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Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

 
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dschwarz
Frequent Advisor

Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

Has anyone ever succeeded in porting
Apache Portable Runtime (APR) to VAX/VMS V7.3 ?

If so, what compilers and tools are needed ?
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John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

Seems a bit unlikely to me.

Apache code is almost certainly C based. The VAX C compilers are notoriously non-standard. The CRTL on V7.3 is rather old (> 10 years), and probably lacking some of the features required by anything developed in the last decade. You only need one thing missing to be a show stopper.

On top of that, even the fastest VAX processors and systems are slow by today's standards. Performance is likely to be disappointing, at best!

Presumably you're looking to implement some kind of web access to data on a VAX system? There are plenty of ways to do that which don't require you to run your web server on the VAX itself. I'd suggest you investigate that approach rather than try to force fit new code only a very old system.
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Craig A Berry
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

The APR is not Apache. There are lots of reasons you might want the library other than running a web server, such as that it's a prerequisite to the Subversion version control package and various other packages.

The DEC/Compaq/HP C for OpenVMS VAX compiler (not now nor ever has been related to VAX C) supports ANSI89, which is good enough for most things. I seriously doubt the APR requires C99 as one of its intended goals is to provide compatibility across lots of OS and compiler environments. The age and incompleteness of the CRTL, on the other hand, might well cause trouble.

I've never heard of the APR being ported to VAX. Nor am I going to look into since I already have plenty of other self-torture appointments scheduled. But if I were, I would get the SWS sources, extract the APR bits, and get a reference build going on Alpha or Itanium.

Then start trying to run the same build procedures on VAX and see what blows up. There will likely be VMS features and CRTL features that aren't there and you'll have to either implement them or work around their absence.
dschwarz
Frequent Advisor

Re: Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

There are no plans to port Apache Web Server to VAX/VMS.

As Craig stated, there are reasons to have the APR Library on VAX/VMS as a prerequisite to some communication package.

I already had a look at the source code and the build procedures, as far as they are available and I opened this thread to reduce pain of that 'self-torture appointment'.

Thank you.
Alex Chupahin
Super Advisor

Re: Apache Portable Runtime on VAX /VMS

I can try to make a port for you.
please contact me alexey@vaxman.de