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PERLSOLARIS
!!!PERLSOLARIS

----
!!NAME


README .solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems
!!DESCRIPTION

This document describes various features of Sun's
Solaris operating system that will affect how Perl version 5
(hereafter just perl) is compiled and/or runs. Some issues
relating to the older SunOS 4.x are also discussed, though
they may be out of date.

For the most part, everything should just
work.

Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is
supplied with the operating system, so you might not even
need to build a newer version of perl at all. The
Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5 with
/usr/bin/perl pointing to /usr/perl5/bin/perl. Do not
disturb that installation unless you really know what you
are doing. If you remove the perl supplied with the OS,
there is a good chance you will render some bits of
your system inoperable. If you wish to install a newer
version of perl, install it under a different prefix from
/usr/perl5. Common prefixes to use are /usr/local and
/opt/perl.

You may wish to put your version of perl in the
PATH of all users by changing the link /usr/bin/perl.
This is OK , as all Perl scripts shipped with
Solaris use /usr/perl5/bin/perl.

__Solaris Version Numbers.__

For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure
script performs some minor manipulations on the operating
system name and version number as reported by uname. Here's
a partial translation table:
             Sun:                      perl's Configure:
uname    uname -r   Name           osname     osvers
SunOS    4.1.3     Solaris 1.1     sunos      4.1.3
SunOS    5.6       Solaris 2.6     solaris    2.6
SunOS    5.8       Solaris 8       solaris    2.8
The complete table can be found in the Sun Managers' FAQ
!!RESOURCES

There are many, many source for Solaris information. A
few of the important ones for perl:

!!SETTING UP

__File Extraction Problems.__

Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris
(not SunOS 4.x) to extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file. Do
not use GNU tar compiled for SunOS4 on Solaris.
( GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.)
When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system
magically alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that
when tar tries to create lib/locale.pm, a file named
lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead. If you found this
advice it too late and used a SunOS4-compiled tar anyway,
you must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back
to lib/locale.pm.

__Compiler and Related Tools.__

You must use an ANSI C compiler to build
perl. Perl can be compiled with either Sun's add-on C
compiler or with gcc. The C compiler that shipped with
SunOS4 will not do.

''Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your'' ''PATH.''

Several tools needed to build perl are located in
/usr/ccs/bin/: ar, as, ld, and make. Make sure that
/usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH.

You need to make sure the following packages are
installed (this info is extracted from the Solaris FAQ):

for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as):
SUNWbtool, SUNWsprot, SUNWtoo

for libraries:


for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx,
SUNWscpux, SUNWsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx,
SUNWlibCx.

These packages are available on your original install media.

If you are in doubt which package contains a file you
are missing, try to find an installation that has that file.
Then do a

        grep /my/missing/file /var/sadm/install/contents
This will display a line like this:

 /usr/include/sys/errno.h f none 0644 root bin 7471 37605 956241356 SUNWhea

The last item listed (SUNWhea in this example) is the package you need.

''Avoid /usr/ucb/cc.''

You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH
to build perl. If you want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH
anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/ is NOT in
your PATH before the directory containing the
right C compiler.

''Sun's C Compiler''

If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct
directory (usually /opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH
(before /usr/ucb/).

''GCC''

If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent
and complete. As a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine
with gcc-2.8.1 on both Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8. You'll be
able to Configure perl with

 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc

If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update your GCC . For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make sure you have the appropriate directory, sparc-sun-solaris2.6/ or i386-pc-solaris2.6/. If gcc's directory is for a different version of Solaris than you are running, then you will need to rebuild gcc for your new version of Solaris.

You can get a precompiled version of gcc from

''GNU as and GNU ld''

The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work
fine for building perl. There is normally no need to install
the GNU versions.

If you decide to ignore this advice and use the
GNU versions anyway, then be sure that they are
relatively recent. Versions newer than 2.7 are apparently
new enough. Older versions may have trouble with dynamic
loading.

If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and
ld but you want to use the Solaris ones instead to build
perl, then you'll need to add -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc
command line. One convenient way to do that is
with

 sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
Note that the trailing slash is required. This will result in some harmless warnings as Configure is run:

        gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used
These messages may safely be ignored. (Note that for a SunOS4 system, you must use -B/bin/ instead.)

Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
environment variable to ensure that Sun's as and ld are
used. Consult your gcc documentation for further information
on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
variable.

''GNU make''

Sun's make works fine for building perl. If you wish to
use GNU make anyway, be sure that the
set-group-id bit is not set. If it is, then arrange
your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is
before GNU make or else have the system
administrator disable the set-group-id bit on GNU
make.

