Perl Scripts and OpenVMS version

[Helio Cola]

Hi,

I need to port an perl script running on solaris OS to a openvms version 7.2.1.

I read today my first openvms documentation and found some kits from python running on my openvms version. Although it seems not as security as i need.

Upgrade the openvms version is a serious problem, but if it's the only or the minimum security way i will upgrade it.

My first doubts are: Which is the minimum openvms version that support perl scripts??? Is possible run perl openvem version 7.2-1???
Or other script language like phyton???

I found to download version for perl 5.6.1 to install on openvms alpha 7.3-1.
I found too a kit to run phyton on openvms alpha 7.2 builf from Tom Uijldert.

Thanks for any future help!
Regards,
HAC!

[labadie_1]

I have run Perl with Vms 6.2 (at least), so it is possible to run Perl with Vms 7.2-1

why do you say

"found some kits from python running on my openvms version. Although it seems not as security as i need." ?

I have run Python recently on Vms 7.2 without problem.

[Helio Cola]

I found perl 5.6.1 for openvms 7.2-1 DEC C Sockets on page http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/prebuilt.html

How can i check if my system is "DEC C Sockets".

Thanks

[Joseph Huber_1]

VMS can have several different TCP/IP implementations ("TCP/IP stacks")..
Earlier versions (before VMS 7.?) did not have a standard socket library, and programs built against it worked only on systems with the same stack.
Now the C run-time library contains a standard set of socket routines, which works with all stacks having an UCX QIO interface. This is the "DEC C socket" implementation.
So most probably, especially if Your TCPIP is UCX or "TCPIP services for VMS", this perl build will work.
Just install it and try. If the socket library is the wrong one, You will get an error like "... shared image version mismatch" or "shared library x not found" when You invoke perl.

[Craig A Berry]

There will be a minimum OpenVMS version supported by particular binary builds from various sources, which is often just a function of what someone happened to have available to build on. I am currently running Perl 5.8.4 on OpenVMS Alpha v7.1 and later versions, including a v7.2-1 system, so you should have no trouble running a recent version of Perl on 7.2-1.

The current stable release of Perl is 5.8.7 and the source tarball is available from here:

http://www.cpan.org/src/stable.tar.gz

If you have a C compiler, I suggest just building it from source.

The binary kits at

http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/prebuilt.html

are sadly rather out of date, though no more out of date than the officially supported HP binaries available from:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_modperl.html.

There are binary kits of Perl 5.8.4 for OpenVMS available on the current Freeware CD:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware70/perl/

There is also an easy-to-build source kit at the same location that has some extra goodies, including some VMS-specific extensions.

The "DEC C Sockets" support someone mentioned means Perl was built to use the socket APIs available in the CRTL. Once upon a time it was necessary to select which vendor's socket support you wanted, but since any third-party stack I'm aware of now supports the CRTL interfaces and any semi-recent CRTL (probably 7.1 or later) has the interfaces available even if you don't have a TCP/IP product installed, I'd just go with "DEC C Sockets" unless you have a really pressing need to support a very old system that doesn't have the infrastructure.

If you'd like to join a low-volume listserv that discusses building and using Perl on VMS, send mail to

vmsperl-subscribe AT perl DOT org