PERLAIX(1)						 Perl Programmers Reference Guide						PERLAIX(1)

NAME

       README.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems

DESCRIPTION

       This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
       compiled and/or runs.

       Compiling Perl 5 on AIX

       For information on compilers on older versions of AIX, see "Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX".

       When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds
       of gcc for AIX are widely available.

       Supported Compilers

       Currently all versions of IBM's "xlc", "xlc_r", "cc", "cc_r" or "vac" ANSI/C compiler will work for building perl if that compiler works on
       your system.

       If you plan to link perl to any module that requires thread-support, like DBD::Oracle, it is better to use the _r version of the compiler.
       This will not build a threaded perl, but a thread-enabled perl. See also "Threaded perl" later on.

       As of writing (2008-11) only the IBM XL C for AIX or XL C/C++ for AIX compiler is supported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1.

       The following compiler versions are supported by IBM:

       XL C and XL C/C++ V7, V8, V9, V10

       The XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler.

       If you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed otherwise the integrated SDBM_File do not compile correctly due to an optimiza-
       tion bug. You can circumvent this problem by adding -qipa to the optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa').  The PTF for APAR IZ35785
       which solves this problem will be available in 1Q 2009. IBM does provide an emergency fix for this problem.

       Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.  The former is recommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no
       difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.

       If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-spe-
       cific details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development team.

       Perl 5.8.9 was successfully compiled and tested on:

	   AIX Level		     | Compiler Level	       | w th | w/o th
	   --------------------------+-------------------------+------+-------
	   5.1 TL9 32 bit	     | XL C/C++ V7	       | OK   | OK
	   5.1 TL9 32 bit	     | gcc 3.2.2	       | OK   | OK
	   5.1 TL9 64 bit	     | XL C/C++ V7	       | OK   | OK
	   5.2 TL10 32 bit	     | XL C/C++ V8	       | OK   | OK
	   5.2 TL10 64 bit	     | XL C/C++ V8	       | OK   | OK
	   5.3 TL7 32 bit	     | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785   | OK   | OK
	   5.3 TL7 32 bit	     | gcc 4.2.4	       | OK   | OK
	   5.3 TL7 64 bit	     | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785   | OK   | OK
	   6.1 TL1 32 bit	     | XL C/C++ V10	       | OK   | OK
	   6.1 TL1 64 bit + IZ39077  | XL C/C++ V10	       | OK   | OK

	   w th   = with thread
	   w/o th = without thread

       Successfully tested means that all make test runs with an result of 100% OK.  All tests were conducted with -Duseshrplib set.

       Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX

       Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x) and AIX 4.3 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the
       so called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2
       and earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled modules from earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make
       Perl more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use
       of C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions, which was not possible using the emulated interface.

       It is highly recommended to use the new interface.

       Using Large Files with Perl

       Should yield no problems.

       Threaded Perl

       Should yield no problems with AIX 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1.

       IBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.6.0 on AIX 5.1 and V5.8.2 on AIX 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1) for some AIX system scripts. If you switch the links
       in /usr/bin from the AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build Perl then you get the same features as with the IBM AIX system
       Perl if the threaded options are used.

       The threaded perl build works also on AIX 5.1 but the IBM Perl build (Perl v5.6.0) is not threaded on AIX 5.1.

       64-bit Perl

       If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit configurations to work. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX
       6.1 you need a APAR for a libc.a bug which affects (n)dbm_XXX functions.  The APAR number for this problem is IZ39077.

       If you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs you can set:

	   /etc/security/limits
	   default:		       (or your user)
	       data = -1	       (default is 262144 * 512 byte)

       With the default setting the size is limited to 128MB.  The -1 removes this limit.

       Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/32-bit)

       With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes all make tests in threaded 32-bit mode, which is the default con-
       figuration for the perl builds that AIX ships with.

	   rm config.sh
	   ./Configure 
	   -d 
	   -Dcc=cc_r 
	   -Duseshrplib 
	   -Dusethreads 
	   -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32

       The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl installation.

       Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (32-bit)

       With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make tests in 32-bit mode.

	   rm config.sh
	   ./Configure 
	   -d 
	   -Dcc=cc_r 
	   -Duseshrplib 
	   -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_32

       The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl installation.

       Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1 (threaded/64-bit)

       With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes all make tests in 64-bit mode.

	   export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)

	   rm config.sh
	   ./Configure 
	   -d 
	   -Dcc=cc_r 
	   -Duseshrplib 
	   -Dusethreads 
	   -Duse64bitall 
	   -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64

       Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3 and 6.1(64-bit)

       With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make tests in 64-bit mode.

	   export OBJECT_MODE=64 / setenv OBJECT_MODE 64 (depending on your shell)

	   rm config.sh
	   ./Configure 
	   -d 
	   -Dcc=cc_r 
	   -Duseshrplib 
	   -Duse64bitall 
	   -Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl5_64

       The -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl installation.

       If you choose gcc to compile 64-bit Perl then you need to use the following options:

	   -Dcc='gcc -maix64'

       Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3

       Due to the fact that AIX 4.3.3 reached end-of-service in December 31, 2003 this information  is provided as is. The Perl versions prior to
       Perl 5.8.9 could be compiled on AIX up to 4.3.3 with the following settings (your mileage may vary):

       When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds
       of gcc for AIX are widely available.