''Avoid libucb.''

Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in
/usr/ucblib/libucb.a. Perl will not build and run correctly
if linked against -lucb since it contains routines that are
incompatible with the standard Solaris libc. Normally this
is not a problem since the solaris hints file prevents
Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib for libraries,
and also explicitly omits -lucb.

__Environment__

''PATH''

Make sure your PATH includes the compiler
(/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're using Sun's compiler) as well
as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other development tools
(such as make, ar, as, and ld). Make sure your path either
doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the
compiler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris
directories. You definitely don't want
/usr/ucb/cc.

''LD_LIBRARY_PATH''

If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment
variable set, be sure that it does NOT include
/lib or /usr/lib. If you will be building extensions that
call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB
) then make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH
environment variable includes the directory with that
library (e.g. /usr/local/lib).

If you get an error message
        dlopen: stub interception failed
it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub interception failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to ``/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0'' and links in internal implementations of those functions instead. [[Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]

!!RUN CONFIGURE.

See the INSTALL file for general information
regarding Configure. Only Solaris-specific issues are
discussed here. Usually, the defaults should be
fine.

__64-bit Issues.__

See the INSTALL file for general information
regarding 64-bit compiles. In general, the defaults should
be fine for most people.

By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a
32-bit application with largefile and long-long
support.

''General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues.''

Solaris 7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit
mode on SPARC CPUs, via a reboot. You can build
64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit mode and vice-versa. 32
bit apps will run under Solaris running in either 32 or 64
bit mode. 64 bit apps require Solaris to be running 64 bit
mode.


Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32
, i.e. Longs and Pointers are 32 bit. 64-bit apps are
more properly known as LP64 . The discriminating
feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to
utilise a 64-bit address space. It is perfectly possible to
have a LP32 bit app that supports both 64-bit
integers (long long) and largefiles (


For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see
the Solaris 64-bit Developer's Guide at
http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/


You can detect the OS mode using ``isainfo
-v'', e.g.


      fubar$ isainfo -v   # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode
64-bit sparcv9 applications
32-bit sparc applications
By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application. Unless you want to allocate more than ~ 4GB of memory inside Perl, you probably don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app.


''Large File Suppprt''


For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different
ways for 32-bit applications to manipulate large files
(files whose size is


First is the ``transitional compilation environment'',
described in ''lfcompile64''(5). According to the man
page,


    The transitional compilation  environment  exports  all  the
explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to
all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx()  and
xxx64()  functions  are  available to the program source.  A
32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in  order
to  access  large  files.  See the lf64(5) manual page for a
complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces.
The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the following compiler and linker flags:


    getconf LFS64_CFLAGS        -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
getconf LFS64_LDFLAG        # nothing special needed
getconf LFS64_LIBS          # nothing special needed
Second is the ``large file compilation environment'', described in lfcompile(5). According to the man page,


    Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities
to  access  large  files maps to a xxx64() call in the
resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to  be
of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition
for a 64-bit entity).
    An application compiled in this environment is able  to  use
the  xxx()  source interfaces to access both large and small
files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the  transitional
xxx64()  interface  calls to access large files.
Two exceptions are ''fseek()'' and ''ftell()''. 32-bit applications should use fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C). These will get automatically mapped to ''fseeko64()'' and ''ftello64()''.


The large file compilation environment is obtained
with


        getconf LFS_CFLAGS      -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
getconf LFS_LDFLAGS     # nothing special needed
getconf LFS_LIBS        # nothing special needed
By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and relies on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces.


''Building an'' ''LP64
Perl''


To compile a 64-bit application on an !UltraSparc with a
recent Sun Compiler, you need to use the flag ``-xarch=v9''.
getconf(1) will tell you this,
e.g.


      fubar$ getconf -a  grep v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS:         -xarch=v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS:        -xarch=v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS:       -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS:    -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS:        -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS:       -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS:     -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS:      -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS:     -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS:   -xarch=v9
This flag is supported in Sun !WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards (now marketed under the name Forte) when used on Solaris 7 or later on !UltraSparc systems.


If you are using gcc, you would need to use -mcpu=v9
-m64 instead. This option is not yet supported as of gcc
2.95.2; from install/SPECIFIC in that
release:


GCC version 2.95 is not able to compile code correctly
for sparc64 targets. Users of the Linux kernel, at least,
can use the sparc32 program to start up a new shell
invocation with an environment that causes configure to
recognize (via uname -a) the system as sparc-*-*
instead.


