comp.unix.aix faq -Part 4 of 5

Subject: 2.05: How do I make my own shared library?

To make your own shared object or library of shared objects, you should
know that a shared object cannot have undefined symbols.  Thus, if your
code uses any externals from /lib/libc.a, the latter MUST be linked with
your code to make a shared object.  Mike Heath ( [email protected]) said it
is possible to split code into more than one shared object when externals
in one object refer to another one.  You must be very good at
import/export files.  Perhaps he or someone can provide an example.

Assume you have one file, sub1.c, containing a routine with no external
references, and another one, sub2.c, calling stuff in /lib/libc.a.  You
will also need two export files, sub1.exp, sub2.exp.  Read the example
below together with the examples on the ld man page.

---- sub1.c ----
    int addint(int a, int b)
    {
      return a + b;
    }
---- sub2.c ----
    #include

    void printint(int a)
    {
      printf("The integer is: %d/n", a);
    }
---- sub1.exp ----
    #!
    addint
---- sub2.exp ----
    #!
    printint
---- usesub.c ----
    main()
    {
      printint( addint(5,8) );
    }

The following commands will build your libshr.a, and compile/link the
program usesub to use it.

  $ cc  -c sub1.c
  $ cc -bM:SRE -bnoentry -bE:sub1.exp -o sub1shr.o sub1.o
  $ cc  -c sub2.c
  $ cc -bM:SRE -bnoentry -bE:sub2.exp -o sub2shr.o sub2.o
  $ ar r libshr.a sub1shr.o sub2shr.o
  $ cc -o usesub usesub.c -L: libshr.a
  $ usesub
  The integer is: 13
  $

A similar example can be found in the AIX manual online on the web at:

< http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/aixprggd/genprogc/create_shared_lib.htm>

---

Subject: 2.06: Linking my program fails with strange errors.  Why?

Very simple, the linker (actually called the binder), cannot get the
memory it needs, either because your ulimits are too low or because you
don't have sufficient paging space.  Since the linker is quite different
>from normal Unix linkers and actually does much more than these, it also
uses a lot of virtual memory.  It is not unusual to need 10000 pages (of
4k) or more to execute a fairly complex linking.

If you get 'BUMP error', either ulimits or paging is too low, if you get
'Binder killed by signal 9' your paging is too low.

First, check your memory and data ulimits; in korn shell 'ulimit -a' will
show all limits and 'ulimit -m 99999' and 'ulimit -d 99999' will
increase the maximum memory and data respectively to some high values.
If this was not your problem, you don't have enough paging space.

If you will or can not increase your paging space, you could try this:

- Do you duplicate libraries on the ld command line? That is never
  necessary.

- Do more users link simultaneously? Try having only one linking going
  on at any time.

- Do a partwise linking, i.e. you link some objects/libraries with the
  -r option to allow the temporary output to have unresolved references,
  then link with the rest of your objects/libraries.  This can be split
  up as much as you want, and will make each step use less virtual memory.

  If you follow this scheme, only adding one object or archive at a
  time, you will actually emulate the behavior of other Unix linkers.

If you decide to add more paging space, you should consider adding a new
paging space on a second hard disk, as opposed to just increasing the
existing one.  Doing the latter could make you run out of free space on
your first harddisk. It is more involved to shrink a paging space
but easier to delete one.

---

Subject: 2.07: Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlc?

Some systems have experienced delays of more than 60 seconds in
compiling "#include int main () {printf ("Hello world");}"
The problem is with the license manager contact IBM to make sure
you've got the latest PTF.

---

Subject: 2.08: What's with malloc()?

malloc() uses a late allocation algorithm based on 4.3 BSD's malloc()
for speed.  This lets you allocate very large sparse memory spaces,
since the pages are not actually allocated until they are touched for
the first time.  Unfortunately, it doesn't die gracefully in the face of
loss of available memory.  See the "Paging Space Overview" under
InfoExplorer, and see the notes on the linker in this document for an
example of an ungraceful death.

