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   1  If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
   2  see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
   3  specially designed to be readable as is.
   4  
   5  =head1 NAME
   6  
   7  README.vos - Perl for Stratus VOS
   8  
   9  =head1 SYNOPSIS
  10  
  11  This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus VOS
  12  operating system.  Perl is a scripting or macro language that is
  13  popular on many systems.  See L<perlbook> for a number of good
  14  books on Perl.
  15  
  16  These are instructions for building Perl from source.  Most
  17  people can simply download a pre-compiled distribution from the
  18  VOS anonymous FTP site.  This version of Perl is not supported
  19  on VOS Release 14.2.0 or earlier releases.  If you are running
  20  VOS Release 14.3.0 or later, download Perl from
  21  ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/ga.html.  Instructions
  22  for unbundling the Perl distribution file are at
  23  ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/utility/utility.html.
  24  
  25  If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a
  26  pre-compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing Release 2.0.1
  27  (or later) of the VOS GNU C++ and GNU Tools product from Stratus
  28  Technologies.
  29  
  30  =head1 BUILDING PERL FOR VOS
  31  
  32  To build perl from its source code, you must have a Continuum
  33  platform running VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the STCP product,
  34  and the GNU C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or later.
  35  
  36  To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and
  37  makefiles, change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the command
  38  "compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl".  This
  39  will configure, build, and test perl.
  40  
  41  =head1 INSTALLING PERL IN VOS
  42  
  43  =over 4
  44  
  45  =item 1
  46  
  47  If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that
  48  you have modify permission to C<< >system>ported >> and type
  49  
  50       gmake install
  51  
  52  =item 2
  53  
  54  While there are currently no architecture-specific
  55  extensions or modules distributed with perl, the following
  56  directories can be used to hold such files:
  57  
  58       >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>7100
  59       >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>8000
  60  
  61  =item 3
  62  
  63  Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one of
  64  two places.  Put architecture-independent files into:
  65  
  66       >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0
  67  
  68  Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the
  69  following directories:
  70  
  71       >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>7100
  72       >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>8000
  73  
  74  =item 4
  75  
  76  You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program
  77  to see the order in which Perl searches these directories.
  78  
  79  =back
  80  
  81  =head1 USING PERL IN VOS
  82  
  83  =head2 Restrictions of Perl on VOS
  84  
  85  This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style,
  86  slash-separated pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated
  87  pathnames.  VOS-style pathnames should work in most contexts, but
  88  if you have trouble, replace all greater-than characters by slash
  89  characters.  Because the slash character is used as a pathname
  90  delimiter, Perl cannot process VOS pathnames containing a slash
  91  character in a directory or file name; these must be renamed.
  92  
  93  This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally.
  94  As long as you are dealing with ASCII character string
  95  representations of dates, this should not be an issue.  The
  96  supported epoch is January 1, 1980 to January 17, 2038.
  97  
  98  See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS
  99  port of Perl.
 100  
 101  =head2 Handling of underflow and overflow
 102  
 103  Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically
 104  mapping overflowed floating-point values to +infinity, nor
 105  automatically mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero,
 106  unlike many other platforms.  The Perl pack function has been
 107  modified to perform such mapping in software on VOS.  Performing
 108  other floating-point computations that underflow or overflow
 109  will probably result in SIGFPE.  Don't push your luck.
 110  
 111  As of VOS Release 14.7.0, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the
 112  PA-RISC hardware floating-point status register so that the
 113  overflow and underflow exceptions do not trap, but instead
 114  automatically convert the result to infinity or zero, as
 115  appropriate.  As of this writing, there are still floating-point
 116  operations that can trap, for example, subtracting two infinite
 117  values.  This is recorded as suggestion posix-1022, which is not
 118  yet fixed.
 119  
 120  =head1 TEST STATUS
 121  
 122  When Perl 5.9.0 is built using the native build process on VOS
 123  Release 14.7.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.2a, all but nine
 124  attempted tests either pass or result in TODO (ignored)
 125  failures.  The tests that fail are:
 126  
 127  t/io/dup, test 2
 128  t/io/tell, test 28
 129  t/op/pack, test 0
 130  ext/B/t/bytecode, test 1
 131  ext/Devel/Peek/t/Peek, test 1
 132  ext/Encode/t/enc_module, test 1
 133  ext/IO/t/io_dup, test 2
 134  lib/ExtUtils/t/MM_Unix, test 94
 135  lib/Net/ing/t/450_service, test 8
 136  
 137  =head1 SUPPORT STATUS
 138  
 139  I'm offering this port "as is".  You can ask me questions, but I
 140  can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them.  There are some
 141  excellent books available on the Perl language; consult a book
 142  seller.
 143  
 144  If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the
 145  VOS GNU C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 (or later) product from
 146  Stratus Technologies, along with a support contract (or from
 147  anyone else who will sell you support).
 148  
 149  =head1 AUTHOR
 150  
 151  Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com)
 152  
 153  =head1 LAST UPDATE
 154  
 155  January 15, 2004
 156  
 157  =cut