1PERLAIX(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLAIX(1)
2
6 perlaix - Perl version 5 on IBM AIX (UNIX) systems
7
9 This document describes various features of IBM's UNIX operating system
10 AIX that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
11 compiled and/or runs.
12 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX
14 For information on compilers on older versions of AIX, see "Compiling
15 Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3".
16 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
18 an ANSI compliant C compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
19 gcc for AIX are widely available. A version of gcc is also included in
20 the AIX Toolbox which is shipped with AIX.
21 Supported Compilers
23 Currently all versions of IBM's "xlc", "xlc_r", "cc", "cc_r" or "vac"
24 ANSI/C compiler will work for building Perl if that compiler works on
25 your system.
26 If you plan to link Perl to any module that requires thread-support,
28 like DBD::Oracle, it is better to use the _r version of the compiler.
29 This will not build a threaded Perl, but a thread-enabled Perl. See
30 also "Threaded Perl" later on.
31 As of writing (2010-09) only the IBM XL C for AIX or IBM XL C/C++ for
33 AIX compiler is supported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1/7.1.
34 The following compiler versions are currently supported by IBM:
36 IBM XL C and IBM XL C/C++ V8, V9, V10, V11
38 The XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler and
40 therefore also supported.
41 If you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed otherwise the
43 integrated SDBM_File do not compile correctly due to an optimization
44 bug. You can circumvent this problem by adding -qipa to the
45 optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa'). The PTF for APAR IZ35785
46 which solves this problem is available from IBM (April 2009 PTF for XL
47 C/C++ Enterprise Edition for AIX, V9.0).
48 If you choose XL C/C++ V11 you need the April 2010 PTF (or newer)
50 installed otherwise you will not get a working Perl version.
51 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
53 The former is recommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no
54 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
55 require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
56 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
58 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-
59 specific details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to
60 the development team.
61 Incompatibility with AIX Toolbox lib gdbm
63 If the AIX Toolbox version of lib gdbm < 1.8.3-5 is installed on your
64 system then Perl will not work. This library contains the header files
65 /opt/freeware/include/gdbm/dbm.h|ndbm.h which conflict with the AIX
66 system versions. The lib gdbm will be automatically removed from the
67 wanted libraries if the presence of one of these two header files is
68 detected. If you want to build Perl with GDBM support then please
69 install at least gdbm-devel-1.8.3-5 (or higher).
70 Perl 5 was successfully compiled and tested on:
72 Perl | AIX Level | Compiler Level | w th | w/o th
73 -------+---------------------+-------------------------+------+-------
74 5.12.2 |5.1 TL9 32 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
75 5.12.2 |5.1 TL9 64 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK
76 5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
77 5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | gcc 3.2.2 | OK | OK
78 5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK
79 5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
80 5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | gcc 4.2.4 | OK | OK
81 5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK
82 5.12.2 |5.3 TL10 SP3 32 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Apr 2010 | OK | OK
83 5.12.2 |5.3 TL10 SP3 64 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Apr 2010 | OK | OK
84 5.12.2 |6.1 TL1 SP7 32 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
85 5.12.2 |6.1 TL1 SP7 64 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK
86 5.13 |7.1 TL0 SP1 32 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Jul 2010 | OK | OK
87 5.13 |7.1 TL0 SP1 64 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Jul 2010 | OK | OK
88 w th = with thread support
90 w/o th = without thread support
91 OK = tested
92 Successfully tested means that all "make test" runs finish with a
94 result of 100% OK. All tests were conducted with -Duseshrplib set.
95 All tests were conducted on the oldest supported AIX technology level
97 with the latest support package applied. If the tested AIX version is
98 out of support (AIX 4.3.3, 5.1, 5.2) then the last available support
99 level was used.
100 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX
102 Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x / 5.12.x) and
103 AIX 4.3 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in
104 the so called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface
105 that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases
106 4.2 and earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with
107 compiled modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to
108 make Perl more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl
109 which are using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the
110 use of C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl
111 extensions, which was not possible using the emulated interface.
112 It is highly recommended to use the new interface.
114 Using Large Files with Perl
116 Should yield no problems.
117 Threaded Perl
119 Should yield no problems with AIX 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.3 / 6.1 / 7.1.
120 IBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.6.0 on AIX 5.1 and V5.8.2 on AIX 5.2 /
122 5.3 and 6.1; V5.8.8 on AIX 5.3 TL11 and AIX 6.1 TL4; V5.10.1 on AIX
123 7.1) for some AIX system scripts. If you switch the links in /usr/bin
124 from the AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build Perl then
125 you get the same features as with the IBM AIX system Perl if the
126 threaded options are used.
127 The threaded Perl build works also on AIX 5.1 but the IBM Perl build
129 (Perl v5.6.0) is not threaded on AIX 5.1.
130 Perl 5.12 an newer is not compatible with the IBM fileset perl.libext.
132 64-bit Perl
134 If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect
135 64-bit configurations to work. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX
136 6.1 you need an APAR for a libc.a bug which affects (n)dbm_XXX
137 functions. The APAR number for this problem is IZ39077.
138 If you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs
140 you can set:
141 /etc/security/limits
143 default: (or your user)
144 data = -1 (default is 262144 * 512 byte)
145 With the default setting the size is limited to 128MB. The -1 removes
147 this limit. If the "make test" fails please change your
148 /etc/security/limits as stated above.
149 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (threaded/32-bit)
151 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes
152 all make tests in threaded 32-bit mode, which is the default
153 configuration for the Perl builds that AIX ships with.
