PERLOS390(1pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLOS390(1pm)
NAME
perlos390 - building and installing Perl for OS/390 and z/OS
SYNOPSIS
This document will help you Configure, build, test and install Perl on
OS/390 (aka z/OS) Unix System Services.
This document needs to be updated, but we don't know what it should
say. Please submit comments to <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
DESCRIPTION
This is a fully ported Perl for OS/390 Version 2 Release 3, 5, 6, 7, 8,
and 9. It may work on other versions or releases, but those are the
ones we have tested it on.
You may need to carry out some system configuration tasks before
running the Configure script for Perl.
Tools
The z/OS Unix Tools and Toys list may prove helpful and contains links
to ports of much of the software helpful for building Perl.
<http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html>
Unpacking Perl distribution on OS/390
If using ftp remember to transfer the distribution in binary format.
Gunzip/gzip for OS/390 is discussed at:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html
to extract an ASCII tar archive on OS/390, try this:
pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r < latest.tar
or
zcat latest.tar.Z | pax -o to=IBM-1047,from=ISO8859-1 -r
If you get lots of errors of the form
tar: FSUM7171 ...: cannot set uid/gid: EDC5139I Operation not permitted
you did not read the above and tried to use tar instead of pax, you'll
first have to remove the (now corrupt) perl directory
rm -rf perl-...
and then use pax.
Setup and utilities for Perl on OS/390
Be sure that your yacc installation is in place including any necessary
parser template files. If you have not already done so then be sure to:
cp /samples/yyparse.c /etc
This may also be a good time to ensure that your /etc/protocol file and
either your /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/hosts files are in place. The IBM
document that described such USS system setup issues was SC28-1890-07
"OS/390 UNIX System Services Planning", in particular Chapter 6 on
customizing the OE shell.
GNU make for OS/390, which is recommended for the build of perl (as
well as building CPAN modules and extensions), is available from the
"Tools".
Some people have reported encountering "Out of memory!" errors while
trying to build Perl using GNU make binaries. If you encounter such
trouble then try to download the source code kit and build GNU make
from source to eliminate any such trouble. You might also find GNU
make (as well as Perl and Apache) in the red-piece/book "Open Source
Software for OS/390 UNIX", SG24-5944-00 from IBM.
If instead of the recommended GNU make you would like to use the system
supplied make program then be sure to install the default rules file
properly via the shell command:
cp /samples/startup.mk /etc
and be sure to also set the environment variable _C89_CCMODE=1
(exporting _C89_CCMODE=1 is also a good idea for users of GNU make).
You might also want to have GNU groff for OS/390 installed before
running the "make install" step for Perl.
There is a syntax error in the /usr/include/sys/socket.h header file
that IBM supplies with USS V2R7, V2R8, and possibly V2R9. The problem
with the header file is that near the definition of the SO_REUSEPORT
constant there is a spurious extra '/' character outside of a comment
like so:
#define SO_REUSEPORT 0x0200 /* allow local address & port
reuse */ /
You could edit that header yourself to remove that last '/', or you
might note that Language Environment (LE) APAR PQ39997 describes the
problem and PTF's UQ46272 and UQ46271 are the (R8 at least) fixes and
apply them. If left unattended that syntax error will turn up as an
inability for Perl to build its "Socket" extension.
For successful testing you may need to turn on the sticky bit for your
world readable /tmp directory if you have not already done so (see man
chmod).
Configure Perl on OS/390
Once you have unpacked the distribution, run "sh Configure" (see
INSTALL for a full discussion of the Configure options). There is a
"hints" file for os390 that specifies the correct values for most
things. Some things to watch out for include:
Shell
A message of the form:
(I see you are using the Korn shell. Some ksh's blow up on Configure,
mainly on older exotic systems. If yours does, try the Bourne shell instead.)
is nothing to worry about at all.
Samples
Some of the parser default template files in /samples are needed in
/etc. In particular be sure that you at least copy /samples/yyparse.c
to /etc before running Perl's Configure. This step ensures successful
extraction of EBCDIC versions of parser files such as perly.c and
perly.h. This has to be done before running Configure the first time.
If you failed to do so then the easiest way to re-Configure Perl is to
delete your misconfigured build root and re-extract the source from the
tar ball. Then you must ensure that /etc/yyparse.c is properly in
place before attempting to re-run Configure.
Dynamic loading
Dynamic loading is required if you want to use XS modules from CPAN
(like DBI (and DBD's), JSON::XS, and Text::CSV_XS) or update CORE
modules from CPAN with newer versions (like Encode) without rebuilding
all of the perl binary.
