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 Application Solutions Environment), for
       more information see http://www.iseries.ibm.com/devel-
       oper/factory/pase/index.html This environment allows one
       to use AIX APIs while programming, and it provides a run-
       time 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 Con-
       figure 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 com-
       pile 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 /QOpen-
       Sys/perl/bin/perl.  You'll want to symlink /QOpen-
       Sys/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 fea-
       ture.  Scripts starting 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 handler 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 ver-
       sion of Perl.

AUTHORS
       Jarkko Hietaniemi  Bryan Logan
        David Larson 



perl v5.8.8                 2006-01-07               PERLOS400(1)