154 rm config.sh
156 ./Configure \
157 -d \
158 -Dcc=cc_r \
159 -Duseshrplib \
160 -Dusethreads \
161 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
162 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
164 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
165 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (32-bit)
167 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make
168 tests in 32-bit mode.
169 rm config.sh
171 ./Configure \
172 -d \
173 -Dcc=cc_r \
174 -Duseshrplib \
175 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32
176 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
178 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
179 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (threaded/64-bit)
181 With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes
182 all make tests in 64-bit mode.
183 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
185 rm config.sh
187 ./Configure \
188 -d \
189 -Dcc=cc_r \
190 -Duseshrplib \
191 -Dusethreads \
192 -Duse64bitall \
193 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
194 Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (64-bit)
196 With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make
197 tests in 64-bit mode.
198 export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)
200 rm config.sh
202 ./Configure \
203 -d \
204 -Dcc=cc_r \
205 -Duseshrplib \
206 -Duse64bitall \
207 -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64
208 The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the
210 IBM AIX system Perl installation.
211 If you choose gcc to compile 64-bit Perl then you need to add the
213 following option:
214 -Dcc='gcc -maix64'
216 Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3
218 Due to the fact that AIX 4.3.3 reached end-of-service in December 31,
219 2003 this information is provided as is. The Perl versions prior to
220 Perl 5.8.9 could be compiled on AIX up to 4.3.3 with the following
221 settings (your mileage may vary):
222 When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship
224 an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of
225 gcc for AIX are widely available.
226 At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C
228 compilers, for which you have to pay: xlC and vac. If you decide to use
229 either of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be
230 sure to upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:
231 xlC.C 3.1.4.10 or 3.6.6.0 or 4.0.2.2 or 5.0.2.9 or 6.0.0.3
233 vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1
234 note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so
236 you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package
237 xlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3
239 subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example,
241 the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7.
242 Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.
244 The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
245 difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that
246 require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.
247 The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler
249 optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c,
250 respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch
251 levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files.
252 Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.
253 If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and
255 complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-
256 specific details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to
257 the development team.
258 OS level
260 Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know
261 the level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel'
262 will show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel
263 shows 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE):
264 # oslevel
266 4.3.0.0
267 # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
268 bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
269 bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime
270 #
271 The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note,
273 Perl cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm
274 installed
275 # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm"
277 bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development
278 bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application
279 #
280 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX < 5L
282 AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries.
283 Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit
284 misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic
285 members. For Perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix
286 also used on many other platforms.
287 Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3
289 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so
290 called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was
291 used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and
292 earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled
293 modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl
294 more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are
295 using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++
296 code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions, which
297 was not possible using the emulated interface.
298 The IBM ANSI C Compiler
300 All defaults for Configure can be used.
301 If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions
303 will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0,
304 but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has
305 removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot, these
306 versions should be considered obsolete.
307 Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest level.
309 Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade versions
310 from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups are the same
311 (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches in the developer
312 snapshots of Perl), or to one version up where the "base" is available.
313 In other words, the AIX compiler patches are cumulative.
314 vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
316 xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)
317 # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
319 Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
320 : welcome message ...
321 Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
322 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
323 Password:
324 ... accepted login stuff
325 ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
326 ftp> dir other other.ll
327 output to local-file: other.ll? y
328 200 PORT command successful.
329 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
330 226 Transfer complete.
331 ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll
332 output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
333 200 PORT command successful.
334 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
335 226 Transfer complete.
336 ftp> bye
337 ... goodbye messages
338 # ls -l *.ll
339 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll
340 -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll
341 On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:
343 # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
345 xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
346 xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
347 # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
348 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
349 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
350 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
351 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
352 -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
353 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
354 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
355 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
356 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
357 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
358 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
359 #
360 On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:
362 # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C '
364 vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
365 vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler
366 # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll
367 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff
368 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff
369 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff
370 -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
371 # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
372 #
373 Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command,
375 and fill in its choices
376 # smit install_update
378 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
379 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ]
380 [ OK ]
381 [ OK ]
382 Follow the messages ... and you're done.
384 If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be
386 http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click
387 "C for AIX", and follow the instructions.
388 The usenm option
390 If linking miniperl
391 cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ...
393 causes error like this
395 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl
397 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl
398 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall
399 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess
400 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid
401 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid
402 ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle
403 ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information.
404 you could retry with
406 make realclean
408 rm config.sh
409 ./Configure -Dusenm ...
410 which makes Configure to use the "nm" tool when scanning for library
412 symbols, which usually is not done in AIX.
413 Related to this, you probably should not use the "-r" option of
415 Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the "nm" tool is used.
416 Using GNU's gcc for building Perl
418 Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the
419 box, as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of
420 their Linux compatibility packages, available here:
421 http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/
423 Using Large Files with Perl < 5L
425 Should yield no problems.
426 Threaded Perl < 5L
428 Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when
429 threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations.
430 You may get a warning when doing a threaded build:
432 "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment
434 between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed.
435 The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a
437 line line this
438 hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype);
440 in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning
442 is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly
443 different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference
444 is not really significant here.
445 64-bit Perl < 5L
447 If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit
448 configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might
449 still fail.
450 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics
452 In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics may
453 have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. In
454 newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with the libC_r
455 library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library has an obscure
456 bug where the various functions related to time (such as time() and
457 gettimeofday()) return broken values, and therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is
458 not linked against the libC_r.
459
461 Rainer Tammer <tammer@tammer.net>
462perl v5.16.3 2013-03-04 PERLAIX(1)