PERLHPUX(1perl)
💖 perlhpux 💖
okay bestie, this is perlhpux from section 1perl, aka the Perl Programmers Reference Guide — and it's literally all about getting Perl version 5 to behave on Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) systems. grab a snack, this one's a saga 🍓
✨ NAME ✨
perlhpux — Perl version 5 on Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) systems
🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋
so this doc is basically the group chat where we spill everything about HP's Unix operating system (HP-UX) that messes with how Perl version 5 (from here on out, just Perl) gets compiled and/or runs. no cap, it matters. 💅
🌸 Using perl as shipped with HP-UX 🌸
application release September 2001, HP-UX 11.00 is the very first one to ship with Perl in it. by that point it was perl-5.6.1 sitting pretty in /opt/perl. the first occurrence ever is on CD 5012-7954, and you install it like this:
swinstall -s /cdrom perl...assuming you mounted that CD on /cdrom, obviously. 🙈
that build was a portable hppa-1.1 multithread build that supports large files, compiled with gcc-2.9-hppa-991112.
if you do a fresh new installation, then (a newer) Perl gets installed automatically. pre-installed HP-UX systems now come with more recent versions of Perl and the updated modules. slay. ✨
the official (threaded) builds from HP, exactly as they're shipped on the Application DVD/CD's, live at <http://www.software.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=PERL> for both PA-RISC and IPF (Itanium Processor Family). they're built with the HP ANSI-C compiler. up till 5.8.8 that was done by ActiveState.
to see what version is included on the DVD (we're assuming here it's mounted on /cdrom), drop this command:
# swlist -s /cdrom perl
# perl D.5.8.8.B 5.8.8 Perl Programming Language
perl.Perl5-32 D.5.8.8.B 32-bit 5.8.8 Perl Programming Language
with Extensions
perl.Perl5-64 D.5.8.8.B 64-bit 5.8.8 Perl Programming Language
with Extensionsand to see what's actually installed on your system:
# swlist -R perl
# perl E.5.8.8.J Perl Programming Language
# perl.Perl5-32 E.5.8.8.J 32-bit Perl Programming Language
with Extensions
perl.Perl5-32.PERL-MAN E.5.8.8.J 32-bit Perl Man Pages for IA
perl.Perl5-32.PERL-RUN E.5.8.8.J 32-bit Perl Binaries for IA
# perl.Perl5-64 E.5.8.8.J 64-bit Perl Programming Language
with Extensions
perl.Perl5-64.PERL-MAN E.5.8.8.J 64-bit Perl Man Pages for IA
perl.Perl5-64.PERL-RUN E.5.8.8.J 64-bit Perl Binaries for IA🎀 Using perl from HP's porting centre 🎀
the HP porting centre is out here trying to keep up with customer demand and release updates from the Open Source community. having precompiled Perl binaries available is like, obvious — though "up-to-date" is doing a lot of heavy lifting as a concept. at the moment of writing, perl-5.10.1 and 5.28.0 were available. 👑
the HP porting centres are limited in which systems they're even allowed to port to, and they usually choose the two most recent OS versions available.
HP asked the porting centre to move Open Source binaries from /opt to /usr/local, so binaries produced since the start of July 2002 are located in /usr/local.
one of HP porting centres URL's is <http://hpux.connect.org.uk/> — the port currently available is built with GNU gcc. and because porting modern GNU gcc is extremely hard on HP-UX, they are stuck at version gcc-4.2.3. 💀 stuck fr fr.
🧚 Other prebuilt perl binaries 🧚
want more perl depots covering the whole range of HP-UX? go visit H.Merijn Brand's site at <http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/#Perl>. please carefully read the notes to see if the available versions actually suit your needs, okay? no impulse downloads. 🫶
🔥 Compiling Perl 5 on HP-UX 🔥
when compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. the C compiler that ships with all HP-UX systems is a K&R compiler and should only be used to build new kernels. that's it. that's its whole job.
Perl can be compiled with either HP's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. the former is recommended, bestie — not only can it compile Perl with zero difficulty, it can also take advantage of features listed later that require the use of HP compiler-specific command-line flags. main character compiler energy. 👑
if you decide to use gcc anyway, make sure your installation is recent and complete, and be sure to read the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific details.
💜 PA-RISC 💜
the last and final version of PA-RISC is 2.0. HP no longer sells any system with these CPU's.
