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   1  If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
   2  It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
   3  designed to be readable as is.
   4  
   5  =head1 NAME
   6  
   7  README.os400 - Perl version 5 on OS/400
   8  
   9  =head1 DESCRIPTION
  10  
  11  This document describes various features of IBM's OS/400 operating
  12  system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
  13  compiled and/or runs.
  14  
  15  By far the easiest way to build Perl for OS/400 is to use the PASE
  16  (Portable Application Solutions Environment), for more information see
  17  http://www.iseries.ibm.com/developer/factory/pase/index.html
  18  This environment allows one to use AIX APIs while programming, and it
  19  provides a runtime that allows AIX binaries to execute directly on the
  20  PowerPC iSeries.
  21  
  22  =head2 Compiling Perl for OS/400 PASE
  23  
  24  The recommended way to build Perl for the OS/400 PASE is to build the
  25  Perl 5 source code (release 5.8.1 or later) under AIX.
  26  
  27  The trick is to give a special parameter to the Configure shell script
  28  when running it on AIX:
  29  
  30    sh Configure -DPASE ...
  31  
  32  The default installation directory of Perl under PASE is /QOpenSys/perl.
  33  This can be modified if needed with Configure parameter -Dprefix=/some/dir.
  34  
  35  Starting from OS/400 V5R2 the IBM Visual Age compiler is supported
  36  on OS/400 PASE, so it is possible to build Perl natively on OS/400.  
  37  The easier way, however, is to compile in AIX, as just described.
  38  
  39  If you don't want to install the compiled Perl in AIX into /QOpenSys
  40  (for packaging it before copying it to PASE), you can use a Configure
  41  parameter: -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/QOpenSys/perl.  This will cause the
  42  "make install" to install everything into that directory, while the
  43  installed files still think they are (will be) in /QOpenSys/perl.
  44  
  45  If building natively on PASE, please do the build under the /QOpenSys
  46  directory, since Perl is happier when built on a case sensitive filesystem.
  47  
  48  =head2 Installing Perl in OS/400 PASE
  49  
  50  If you are compiling on AIX, simply do a "make install" on the AIX box.
  51  Once the install finishes, tar up the /QOpenSys/perl directory.  Transfer
  52  the tarball to the OS/400 using FTP with the following commands:
  53  
  54    > binary
  55    > site namefmt 1
  56    > put perl.tar /QOpenSys
  57  
  58  Once you have it on, simply bring up a PASE shell and extract the tarball.
  59  
  60  If you are compiling in PASE, then "make install" is the only thing you
  61  will need to do.
  62  
  63  The default path for perl binary is /QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl.  You'll
  64  want to symlink /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl to this file so you don't have
  65  to modify your path.
  66  
  67  =head2 Using Perl in OS/400 PASE
  68  
  69  Perl in PASE may be used in the same manner as you would use Perl on AIX.
  70  
  71  Scripts starting with #!/usr/bin/perl should work if you have
  72  /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl symlinked to your perl binary.  This will not
  73  work if you've done a setuid/setgid or have environment variable
  74  PASE_EXEC_QOPENSYS="N".  If you have V5R1, you'll need to get the
  75  latest PTFs to have this feature.  Scripts starting with
  76  #!/QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl should always work.
  77  
  78  =head2 Known Problems
  79  
  80  When compiling in PASE, there is no "oslevel" command.  Therefore,
  81  you may want to create a script called "oslevel" that echoes the
  82  level of AIX that your version of PASE runtime supports.  If you're
  83  unsure, consult your documentation or use "4.3.3.0".
  84  
  85  If you have test cases that fail, check for the existence of spool files.
  86  The test case may be trying to use a syscall that is not implemented
  87  in PASE.  To avoid the SIGILL, try setting the PASE_SYSCALL_NOSIGILL
  88  environment variable or have a handler for the SIGILL.  If you can
  89  compile programs for PASE, run the config script and edit config.sh
  90  when it gives you the option.  If you want to remove fchdir(), which
  91  isn't implement in V5R1, simply change the line that says:
  92  
  93  d_fchdir='define'
  94  
  95  to
  96  
  97  d_fchdir='undef'
  98  
  99  and then compile Perl.  The places where fchdir() is used have
 100  alternatives for systems that do not have fchdir() available.
 101  
 102  =head2 Perl on ILE
 103  
 104  There exists a port of Perl to the ILE environment.  This port, however,
 105  is based quite an old release of Perl, Perl 5.00502 (August 1998).
 106  (As of July 2002 the latest release of Perl is 5.8.0, and even 5.6.1
 107  has been out since April 2001.)  If you need to run Perl on ILE, though,
 108  you may need this older port: http://www.cpan.org/ports/#os400
 109  Note that any Perl release later than 5.00502 has not been ported to ILE.
 110  
 111  If you need to use Perl in the ILE environment, you may want to consider
 112  using Qp2RunPase() to call the PASE version of Perl.
 113  
 114  =head1 AUTHORS
 115  
 116  Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
 117  Bryan Logan <bryanlog@us.ibm.com>
 118  David Larson <larson1@us.ibm.com>
 119  
 120  =cut