{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "perlaix", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/perlaix/1/json", "generated": "2026-06-16T10:27:20Z", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "perlaix - Perl version 5 on IBM AIX (UNIX) systems\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "This document describes various features of IBM's UNIX operating system AIX that will affect\nhow Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Compiling Perl 5 on AIX", "content": "For information on compilers on older versions of AIX, see \"Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX\nversions up to 4.3.3\".\n\nWhen compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship an ANSI compliant C\ncompiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of gcc for AIX are widely available. A\nversion of gcc is also included in the AIX Toolbox which is shipped with AIX.\n" }, { "name": "Supported Compilers", "content": "Currently all versions of IBM's \"xlc\", \"xlcr\", \"cc\", \"ccr\" or \"vac\" ANSI/C compiler will\nwork for building Perl if that compiler works on your system.\n\nIf you plan to link Perl to any module that requires thread-support, like DBD::Oracle, it is\nbetter to use the r version of the compiler. This will not build a threaded Perl, but a\nthread-enabled Perl. See also \"Threaded Perl\" later on.\n\nAs of writing (2010-09) only the IBM XL C for AIX or IBM XL C/C++ for AIX compiler is\nsupported by IBM on AIX 5L/6.1/7.1.\n\nThe following compiler versions are currently supported by IBM:\n\nIBM XL C and IBM XL C/C++ V8, V9, V10, V11\n\nThe XL C for AIX is integrated in the XL C/C++ for AIX compiler and therefore also supported.\n\nIf you choose XL C/C++ V9 you need APAR IZ35785 installed otherwise the integrated SDBMFile\ndo not compile correctly due to an optimization bug. You can circumvent this problem by\nadding -qipa to the optimization flags (-Doptimize='-O -qipa'). The PTF for APAR IZ35785\nwhich solves this problem is available from IBM (April 2009 PTF for XL C/C++ Enterprise\nEdition for AIX, V9.0).\n\nIf you choose XL C/C++ V11 you need the April 2010 PTF (or newer) installed otherwise you\nwill not get a working Perl version.\n\nPerl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. The former is\nrecommended, as not only it can compile Perl with no difficulty, but also can take advantage\nof features listed later that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.\n\nIf you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete, and be sure to\nread the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific details. Please report any hoops you had to\njump through to the development team.\n" }, { "name": "Incompatibility with AIX Toolbox lib gdbm", "content": "If the AIX Toolbox version of lib gdbm < 1.8.3-5 is installed on your system then Perl will\nnot work. This library contains the header files /opt/freeware/include/gdbm/dbm.h|ndbm.h\nwhich conflict with the AIX system versions. The lib gdbm will be automatically removed from\nthe wanted libraries if the presence of one of these two header files is detected. If you\nwant to build Perl with GDBM support then please install at least gdbm-devel-1.8.3-5 (or\nhigher).\n" }, { "name": "Perl 5 was successfully compiled and tested on:", "content": "Perl | AIX Level | Compiler Level | w th | w/o th\n-------+---------------------+-------------------------+------+-------\n5.12.2 |5.1 TL9 32 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.1 TL9 64 bit | XL C/C++ V7 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 32 bit | gcc 3.2.2 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.2 TL10 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V8 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 32 bit | gcc 4.2.4 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.3 TL8 SP8 64 bit | XL C/C++ V9 + IZ35785 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.3 TL10 SP3 32 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Apr 2010 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |5.3 TL10 SP3 64 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Apr 2010 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |6.1 TL1 SP7 32 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK\n5.12.2 |6.1 TL1 SP7 64 bit | XL C/C++ V10 | OK | OK\n5.13 |7.1 TL0 SP1 32 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Jul 2010 | OK | OK\n5.13 |7.1 TL0 SP1 64 bit | XL C/C++ V11 + Jul 2010 | OK | OK\n\nw th = with thread support\nw/o th = without thread support\nOK = tested\n\nSuccessfully tested means that all \"make test\" runs finish with a result of 100% OK. All\ntests were conducted with -Duseshrplib set.