HP's HP9000 Unix systems run on HP's own Precision Architecture (PA-RISC) chip. HP-UX used to run on the Motorola MC68000 family of chips, but any machine with this chip in it is quite obsolete and this document will not attempt to address issues for compiling Perl on the Motorola chipset. even though PA-RISC hardware isn't sold anymore, a lot of machines still running on these CPU's can be found in the wild. they're out there. living their lives. 🦋
the last order date for HP 9000 systems was December 31, 2008.
HP PA-RISC systems are usually referred to with model description "HP 9000". the last CPU in this series is the PA-8900. support for PA-RISC architectured machines officially ended as shown in the following table:
PA-RISC End-of-Life Roadmap
+--------+----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| HP9000 | Superdome | PA-8700 | Spring 2011 |
| 4-128 | | PA-8800/sx1000 | Summer 2012 |
| cores | | PA-8900/sx1000 | 2014 |
| | | PA-8900/sx2000 | 2015 |
+--------+----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| HP9000 | rp7410, rp8400 | PA-8700 | Spring 2011 |
| 2-32 | rp7420, rp8420 | PA-8800/sx1000 | 2012 |
| cores | rp7440, rp8440 | PA-8900/sx1000 | Autumn 2013 |
| | | PA-8900/sx2000 | 2015 |
+--------+----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| HP9000 | rp44x0 | PA-8700 | Spring 2011 |
| 1-8 | | PA-8800/rp44x0 | 2012 |
| cores | | PA-8900/rp44x0 | 2014 |
+--------+----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| HP9000 | rp34x0 | PA-8700 | Spring 2011 |
| 1-4 | | PA-8800/rp34x0 | 2012 |
| cores | | PA-8900/rp34x0 | 2014 |
+--------+----------------+----------------+-----------------+a complete list of models at the time the OS was built lives in the file /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models. the first column corresponds to the last part of the output of the model command. the second column is the PA-RISC version and the third column is the exact chip type used. (start browsing at the bottom to prevent confusion ;-)
# model
9000/800/L1000-44
# grep L1000-44 /usr/sam/lib/mo/sched.models
L1000-44 2.0 PA8500🌈 PA-RISC 1.0 🌈
the original version of PA-RISC. HP no longer sells any system with this chip.
the following systems contained PA-RISC 1.0 chips:
600, 635, 645, 808, 815, 822, 825, 832, 834, 835, 840, 842, 845, 850,
852, 855, 860, 865, 870, 890⭐ PA-RISC 1.1 ⭐
an upgrade to the PA-RISC design, it shipped for many years in many different system.
the following systems contain with PA-RISC 1.1 chips:
705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 722, 725, 728, 730, 735, 742, 743, 744, 745,
747, 750, 755, 770, 777, 778, 779, 800, 801, 803, 806, 807, 809, 811,
813, 816, 817, 819, 821, 826, 827, 829, 831, 837, 839, 841, 847, 849,
851, 856, 857, 859, 867, 869, 877, 887, 891, 892, 897, A180, A180C,
B115, B120, B132L, B132L+, B160L, B180L, C100, C110, C115, C120,
C160L, D200, D210, D220, D230, D250, D260, D310, D320, D330, D350,
D360, D410, DX0, DX5, DXO, E25, E35, E45, E55, F10, F20, F30, G30,
G40, G50, G60, G70, H20, H30, H40, H50, H60, H70, I30, I40, I50, I60,
I70, J200, J210, J210XC, K100, K200, K210, K220, K230, K400, K410,
K420, S700i, S715, S744, S760, T500, T520💖 PA-RISC 2.0 💖
the most recent upgrade to the PA-RISC design, and it added support for 64-bit integer data. glow up. ✨
as of the date of this document's last update, the following systems contain PA-RISC 2.0 chips:
700, 780, 781, 782, 783, 785, 802, 804, 810, 820, 861, 871, 879, 889,
893, 895, 896, 898, 899, A400, A500, B1000, B2000, C130, C140, C160,
C180, C180+, C180-XP, C200+, C400+, C3000, C360, C3600, CB260, D270,
D280, D370, D380, D390, D650, J220, J2240, J280, J282, J400, J410,
J5000, J5500XM, J5600, J7000, J7600, K250, K260, K260-EG, K270, K360,
K370, K380, K450, K460, K460-EG, K460-XP, K470, K570, K580, L1000,
L2000, L3000, N4000, R380, R390, SD16000, SD32000, SD64000, T540,
T600, V2000, V2200, V2250, V2500, V2600just before HP took over Compaq, some systems were renamed. the link that contained the explanation is dead 💀, so here's a short summary:
HP 9000 A-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp2400 series.
