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NAME

       README.vos - Perl for Stratus VOS

SYNOPSIS

       This file contains notes for building perl on the Stratus VOS operating
       system.  Perl is a scripting or macro language that is popular on many
       systems.  See perlbook for a number of good books on Perl.

       These are instructions for building Perl from source.  Most people can
       simply download a pre-compiled distribution from the VOS anonymous FTP
       site.  This version of Perl is not supported on VOS Release 14.2.0 or
       earlier releases.  If you are running VOS Release 14.3.0 or later,
       download Perl from ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/posix/ga/ga.html.
       Instructions for unbundling the Perl distribution file are at
       ftp://ftp.stratus.com/pub/vos/utility/utility.html.

       If you are running VOS Release 14.4.1 or later, you can obtain a pre-
       compiled, supported copy of perl by purchasing Release 2.0.1 (or later)
       of the VOS GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools product from Stratus Technologies.

BUILDING PERL FOR VOS

       To build perl from its source code on the Stratus Continuum platform,
       you must be have VOS Release 14.5.0 or later, the STCP product, and the
       GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools, Release 2.0.1 or later.  On the V Series
       platform you must have VOS Release 15.0.0 or later, and any version of
       the GNU C/C++ and GNU Tools product.

       To build full perl using the supplied Configure script and makefiles,
       change to the "vos" subdirectory and type the command
       "compile_full_perl" or "start_process compile_full_perl".  This will
       configure, build, and test perl.

INSTALLING PERL IN VOS

       1.  If you have built perl using the Configure script, ensure that you
           have modify and default write permission to ">system>ported" and
           all subdirectories.  Then type

                gmake install

       2.  While there are currently no architecture-specific extensions or
           modules distributed with perl, the following directories can be
           used to hold such files:

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>7100
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>8000
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>5.9.0>i786

       3.  Site-specific perl extensions and modules can be installed in one
           of two places.  Put architecture-independent files into:

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0

           Put site-specific architecture-dependent files into one of the
           following directories:

                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>7100
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>8000
                >system>ported>lib>perl5>site_perl>5.9.0>i786

       4.  You can examine the @INC variable from within a perl program to see
           the order in which Perl searches these directories.

USING PERL IN VOS

   Restrictions of Perl on VOS
       This port of Perl version 5 to VOS prefers Unix-style, slash-separated
       pathnames over VOS-style greater-than-separated pathnames.  VOS-style
       pathnames should work in most contexts, but if you have trouble,
       replace all greater-than characters by slash characters.  Because the
       slash character is used as a pathname delimiter, Perl cannot process
       VOS pathnames containing a slash character in a directory or file name;
       these must be renamed.

       This port of Perl also uses Unix-epoch date values internally.  As long
       as you are dealing with ASCII character string representations of
       dates, this should not be an issue.  The supported epoch is January 1,
       1980 to January 17, 2038.

       See the file pod/perlport.pod for more information about the VOS port
       of Perl.

   Handling of underflow and overflow
       Prior to VOS Release 14.7.0, VOS does not support automatically mapping
       overflowed floating-point values to +infinity, nor automatically
       mapping underflowed floating-point values to zero, unlike many other
       platforms.  The Perl pack function has been modified to perform such
       mapping in software on VOS.  Performing other floating-point
       computations that underflow or overflow will probably result in SIGFPE.
       Don’t push your luck.

       As of VOS Release 14.7.0, the VOS POSIX runtime sets up the PA-RISC and
       IA-32 hardware floating-point status register so that the overflow and
       underflow exceptions do not trap, but instead automatically convert the
       result to infinity or zero, as appropriate.  As of this writing, there
       are still floating-point operations that can trap, for example,
       subtracting two infinite values.  This is recorded as suggestion
       posix-1022, which has been fixed in VOS Release 15.2 and higher.

TEST STATUS

       When Perl 5.9.0 is built using the native build process on VOS Release
       14.7.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.2a, all but nine attempted tests
       either pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures.  The tests that fail
       are:

       t/io/dup, test 2 t/io/tell, test 28 t/op/pack, test 0 ext/B/t/bytecode,
       test 1 ext/Devel/Peek/t/Peek, test 1 ext/Encode/t/enc_module, test 1
       ext/IO/t/io_dup, test 2 lib/ExtUtils/t/MM_Unix, test 94
       lib/Net/ing/t/450_service, test 8

SUPPORT STATUS

       I’m offering this port "as is".  You can ask me questions, but I can’t
       guarantee I’ll be able to answer them.  There are some excellent books
       available on the Perl language; consult a book seller.

       If you want a supported version of perl for VOS, purchase the VOS GNU
       C/C++ and GNU Tools Release 2.0.1 (or later) product from Stratus
       Technologies, along with a support contract (or from anyone else who
       will sell you support).

AUTHOR

       Paul Green (Paul.Green@stratus.com)

LAST UPDATE

       February 7, 2008