Perl/iX for HP 3000 MPE
http://www.cccd.edu/~markb/perlix.html
Perl language for MPE
Last updated November 6, 1997 @ 2300 UTC
What's New
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November 6, 1997
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Updated to version 5.004_04. No changes in MPE-specific functionality.
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October 16, 1997
-
Added Demos section to the Perl/iX home page so you can see some sample
Perl applications running on my 3000.
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October 3, 1997
-
Added System Requirements section to the Perl/iX home page just so the
prerequisites stand out more. Various other home page tweaks.
Welcome
This is the official home page for the HP
3000 MPE 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 HPUX machines
that I administer for the Coast Community
College District, 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 markb@cccd.edu.
Or just post them to HP3000-L.
You can also telephone me at +1 714 438-4647 Monday-Friday 0815-1715 PDT
(1615-0115 UTC).
The platform I'm using to do this port is an HP 3000 969KS200 running
MPE/iX 5.5 and using the gcc compiler from http://www.interex.org/sources/freeware.html.
System Requirements
-
MPE/iX 5.5 or later. This version of Perl/iX does NOT run on MPE/iX 5.0
or earlier, nor does it run on "classic" MPE/V machines.
-
The Perl binary requires that you must have converted your NMRL libraries
in /lib/lib*.a and /usr/lib/lib*.a to NMXL libraries /lib/lib*.sl and /usr/lib/lib*.sl
via the LIBSHP3K script
that comes with the GNUCORE portion of the FREEWARE
tape.
-
If you wish to recompile Perl, you must install both GNUCORE and GNUGCC
from the FREEWARE
tape.
-
Perl/iX will be happier if you install the pre-release
MPEJXQ1 additional POSIX filename characters patch, but this is optional.
Demos
Here are some sample Perl applications that I have running on my HP 3000:
-
Network
monitor. Your HP 3000 can draw pretty graphs that measure network traffic
statistics from SNMP-aware devices such as routers, HP JetDirect cards,
HP 9000s, and of course HP 3000s.
How to Obtain Perl/iX
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Create the PERL account
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Download Perl using either FTP.ARPA.SYS or some other client
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Uncompress and extract
Create the PERL account on your HP 3000
:HELLO MANAGER.SYS
:NEWACCT PERL,MGR;CAP=AM,AL,ND,SF,IA,BA,PH;ACCESS=(R,L,X:ANY;W,A:AC);PASS=somethingsecure
:ALTGROUP PUB.PERL;ACCESS=(R,L,X:ANY;W,A,S:AC)
Download Perl/iX using FTP.ARPA.SYS from your HP 3000 (the preferred method).....
:HELLO MGR.PERL
:FTP.ARPA.SYS
open ftp.cccd.edu
anonymous
your@email.address
bytestream
cd /pub/mpe
get perl5.004_04.tar.Z /tmp/perl.tar.Z
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 uncompress and extract the distribution (after both download methods)
:TAR.HPBIN.SYS '-xvfopz /tmp/perl.tar.Z'
Note: this release of Perl/iX is structured differently than previous releases,
i.e. it is fully contained within the PERL account. Users of Perl 5.003
and earlier should delete the old version from beneath /usr/local once
you are satisfied that the new version works. You might also consider
doing a "ln -s /PERL/PUB/PERL /usr/local/bin/perl" so that any old scripts
referring to the old Perl location will still work.
Distribution Contents Highlights
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PERL
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Perl NMPRG executable. A version-numbered backup copy also exists.
You might wish to "ln -s /PERL/PUB/PERL /usr/local/bin/perl".
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lib/
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Perl libraries, both core and add-on.
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man/
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Perl man page documentation.
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src/perl5.004_04-mpe
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Source code.
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src/perl5.004_04-mpe/mpeix/
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MPE/iX-specific directory, including README (this file).
How to Compile Perl/iX
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cd src/perl5.004_04-mpe
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Read the INSTALL file for the official instructions
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./Configure
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make
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./mpeix/relink
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make test (expect 13 out of 4569 subtests to fail, mostly due to MPE not
supporting hard links)
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make install
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Optionally create symbolic links that point to the Perl executable, i.e.
ln -s /usr/local/bin/perl /PERL/PUB/PERL
The summary test results from "cd t; ./perl harness":
Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
io/fs.t 26 8 30.77% 2-5, 7-9, 11
lib/posix.t 17 1 5.88% 12
op/exec.t 8 2 25.00% 5-6
op/stat.t 56 2 3.57% 3, 35
Failed 4/153 test scripts, 97.39% okay. 13/4569 subtests failed, 99.72% 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!
If you want to use Perl to write web server CGI scripts, obtain and
install CGI.pm.
Build CGI.pm and all other add-on modules below /PERL/PUB/src/.
Be sure to take a look at the CPAN
module list. A wide variety of free Perl software is available.
MPE/iX Implementation Considerations
There some minor functionality issues to be aware of when comparing Perl
for Unix (Perl/UX) to Perl/iX:
-
MPE gcc/ld doesn't properly support linking NMPRG executables against NMXL
dynamic libraries, so you must manually run mpeix/relink after each re-build
of Perl.
-
Perl/iX File::Copy will use MPE's /bin/cp command to copy files by name
in order to preserve file attributes like file code.
-
MPE (and thus Perl/iX) lacks support for setgrent(), endgrent(), setpwent(),
endpwent().
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MPE (and thus Perl/iX) lacks support for hard links.
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MPE requires GETPRIVMODE() in order to bind() to ports less than 1024.
Perl/iX will call GETPRIVMODE() automatically on your behalf if you attempt
to bind() to these low-numbered ports. Note that the Perl/iX executable
and the PERL account do not normally have CAP=PM, so if you will be bind()-ing
to these privileged ports, you will manually need to add PM capability
as appropriate.
-
MPE requires that you bind() to an IP address of zero. Perl/iX automatically
replaces the IP address that you pass to bind() with a zero.
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If you use Perl/iX fcntl() against a socket it will fail, because MPE requires
that you use sfcntl() instead. Perl/iX does not presently support
sfcntl().
-
MPE requires GETPRIVMODE() in order to setuid(). There are too many
calls to setuid() within Perl/iX, so I have not attempted an automatic
GETPRIVMODE() solution similar to bind().
Known Bugs Under Investigation
To-Do List
-
Submit the MPE patches back to the official Perl distribution.
-
Write an MPE XS extension library containing miscellaneous important MPE
functions like GETPRIVMODE(), GETUSERMODE(), and sfcntl().
Change History
-
October 2, 1997
-
September 1997
Mark Bixby, markb@cccd.edu