--- readme.vms;1	Thu Sep 25 10:03:12 2003
+++ README.vms	Thu Sep 25 10:44:00 2003
@@ -107,6 +107,9 @@
     ftp://ftp.lp.se/vms/
     http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
 
+Recent versions of VMS tar on ODS-5 volumes may extract tape archive
+files with ^. escaped periods in them.  See below for further workarounds.
+
 =item 3  UNZIP.EXE for VMS
 
 A combination decompressor and archive reader/writer for *.zip files.  
@@ -151,6 +154,33 @@
 DEC C, or socket libraries.  See the "Socket Support (optional)" topic 
 for more details.
 
+=head1 Unpacking the Perl source code
+
+You may need to set up a foreign symbol for the unpacking utility of choice.
+
+If you unpack a perl source kit with a name multiple periods on an ODS-5
+volume using recent versions of vmstar (e.g. V3.4 or later) you may need to
+be especially careful in unpacking the tape archive file.  Try to use
+the ODS-2 compatability qualifiers such as:
+
+    vmstar /extract/verbose/ods2 perl-V^.VIII^.I.tar
+
+or:
+
+    vmstar -xvof perl-5^.8^.1.tar
+
+If you neglected to use the /ODS2 qualifier or the -o switch then you
+could rename the source directory:
+
+    set security/protection=(o:rwed) perl-5^.8^.1.dir
+    rename perl-5^.8^.1.dir perl-5_8_1.dir
+
+Perl on VMS as of 5.8.1 does not completely handle extended file 
+parse styles such as are encountered on ODS-5.  While it can be built,
+installed, and run on ODS-5 filesystems; it may encounter
+trouble with characters that are otherwise illegal on ODS-2
+volumes (notably the ^. escaped period sequence).
+
 =head1 Configuring the Perl build
 
 To configure perl (a necessary first step), issue the command
@@ -532,6 +562,12 @@
 a VAX or on Alpha versions of VMS prior to 7.2).  But MakeMaker will not 
 warn you if you start out building a module too deep in a directory.
 
+As noted above ODS-5 escape sequences such as ^. can break the perl
+build.  Solutions include renaming files and directories as needed or
+being careful to use the -o switch or /ODS2 qualifier with latter
+versions of the vmstar utility when unpacking perl or CPAN modules
+on ODS-5 volumes. 
+
 Be sure that the process that you use to build perl has a PGFLQ greater
 than 100000.  Be sure to have a correct local time zone to UTC offset
 defined (in seconds) in the logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL before