1PERLSYNOLOGY(1)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PERLSYNOLOGY(1)
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NAME

6       perlsynology - Perl 5 on Synology DSM systems
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DESCRIPTION

9       Synology manufactures a vast number of Network Attached Storage (NAS)
10       devices that are very popular in large organisations as well as small
11       businesses and homes.
12
13       The NAS systems are equipped with Synology Disk Storage Manager (DSM),
14       which is a trimmed-down Linux system enhanced with several tools for
15       managing the NAS. There are several flavours of hardware: Marvell
16       Armada (ARMv5tel, ARMv7l), Intel Atom (i686, x86_64), Freescale QorIQ
17       (PPC), and more. For a full list see the Synology FAQ
18       <http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/What_kind_of_CPU_does_my_NAS_have>.
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20       Since it is based on Linux, the NAS can run many popular Linux software
21       packages, including Perl. In fact, Synology provides a ready-to-install
22       package for Perl, depending on the version of DSM the installed perl
23       ranges from 5.8.6 on DSM-4.3 to 5.24.0 on DSM-6.1.
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25       There is an active user community that provides many software packages
26       for the Synology DSM systems; at the time of writing this document they
27       provide Perl version 5.24.1.
28
29       This document describes various features of Synology DSM operating
30       system that will affect how Perl 5 (hereafter just Perl) is configured,
31       compiled and/or runs. It has been compiled and verified by Johan
32       Vromans for the Synology DS413 (QorIQ), with feedback from H.Merijn
33       Brand (DS213, ARMv5tel and RS815, Intel Atom x64).
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35   Setting up the build environment
36       DSM 5
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38       As DSM is a trimmed-down Linux system, it lacks many of the tools and
39       libraries commonly found on Linux. The basic tools like sh, cp, rm,
40       etc. are implemented using BusyBox
41       <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BusyBox>.
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43       ·   Using your favourite browser open the DSM management page and start
44           the Package Center.
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46       ·   If you want to smoke test Perl, install "Perl".
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48       ·   In Settings, add the following Package Sources:
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50             http://www.cphub.net
51             http://packages.quadrat4.de
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53       ·   Still in Settings, in Channel Update, select Beta Channel.
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55       ·   Press Refresh. In the left panel the item "Community" will appear.
56           Click it. Select "Bootstrap Installer Beta" and install it.
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58       ·   Likewise, install "iPKGui Beta".
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60           The application window should now show an icon for iPKGui.
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62       ·   Start iPKGui. Install the packages "make", "gcc" and "coreutils".
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64           If you want to smoke test Perl, install "patch".
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66       The next step is to add some symlinks to system libraries. For example,
67       the development software expect a library "libm.so" that normally is a
68       symlink to "libm.so.6". Synology only provides the latter and not the
69       symlink.
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71       Here the actual architecture of the Synology system matters. You have
72       to find out where the gcc libraries have been installed. Look in /opt
73       for a directory similar to arm-none-linux-gnueab or powerpc-linux-
74       gnuspe. In the instructions below I'll use powerpc-linux-gnuspe as an
75       example.
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77       ·   On the DSM management page start the Control Panel.
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79       ·   Click Terminal, and enable SSH service.
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81       ·   Close Terminal and the Control Panel.
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83       ·   Open a shell on the Synology using ssh and become root.
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85       ·   Execute the following commands:
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87             cd /lib
88             ln -s libm.so.6 libm.so
89             ln -s libcrypt.so.1 libcrypt.so
90             ln -s libdl.so.2 libdl.so
91             cd /opt/powerpc-linux-gnuspe/lib  (or
92                                               /opt/arm-none-linux-gnueabi/lib)
93             ln -s /lib/libdl.so.2 libdl.so
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95       WARNING: When you perform a system software upgrade, these links will
96       disappear and need to be re-established.
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98       DSM 6
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100       Using iPkg has been deprecated on DSM 6, but an alternative is
101       available for DSM 6: entware/opkg. For instructions on how to use that,
102       please read Install Entware-ng on Synology NAS
103       <https://github.com/Entware-ng/Entware-ng/wiki/Install-on-Synology-NAS>
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105       That sadly does not (yet) work on QorIQ. At the moment of writing, the
