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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.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
10 | ||
11 | This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating | |
12 | system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) | |
13 | is compiled and/or runs. | |
14 | ||
15 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX | |
16 | ||
17 | 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. | |
20 | ||
21 | At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers, | |
22 | for which you have to pay: B<xlC> and B<vac>. If you decide to use either | |
23 | of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to | |
24 | upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently: | |
25 | ||
26 | 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 | |
27 | vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1 | |
28 | ||
29 | note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so | |
30 | you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package | |
31 | ||
32 | xlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3 | |
33 | ||
34 | subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example, | |
35 | the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7. | |
36 | ||
37 | Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. | |
38 | The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no | |
39 | difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that | |
40 | require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags. | |
41 | ||
42 | The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler | |
43 | optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c, | |
44 | respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch | |
45 | levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files. | |
46 | Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended. | |
47 | ||
48 | If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and | |
49 | complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific | |
50 | details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development | |
51 | team. | |
52 | ||
53 | =head2 OS level | |
54 | ||
55 | Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the | |
56 | level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will | |
57 | show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows | |
58 | 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE): | |
59 | ||
60 | # oslevel | |
61 | 4.3.0.0 | |
62 | # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte ' | |
63 | bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime | |
64 | bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime | |
65 | # | |
66 | ||
67 | The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, perl | |
68 | cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed | |
69 | ||
70 | # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm" | |
71 | bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development | |
72 | bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application | |
73 | # | |
74 | ||
75 | =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX | |
76 | ||
77 | AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries. | |
78 | Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit | |
79 | misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members. | |
80 | For perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix also used on | |
81 | many other platforms. | |
82 | ||
83 | Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3 | |
84 | or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so | |
85 | called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was | |
86 | used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and | |
87 | earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled | |
88 | modules from earlier perl releases. The change was made to make Perl | |
89 | more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are | |
90 | using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++ | |
91 | code with static constructors and destructors in perl extensions, which | |
92 | was not possible using the emulated interface. | |
93 | ||
94 | =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler | |
95 | ||
96 | All defaults for Configure can be used. | |
97 | ||
98 | If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions | |
99 | will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0, | |
100 | but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has | |
101 | removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot, these | |
102 | versions should be considered obsolete. | |
103 | ||
104 | Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest | |
105 | level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade | |
106 | versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups | |
107 | are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches | |
108 | in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the | |
109 | "base" is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are | |
110 | cumulative. | |
111 | ||
112 | vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed) | |
113 | xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available) | |
114 | ||
115 | # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com | |
116 | Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com. | |
117 | : welcome message ... | |
118 | Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous | |
119 | 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. | |
120 | Password: | |
121 | ... accepted login stuff | |
122 | ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/ | |
123 | ftp> dir other other.ll | |
124 | output to local-file: other.ll? y | |
125 | 200 PORT command successful. | |
126 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. | |
127 | 226 Transfer complete. | |
128 | ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll | |
129 | output to local-file: xlc.ll? y | |
130 | 200 PORT command successful. | |
131 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. | |
132 | 226 Transfer complete. | |
133 | ftp> bye | |
134 | ... goodbye messages | |
135 | # ls -l *.ll | |
136 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll | |
137 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll | |
138 | ||
139 | On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue: | |
140 | ||
141 | # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C ' | |
142 | xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler | |
143 | xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler | |
144 | # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll | |
145 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff | |
146 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff | |
147 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff | |
148 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff | |
149 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff | |
150 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff | |
151 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff | |
152 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff | |
153 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff | |
154 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff | |
155 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff | |
156 | # | |
157 | ||
158 | On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue: | |
159 | ||
160 | # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C ' | |
161 | vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler | |
162 | vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler | |
163 | # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll | |
164 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff | |
165 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff | |
166 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff | |
167 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff | |
168 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff | |
169 | # | |
170 | ||
171 | Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and | |
172 | fill in its choices | |
173 | ||
174 | # smit install_update | |
175 | -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software | |
176 | * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ] | |
177 | [ OK ] | |
178 | [ OK ] | |
179 | ||
180 | Follow the messages ... and you're done. | |
181 | ||
182 | If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be | |
183 | http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click | |
184 | "C for AIX", and follow the instructions. | |
185 | ||
186 | =head2 The usenm option | |
187 | ||
188 | If linking miniperl | |
189 | ||
190 | cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ... | |
191 | ||
192 | causes error like this | |
193 | ||
194 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl | |
195 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl | |
196 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall | |
197 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess | |
198 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid | |
199 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid | |
200 | ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle | |
201 | ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information. | |
202 | ||
203 | you could retry with | |
204 | ||
205 | make realclean | |
206 | rm config.sh | |
207 | ./Configure -Dusenm ... | |
208 | ||
209 | which makes Configure to use the C<nm> tool when scanning for library | |
210 | symbols, which usually is not done in AIX. | |
211 | ||
212 | Related to this, you probably should not use the C<-r> option of | |
213 | Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the C<nm> tool is used. | |
214 | ||
215 | =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl | |
216 | ||
217 | Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box, | |
218 | as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their | |
219 | Linux compatibility packages, available here: | |
220 | ||
221 | http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/ | |
222 | ||
223 | =head2 Using Large Files with Perl | |
224 | ||
225 | Should yield no problems. | |
226 | ||
227 | =head2 Threaded Perl | |
228 | ||
229 | Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when | |
230 | threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations. | |
231 | ||
232 | You may get a warning when doing a threaded build: | |
233 | ||
234 | "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed. | |
235 | ||
236 | The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line | |
237 | line this | |
238 | ||
239 | hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype); | |
240 | ||
241 | in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning | |
242 | is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly | |
243 | different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference | |
244 | is not really significant here. | |
245 | ||
246 | =head2 64-bit Perl | |
247 | ||
248 | If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit | |
249 | configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might | |
250 | still fail. | |
251 | ||
252 | =head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics | |
253 | ||
254 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics | |
255 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. | |
256 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with | |
257 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library | |
258 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time | |
259 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and | |
260 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r. | |
261 | ||
262 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
263 | ||
264 | H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl> | |
265 | ||
266 | =head1 DATE | |
267 | ||
268 | Version 0.0.6: 23 Dec 2002 | |
269 | ||
270 | =cut |