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README.os390(1)





NAME

       README.os390 - building and installing Perl for OS/390 and z/OS


SYNOPSIS

       This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl on
       OS/390 (aka z/OS) Unix System Services.


DESCRIPTION

       This is a fully ported Perl for OS/390 Version 2 Release 3, 5, 6, 7, 8,
       and 9.  It may work on other versions or releases, but those are the
       ones we've tested it on.

       You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before run-
       ning the Configure script for Perl.

       Tools

       The z/OS Unix Tools and Toys list may prove helpful and contains links
       to ports of much of the software helpful for building Perl.
       http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html

       Unpacking Perl distribution on OS/390

       If using ftp remember to transfer the distribution in binary format.

       Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:

         http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/faq/bpxqp1.html

       to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:

          pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar

       or

          zcat latest.tar.Z | pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r

       If you get lots of errors of the form

         tar: FSUM7171 ...: cannot set uid/gid: EDC5139I Operation not permitted.

       you didn't read the above and tried to use tar instead of pax, you'll
       first have to remove the (now corrupt) perl directory

          rm -rf perl-...

       and then use pax.

       Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390

       Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
       parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:

         cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc

       This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file and
       either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place.  The IBM
       document that described such USS system setup issues was SC28-1890-07
       "OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular Chapter 6 on cus-
       tomizing the OE shell.

       GNU make for OS/390, which is recommended for the build of perl (as
       well as building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from the
       "Tools".

       Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
       trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries.  If you encounter such
       trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
       from source to eliminate any such trouble.  You might also find GNU
       make (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source
       Software for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.

       If instead of the recommended GNU make you would like to use the system
       supplied make program then be sure to install the default rules file
       properly via the shell command:

           cp /samples/startup.mk /etc

       and be sure to also set the environment variable _C89_CCMODE=1 (export-
       ing _C89_CCMODE=1 is also a good idea for users of GNU make).

       You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before run-
       ning the "make install" step for Perl.

       There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
       that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9.  The problem
       with the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT
       constant there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment
       like so:

        #define SO_REUSEPORT    0x0200    /* allow local address & port
                                             reuse */                    /

       You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you
       might note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the
       problem and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and
       apply them.  If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an
       inability for Perl to build its "Socket" extension.

       For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
       world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man
       chmod).

       Configure Perl on OS/390

       Once you've unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see INSTALL
       for a full discussion of the Configure options).  There is a "hints"
       file for os390 that specifies the correct values for most things.  Some
       things to watch out for include:

       o   A message of the form:

            (I see you are using the Korn shell.  Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
            mainly on older exotic systems.  If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)

           is nothing to worry about at all.

       o   Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in
           /etc.  In particular be sure that you at least copy /sam-
           ples/yyparse.c to /etc before running Perl's Configure.  This step
           ensures successful extraction of EBCDIC versions of parser files
           such as perly.c, perly.h, and x2p/a2p.c.  This has to be done
           before running Configure the first time.  If you failed to do so
           then the easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to delete your miscon-
           figured build root and re-extract the source from the tar ball.
           Then you must ensure that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in place
           before attempting to re-run Configure.

       o   This port will support dynamic loading, but it is not selected by
           default.  If you would like to experiment with dynamic loading then
           be sure to specify -Dusedl in the arguments to the Configure
           script.  See the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on
           dynamic loading.  If you build with dynamic loading then you will
           need to add the $archlibexp/CORE directory to your LIBPATH environ-
           ment variable in order for perl to work.  See the config.sh file
           for the value of $archlibexp.  If in trying to use Perl you see an
           error message similar to:

            CEE3501S The module libperl.dll was not found.
                    From entry point __dllstaticinit at compile unit offset +00000194 at

           then your LIBPATH does not have the location of libperl.x and
           either libperl.dll or libperl.so in it.  Add that directory to your
           LIBPATH and proceed.

       o   Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O".  There is a bug
           in either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to not work cor-
           rectly when the optimizer is on.

       o   Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the networking APIs
           are either missing or have the wrong names.  In particular, make
           sure that there's either an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so
           that gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file /etc/proto
           has been renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT /etc/protocols, as used by
           other Unix systems).  You may have to look for things like HOSTNAME
           and DOMAINORIGIN in the "//'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'" PDS member in
           order to properly set up your /etc networking files.

       Build, Test, Install Perl on OS/390

       Simply put:

           sh Configure
           make
           make test

       if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis)
       then:

           make install

       this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending on how
       you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether or not you
       have write access to the directories you specified.

       Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390

       "Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
       by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.

       Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in
       your 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8
       address space limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS seg-
       ment of a RACF profile).  People have reported successful builds of
       Perl with MAXASSIZE parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be
       possible to build Perl with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).

       Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
       settings.  Check that the following command returns reasonable values:

           ulimit -a

       To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into
       the Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.

       If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
       Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
       header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.

       Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390

       The "make test" step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
       installation.  You might encounter STDERR messages even during a suc-
       cessful run of "make test".  Here is a guide to some of the more com-
       monly seen anomalies:

       o   A message of the form:

            comp/cpp.............ERROR CBC3191 ./.301989890.c:1     The character $ is not a
             valid C source character.
            FSUM3065 The COMPILE step ended with return code 12.
            FSUM3017 Could not compile .301989890.c. Correct the errors and try again.
            ok

           indicates that the t/comp/cpp.t test of Perl's -P command line
           switch has passed but that the particular invocation of c89 -E in
           the cpp script does not suppress the C compiler check of source
           code validity.

       o   A message of the form:

            io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
            CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
            CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
            ok

           indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done
           so with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.

       o   A message of the form:

            lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe
            (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
            File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky bit not
            set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
            ok

           indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory
           within the HFS.  To correct that problem issue the command:

                chmod a+t /tmp

           from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.

       o   Out of Memory!

           Recent perl test suite is quite memory hunrgy. In addition to the
           comments above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for
           _CEE_RUNOPTS in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c)
           a C #pragma to set CEE run options, but the environment variable
           wins.

           The C code asks for:

            #pragma runopts(HEAP(2M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K) STACK(,,ANY,) ALL31(ON))

           The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment)
           to HEAP, and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If
           the heap increment is too small then when perl (for example loading
           unicode/Name.pl) tries to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot
           fit in a single segment and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if
           there is still plenty of memory available.

           A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses
           "sbrk()" to get memory, and "sbrk()" is limited to the first allo-
           cation so in this case something like:

             HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)

           is needed to get through the test suite.

       Installation Anomalies with Perl on OS/390

       The installman script will try to run on OS/390.  There will be fewer
       errors if you have a roff utility installed.  You can obtain GNU groff
       from the Redbook SG24-5944-00 ftp site.

       Usage Hints for Perl on OS/390

       When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
       character sets are different.  See perlebcdic.pod for more on such
       character set issues.  Perl builtin functions that may behave differ-
       ently under EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod document.

       Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
       #!/path/to/perl script invocation.  There is a PTF available from IBM
       for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!.  USS releases
       prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation.  If
       you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:

           head `whence perldoc`

       for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
       have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System Ser-
       vices.

       If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching
       your rlogin or telnet client.  Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and
       ISHELL for working with Perl on USS.

       Floating Point Anomalies with Perl on OS/390

       There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
       systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
       magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
       that number and a large magnitude number.  For example, in the follow-
       ing Perl code:

           my $x = 100000.0;
           my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
           my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5;  # '100000'
           print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000

       Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and
       equal to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000
       respectively.

       The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:

           #include <stdio.h>
           #include <math.h>
           main()
           {
           double r1,r2;
           double x = 100000.0;
           double y = 0.0;
           double z = 0.0;
           x = 100000.0 * 1e-5;
           r1 = modf (x,&y);
           x = 100000.0 / 1e+5;
           r2 = modf (x,&z);
           printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
           /* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
           }

       Modules and Extensions for Perl on OS/390

       Pure pure (that is non xs) modules may be installed via the usual:

           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make test
           make install

       If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
       be the way to build xs based extensions.  However, if you built perl
       with the default static linking you can still build xs based extensions
       for OS/390 but you will need to follow the instructions in ExtU-
       tils::MakeMaker for building statically linked perl binaries.  In the
       simplest configurations building a static perl + xs extension boils
       down to:

           perl Makefile.PL
           make
           make perl
           make test
           make install
           make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl

       In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
       than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
       xs based extensions.

       If the make process encounters trouble with either compilation or link-
       ing then try setting the _C89_CCMODE to 1.  Assuming sh is your login
       shell then run:

           export _C89_CCMODE=1

       If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.


AUTHORS

       David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker and
       William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback.  Thanks
       to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00.  Thanks to Ignasi
       Roca for pointing out the floating point problems.  Thanks to John
       Goodyear for dynamic loading help.


SEE ALSO

       INSTALL, perlport, perlebcdic, ExtUtils::MakeMaker.

           http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html

           http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg245944.html

           http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc

           http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/

           http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3030/

           http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/CBCUG030/

       Mailing list for Perl on OS/390

       If you are interested in the VM/ESA, z/OS (formerly known as OS/390)
       and POSIX-BC (BS2000) ports of Perl then see the perl-mvs mailing list.
       To subscribe, send an empty message to perl-mvs-subscribe@perl.org.

       See also:

           http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl-mvs

       There are web archives of the mailing list at:

           http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
           http://archive.develooper.com/perl-mvs@perl.org/


HISTORY

       This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
       release of Perl.

       This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March
       1999.

       Updated 28 November 2001 for broken URLs.

       Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.

       Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.

       Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.

       Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.

perl v5.8.8                       2006-06-14                      PERLOS390(1)

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