If you want your program to get notified when running out of memory, you
should handle the SIGDANGER signal.  The default is to ignore it.
SIGDANGER is sent to all processes when paging space gets low, and if
paging space gets even lower, processes with the highest paging space
usage are sent the SIGKILL signal.

malloc() is substantially different in 3.2, allocating memory more
tightly.  If you have problems running re-compiled programs on 3.2,
try running them with MALLOCTYPE=3.1.

Early Page Space Allocation (EPSA) added to AIX 3.2: see
/usr/lpp/bos/README.PSALLOC - IX38211 / U422496 Allows setting of
early allocation (vs. default late allocation) on a per-process basis.

---

Subject: 2.09: Why does xlc complain about 'extern char *strcpy()'

The header has a strcpy macro that expands strcpy(x,y) to
__strcpy(x,y), and the latter is then used by the compiler to generate
inline code for strcpy.  Because of the macro, your extern declaration
contains an invalid macro expansion.  The real cure is to remove your
extern declaration but adding -U__STR__ to your xlc will also do the
trick, although your program might run a bit more slowly as the compiler
cannot inline the string functions any more.

---

Subject: 2.10: Why do I get 'Parameter list cannot contain fewer ....'

This is the same as above (2.9).

---

Subject: 2.11: Why does xlc complain about
               '(sometype *)somepointer = something'

Software that is developed using gcc may have this construct. However,
standard C does not permit casts to be lvalues, so you will need to
change the cast and move it to the right side of the assignment. If you
compile with 'cc', removing the cast completely will give you a warning,
'xlc' will give you an error (provided somepointer and something are of
different types - but else, why would the cast be there in the first place?)

---

Subject: 2.12: Some more common errors

Here are a few other common errors with xlc:

305 |     switch((((np)->navigation_type) ? (*((np)->navigation_type)) :
      ((void *)0)))
      .a........... 
a - 1506-226: (S) The second and third operands of the conditional
operator must be of the same type.

The reason for this is that xlc defines NULL as (void *)0, and it does
not allow two different types as the second and third operand of ?:.
The second argument above is not a pointer and the code used NULL
incorrectly as a scalar. NULL is a nil pointer constant in ANSI C and
in some traditional compilers.

You should change NULL in the third argument above to an integer 0.

---

Subject: 2.13: Can the compiler generate assembler code?

Starting with version 1.3 of xlc and xlf the -S option will generate a
.s assembly code file prior to optimization. The option -qlist will
generate a human readable one in a .lst file.

There is also a disassembler in /usr/lpp/xlc/bin/dis include with the
1.3 version of xlc (and in /usr/lpp/xlC/bin/dis with the 2.1 version
of xlC) that will disassemble existing object or executable files.

---

Subject: 2.14: Curses

Curses based applications should be linked with -lcurses and _not_ with
-ltermlib. It has also been reported that some problems with curses are
avoided if your application is compiled with -DNLS.

Peter Jeffe < [email protected]> also notes:

>the escape sequences for cursor and function keys are *sometimes*
>treated as several characters: eg. the getch() - call does not return
>KEY_UP but 'ESC [ C.'

You're correct in your analysis: this has to do with the timing of the
escape sequence as it arrives from the net. There is an environment
variable called ESCDELAY that can change the fudge factor used to decide
when an escape is just an escape. The default value is 500; boosting
this a bit should solve your problems.

Christopher Carlyle O'Callaghan < [email protected]> has more comments
concerning extended curses:

1) The sample program in User Interface Programming Concepts, page 7-13
   is WRONG. Here is the correct use of panes and panels.

#include
#include

main()
{
PANE *A, *B, *C, *D, *E, *F, *G, *H;
PANEL *P;

initscr();

A = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 2500, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
D = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 0,    Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
E = ecbpns (24, 79, D,    NULL, 0, 0,    Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
B = ecbpns (24, 79, A, D, Pdivtyh, 3000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
F = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 0,    Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
G = ecbpns (24, 79, F,    NULL, 0, 5000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
H = ecbpns (24, 79, G,    NULL, 0, 3000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
C = ecbpns (24, 79, B, F, Pdivtyh, 0, Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL);
P = ecbpls (24, 79, 0, 0, "MAIN PANEL", Pdivtyv, Pbordry, A);

ecdvpl (P);
ecdfpl (P, FALSE);
ecshpl (P);
ecrfpl (P);
endwin();
}

2) DO NOT include and any other file together.
   You will get a bunch of redefined statements.