HP 9000 L-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp5400 series.
HP 9000 N-Class servers, now renamed HP Server rp7400.
rp2400, rp2405, rp2430, rp2450, rp2470, rp3410, rp3440, rp4410,
rp4440, rp5400, rp5405, rp5430, rp5450, rp5470, rp7400, rp7405,
rp7410, rp7420, rp7440, rp8400, rp8420, rp8440, Superdomethe current naming convention is:
aadddd
||||`+- 00 - 99 relative capacity & newness (upgrades, etc.)
|||`--- unique number for each architecture to ensure different
||| systems do not have the same numbering across
||| architectures
||`---- 1 - 9 identifies family and/or relative positioning
||
|`----- c = ia32 (cisc)
| p = pa-risc
| x = ia-64 (Itanium & Itanium 2)
| h = housing
`------ t = tower
r = rack optimized
s = super scalable
b = blade
sa = appliance🫶 Portability Between PA-RISC Versions 🫶
an executable compiled on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform will not execute on a PA-RISC 1.1 platform, even if they're running the same version of HP-UX. if you're building Perl on a PA-RISC 2.0 platform and you want that Perl to also run on a PA-RISC 1.1, you should use the compiler flags +DAportable and +DS32.
it is no longer possible to compile PA-RISC 1.0 executables on either the PA-RISC 1.1 or 2.0 platforms. the command-line flags are accepted, but the resulting executable will not run when transferred to a PA-RISC 1.0 system. so like... don't be fooled by the flags being chill about it. 🚩
💅 Itanium Processor Family (IPF) and HP-UX 💅
HP-UX also runs on the newer Itanium processor. this requires the use of HP-UX version 11.23 (11i v2) or 11.31 (11i v3), and with the exception of a few differences detailed below and in later sections, Perl should compile with no problems.
although PA-RISC binaries can run on Itanium systems, you should not attempt to use a PA-RISC version of Perl on an Itanium system. this is because shared libraries created on an Itanium system cannot be loaded while running a PA-RISC executable.
HP Itanium 2 systems are usually referred to with model description "HP Integrity".
💖 Itanium, Itanium 2 & Madison 6 💖
bestie, HP also ships servers rockin' the 128-bit Itanium processor(s) — iconic of them honestly. The cx26x0 is told to have Madison 6. And as of the date this doc was last updated, the following systems contain Itanium or Itanium 2 chips (this list is very likely out of date, so don't come for me):
BL60p, BL860c, BL870c, BL890c, cx2600, cx2620, rx1600, rx1620, rx2600,
rx2600hptc, rx2620, rx2660, rx2800, rx3600, rx4610, rx4640, rx5670,
rx6600, rx7420, rx7620, rx7640, rx8420, rx8620, rx8640, rx9610,
sx1000, sx2000Wanna see everything about your machine? Just type this, periodt:
# model
ia64 hp server rx2600
# /usr/contrib/bin/machinfo🦋 HP-UX versions 🦋
Not every architecture supports every version of HP-UX — and by architecture I mean PA = PA-RISC and IPF = Itanium Processor Family. Here's the short list, no cap:
HP-UX version Kernel Architecture End-of-factory support
------------- ------ ------------ ----------------------------------
10.20 32 bit PA 30-Jun-2003
11.00 32/64 PA 31-Dec-2006
11.11 11i v1 32/64 PA 31-Dec-2015
11.22 11i v2 64 IPF 30-Apr-2004
11.23 11i v2 64 PA & IPF 31-Dec-2015
11.31 11i v3 64 PA & IPF 31-Dec-2020 (PA) 31-Dec-2025 (IPF)For the full list of hardware/OS support and the expected end-of-life, go look here: https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/getpdf.aspx/4AA4-7673ENW.pdf 🌈
🎀 Building Dynamic Extensions on HP-UX 🎀
HP-UX supports dynamically loadable libraries, aka shared libraries. On HP-UX they end with the suffix .sl, and on Itanium systems they end with .so. Slay.
So here's the tea: shared libraries created on a platform using a particular PA-RISC version are not usable on platforms using an earlier PA-RISC version, by default. However, that backwards compatibility may be enabled using the same +DAportable compiler flag — with the same PA-RISC 1.0 caveat mentioned above, iykyk.