\n\nAll tests were conducted on the oldest supported AIX technology level with the latest support\npackage applied. If the tested AIX version is out of support (AIX 4.3.3, 5.1, 5.2) then the\nlast available support level was used.\n" }, { "name": "Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX", "content": "Starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.x / 5.10.x / 5.12.x) and AIX 4.3 or newer Perl\nuses the AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so called runtime linking mode instead\nof the emulated interface that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX\nreleases 4.2 and earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled modules\nfrom earlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other\napplications like Apache/modperl which are using the AIX native interface. This change also\nenables the use of C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions,\nwhich was not possible using the emulated interface.\n\nIt is highly recommended to use the new interface.\n" }, { "name": "Using Large Files with Perl", "content": "Should yield no problems.\n" }, { "name": "Threaded Perl", "content": "Should yield no problems with AIX 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.3 / 6.1 / 7.1.\n\nIBM uses the AIX system Perl (V5.6.0 on AIX 5.1 and V5.8.2 on AIX 5.2 / 5.3 and 6.1; V5.8.8\non AIX 5.3 TL11 and AIX 6.1 TL4; V5.10.1 on AIX 7.1) for some AIX system scripts. If you\nswitch the links in /usr/bin from the AIX system Perl (/usr/opt/perl5) to the newly build\nPerl then you get the same features as with the IBM AIX system Perl if the threaded options\nare used.\n\nThe threaded Perl build works also on AIX 5.1 but the IBM Perl build (Perl v5.6.0) is not\nthreaded on AIX 5.1.\n\nPerl 5.12 an newer is not compatible with the IBM fileset perl.libext.\n" }, { "name": "64-bit Perl", "content": "If your AIX system is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit configurations to\nwork. If you want to use 64-bit Perl on AIX 6.1 you need an APAR for a libc.a bug which\naffects (n)dbmXXX functions. The APAR number for this problem is IZ39077.\n\nIf you need more memory (larger data segment) for your Perl programs you can set:\n\n/etc/security/limits\ndefault: (or your user)\ndata = -1 (default is 262144 * 512 byte)\n\nWith the default setting the size is limited to 128MB. The -1 removes this limit. If the\n\"make test\" fails please change your /etc/security/limits as stated above.\n" }, { "name": "Long doubles", "content": "IBM calls its implementation of long doubles 128-bit, but it is not the IEEE 128-bit\n(\"quadruple precision\") which would give 116 bit of mantissa (nor it is implemented in\nhardware), instead it's a special software implementation called \"double-double\", which gives\n106 bits of mantissa.\n\nThere seem to be various problems in this long double implementation. If Configure detects\nthis brokenness, it will disable the long double support. This can be overridden with\nexplicit \"-Duselongdouble\" (or \"-Dusemorebits\", which enables both long doubles and 64 bit\nintegers). If you decide to enable long doubles, for most of the broken things Perl has\nimplemented workarounds, but the handling of the special values infinity and NaN remains\nbadly broken: for example infinity plus zero results in NaN.\n" }, { "name": "Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (threaded/32-bit)", "content": "With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes all make tests in\nthreaded 32-bit mode, which is the default configuration for the Perl builds that AIX ships\nwith.\n\nrm config.sh\n./Configure \\\n-d \\\n-Dcc=ccr \\\n-Duseshrplib \\\n-Dusethreads \\\n-Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl532\n\nThe -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl\ninstallation.\n" }, { "name": "Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (32-bit)", "content": "With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make tests in 32-bit mode.