3) There is CURSES and EXTENDED CURSES. Use only one or the other. If the
   manual says that they're backwards compatible or some other indication
   that you can use CURSES routines with EXTENDED, don't believe it. To
   use CURSES you need to include and you can't (see above).

4) If you use -lcur and -lcurses in the same link command, you will get
   Memory fault (core dump) error. You CANNOT use both of them at the same
   time. -lcur is for extended curses, -lcurses is for regular curses.

5) When creating PANEs, when you supply a value (other than 0) for the
   'ds' parameter and use Pdivszf value for the 'du' parameter, the 'ds'
   will be ignored (the sample program on page 7-13 in User Interface
   Programming Concepts is wrong.) For reasons as yet undetermined,
   Pdivszc doesn't seem to work (or at least I can't figure out how to
   use it.)

6) If you're running into bugs and can't figure out what is happening,
   try the following:
   include -qextchk -g in your compile line
-qextchk will check to make sure you're passing the right number of
  parameters to the functions
-g enables debug

7) Do not use 80 as the number of columns if you want to use the whole
   screen. The lower right corner will get erased.  Use 79 instead.

8) If you create a panel, you must create at least 1 pane, otherwise you
   will get a Memory fault (core dump).

9) When creating a panel, if you don't have a border around it, any title
   you want will not show up.

10) to make the screen scroll down:
    wmove (win, 0, 0);
    winsertln (win)

11) delwin(win) doesn't work in EXTENDED WINDOWS

    To make it appear as if a window is deleted, you need to do the following:
    for every window that you want to appear on the screen
touchwin(win)
wrefresh(win)

    you must make sure that you do it in the exact same order as you put
    them on the screen (i.e., if you called newwin with A, then C, then B,
    then you must do the loop with A, then C, then B, otherwise you won't
    get the same screen back).  The best thing to do is to put them into
    an array and keep track of the last window index.

12) mvwin(win, line, col) implies that it is only used for viewports and
    subwindows. It can also be used for the actual windows themselves.

13) If you specify the attribute of a window using wcolorout(win), any
    subsequent calls to chgat(numchars, mode) or any of its relatives
    will not work. (or at least they get very picky.)

---

Subject: 2.15: How do I speed up linking

Please refer to sections 2.03 and 2.06 above.

From: [email protected] (John LoSecco) and
      [email protected] (Gary R. Hook)

From oahu.cern.ch in /pub/aix3 you can get a wrapper for the existing
linker called tld which can reduce link times with large libraries by
factors of 3 to 4.

---

Subject: 2.16: What is deadbeef?

When running the debugger (dbx), you may have wondered what the
'deadbeef' is you occasionally see in registers.  Do note, that
0xdeadbeef is a hexadecimal number that also happens to be some kind
of word (the RS/6000 was built in Texas!), and this hexadecimal number
is simply put into unused registers at some time, probably during
program startup.

---

Subject: 2.17: How do I make an export list from a library archive?
From: [email protected] (Dave Dennerline)

[ This script has been moved to section 8.10 ]

---

Subject: 2.19: Building imake, makedepend
From: [email protected] (David L. Crow)

[Editor's note: if you have AIX 4.x,  you need the X11.adt.imake LPP
and probably most if not all of the X11.adt.* LPPs.  Imake, xmkmf and
other utilities are delivered precompiled.]

    You need X11dev.src release 1.2.3.0 (ie the R5 release) [on AIX 3.2].


     Unless you have an R5 release of AIXwindows, there is no xmkmf.
  These are the steps that I use to make imake, makedepend and all
  of it's config files, and then install them in the working tree
  (ie not the Xamples) for daily use:
 
      cd /usr/lpp/X11/Xamples
      make Makefile
      make SUBDIRS="config util" Makefiles
      make SUBDIRS="config util" linklibs
      make SUBDIRS="config util" depend
      make SUBDIRS="config util"
      make SUBDIRS="config util" install
     
  Then redo the steps everytime you apply an X11 update.

---

Subject: 2.20: How can tell what shared libraries a binary is linked with?