Shared libraries created on an Itanium platform cannot be loaded on a PA-RISC platform. And shared libraries created on a PA-RISC platform can only be loaded on an Itanium platform if it is a PA-RISC executable that is attempting to load the PA-RISC library. A PA-RISC shared library cannot be loaded into an Itanium executable, nor vice-versa. No mixing, bestie, it's giving hard boundaries.
To create a shared library, you gotta do these steps:
- Compile source modules with
+zor+Zflag to create a.omodule which contains Position-Independent Code (PIC). The linker will tell you in the next step if+Zwas needed. (For gcc, the appropriate flag is-fpicor-fPIC.) - Link the shared library using the
-bflag. If the code calls any functions in other system libraries (e.g.,libm), it must be included on this line.
ngl, these steps are usually handled automatically by the extension's Makefile. 💅
If those dependent libraries are not listed at shared library creation time, you will get fatal "Unresolved symbol" errors at run time when the library is loaded. 😭
You may create a shared library that refers to another library, which may be either an archive library or a shared library. If this second library is a shared library, this is called a "dependent library". The dependent library's name is recorded in the main shared library, but it is not linked into the shared library. Instead, it is loaded when the main shared library is loaded. This can cause problems if you build an extension on one system and move it to another system where the libraries may not be located in the same place as on the first system. moving chaos fr fr 🙈
If the referred library is an archive library, then it is treated as a simple collection of .o modules (all of which must contain PIC). These modules are then linked into the shared library.
Note that it is okay to create a library which contains a dependent library that is already linked into perl. ✨
Some extensions — like DB_File and Compress::Zlib — use/require prebuilt libraries for the perl extensions/modules to work. If these libraries are built using the default configuration, it might happen that you run into an error like "invalid loader fixup" during the load phase. HP is aware of this problem, so search the HP-UX cxx-dev forums for discussions about the subject. The short answer: everything (all libraries, everything) must be compiled with "+z" or "+Z" to be PIC (position independent code). (For gcc, that would be "-fpic" or "-fPIC".) In HP-UX 11.00 or newer, the linker error message should tell you the name of the offending object file.
A more general approach is to intervene manually, like this example for the DB_File module, which requires SleepyCat's libdb.sl:
# cd .../db-3.2.9/build_unix
# vi Makefile
... add +Z to all cflags to create shared objects
CFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
CXXFLAGS= -c $(CPPFLAGS) +Z -Ae +O2 +Onolimit \
-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/X11R6
# make clean
# make
# mkdir tmp
# cd tmp
# ar x ../libdb.a
# ld -b -o libdb-3.2.sl *.o
# mv libdb-3.2.sl /usr/local/lib
# rm *.o
# cd /usr/local/lib
# rm -f libdb.sl
# ln -s libdb-3.2.sl libdb.sl
# cd .../DB_File-1.76
# make distclean
# perl Makefile.PL
# make
# make test
# make installBut here's the glow-up: as of db-4.2.x it is no longer needed to do this by hand. Sleepycat has changed the configuration process to add +z on HP-UX automatically. 👑
# cd .../db-4.2.25/build_unix
# env CFLAGS=+DD64 LDFLAGS=+DD64 ../dist/configure...should work to generate 64bit shared libraries for HP-UX 11.00 and 11i.
It is no longer possible to link PA-RISC 1.0 shared libraries (even though the command-line flags are still present). 💀
PA-RISC and Itanium object files are not interchangeable. Although you may be able to use ar to create an archive library of PA-RISC object files on an Itanium system, you cannot link against it using an Itanium link editor. That's just how it is.