\n\nrm config.sh\n./Configure \\\n-d \\\n-Dcc=ccr \\\n-Duseshrplib \\\n-Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl532\n\nThe -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl\ninstallation.\n" }, { "name": "Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (threaded/64-bit)", "content": "With the following options you get a threaded Perl version which passes all make tests in\n64-bit mode.\n\nexport OBJECTMODE=64 / setenv OBJECTMODE 64 (depending on your shell)\n\nrm config.sh\n./Configure \\\n-d \\\n-Dcc=ccr \\\n-Duseshrplib \\\n-Dusethreads \\\n-Duse64bitall \\\n-Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl564\n" }, { "name": "Recommended Options AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3/6.1 and 7.1 (64-bit)", "content": "With the following options you get a Perl version which passes all make tests in 64-bit mode.\n\nexport OBJECTMODE=64 / setenv OBJECTMODE 64 (depending on your shell)\n\nrm config.sh\n./Configure \\\n-d \\\n-Dcc=ccr \\\n-Duseshrplib \\\n-Duse64bitall \\\n-Dprefix=/usr/opt/perl564\n\nThe -Dprefix option will install Perl in a directory parallel to the IBM AIX system Perl\ninstallation.\n\nIf you choose gcc to compile 64-bit Perl then you need to add the following option:\n\n-Dcc='gcc -maix64'\n" }, { "name": "Compiling Perl 5 on AIX 7.1.0", "content": "A regression in AIX 7 causes a failure in make test in Time::Piece during daylight savings\ntime. APAR IV16514 provides the fix for this. A quick test to see if it's required,\nassuming it is currently daylight savings in Eastern Time, would be to run \" TZ=EST5 date +%Z\n\". This will come back with \"EST\" normally, but nothing if you have the problem.\n" }, { "name": "Compiling Perl 5 on older AIX versions up to 4.3.3", "content": "Due to the fact that AIX 4.3.3 reached end-of-service in December 31, 2003 this information\nis provided as is. The Perl versions prior to Perl 5.8.9 could be compiled on AIX up to 4.3.3\nwith the following settings (your mileage may vary):\n\nWhen compiling Perl, you must use an ANSI C compiler. AIX does not ship an ANSI compliant\nC-compiler with AIX by default, but binary builds of gcc for AIX are widely available.\n\nAt the moment of writing, AIX supports two different native C compilers, for which you have\nto pay: xlC and vac. If you decide to use either of these two (which is quite a lot easier\nthan using gcc), be sure to upgrade to the latest available patch level. Currently:\n\nxlC.C 3.1.4.10 or 3.6.6.0 or 4.0.2.2 or 5.0.2.9 or 6.0.0.3\nvac.C 4.4.0.3 or 5.0.2.6 or 6.0.0.1\n\nnote that xlC has the OS version in the name as of version 4.0.2.0, so you will find xlC.C\nfor AIX-5.0 as package\n\nxlC.aix50.rte 5.0.2.0 or 6.0.0.3\n\nsubversions are not the same \"latest\" on all OS versions. For example, the latest xlC-5 on\naix41 is 5.0.2.9, while on aix43, it is 5.0.2.7.\n\nPerl can be compiled with either IBM's ANSI C compiler or with gcc. The former is\nrecommended, as not only can it compile Perl with no difficulty, but also can take advantage\nof features listed later that require the use of IBM compiler-specific command-line flags.\n\nThe IBM's compiler patch levels 5.0.0.0 and 5.0.1.0 have compiler optimization bugs that\naffect compiling perl.c and regcomp.c, respectively. If Perl's configuration detects those\ncompiler patch levels, optimization is turned off for the said source code files. Upgrading\nto at least 5.0.2.0 is recommended.\n\nIf you decide to use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete, and be sure to\nread the Perl INSTALL file for more gcc-specific details. Please report any hoops you had to\njump through to the development team.\n" }, { "name": "OS level", "content": "Before installing the patches to the IBM C-compiler you need to know the level of patching\nfor the Operating System. IBM's command 'oslevel' will show the base, but is not always\ncomplete (in this example oslevel shows 4.3.NULL, whereas the system might run most of\n4.3.THREE):\n\n# oslevel\n4.3.0.0\n# lslpp -l | grep 'bos.rte '\nbos.rte 4.3.3.75 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime\nbos.rte 4.3.2.0 COMMITTED Base Operating System Runtime\n#\n\nThe same might happen to AIX 5.1 or other OS levels. As a side note, Perl cannot be built\nwithout bos.adt.syscalls and bos.adt.libm installed\n\n# lslpp -l | egrep \"syscalls|libm\"\nbos.adt.libm 5.1.0.25 COMMITTED Base Application Development\nbos.adt.syscalls 5.1.0.36 COMMITTED System Calls Application\n#\n" }, { "name": "Building Dynamic Extensions on AIX < 5L", "content": "AIX supports dynamically loadable objects as well as shared libraries. Shared libraries by\nconvention end with the suffix .a, which is a bit misleading, as an archive can contain\nstatic as well as dynamic members. For Perl dynamically loaded objects we use the .so suffix\nalso used on many other platforms.