       At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers, for which you have to pay: xlC and vac. If you decide to use
       either of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:

	   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
	   vac.C     4.4.0.3  or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1

       note that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so you will find xlC.C for AIX-5.0 as package

	   xlC.aix50.rte   5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3

       subversions are not the same "latest" on all OS versions. For example, the latest xlC-5 on aix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7.

       Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc.  The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no
       difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.

       The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c, respec-
       tively.	If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files.  Upgrading
       to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.

       If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-spe-
       cific details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development team.

       OS level

       Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command
       'oslevel' will show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of
       4.3.THREE):

	   # oslevel
	   4.3.0.0
	   # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '
	   bos.rte	     4.3.3.75  COMMITTED  Base Operating System Runtime
	   bos.rte	      4.3.2.0  COMMITTED  Base Operating System Runtime
	   #

       The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, perl cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm
       installed

	   # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm"
	   bos.adt.libm      5.1.0.25  COMMITTED  Base Application Development
	   bos.adt.syscalls  5.1.0.36  COMMITTED  System Calls Application
	   #

       Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX

       AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries.  Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a
       bit misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members.  For perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix
       also used on many other platforms.

       Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3 or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the
       so called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2
       and earlier.  This change does break backward compatibility with compiled modules from earlier perl releases.  The change was made to make
       Perl more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use
       of C++ code with static constructors and destructors in perl extensions, which was not possible using the emulated interface.

       The IBM ANSI C Compiler

       All defaults for Configure can be used.

       If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least
       5.0.1.0, but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software depot,
       these versions should be considered obsolete.

       Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest level.	Of course this is subject to changes.  You can only upgrade ver-
       sions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches in the
       developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the "base" is available.  In other words, the AIX compiler patches are cumulative.

	vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3	is OK	  (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)
	xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available)

	# ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
	Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com.
	: welcome message ...
	Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous
	331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
	Password:
	... accepted login stuff
	ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/
	ftp> dir other other.ll
	output to local-file: other.ll? y
	200 PORT command successful.
	150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
	226 Transfer complete.
	ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll
	output to local-file: xlc.ll? y
	200 PORT command successful.
	150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
	226 Transfer complete.
	ftp> bye
	... goodbye messages
	# ls -l *.ll
	-rw-rw-rw-   1 merijn	system	  1169432 Nov  2 17:29 other.ll
	-rw-rw-rw-   1 merijn	system	    29170 Nov  2 17:29 xlc.ll

       On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:

	# lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '
	  xlC.C 		    3.1.4.9  COMMITTED	C for AIX Compiler
	  xlC.C 		    3.1.4.0  COMMITTED	C for AIX Compiler
	# grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll
	-rw-r--r--   1 45776101 1	 6286336 Jul 22 1996  xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6173696 Aug 24 1998  xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
	-rw-r--r--   1 45776101 1	 6319104 Aug 14 1996  xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff
	-rw-r--r--   1 45776101 1	 6316032 Oct 21 1996  xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff
	-rw-r--r--   1 45776101 1	 6315008 Dec 20 1996  xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6178816 Mar 28 1997  xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6188032 May 22 1997  xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6191104 Sep  5 1997  xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6185984 Jan 13 1998  xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 6169600 May 27 1998  xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff
	# wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff
	#

       On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:

	# lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C '
	 vac.C			    5.0.2.2  COMMITTED	C for AIX Compiler
	 vac.C			    5.0.2.0  COMMITTED	C for AIX Compiler
	# grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 13592576 Apr 16 2001  vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 14133248 Apr  9 2002  vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 14173184 May 20 2002  vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff
	-rw-rw-r--   1 45776101 1	 14192640 Nov 22 2002  vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
	# wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff
	#

       Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and fill in its choices

	# smit install_update
	 -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software
	 * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff	]
	 [ OK ]
	 [ OK ]

       Follow the messages ... and you're done.

       If you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/downloadaz.jsp and click "C
       for AIX", and follow the instructions.

       The usenm option

       If linking miniperl

	cc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ...

       causes error like this

	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid
	ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle
	ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information.

       you could retry with

	make realclean
	rm config.sh
	./Configure -Dusenm ...

       which makes Configure to use the "nm" tool when scanning for library symbols, which usually is not done in AIX.

       Related to this, you probably should not use the "-r" option of Configure in AIX, because that affects of how the "nm" tool is used.

       Using GNU's gcc for building perl

       Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box, as do recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part
       of their Linux compatibility packages, available here:

	 http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/

       Using Large Files with Perl

       Should yield no problems.

       Threaded Perl

       Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when threads are used in combination with 64-bit configurations.

       You may get a warning when doing a threaded build:

	 "pp_sys.c", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed.

       The exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line line this

	 hent = PerlSock_gethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdb_hlen_t) addrlen, addrtype);

       in the "pp_ghostent" function, you may ignore it safely.  The warning is caused by the reentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a
       slightly different prototype than its non-reentrant variant, but the difference is not really significant here.

       64-bit Perl

       If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might
       still fail.

       AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics

       In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized.  In
       newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library has an
       obscure bug where the various functions related to time (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and therefore in AIX 4.2
       Perl is not linked against the libC_r.

AUTHORS

       H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl> Rainer Tammer <tammer@tammer.net>

DATE

       Version 0.0.8: 01 Dec 2008

perl v5.8.9							    2007-11-17								PERLAIX(1)