🌸 The HP ANSI C Compiler 🌸
When you're using this compiler to build Perl, make sure the flag -Aa is added to the cpprun and cppstdin variables in the config.sh file (though see the section on 64-bit perl below). If you're using a recent version of the Perl distribution, these flags are set automatically — love that for you. 🫶
Even though HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 are not actively maintained by HP anymore, updates for the HP ANSI C compiler are still available from time to time, and it might be advisable to see if updates are applicable. At the moment of writing, the latest available patches for 11.00 that should be applied are PHSS_35098, PHSS_35175, PHSS_35100, PHSS_33036, and PHSS_33902. If you have a SUM account, you can use it to search for updates/patches — just enter "ANSI" as the keyword. 🔥
💜 The GNU C Compiler 💜
So when you're gonna use the GNU C compiler (gcc), and you don't have gcc yet, you've got options: you can either build it yourself (obvi only if you feel masochistic enough 😭) from the sources — available from e.g. http://gcc.gnu.org/mirrors.html — or you can fetch a prebuilt binary from the HP porting center at http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/cgi-bin/search?term=gcc&Search=Search, or from the DSPP (you need to be a member for that one) at http://h21007.www2.hp.com/portal/site/dspp/menuitem.863c3e4cbcdc3f3515b49c108973a801?ciid=2a08725cc2f02110725cc2f02110275d6e10RCRD&jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0001. Browse through the list, because there are often multiple versions of the same package available. 👑
Most mentioned distributions are depots. H.Merijn Brand has made prebuilt gcc binaries available on http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/ and/or http://www.cmve.net/~merijn/ for HP-UX 10.20 (only 32bit), HP-UX 11.00, HP-UX 11.11 (HP-UX 11i v1), and HP-UX 11.23 (HP-UX 11i v2 PA-RISC) in both 32- and 64-bit versions. For HP-UX 11.23 IPF and HP-UX 11.31 IPF, depots are available too. The IPF versions do not need two versions of GNU gcc. ✨
On PA-RISC you need a different compiler for 32-bit applications and for 64-bit applications. On PA-RISC, 32-bit objects and 64-bit objects do not mix. Period. There is no different behaviour for HP C-ANSI-C or GNU gcc. So if you require your perl binary to use 64-bit libraries, like Oracle-64bit, you MUST build a 64-bit perl. No wiggle room, bestie.
Building a 64-bit capable gcc on PA-RISC from source is possible only when you have the HP C-ANSI C compiler or an already working 64-bit binary of gcc available. Best performance for perl is achieved with HP's native compiler. 🏆
🍓 Using Large Files with Perl on HP-UX 🍓
Starting with HP-UX version 10.20, files larger than 2GB (2^31 bytes) may be created and manipulated — yes bestie, big files, we love to see it. Three separate methods of doing this are available, and of these methods, the best method for Perl is to compile using the -Duselargefiles flag to Configure. This causes Perl to be compiled using structures and functions in which these are 64 bits wide, rather than 32 bits wide. (Note that this will only work with HP's ANSI C compiler. If you want to compile Perl using gcc, you will have to get a version of the compiler that supports 64-bit operations. See above for where to find it.)
But 🙈 there are some drawbacks to this approach. One is that any extension which calls any file-manipulating C function will need to be recompiled (just follow the usual "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; make install" procedure).
The list of functions that will need to recompiled is:
creat, fgetpos, fopen,
freopen, fsetpos, fstat,
fstatvfs, fstatvfsdev, ftruncate,
ftw, lockf, lseek,
lstat, mmap, nftw,
open, prealloc, stat,
statvfs, statvfsdev, tmpfile,
truncate, getrlimit, setrlimitAnother drawback is only valid for Perl versions before 5.6.0. This drawback is that the seek and tell functions (both the builtin version and POSIX module version) will not perform correctly. 💀
It is strongly recommended that you use this flag when you run Configure. If you do not do this, but later answer the question about large files when Configure asks you, you may get a configuration that cannot be compiled, or that does not function as expected. Consider yourself warned, gorgeous. 💅
🧚 Threaded Perl on HP-UX 🧚
It is possible to compile a version of threaded Perl on any version of HP-UX before 10.30, but it is strongly suggested that you be running on HP-UX 11.00 at least.
To compile Perl with threads, add -Dusethreads to the arguments of Configure. Verify that the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L compiler flag is automatically added to the list of flags. Also make sure that -lpthread is listed before -lc in the list of libraries to link Perl with. The hints provided for HP-UX during Configure will try very hard to get this right for you, so let it cook. 👑
okay so HP-UX versions before 10.30 need a whole separate install of a POSIX threads library package. Like, they simply do not come with the goods 💀 Two examples of what you can grab: the HP DCE package, which lives on "HP-UX Hardware Extensions 3.0, Install and Core OS, Release 10.20, April 1999 (B3920-13941)", or the freely available PTH package, which you can find on H.Merijn's site at http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/.
