1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
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2 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially |
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3 | designed to be readable as is. |
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4 | |
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5 | =head1 NAME |
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6 | |
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7 | README.aix - Perl version 5 on IBM Unix (AIX) systems |
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8 | |
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9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
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10 | |
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11 | This document describes various features of IBM's Unix operating |
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12 | system (AIX) that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) |
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13 | is compiled and/or runs. |
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14 | |
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15 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on AIX |
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16 | |
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17 | When compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship |
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18 | an ANSI compliant C-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of |
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19 | gcc for AIX are widely available. |
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20 | |
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21 | At the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers, |
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22 | for which you have to pay: B<xlC> and B<vac>. If you decide to use either |
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23 | of these two (which is quite a lot easier than using gcc), be sure to |
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24 | upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently: |
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25 | |
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26 | xlC.C 3.1.4.10 or 3.6.6.0 or 5.0.2.6 |
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27 | vac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.4 |
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28 | |
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29 | Perl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. |
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30 | The former is recommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no |
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31 | difficulty, but also can take advantage of features listed later that |
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32 | require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags. |
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33 | |
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34 | The IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler |
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35 | optimization bugs that affect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c, |
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36 | respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those compiler patch |
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37 | levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files. |
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38 | Upgrading to at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended. |
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39 | |
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40 | If you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and |
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41 | complete, and be sure to read the Perl README file for more gcc-specific |
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42 | details. Please report any hoops you had to jump through to the development |
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43 | team. |
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44 | |
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45 | =head2 OS level |
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46 | |
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47 | Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the |
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48 | level of patching for the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will |
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49 | show the base, but is not always complete (in this example oslevel shows |
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50 | 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of 4.3.THREE): |
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51 | |
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52 | # oslevel |
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53 | 4.3.0.0 |
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54 | # lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte ' |
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55 | bos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime |
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56 | bos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime |
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57 | # |
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58 | |
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59 | The same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, perl |
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60 | cannot be built without bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed |
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61 | |
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62 | # lslpp -l | egrep "syscalls|libm" |
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63 | bos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development |
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64 | bos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED System Calls Application |
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65 | # |
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66 | |
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67 | =head2 Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX |
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68 | |
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69 | AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries. |
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70 | Shared libraries by convention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit |
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71 | misleading, as an archive can contain static as well as dynamic members. |
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72 | For perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix also used on |
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73 | many other platforms. |
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74 | |
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75 | Note that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3 |
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76 | or newer Perl uses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so |
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77 | called runtime linking mode instead of the emulated interface that was |
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78 | used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2 and |
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79 | earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled |
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80 | modules from earlier perl releases. The change was made to make Perl |
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81 | more compliant with other applications like Apache/mod_perl which are |
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82 | using the AIX native interface. This change also enables the use of C++ |
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83 | code with static constructors and destructors in perl extensions, which |
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84 | was not possible using the emulated interface. |
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85 | |
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86 | =head2 The IBM ANSI C Compiler |
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87 | |
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88 | All defaults for Configure can be used. |
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89 | |
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90 | If you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions |
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91 | will turn up nasty later on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0, |
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92 | but vac 5.0.2.3 or up is highly recommended. Note that since IBM has |
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93 | removed vac 5.0.2.1 and 5.0.2.2 from the software depot, these versions |
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94 | should be considered obsolete. |
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95 | |
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96 | Here's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest |
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97 | level. Of course this is subject to changes. You can only upgrade |
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98 | versions from ftp-available updates if the first three digit groups |
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99 | are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches |
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100 | in the developer snapshots of perl), or to one version up where the |
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101 | `base' is available. In other words, the AIX compiler patches are |
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102 | cumulative. |
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103 | |
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104 | vac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed) |
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105 | xlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not available) |
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106 | |
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107 | # ftp ftp.software.ibm.com |
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108 | Connected to service.boulder.ibm.com. |
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109 | : welcome message ... |
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110 | Name (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous |
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111 | 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. |
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112 | Password: |
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113 | ... accepted login stuff |
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114 | ftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/ |
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115 | ftp> dir other other.ll |
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116 | output to local-file: other.ll? y |
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117 | 200 PORT command successful. |
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118 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. |
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119 | 226 Transfer complete. |
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120 | ftp> dir xlc xlc.ll |
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121 | output to local-file: xlc.ll? y |
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122 | 200 PORT command successful. |
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123 | 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. |
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124 | 226 Transfer complete. |
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125 | ftp> bye |
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126 | ... goodbye messages |
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127 | # ls -l *.ll |
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128 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll |
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129 | -rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll |
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130 | |
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131 | On AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue: |
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132 | |
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133 | # lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C ' |
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134 | xlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
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135 | xlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
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136 | # grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll |
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137 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff |
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138 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff |
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139 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff |
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140 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff |
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141 | -rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff |
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142 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff |
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143 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff |
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144 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff |
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145 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff |
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146 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff |
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147 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff |
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148 | # |
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149 | |
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150 | On AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue: |
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151 | |
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152 | # lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C ' |
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153 | vac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
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154 | vac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler |
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155 | # grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll |
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156 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff |
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157 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff |
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158 | -rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff |
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159 | # wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff |
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160 | # |
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161 | |
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162 | Likewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and |
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163 | fill in its choices |
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164 | |
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165 | # smit install_update |
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166 | -> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software |
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167 | * INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff ] |
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168 | [ OK ] |
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169 | [ OK ] |
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170 | |
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171 | Follow the messages ... and you're done. |
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172 | |
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173 | =head2 Using GNU's gcc for building perl |
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174 | |
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175 | Using gcc-3.0 (tested with 3.0.4) now works out of the box, as do |
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176 | recent gcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their Linux |
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177 | compatibility packages, available here: |
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178 | |
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179 | http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/ |
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180 | |
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181 | =head2 Using Large Files with Perl |
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182 | |
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183 | Should yield no problems. |
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184 | |
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185 | =head2 Threaded Perl |
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186 | |
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187 | Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when |
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188 | threads are used in combination with 64bit configurations. |
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189 | |
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190 | =head2 64-bit Perl |
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191 | |
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192 | If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64bit |
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193 | configurations to work. In combination with threads some tests might |
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194 | still fail. |
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195 | |
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196 | =head2 AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics |
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197 | |
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198 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics |
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199 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. |
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200 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with |
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201 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library |
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202 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time |
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203 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and |
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204 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r. |
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205 | |
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206 | =head1 AUTHOR |
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207 | |
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208 | H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@hccnet.nl> |
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209 | |
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210 | =head1 DATE |
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211 | |
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212 | Version 0.0.5: 22 May 2002 |
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213 | |
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214 | =cut |
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