patched, you'll get a warning from Configure when 89selecting long doubles. 90 91=head2 DB_File tests failing on Tru64 92 93The DB_File tests (db-btree.t, db-hash.t, db-recno.t) may fail you 94have installed a newer version of Berkeley DB into the system and the 95-I and -L compiler and linker flags introduce version conflicts with 96the DB 1.85 headers and libraries that came with the Tru64. For example, 97mixing a DB v2 library with the DB v1 headers is a bad idea. Watch 98out for Configure options -Dlocincpth and -Dloclibpth, and check your 99/usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib since they are included by default. 100 101The second option is to explicitly instruct Configure to detect the 102newer Berkeley DB installation, by supplying the right directories with 103C<-Dlocincpth=/some/include> and C<-Dloclibpth=/some/lib> B<and> before 104running "make test" setting your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to F</some/lib>. 105 106The third option is to work around the problem by disabling the 107DB_File completely when build Perl by specifying -Ui_db to Configure, 108and then using the BerkeleyDB module from CPAN instead of DB_File. 109The BerkeleyDB works with Berkeley DB versions 2.* or greater. 110 111The Berkeley DB 4.1.25 has been tested with Tru64 V5.1A and found 112to work. The latest Berkeley DB can be found from L<http://www.sleepycat.com>. 113 114=head2 64-bit Perl on Tru64 115 116In Tru64 Perl's integers are automatically 64-bit wide, there is 117no need to use the Configure -Duse64bitint option as described 118in INSTALL. Similarly, there is no need for -Duse64bitall 119since pointers are automatically 64-bit wide. 120 121=head2 Warnings about floating-point overflow when compiling Perl on Tru64 122 123When compiling Perl in Tru64 you may (depending on the compiler 124release) see two warnings like this 125 126 cc: Warning: numeric.c, line 104: In this statement, floating-point 127 overflow occurs in evaluating the expression "1.8e308". (floatoverfl) 128 return HUGE_VAL; 129 -----------^ 130 131and when compiling the POSIX extension 132 133 cc: Warning: const-c.inc, line 2007: In this statement, floating-point 134 overflow occurs in evaluating the expression "1.8e308". (floatoverfl) 135 return HUGE_VAL; 136 -------------------^ 137 138The exact line numbers may vary between Perl releases. The warnings 139are benign and can be ignored: in later C compiler releases the warnings 140should be gone. 141 142When the file F<pp_sys.c> is being compiled you may (depending on the 143operating system release) see an additional compiler flag being used: 144C<-DNO_EFF_ONLY_OK>. This is normal and refers to a feature that is 145relevant only if you use the C<filetest> pragma. In older releases of 146the operating system the feature was broken and the NO_EFF_ONLY_OK 147instructs Perl not to use the feature. 148 149=head1 Testing Perl on Tru64 150 151During "make test" the C<comp>/C<cpp> will be skipped because on Tru64 it 152cannot be tested before Perl has been installed. The test refers to 153the use of the C<-P> option of Perl. 154 155=head1 ext/ODBM_File/odbm Test Failing With Static Builds 156 157The ext/ODBM_File/odbm is known to fail with static builds 158(Configure -Uusedl) due to a known bug in Tru64's static libdbm 159library. The good news is that you very probably don't need to ever 160use the ODBM_File extension since more advanced NDBM_File works fine, 161not to mention the even more advanced DB_File. 162 163=head1 Perl Fails Because Of Unresolved Symbol sockatmark 164 165If you get an error like 166 167 Can't load '.../OSF1/lib/perl5/5.8.0/alpha-dec_osf/auto/IO/IO.so' for module IO: Unresolved symbol in .../lib/perl5/5.8.0/alpha-dec_osf/auto/IO/IO.so: sockatmark at .../lib/perl5/5.8.0/alpha-dec_osf/XSLoader.pm line 75. 168 169you need to either recompile your Perl in Tru64 4.0D or upgrade your 170Tru64 4.0D to at least 4.0F: the sockatmark() system call was 171added in Tru64 4.0F, and the IO extension refers that symbol. 172 173=head1 read_cur_obj_info: bad file magic number 174 175You may be mixing the Tru64 cc/ar/ld with the GNU gcc/ar/ld. 176That may work, but sometimes it doesn't (your gcc or GNU utils 177may have been compiled for an incompatible OS release). 178 179Try 'which ld' and 'which ld' (or try 'ar --version' and 'ld --version', 180which work only for the GNU tools, and will announce themselves to be such), 181and adjust your PATH so that you are consistently using either 182the native tools or the GNU tools. After fixing your PATH, you should 183do 'make distclean' and start all the way from running the Configure 184since you may have quite a confused situation. 185 186=head1 AUTHOR 187 188Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> 189 190=cut 191