heads up bestie — PTH is going to be unsupported in perl-5.12 and up, and it's pretty buggy in 5.11.x. It's giving "we don't talk about that era" 🙈
If you're going the HP DCE route, the library that handles threading is /usr/lib/libcma.sl, but plot twist: that library has been updated like a hundred times over the years. Perl will build with the very first version, and then it will absolutely not pass the test suite 😭 Older Oracle versions might be a genuinely compelling reason not to update that library — but if that's not your situation, please go find a newer version in one of these patches: PHSS_19739, PHSS_20608, or PHSS_23672.
reformatted output, because the vibes are immaculate here:
d3:/usr/lib 106 > what libcma-*.1
libcma-00000.1:
HP DCE/9000 1.5 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
Date: Apr 29 1996 22:11:24
libcma-19739.1:
HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_19739-40 Module: libcma.sl (Export)
Date: Sep 4 1999 01:59:07
libcma-20608.1:
HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_20608 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
Date: Dec 8 1999 18:41:23
libcma-23672.1:
HP DCE/9000 1.5 PHSS_23672 Module: libcma.1 (Export)
Date: Apr 9 2001 10:01:06
d3:/usr/lib 107 >If you choose the PTH package instead, use swinstall to install pth in the default location (/opt/pth), and then make symbolic links to the libraries from /usr/lib:
# cd /usr/lib
# ln -s /opt/pth/lib/libpth* .For building perl to support Oracle, it needs to be linked with libcl and libpthread. So even if your perl is an unthreaded build, these libraries might still be required. Go read "Oracle on HP-UX" below 👇
✨ 64-bit Perl on HP-UX ✨
Beginning with HP-UX 11.00, programs compiled under HP-UX can take advantage of the LP64 programming environment (LP64 means Longs and Pointers are 64 bits wide 🫶), and inside that world scalar variables can hold numbers larger than 2^32 with complete precision. Perl has proven to be consistent and reliable in 64bit mode since 5.8.1 on all HP-UX 11.xx. Iconic behaviour honestly 👑
As of the date of this document, Perl is fully 64-bit compliant on HP-UX 11.00 and up for both cc- and gcc builds. If you're about to build a 64-bit perl with GNU gcc, please read the gcc section carefully — no skimming bestie 🙏
Should a user have the need for compiling Perl in the LP64 environment, use the -Duse64bitall flag to Configure. This forces Perl to be compiled in a pure LP64 environment (with the +DD64 flag for HP C-ANSI-C, with no additional options for GNU gcc 64-bit on PA-RISC, and with -mlp64 for GNU gcc on Itanium). Want to compile Perl using gcc? Then you'll have to get a version of the compiler that supports 64-bit operations.
You can also use the -Duse64bitint flag to Configure. There are some minor differences between compiling Perl with this flag versus the -Duse64bitall flag, but from a Perl user's perspective they should not be noticeable. Slight tea: when configuring -Duse64bitint using a 64bit gcc on a pa-risc architecture, -Duse64bitint is silently promoted to -Duse64bitall. No note, no text, nothing. Rude but okay 💅
In both cases, it is strongly recommended that you use these flags when you run Configure. If you don't do this, but later answer the questions about 64-bit numbers when Configure asks you, you may end up with a configuration that cannot be compiled, or one that does not function as expected. That's not a vibe, that's a problem 😭
🔮 Oracle on HP-UX 🔮
Using perl to connect to Oracle databases through DBI and DBD::Oracle has caused a lot of people a lot of headaches. Read README.hpux in the DBD::Oracle for much more information. The reason to mention it here at all is that Oracle requires a perl built with libcl and libpthread — the latter even when perl is build without threads. Building perl using all defaults, but still enabling you to build DBD::Oracle later on, can be achieved using:
Configure -A prepend:libswanted='cl pthread ' ...Do not forget the space before the trailing quote. I'm serious, it matters fr fr ⚠️
Also note that this does not (yet) work with all configurations — it is known to fail with 64-bit versions of GCC. 🥲
🍓 GDBM and Threads on HP-UX 🍓
If you attempt to compile Perl with (POSIX) threads on an 11.X system and also link in the GDBM library, then Perl will immediately core dump when it starts up. 💀 The only workaround at this point is to relink the GDBM library under 11.X, then relink it into Perl.
the error might show something like:
Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file:
../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096 Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33 sh: 5345
Quit(coredump)and Configure will give up. 🫠
🦋 NFS filesystems and utime(2) on HP-UX 🦋
If you are compiling Perl on a remotely-mounted NFS filesystem, the test io/fs.t may fail on test #18. This appears to be a bug in HP-UX and no fix is currently available. Not our fault, not your fault, it's just like that 🌸
👑 HP-UX Kernel Parameters (maxdsiz) for Compiling Perl 👑
By default, HP-UX comes configured with a maximum data segment size of 64MB. That is too small to correctly compile Perl with the maximum optimization levels. You can increase the size of the maxdsiz kernel parameter through the use of SAM.
