Perl/iX for HP e3000 MPE

Perl language for MPE
Last updated June 2, 2000 @ 0400 UTC
  1. What's New
  2. Welcome
  3. System Requirements
  4. How to Obtain Perl/iX
  5. Distribution Contents Highlights
  6. How to Compile Perl/iX
  7. Getting Started with Perl/iX
  8. MPE/iX Implementation Considerations
  9. Known Bugs Under Investigation
  10. To-Do List
  11. Change History


What's New


Welcome

This is the official home page for the HP e3000 MPE/iX port of the Perl scripting language which gives you all of the power of C, awk, sed, and sh in a single language. Check here for the latest news, implemented functionality, known bugs, to-do list, etc. Status reports about major milestones will also be posted to the HP3000-L mailing list and its associated gatewayed newsgroup comp.sys.hp.mpe.

I'm doing this port because I can't live without Perl on the Unix machines that I administer, and I want to have the same power available to me on MPE.

Please send your comments, questions, and bug reports directly to me, Mark Bixby, by e-mailing to mark@bixby.org. Or just post them to HP3000-L.

The platform I'm using to do this port is an HP 3000 957RX running MPE/iX 6.0 and using the GNU gcc C compiler.

The combined porting wisdom from all of my ports can be found in my MPE/iX Porting Guide.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Yes, I do work for the HP CSY R&D lab, but ALL of the software you download from bixby.org is my personal freeware that is NOT supported by HP.


System Requirements


How to Obtain Perl/iX

  1. Download Perl using either FTP.ARPA.SYS or some other client
  2. Extract the installation script
  3. Edit the installation script
  4. Run the installation script
  5. Convert your *.a system archive libraries to *.sl shared libraries

Download Perl using FTP.ARPA.SYS from your HP 3000 (the preferred method).....

:HELLO MANAGER.SYS
:XEQ FTP.ARPA.SYS
open ftp.bixby.org
anonymous
your@email.address
bytestream
cd /pub/mpe
get perl-5.6.0-mpe.tar.Z /tmp/perl.tar.Z;disc=2147483647
exit

.....Or download using some other generic web or ftp client (the alternate method)

Download the following files (make sure that you use "binary mode" or whatever client feature that is 8-bit clean): Upload those files to your HP 3000 in an 8-bit clean bytestream manner to:

Then extract the installation script (after both download methods)

:CHDIR /tmp
:XEQ TAR.HPBIN.SYS 'xvfopz /tmp/perl.tar.Z INSTALL'

Edit the installation script

Examine the accounting structure creation commands and modify if necessary (adding additional capabilities, choosing a non-system volume set, etc).
:XEQ VI.HPBIN.SYS /tmp/INSTALL

Run the installation script

The accounting structure will be created and then all files will be extracted from the archive.
:XEQ SH.HPBIN.SYS /tmp/INSTALL

Convert your *.a system archive libraries to *.sl shared libraries

You only have to do this ONCE on your MPE/iX 5.5 machine in order to convert /lib/lib*.a and /usr/lib/lib*.a libraries to their *.sl equivalents. This step should not be necessary on MPE/iX 6.0 or later machines because the 6.0 or later update process does it for you.
:XEQ SH.HPBIN.SYS /PERL/PUB/LIBSHP3K


Distribution Contents Highlights

README
The file you're reading now.
INSTALL
Perl/iX Installation script.
LIBSHP3K
Script to convert *.a system archive libraries to *.sl shared libraries.
PERL
Perl NMPRG executable. A version-numbered backup copy also exists. You might wish to "ln -s /PERL/PUB/PERL /usr/local/bin/perl".
.cpan/
Much add-on source code downloaded with the CPAN module.
lib/
Perl libraries, both core and add-on.
man/
Perl man page documentation.
public_html/feedback.cgi
Sample feedback CGI form written in Perl.
src/perl-5.6.0-mpe
Source code.


How to Compile Perl/iX

  1. cd src/perl-5.6.0-mpe
  2. Read the INSTALL file for the official instructions
  3. ./Configure -d
  4. make
  5. ./mpeix/relink
  6. make test (expect approximately 15 out of 11306 subtests to fail, mostly due to MPE not supporting hard links, UDP socket problems, and handling exit() return codes improperly)
  7. make install
  8. Optionally create symbolic links that point to the Perl executable, i.e. ln -s /PERL/PUB/PERL /usr/local/bin/perl
The summary test results from "cd t; ./perl -I../lib harness":
Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
io/fs.t                     29    8  27.59%  2-5, 7-9, 11
io/openpid.t                10    1  10.00%  7
lib/io_sock.t               14    1   7.14%  13
lib/io_udp.t                 7    2  28.57%  3, 5
lib/posix.t                 27    1   3.70%  12
op/lex_assign.t            187    1   0.53%  13
op/stat.t                   58    1   1.72%  3
15 tests and 94 subtests skipped.
Failed 7/236 test scripts, 97.03% okay. 15/11306 subtests failed, 99.87% okay.


Getting Started with Perl/iX

Create your Perl script files with "#!/PERL/PUB/perl" (or an equivalent symbolic link) as the first line. Use the chmod command to make sure that your script has execute permission. Run your script!

Be sure to take a look at the CPAN module list. A wide variety of free Perl software is available. You can automatically download these packages by using the CPAN module.


MPE/iX Implementation Considerations

There some minor functionality issues to be aware of when comparing Perl for Unix (Perl/UX) to Perl/iX:


Known Bugs Under Investigation


To-Do List


Change History


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