PERLOS400(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLOS400(1)
NAME
README.os400 - Perl version 5 on OS/400
DESCRIPTION
This document describes various features of IBM's OS/400 operating system that will
affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
By far the easiest way to build Perl for OS/400 is to use the PASE (Portable Appli-
cation Solutions Environment), for more information see
http://www.iseries.ibm.com/developer/factory/pase/index.html This environment
allows one to use AIX APIs while programming, and it provides a runtime that allows
AIX binaries to execute directly on the PowerPC iSeries.
Compiling Perl for OS/400 PASE
The recommended way to build Perl for the OS/400 PASE is to build the Perl 5 source
code (release 5.8.1 or later) under AIX.
The trick is to give a special parameter to the Configure shell script when running
it on AIX:
sh Configure -DPASE ...
The default installation directory of Perl under PASE is /QOpenSys/perl. This can
be modified if needed with Configure parameter -Dprefix=/some/dir.
Starting from OS/400 V5R2 the IBM Visual Age compiler is supported on OS/400 PASE,
so it is possible to build Perl natively on OS/400. The easier way, however, is to
compile in AIX, as just described.
If you don't want to install the compiled Perl in AIX into /QOpenSys (for packaging
it before copying it to PASE), you can use a Configure parameter: -Dinstallpre-
fix=/tmp/QOpenSys/perl. This will cause the "make install" to install everything
into that directory, while the installed files still think they are (will be) in
/QOpenSys/perl.
If building natively on PASE, please do the build under the /QOpenSys directory,
since Perl is happier when built on a case sensitive filesystem.
Installing Perl in OS/400 PASE
If you are compiling on AIX, simply do a "make install" on the AIX box. Once the
install finishes, tar up the /QOpenSys/perl directory. Transfer the tarball to the
OS/400 using FTP with the following commands:
> binary
> site namefmt 1
> put perl.tar /QOpenSys
Once you have it on, simply bring up a PASE shell and extract the tarball.
If you are compiling in PASE, then "make install" is the only thing you will need
to do.
The default path for perl binary is /QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl. You'll want to sym-
link /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl to this file so you don't have to modify your path.
Using Perl in OS/400 PASE
Perl in PASE may be used in the same manner as you would use Perl on AIX.
Scripts starting with #!/usr/bin/perl should work if you have
/QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl symlinked to your perl binary. This will not work if you've
done a setuid/setgid or have environment variable PASE_EXEC_QOPENSYS="N". If you
have V5R1, you'll need to get the latest PTFs to have this feature. Scripts start-
ing with #!/QOpenSys/perl/bin/perl should always work.
Known Problems
When compiling in PASE, there is no "oslevel" command. Therefore, you may want to
create a script called "oslevel" that echoes the level of AIX that your version of
PASE runtime supports. If you're unsure, consult your documentation or use
"4.3.3.0".
If you have test cases that fail, check for the existence of spool files. The test
case may be trying to use a syscall that is not implemented in PASE. To avoid the
SIGILL, try setting the PASE_SYSCALL_NOSIGILL environment variable or have a han-
dler for the SIGILL. If you can compile programs for PASE, run the config script
and edit config.sh when it gives you the option. If you want to remove fchdir(),
which isn't implement in V5R1, simply change the line that says:
d_fchdir='define'
to
d_fchdir='undef'
and then compile Perl. The places where fchdir() is used have alternatives for
systems that do not have fchdir() available.
Perl on ILE
There exists a port of Perl to the ILE environment. This port, however, is based
quite an old release of Perl, Perl 5.00502 (August 1998). (As of July 2002 the
latest release of Perl is 5.8.0, and even 5.6.1 has been out since April 2001.) If
you need to run Perl on ILE, though, you may need this older port:
http://www.cpan.org/ports/#os400 Note that any Perl release later than 5.00502 has
not been ported to ILE.
If you need to use Perl in the ILE environment, you may want to consider using
Qp2RunPase() to call the PASE version of Perl.
AUTHORS
Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi AT iki.fi> Bryan Logan <bryanlog AT us.com> David Larson <lar-
son1 AT us.com>
perl v5.8.8 2006-01-07 PERLOS400(1)
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