All this should be handled automatically by the hints
file, if requested.


If you do want to be able to allocate more than 4GB
memory inside perl, then you should use the Solaris malloc,
since the perl malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2GB
of memory. You can do this with


        sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
Note that this will break binary compatibility with any version that was not compiled with -Uusemymalloc.


''Long Doubles.''


As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not
working.


__Threads.__


It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on
Solaris. The entire perl thread implementation is still
experimental, however, so beware. Perl uses the
sched_yield(3RT) function. In versions of Solaris up to 2.6,
that function is in -lposix4. Starting with Solaris 7, it is
in -lrt. The hints file should handle adding this
automatically.


__Malloc Issues.__


You should not use perl's malloc if you are building
with gcc. There are reports of core dumps, especially in
the PDL module. The problem appears to go away
under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to track down.
Sun's compiler appears to be ok with or without perl's
malloc. [[ XXX further investigation is needed
here.]


You should also not use perl's malloc if you are
building perl as an LP64 application, since
perl's malloc has trouble allocating more than 2GB of
memory.


You can avoid perl's malloc by Configuring
with


        sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
See the note about binary compatibility above. This option will be enabled by default beginning with 5.7.1.
!!MAKE PROBLEMS.


Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as
and GNU ld


If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on
SunOS or Solaris, and you are using GNU as
and GNU ld, see the section `` GNU as
and GNU ld'' above.


ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation
error:


If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're
using gcc, it's probably the GNU as or GNU
ld problem in the previous item `` GNU as
and GNU ld''.


dlopen: stub interception failed


The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception
failed' message is that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
environment variable includes a directory which is a
symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). See ``
LD_LIBRARY_PATH '' above.


#error ``No DATAMODEL_NATIVE
specified''


This is a common error when trying to build perl on
Solaris 2.6 with a gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or
2.5.1. The Solaris header files changed, so you need to
update your gcc installation. You can either rerun the
fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
update your gcc installation.


sh: ar: not found


This is a message from your shell telling you that the
command 'ar' was not found. You need to check your
PATH environment variable to make sure that it includes
the directory with the 'ar' command. This is a common
problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin/
directory.
!!MAKE TEST


__op/stat.t test 4__


op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some
sort. Building in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior. The
test suite detects if you are building in /tmp, but it may
not be able to catch all tmpfs
situations.
!!PREBUILT BINARIES.


You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from
!!RUNTIME ISSUES.


__Limits on Numbers of Open
Files.__


The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be
opened using ''fopen()'', and only file descriptors 0
through 255 can be used in a stream. Since perl calls
''open()'' and then fdopen(3C) with the resulting file
descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open
files.
!!SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES.


See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on
CPAN ,
!!SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES.


__Proc::!ProcessTable__


Proc::!ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with
perl5.6.0 and higher if you have LARGEFILES
defined. Since largefile support is the default in
5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this
module.


The problem is that various structures visible via
procfs use off_t, and if you compile with largefile support
these change from 32 bits to 64 bits. Thus what you get back
from procfs doesn't match up with the structures in perl,
resulting in garbage. See proc(4) for further
discussion.


A fix for Proc::!ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to
explicitly remove the largefile flags from the ones
!MakeMaker picks up from Config.pm. This will result in
Proc::!ProcessTable being built under the correct
environment. Everything should then be OK as long
as Proc::!ProcessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the
rest of perl, or if it does they should be explicitly
specified as off64_t.


__BSD::Resource__


BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile
on Solaris with perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons
as Proc::!ProcessTable. BSD::Resource versions starting from
1.09 have a workaround for the problem.


__Net::SSLeay__


Net::SSLeay requires a /dev/urandom to be present. This
device is not part of Solaris. You can either get the
package SUNWski (packaged with several Sun software
products, for example the Sun !WebServer, which is part of
the Solaris Server Intranet Extension, or the Sun Directory
Services, part of Solaris for ISPs) or download the ANDIrand
package from


It may be possible to use the Entropy Gathering Daemon
(written in Perl!), available from
!!AUTHOR


The original was written by Andy Dougherty
''doughera@lafayette.edu'' drawing heavily on advice from
Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce, and many other
Solaris users over the years.


Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to
''perlbug@perl.org''.
!!LAST MODIFIED


$Id: README .solaris,v 1.4 2000/11/11
20:29:58 doughera Exp $
----
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Last edited on Friday, August 9, 2002 7:40:51 pm by PerryLorier
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