PERLIRIX(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLIRIX(1) # [NAME](#NAME) perlirix - Perl version 5 on Irix systems # [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION) This document describes various features of Irix that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs. ## [Building 32-bit Perl in Irix](#Building_32) Use ``` sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32' ``` to compile Perl 32-bit. Don't bother with -n32 unless you have 7.1 or later compilers (use cc -version to check). (Building 'cc -n32' is the default.) ## [Building 64-bit Perl in Irix](#Building_64) Use ``` sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitint ``` This requires require a 64-bit MIPS CPU (R8000, R10000, ...) You can also use ``` sh Configure -Dcc='cc -64' -Duse64bitall ``` but that makes no difference compared with the -Duse64bitint because of the "cc -64". You can also do ``` sh Configure -Dcc='cc -n32' -Duse64bitint ``` to use long longs for the 64-bit integer type, in case you don't have a 64-bit CPU. If you are using gcc, just ``` sh Configure -Dcc=gcc -Duse64bitint ``` should be enough, the Configure should automatically probe for the correct 64-bit settings. ## [About Compiler Versions of Irix](#About_Compiler_Versions_of_Irix) Some Irix cc versions, e.g. 7.3.1.1m (try cc -version) have been known to have issues (coredumps) when compiling perl.c. If you've used -OPT:fast\_io=ON and this happens, try removing it. If that fails, or you didn't use that, then try adjusting other optimization options (-LNO, -INLINE, -O3 to -O2, et cetera). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI. (Allen Smith <easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu>) ## [Linker Problems in Irix](#Linker_Problems_in_Irix) If you get complaints about so\_locations then search in the file hints/irix\_6.sh for "lddflags" and do the suggested adjustments. (David Billinghurst <David.Billinghurst@riotinto.com.au>) ## [Malloc in Irix](#Malloc_in_Irix) Do not try to use Perl's malloc, this will lead into very mysterious errors (especially with -Duse64bitall). ## [Building with threads in Irix](#Building_with_threads_in_Irix) Run Configure with -Duseithreads which will configure Perl with the Perl 5.8.0 "interpreter threads", see threads. For Irix 6.2 with perl threads, you have to have the following patches installed: ``` 1404 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b man pages 1645 Irix 6.2 & 6.3 POSIX header file updates 2000 Irix 6.2 Posix 1003.1b support modules 2254 Pthread library fixes 2401 6.2 all platform kernel rollup ``` **IMPORTANT**: Without patch 2401, a kernel bug in Irix 6.2 will cause your machine to panic and crash when running threaded perl. Irix 6.3 and later are okay. ``` Thanks to Hannu Napari for the IRIX pthreads patches information. ``` ## [Irix 5.3](#Irix_5.3) While running Configure and when building, you are likely to get quite a few of these warnings: ``` ld: The shared object /usr/lib/libm.so did not resolve any symbols. You may want to remove it from your link line. ``` Ignore them: in IRIX 5.3 there is no way to quieten ld about this. During compilation you will see this warning from toke.c: ``` uopt: Warning: Perl_yylex: this procedure not optimized because it exceeds size threshold; to optimize this procedure, use -Olimit option with value >= 4252. ``` Ignore the warning. In IRIX 5.3 and with Perl 5.8.1 (Perl 5.8.0 didn't compile in IRIX 5.3) the following failures are known. ``` Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed|Failing List ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ../ext/List/Util/t/shuffle.t 0 139 ?? ?? % ?? ../lib/Math/Trig.t 255 65280 29 12 41.38% 24-29 ../lib/sort.t 0 138 119 72 60.50% 48-119 56 tests and 474 subtests skipped. Failed 3/811 test scripts, 99.63% okay. 78/75813 subtests failed, 99.90% okay. ``` They are suspected to be compiler errors (at least the shuffle.t failure is known from some IRIX 6 setups) and math library errors (the Trig.t failure), but since IRIX 5 is long since end-of-lifed, further fixes for the IRIX are unlikely. If you can get gcc for 5.3, you could try that, too, since gcc in IRIX 6 is a known workaround for at least the shuffle.t and sort.t failures. # [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR) Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>. 2026-10-21 perl v5.44.0 --- Document: perlirix(1) from perl 5.44.0-r2 (Chainguard OS) Source: https://github.com/Perl/perl5.git