PERLVOS(1)                                      Perl Programmers Reference Guide                                      PERLVOS(1)



NAME
       README.vos - Perl for Stratus VOS

SYNOPSIS
       This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus VOS operating system.  Perl is a scripting or macro language
       that is popular on many systems.  See perlbook for a number of good books on Perl.

       These are instructions for building Perl from source.  This version of Perl is not supported on VOS Release 14.2 or
       earlier releases.  If you have a Continuum platform running VOS Release 14.3 through 14.7, download Perl from the Stratus
       Anonymous FTP site at ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/continuum/continuum.html.  If you have a V Series platform
       running VOS Release 15.0 or later, or if you have a V Series platform running OpenVOS Release 17.0 or later, download
       Perl from ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/v-series/v-series.html.  The perl distribution files on the Stratus
       anonymous FTP site are stored in a format called a "bundled file".  Instructions for unbundling the Perl distribution
       file are at ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/utility/utility.html.

       If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing
       Release 2.0.1 (or later) of the VOS GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools product from Stratus Technologies.

BUILDING PERL FOR VOS
       To build perl from its source code on the Stratus Continuum platform, you must be have VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the
       STCP product, and the GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or later.  On the V Series platform you must have VOS
       Release 15.0.0 or later, and any version of the GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools product.

       To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and makefiles, change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the
       command "compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl".  This will configure, build, and test perl.

INSTALLING PERL IN VOS
       1.  If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that you have modify and default write permission to
           ">system>ported" and all subdirectories.  Then type

                gmake install

       2.  While there are currently no architecture-specific extensions or modules distributed with perl, the following
           directories can be used to hold such files (replace the string VERSION by the appropriate version number):

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>VERSION>7100
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>VERSION>8000
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>VERSION>i786

       3.  Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of two places.  Put architecture-independent files
           into:

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION

           Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the following directories:

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION>7100
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION>8000
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>VERSION>i786

       4.  You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program to see the order in which Perl searches these
           directories.

USING PERL IN VOS
   Restrictions of Perl on VOS
       This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style, slash-separated pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated
       pathnames.  VOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but if you have trouble, replace all greater-than
       characters by slash characters.  Because the slash character is used as a pathname delimiter, Perl cannot process VOS
       pathnames containing a slash character in a directory or file name; these must be renamed.

       This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally.  As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string
       representations of dates, this should not be an issue.  The supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038.

       See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS port of Perl.

   Handling of underflow and overflow
       Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically mapping overflowed floating-point values to +infinity,
       nor automatically mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero, unlike many other platforms.  The Perl pack function
       has been modified to perform such mapping in software on VOS.  Performing other floating-point computations that
       underflow or overflow will probably result in SIGFPE.  Don't push your luck.

       As of VOS Release 14.7.0 or later, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the PA-RISC and IA-32 hardware floating-point status
       register so that the overflow and underflow exceptions do not trap, but instead automatically convert the result to
       infinity or zero, as appropriate.  As of this writing, there are still floating-point operations that can trap, for
       example, subtracting two infinite values.  This is recorded as suggestion posix-1022, which has been fixed in VOS Release
       15.2 and higher.

TEST STATUS
       When Perl 5.9.0 is built using the native build process on VOS Release 14.7.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.2a, all but nine
       attempted tests either pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures.  The tests that fail are:

       t/io/dup, test 2 t/io/tell, test 28 t/op/pack, test 0 ext/B/t/bytecode, test 1 ext/Devel/Peek/t/Peek, test 1
       ext/Encode/t/enc_module, test 1 ext/IO/t/io_dup, test 2 lib/ExtUtils/t/MM_Unix, test 94 lib/Net/ing/t/450_service, test 8

SUPPORT STATUS
       I'm offering this port "as is".  You can ask me questions, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them.  There are
       some excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book seller.

       If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the VOS GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 (or later)
       product from Stratus Technologies, along with a support contract (or from anyone else who will sell you support).

AUTHOR
       Paul Green (Paul.GreenATstratus.com)

LAST UPDATE
       October 6, 2010



perl v5.12.4                                               2011-06-01                                                 PERLVOS(1)