This port will support dynamic loading, but it is not selected by
default. If you would like to experiment with dynamic loading then be
sure to specify -Dusedl in the arguments to the Configure script. See
the comments in hints/os390.sh for more information on dynamic loading.
If you build with dynamic loading then you will need to add the
$archlibexp/CORE directory to your LIBPATH environment variable in
order for perl to work. See the config.sh file for the value of
$archlibexp. If in trying to use Perl you see an error message similar
to:
CEE3501S The module libperl.dll was not found.
From entry point __dllstaticinit at compile unit offset +00000194
at
then your LIBPATH does not have the location of libperl.x and either
libperl.dll or libperl.so in it. Add that directory to your LIBPATH
and proceed.
In hints/os390.sh, selecting -Dusedl will default to *also* select
-Duseshrplib. Having a shared plib not only requires LIBPATH to be set
to the correct location of libperl.so but also makes it close to
impossible to run more than one different perl that was built this way
at the same time.
All objects that are involved in -Dusedl builds should be compiled for
this, probably by adding to all ccflags
-qexportall -qxplink -qdll -Wc,XPLINK,dll,EXPORTALL -Wl,XPLINK,dll
Optimizing
Do not turn on the compiler optimization flag "-O". There is a bug in
either the optimizer or perl that causes perl to not work correctly
when the optimizer is on.
Config files
Some of the configuration files in /etc used by the networking APIs are
either missing or have the wrong names. In particular, make sure that
there's either an /etc/resolv.conf or an /etc/hosts, so that
gethostbyname() works, and make sure that the file /etc/proto has been
renamed to /etc/protocol (NOT /etc/protocols, as used by other Unix
systems). You may have to look for things like HOSTNAME and
DOMAINORIGIN in the "//'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'" PDS member in order to
properly set up your /etc networking files.
Build, Test, Install Perl on OS/390
Simply put:
sh Configure
make
make test
if everything looks ok (see the next section for test/IVP diagnosis)
then:
make install
this last step may or may not require UID=0 privileges depending on how
you answered the questions that Configure asked and whether or not you
have write access to the directories you specified.
Build Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
"Out of memory!" messages during the build of Perl are most often fixed
by re building the GNU make utility for OS/390 from a source code kit.
Building debugging-enabled binaries (with -g or -g3) will increase the
chance of getting these errors. Prevent -g if possible.
Another memory limiting item to check is your MAXASSIZE parameter in
your 'SYS1.PARMLIB(BPXPRMxx)' data set (note too that as of V2R8
address space limits can be set on a per user ID basis in the USS
segment of a RACF profile). People have reported successful builds of
Perl with MAXASSIZE parameters as small as 503316480 (and it may be
possible to build Perl with a MAXASSIZE smaller than that).
Within USS your /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile may limit your ulimit
settings. Check that the following command returns reasonable values:
ulimit -a
To conserve memory you should have your compiler modules loaded into
the Link Pack Area (LPA/ELPA) rather than in a link list or step lib.
If the c89 compiler complains of syntax errors during the build of the
Socket extension then be sure to fix the syntax error in the system
header /usr/include/sys/socket.h.
Testing Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
The "make test" step runs a Perl Verification Procedure, usually before
installation. You might encounter STDERR messages even during a
successful run of "make test". Here is a guide to some of the more
commonly seen anomalies:
Signals
A message of the form:
io/openpid...........CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
ok
indicates that the t/io/openpid.t test of Perl has passed but done so
with extraneous messages on stderr from CEE.
File::Temp
A message of the form:
lib/ftmp-security....File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/)
is not safe (sticky bit not set when world writable?) at
lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
File::Temp::_gettemp: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not safe (sticky
bit not set when world writable?) at lib/ftmp-security.t line 100
ok
indicates a problem with the permissions on your /tmp directory within
the HFS. To correct that problem issue the command:
chmod a+t /tmp
from an account with write access to the directory entry for /tmp.
Out of Memory!
Recent perl test suite is quite memory hungry. In addition to the
comments above on memory limitations it is also worth checking for
_CEE_RUNOPTS in your environment. Perl now has (in miniperlmain.c) a C
The C code asks for:
The important parts of that are the second argument (the increment) to
HEAP, and allowing the stack to be "Above the (16M) line". If the heap
increment is too small then when perl (for example loading
unicode/Name.pl) tries to create a "big" (400K+) string it cannot fit
in a single segment and you get "Out of Memory!" - even if there is
still plenty of memory available.
A related issue is use with perl's malloc. Perl's malloc uses "sbrk()"
to get memory, and "sbrk()" is limited to the first allocation so in
this case something like:
HEAP(8M,500K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,8K,4K)
is needed to get through the test suite.
Installation Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
The installman script will try to run on OS/390. There will be fewer
errors if you have a roff utility installed. You can obtain GNU groff
from the Redbook SG24-5944-00 ftp site.
Usage Hints for Perl on OS/390
When using perl on OS/390 please keep in mind that the EBCDIC and ASCII
character sets are different. See perlebcdic.pod for more on such
character set issues. Perl builtin functions that may behave
differently under EBCDIC are also mentioned in the perlport.pod
document.
Open Edition (UNIX System Services) from V2R8 onward does support
#!/path/to/perl script invocation. There is a PTF available from IBM
for V2R7 that will allow shell/kernel support for #!. USS releases
prior to V2R7 did not support the #! means of script invocation. If
you are running V2R6 or earlier then see:
head `whence perldoc`
for an example of how to use the "eval exec" trick to ask the shell to
have Perl run your scripts on those older releases of Unix System
Services.
If you are having trouble with square brackets then consider switching
your rlogin or telnet client. Try to avoid older 3270 emulators and
ISHELL for working with Perl on USS.
Floating Point Anomalies with Perl on OS/390
There appears to be a bug in the floating point implementation on S/390
systems such that calling int() on the product of a number and a small
magnitude number is not the same as calling int() on the quotient of
that number and a large magnitude number. For example, in the
following Perl code:
my $x = 100000.0;
my $y = int($x * 1e-5) * 1e5; # '0'
my $z = int($x / 1e+5) * 1e5; # '100000'
print "\$y is $y and \$z is $z\n"; # $y is 0 and $z is 100000
Although one would expect the quantities $y and $z to be the same and
equal to 100000 they will differ and instead will be 0 and 100000
respectively.
The problem can be further examined in a roughly equivalent C program:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
main()
{
double r1,r2;
double x = 100000.0;
double y = 0.0;
double z = 0.0;
x = 100000.0 * 1e-5;
r1 = modf (x,&y);
x = 100000.0 / 1e+5;
r2 = modf (x,&z);
printf("y is %e and z is %e\n",y*1e5,z*1e5);
/* y is 0.000000e+00 and z is 1.000000e+05 (with c89) */
}
Modules and Extensions for Perl on OS/390
Pure Perl (that is non XS) modules may be installed via the usual:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
If you built perl with dynamic loading capability then that would also
be the way to build XS based extensions. However, if you built perl
with the default static linking you can still build XS based extensions
for OS/390 but you will need to follow the instructions in
ExtUtils::MakeMaker for building statically linked perl binaries. In
the simplest configurations building a static perl + XS extension boils
down to:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make perl
make test
make install
make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl
In most cases people have reported better results with GNU make rather
than the system's /bin/make program, whether for plain modules or for
XS based extensions.
If the make process encounters trouble with either compilation or
linking then try setting the _C89_CCMODE to 1. Assuming sh is your
login shell then run:
export _C89_CCMODE=1
If tcsh is your login shell then use the setenv command.
AUTHORS
David Fiander and Peter Prymmer with thanks to Dennis Longnecker and
William Raffloer for valuable reports, LPAR and PTF feedback. Thanks
to Mike MacIsaac and Egon Terwedow for SG24-5944-00. Thanks to Ignasi
Roca for pointing out the floating point problems. Thanks to John
Goodyear for dynamic loading help.
SEE ALSO
INSTALL, perlport(1), perlebcdic(1), ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3).
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/SG245944.html
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1ty1.html#opensrc
http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-mvs/
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3030/
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/CBCUG030/
Mailing list for Perl on OS/390
If you are interested in the z/OS (formerly known as OS/390) and POSIX-
BC (BS2000) ports of Perl then see the perl-mvs mailing list. To
subscribe, send an empty message to perl-mvs-subscribe@perl.org.
See also:
https://lists.perl.org/list/perl-mvs.html
There are web archives of the mailing list at:
https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.mvs/
HISTORY
This document was originally written by David Fiander for the 5.005
release of Perl.
This document was podified for the 5.005_03 release of Perl 11 March
1999.
Updated 12 November 2000 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
Updated 15 January 2001 for the 5.7.1 release of Perl.
Updated 24 January 2001 to mention dynamic loading.
Updated 12 March 2001 to mention //'SYS1.TCPPARMS(TCPDATA)'.
Updated 28 November 2001 for broken URLs.
Updated 03 October 2019 for perl-5.33.3+
perl v5.34.0 2020-10-04 PERLOS390(1pm)
perl 5.34.0 - Generated Sat Feb 26 19:06:26 CST 2022