When using the GUI version of SAM, click on the Kernel Configuration icon, then the Configurable Parameters icon. Scroll down and select the maxdsiz line. From the Actions menu, select the Modify Configurable Parameter item. Insert the new formula into the Formula/Value box. Then follow the instructions to rebuild your kernel and reboot your system. Slay, you got this 💪
In general, a value of 256MB (or "256*1024*1024") is sufficient for Perl to compile at maximum optimization.
💀 nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent 💀
You may get a bus error core dump from the op/pwent or op/grent tests. If compiled with -g you will see a stack trace much like the following:
#0 0xc004216c in () from /usr/lib/libc.2
#1 0xc00d7550 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
#2 0xc00d7768 in __nss_src_state_destr () from /usr/lib/libc.2
#3 0xc00d78a8 in nss_delete () from /usr/lib/libc.2
#4 0xc01126d8 in endpwent () from /usr/lib/libc.2
#5 0xd1950 in Perl_pp_epwent () from ./perl
#6 0x94d3c in Perl_runops_standard () from ./perl
#7 0x23728 in S_run_body () from ./perl
#8 0x23428 in perl_run () from ./perl
#9 0x2005c in main () from ./perlThe key here is the nss_delete call. One workaround for this bug seems to be to create add to the file /etc/nsswitch.conf (at least) the following lines:
group: files
passwd: filesWhether you are using NIS does not matter. And amazingly enough, the same bug also affects Solaris. Chaos across platforms, love that for us 🌈
🌸 error: pasting ")" and "l" does not give a valid preprocessing token 🌸
There seems to be a broken system header file in HP-UX 11.00 that breaks perl building in 32bit mode with GNU gcc-4.x, causing this error. The same file for HP-UX 11.11 (even though the file is older) does not show this failure, and has the correct definition — so the best fix is to patch the header to match:
--- /usr/include/inttypes.h 2001-04-20 18:42:14 +0200
+++ /usr/include/inttypes.h 2000-11-14 09:00:00 +0200
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
#define UINT32_C(__c) __CONCAT_U__(__c)
#else /* __LP64 */
#define INT32_C(__c) __CONCAT__(__c,l)
-#define UINT32_C(__c) __CONCAT__(__CONCAT_U__(__c),l)
+#define UINT32_C(__c) __CONCAT__(__c,ul)
#endif /* __LP64 */
#define INT64_C(__c) __CONCAT_L__(__c,l)🎀 Redeclaration of "sendpath" with a different storage class specifier 🎀
The following compilation warnings may happen in HP-UX releases earlier than 11.31 but are harmless:
cc: "/usr/include/sys/socket.h", line 535: warning 562:
Redeclaration of "sendfile" with a different storage class
specifier: "sendfile" will have internal linkage.
cc: "/usr/include/sys/socket.h", line 536: warning 562:
Redeclaration of "sendpath" with a different storage class
specifier: "sendpath" will have internal linkage.They seem to be caused by broken system header files, and also other open source projects are seeing them — so it's not just a you thing bestie 🫶 The following HP-UX patches should make the warnings go away:
CR JAGae12001: PHNE_27063
Warning 562 on sys/socket.h due to redeclaration of prototypes
CR JAGae16787:
Warning 562 from socket.h sendpath/sendfile -D_FILEFFSET_BITS=64
CR JAGae73470 (11.23)
ER: Compiling socket.h with cc -D_FILEFFSET_BITS=64 warning 267/562⭐ Miscellaneous ⭐
HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000 Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18, which tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed (on local filesystems utime() still works). This has probably been fixed on your system by now. probably. hopefully. ✨
💖 AUTHOR 💖
H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl> and Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@corp.hp.com>
With much assistance regarding shared libraries from Marc Sabatella. 🫶
and that's a wrap on the whole page, bestie 🎀 this was perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17, and the manual you just read is PERLHPUX(1perl). go forth and compile, you absolute icon 👑✨
📦 where this page comes from
- arch rolling: perl 5.44.0-1 · Artistic-1.0-Perl AND GPL-1.0-or-later
- 💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms