1PERLTRU64(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLTRU64(1)
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6 perltru64 - Perl version 5 on Tru64 (formerly known as Digital UNIX
7 formerly known as DEC OSF/1) systems
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10 This document describes various features of HP's (formerly Compaq's,
11 formerly Digital's) Unix operating system (Tru64) that will affect how
12 Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is configured, compiled and/or
13 runs.
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15 Compiling Perl 5 on Tru64
16 The recommended compiler to use in Tru64 is the native C compiler. The
17 native compiler produces much faster code (the speed difference is
18 noticeable: several dozen percentages) and also more correct code: if
19 you are considering using the GNU C compiler you should use at the very
20 least the release of 2.95.3 since all older gcc releases are known to
21 produce broken code when compiling Perl. One manifestation of this
22 brokenness is the lib/sdbm test dumping core; another is many of the
23 op/regexp and op/pat, or ext/Storable tests dumping core (the exact
24 pattern of failures depending on the GCC release and optimization
25 flags).
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27 Both the native cc and gcc seem to consume lots of memory when building
28 Perl. toke.c is a known trouble spot when optimizing: 256 megabytes of
29 data section seems to be enough. Another known trouble spot is the
30 mktables script which builds the Unicode support tables. The default
31 setting of the process data section in Tru64 should be one gigabyte,
32 but some sites/setups might have lowered that. The configuration
33 process of Perl checks for too low process limits, and lowers the
34 optimization for the toke.c if necessary, and also gives advice on how
35 to raise the process limits (for example: "ulimit -d 262144")
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37 Also, Configure might abort with
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39 Build a threading Perl? [n]
40 Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : 'config.sh' is not expected.
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42 This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
43 (even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using "sh
44 Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported to
45 Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
46 being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
47 'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh (a
48 ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
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50 Using Large Files with Perl on Tru64
51 In Tru64 Perl is automatically able to use large files, that is, files
52 larger than 2 gigabytes, there is no need to use the Configure
53 -Duselargefiles option as described in INSTALL (though using the option
54 is harmless).
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56 Threaded Perl on Tru64
57 If you want to use threads, you should primarily use the Perl 5.8.0
58 threads model by running Configure with -Duseithreads.
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60 Perl threading is going to work only in Tru64 4.0 and newer releases,
61 older operating releases like 3.2 aren't probably going to work
62 properly with threads.
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64 In Tru64 V5 (at least V5.1A, V5.1B) you cannot build threaded Perl with
65 gcc because the system header <pthread.h> explicitly checks for
66 supported C compilers, gcc (at least 3.2.2) not being one of them. But
67 the system C compiler should work just fine.
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69 Long Doubles on Tru64
70 You cannot Configure Perl to use long doubles unless you have at least
71 Tru64 V5.0, the long double support simply wasn't functional enough
72 before that. Perl's Configure will override attempts to use the long
73 doubles (you can notice this by Configure finding out that the modfl()
74 function does not work as it should).
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76 At the time of this writing (June 2002), there is a known bug in the
77 Tru64 libc printing of long doubles when not using "e" notation. The
78 values are correct and usable, but you only get a limited number of
79 digits displayed unless you force the issue by using "printf
80 "%.33e",$num" or the like. For Tru64 versions V5.0A through V5.1A, a
81 patch is expected sometime after perl 5.8.0 is released. If your libc
82 has not yet been patched, you'll get a warning from Configure when
83 selecting long doubles.
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85 DB_File tests failing on Tru64
86 The DB_File tests (db-btree.t, db-hash.t, db-recno.t) may fail you have
87 installed a newer version of Berkeley DB into the system and the -I and
88 -L compiler and linker flags introduce version conflicts with the DB
89 1.85 headers and libraries that came with the Tru64. For example,
90 mixing a DB v2 library with the DB v1 headers is a bad idea. Watch out
91 for Configure options -Dlocincpth and -Dloclibpth, and check your
92 /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib since they are included by
93 default.
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95 The second option is to explicitly instruct Configure to detect the
96 newer Berkeley DB installation, by supplying the right directories with
97 "-Dlocincpth=/some/include" and "-Dloclibpth=/some/lib" and before
98 running "make test" setting your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /some/lib.
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100 The third option is to work around the problem by disabling the DB_File
101 completely when build Perl by specifying -Ui_db to Configure, and then
102 using the BerkeleyDB module from CPAN instead of DB_File. The
103 BerkeleyDB works with Berkeley DB versions 2.* or greater.
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105 The Berkeley DB 4.1.25 has been tested with Tru64 V5.1A and found to
106 work. The latest Berkeley DB can be found from
107 <http://www.sleepycat.com>.
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109 64-bit Perl on Tru64
110 In Tru64 Perl's integers are automatically 64-bit wide, there is no
111 need to use the Configure -Duse64bitint option as described in INSTALL.
112 Similarly, there is no need for -Duse64bitall since pointers are
113 automatically 64-bit wide.
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115 Warnings about floating-point overflow when compiling Perl on Tru64
116 When compiling Perl in Tru64 you may (depending on the compiler
117 release) see two warnings like this
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119 cc: Warning: numeric.c, line 104: In this statement, floating-point
120 overflow occurs in evaluating the expression "1.8e308". (floatoverfl)
121 return HUGE_VAL;
122 -----------^
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124 and when compiling the POSIX extension
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126 cc: Warning: const-c.inc, line 2007: In this statement, floating-point
127 overflow occurs in evaluating the expression "1.8e308". (floatoverfl)
128 return HUGE_VAL;
129 -------------------^
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131 The exact line numbers may vary between Perl releases. The warnings
132 are benign and can be ignored: in later C compiler releases the
133 warnings should be gone.
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135 When the file pp_sys.c is being compiled you may (depending on the
136 operating system release) see an additional compiler flag being used:
137 "-DNO_EFF_ONLY_OK". This is normal and refers to a feature that is
138 relevant only if you use the "filetest" pragma. In older releases of
139 the operating system the feature was broken and the NO_EFF_ONLY_OK
140 instructs Perl not to use the feature.
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143 During "make test" the "comp"/"cpp" will be skipped because on Tru64 it
144 cannot be tested before Perl has been installed. The test refers to
145 the use of the "-P" option of Perl.
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148 The ext/ODBM_File/odbm is known to fail with static builds (Configure
149 -Uusedl) due to a known bug in Tru64's static libdbm library. The good
150 news is that you very probably don't need to ever use the ODBM_File
151 extension since more advanced NDBM_File works fine, not to mention the
152 even more advanced DB_File.
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155 If you get an error like
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157 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.
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159 you need to either recompile your Perl in Tru64 4.0D or upgrade your
160 Tru64 4.0D to at least 4.0F: the sockatmark() system call was added in
161 Tru64 4.0F, and the IO extension refers that symbol.
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164 You may be mixing the Tru64 cc/ar/ld with the GNU gcc/ar/ld. That may
165 work, but sometimes it doesn't (your gcc or GNU utils may have been
166 compiled for an incompatible OS release).
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168 Try 'which ld' and 'which ld' (or try 'ar --version' and 'ld
169 --version', which work only for the GNU tools, and will announce
170 themselves to be such), and adjust your PATH so that you are
171 consistently using either the native tools or the GNU tools. After
172 fixing your PATH, you should do 'make distclean' and start all the way
173 from running the Configure since you may have quite a confused
174 situation.
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177 Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
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181perl v5.36.3 2023-11-30 PERLTRU64(1)