106       supported architectures are armv5, armv7, mipsel, wl500g, x86_32, and
107       x86_64.  Check here <http://pkg.entware.net/binaries/> for supported
108       platforms.
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110       Entware-ng comes with a precompiled 5.24.1 (June 2017) that allowes
111       building shared XS code. Note that this installation does not use a
112       site_perl folder. The available "cpan" works. If all required
113       development packages are installed too, also for XS.
114
115   Compiling Perl 5
116       When the build environment has been set up, building and testing Perl
117       is straightforward. The only thing you need to do is download the
118       sources as usual, and add a file Policy.sh as follows:
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120         # Administrivia.
121         perladmin="your.email@goes.here"
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123         # Install Perl in a tree in /opt/perl instead of /opt/bin.
124         prefix=/opt/perl
125
126         # Select the compiler. Note that there is no 'cc' alias or link.
127         cc=gcc
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129         # Build flags.
130         ccflags="-DDEBUGGING"
131
132         # Library and include paths.
133         libpth="/lib"
134         locincpth="/opt/include"
135         loclibpth="/lib"
136
137       You may want to create the destination directory and give it the right
138       permissions before installing, thus eliminating the need to build Perl
139       as a super user.
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141       In the directory where you unpacked the sources, issue the familiar
142       commands:
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144         ./Configure -des
145         make
146         make test
147         make install
148
149   Known problems
150       Configure
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152       No known problems yet
153
154       Build
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156       Error message "No error definitions found".
157           This error is generated when it is not possible to find the local
158           definitions for error codes, due to the uncommon structure of the
159           Synology file system.
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161           This error was fixed in the Perl development git for version 5.19,
162           commit 7a8f1212e5482613c8a5b0402528e3105b26ff24.
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164       Failing tests
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166       ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t
167           One subtest fails due to the uncommon structure of the Synology
168           file system. The file /lib/glibc.so is missing.
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170           WARNING: Do not symlink /lib/glibc.so.6 to /lib/glibc.so or some
171           system components will start to fail.
172
173   Smoke testing Perl 5
174       If building completes successfully, you can set up smoke testing as
175       described in the Test::Smoke documentation.
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177       For smoke testing you need a running Perl. You can either install the
178       Synology supplied package for Perl 5.8.6, or build and install your
179       own, much more recent version.
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181       Note that I could not run successful smokes when initiated by the
182       Synology Task Scheduler. I resorted to initiating the smokes via a cron
183       job run on another system, using ssh:
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185         ssh nas1 wrk/Test-Smoke/smoke/smokecurrent.sh
186
187       Local patches
188
189       When local patches are applied with smoke testing, the test driver will
190       automatically request regeneration of certain tables after the patches
191       are applied. The Synology supplied Perl 5.8.6 (at least on the DS413)
192       is NOT capable of generating these tables. It will generate opcodes
193       with bogus values, causing the build to fail.
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195       You can prevent regeneration by adding the setting
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197         'flags' => 0,
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199       to the smoke config, or by adding another patch that inserts
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201         exit 0 if $] == 5.008006;
202
203       in the beginning of the "regen.pl" program.
204
205   Adding libraries
206       The above procedure describes a basic environment and hence results in
207       a basic Perl. If you want to add additional libraries to Perl, you may
208       need some extra settings.
209
210       For example, the basic Perl does not have any of the DB libraries (db,
211       dbm, ndbm, gdsm). You can add these using iPKGui, however, you need to
212       set environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the appropriate value:
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214         LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:/opt/lib
215         export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
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217       This setting needs to be in effect while Perl is built, but also when
218       the programs are run.
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REVISION

221       June 2017, for Synology DSM 5.1.5022 and DSM 6.1-15101-4.
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AUTHOR

224       Johan Vromans <jvromans@squirrel.nl> H. Merijn Brand
225       <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>
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229perl v5.28.2                      2018-11-01                   PERLSYNOLOGY(1)
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