\n\nNote that starting from Perl 5.7.2 (and consequently 5.8.0) and AIX 4.3 or newer Perl uses\nthe AIX native dynamic loading interface in the so called runtime linking mode instead of the\nemulated interface that was used in Perl releases 5.6.1 and earlier or, for AIX releases 4.2\nand earlier. This change does break backward compatibility with compiled modules from\nearlier Perl releases. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other\napplications like Apache/modperl which are using the AIX native interface. This change also\nenables the use of C++ code with static constructors and destructors in Perl extensions,\nwhich was not possible using the emulated interface.\n" }, { "name": "The IBM ANSI C Compiler", "content": "All defaults for Configure can be used.\n\nIf you've chosen to use vac 4, be sure to run 4.4.0.3. Older versions will turn up nasty\nlater on. For vac 5 be sure to run at least 5.0.1.0, but vac 5.0.2.6 or up is highly\nrecommended. Note that since IBM has removed vac 5.0.2.1 through 5.0.2.5 from the software\ndepot, these versions should be considered obsolete.\n\nHere's a brief lead of how to upgrade the compiler to the latest level. Of course this is\nsubject to changes. You can only upgrade versions from ftp-available updates if the first\nthree digit groups are the same (in where you can skip intermediate unlike the patches in the\ndeveloper snapshots of Perl), or to one version up where the \"base\" is available. In other\nwords, the AIX compiler patches are cumulative.\n\nvac.C.4.4.0.1 => vac.C.4.4.0.3 is OK (vac.C.4.4.0.2 not needed)\nxlC.C.3.1.3.3 => xlC.C.3.1.4.10 is NOT OK (xlC.C.3.1.4.0 is not\navailable)\n\n# ftp ftp.software.ibm.com\nConnected to service.boulder.ibm.com.\n: welcome message ...\nName (ftp.software.ibm.com:merijn): anonymous\n331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.\nPassword:\n... accepted login stuff\nftp> cd /aix/fixes/v4/\nftp> dir other other.ll\noutput to local-file: other.ll? y\n200 PORT command successful.\n150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.\n226 Transfer complete.\nftp> dir xlc xlc.ll\noutput to local-file: xlc.ll? y\n200 PORT command successful.\n150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.\n226 Transfer complete.\nftp> bye\n... goodbye messages\n# ls -l *.ll\n-rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 1169432 Nov 2 17:29 other.ll\n-rw-rw-rw- 1 merijn system 29170 Nov 2 17:29 xlc.ll\n\nOn AIX 4.2 using xlC, we continue:\n\n# lslpp -l | fgrep 'xlC.C '\nxlC.C 3.1.4.9 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler\nxlC.C 3.1.4.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler\n# grep 'xlC.C.3.1.4.*.bff' xlc.ll\n-rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6286336 Jul 22 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.1.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6173696 Aug 24 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff\n-rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6319104 Aug 14 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.2.bff\n-rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6316032 Oct 21 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.3.bff\n-rw-r--r-- 1 45776101 1 6315008 Dec 20 1996 xlC.C.3.1.4.4.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6178816 Mar 28 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.5.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6188032 May 22 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.6.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6191104 Sep 5 1997 xlC.C.3.1.4.7.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6185984 Jan 13 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.8.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 6169600 May 27 1998 xlC.C.3.1.4.9.bff\n# wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/xlc/xlC.C.3.1.4.10.bff\n#\n\nOn AIX 4.3 using vac, we continue:\n\n# lslpp -l | grep 'vac.C '\nvac.C 5.0.2.2 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler\nvac.C 5.0.2.0 COMMITTED C for AIX Compiler\n# grep 'vac.C.5.0.2.*.bff' other.ll\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 13592576 Apr 16 2001 vac.C.5.0.2.0.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14133248 Apr 9 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.3.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14173184 May 20 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.4.bff\n-rw-rw-r-- 1 45776101 1 14192640 Nov 22 2002 vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff\n# wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/other/vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff\n#\n\nLikewise on all other OS levels. Then execute the following command, and fill in its choices\n\n# smit installupdate\n-> Install and Update from LATEST Available Software\n* INPUT device / directory for software [ vac.C.5.0.2.6.bff ]\n[ OK ]\n[ OK ]\n\nFollow the messages ... and you're done.\n\nIf you like a more web-like approach, a good start point can be\n and click \"C for AIX\", and\nfollow the instructions.\n" }, { "name": "The usenm option", "content": "If linking miniperl\n\ncc -o miniperl ... miniperlmain.o opmini.o perl.o ... -lm -lc ...\n\ncauses error like this\n\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .aintl\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .copysignl\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .syscall\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .eaccess\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresuid\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setresgid\nld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .setproctitle\nld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more\ninformation.\n\nyou could retry with\n\nmake realclean\nrm config.sh\n./Configure -Dusenm ...\n\nwhich makes Configure to use the \"nm\" tool when scanning for library symbols, which usually\nis not done in AIX.\n\nRelated to this, you probably should not use the \"-r\" option of Configure in AIX, because\nthat affects of how the \"nm\" tool is used.\n" }, { "name": "Using GNU's gcc for building Perl", "content": "Using gcc-3.x (tested with 3.0.4, 3.1, and 3.2) now works out of the box, as do recent\ngcc-2.9 builds available directly from IBM as part of their Linux compatibility packages,\navailable here:\n\nhttp://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/\n" }, { "name": "Using Large Files with Perl < 5L", "content": "Should yield no problems.\n" }, { "name": "Threaded Perl < 5L", "content": "Threads seem to work OK, though at the moment not all tests pass when threads are used in\ncombination with 64-bit configurations.\n\nYou may get a warning when doing a threaded build:\n\n\"ppsys.c\", line 4640.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment\nbetween types \"unsigned char*\" and \"const void*\" is not allowed.\n\nThe exact line number may vary, but if the warning (W) comes from a line line this\n\nhent = PerlSockgethostbyaddr(addr, (Netdbhlent) addrlen, addrtype);\n\nin the \"ppghostent\" function, you may ignore it safely. The warning is caused by the\nreentrant variant of gethostbyaddr() having a slightly different prototype than its non-\nreentrant variant, but the difference is not really significant here.\n" }, { "name": "64-bit Perl < 5L", "content": "If your AIX is installed with 64-bit support, you can expect 64-bit configurations to work.\nIn combination with threads some tests might still fail.\n" }, { "name": "AIX 4.2 and extensions using C++ with statics", "content": "In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics may have problems in that\nthe statics are not getting initialized. In newer AIX releases this has been solved by\nlinking Perl with the libCr library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library has an\nobscure bug where the various functions related to time (such as time() and gettimeofday())\nreturn broken values, and therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libCr.\n" } ] }, "AUTHORS": { "content": "Rainer Tammer \n\n\n\nperl v5.34.0 2025-07-25 PERLAIX(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "perlaix - Perl version 5 on IBM AIX (UNIX) systems", "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [], "tldr": { "source": "not_found", "examples": [] } }