Use "dump -H " and see if anything other than /unix is
listed in the loader section (at the bottom).  The first example is
/bin/sh (statically linked) and the second example is
/usr/local/bin/bash (shared).

INDEX  PATH                          BASE                MEMBER             
0      /usr/lib:/lib                                                        
1      /                             unix                                   

INDEX  PATH                          BASE                MEMBER             
0      ./lib/readline/:./lib/glob/:/usr/lib:/lib              
1                                    libc.a              shr.o              
2                                    libcurses.a         shr.o              

The freeware tool "ldd" lists all the shared libraries needed
by an executable, including those recursively included by other
shared libraries. See question 2.27 "Where can I find ldd for AIX?".

---

Subject: 2.21: Can I get a PTF for my C/C++ compiler from the net?

< http://service.software.ibm.com/>  contains pointers to most PTFs, including
compilers.  You'll need the fixdist program (see 1.142) to retrieve them.

---

Subject: 2.22: Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail?

Note that the RS/6000 has two install programs, one with System V flavor
in the default PATH (/etc/install with links from /usr/bin and /usr/usg),
and one with BSD behavior in /usr/ucb/install.

---

Subject: 2.23: What is Linker TOC overflow error 12?

There is a hard coded limit in the AIX 3.2.5 linker that is fixed in
AIX 4.1.  A kind soul donated the following information to help people
get the 3.2.5 fix

    The LPS (paperwork)
      AIX TOC Data Binder/6000 #P91128
      Version 1.1
      Program Number 5799-QDY
      Reference No. GC23-2604-00, FC 5615
    Pre Reqs listed were AIX 3.2.5
      IBM C Set++ V2 (5765-186)

The above is not available any longer, see section 1.006.

You could also put some of the application code into shared libraries
or, in the case of gcc, use -mminimal-toc.

---

Subject: 2.24: What is the limit on number of shared memory segments
               I can attach?

Each process has 16 segments.  One is used for private code, one for
stack, one for heap; those, if memory serves, are segments 0, 1, and
2.  (If you look in sys/shm.h, you'll see that SHMLOSEG is 3 -- the
lowest segment, in number and in the process' virtual address space,
available to shmat.)

SHMHISEG, the highest segment you can attach to (also defined in
sys/shm.h), is 12.  Segments 3 through 12 are available to shmat,
giving the 10 segments your program used successfully.  (NSHMSEGS in
sys/shm.h will give you this value, though it's of limited use, since
most platforms that I've seen don't define it.)

Segment 13 is used by shared code your program has attached to;
I think one of the others might be for kernel-mode data.

See also mmap.

---

Subject: 2.25: I deleted libc.a by accident --- how do I recover?
From: Ed Ravin < [email protected]>

You can recover from this without rebooting or reinstalling, if you
have another copy of libc.a available that is also named "libc.a".  If
you moved libc.a to a different directory, you're in luck -- do the
following:

export LIBPATH=/other/directory


And your future commands will work.  But if you renamed libc.a, this
won't do it.  If you have an NFS mounted directory somewhere, you can
put libc.a on the that host, and point LIBPATH to that directory as
shown above.

Failing that, turn off your machine, reboot off floppies or other
media, and get a root shell.  I don't think you should do "getrootfs"
as you usually do when accessing the root vg this way -- AIX may start
looking for libc.a on the disk, and you'll just run into the same
problem.  So do an importvg, varyonvg, and then mount /usr somewhere,
then manually move libc.a back or copy in a new one from floppy.

---

Subject: 2.26: Where can I find dlopen, dlclose, and dlsym for AIX?

An implementation of these dynamic code loading functions was written by
Jens-Uwe Mager < [email protected]> and can be found at
< http://www.han.de/~jum/aix/dlfcn.shar>

From: Gary R. Hook < [email protected]>

Starting with AIX 4.2 a dlopen et. al. are included in the base OS in
the libdl.a library. Under AIX 4.1 this is available as SLHS (Shared
Library Hookable Symbols) as APAR IX IX71849 for the runtime package and
APAR IX IX72973 for the development tools.

---

Subject: 2.27: Where can I find ldd for AIX?
From: Jens-Uwe Mager

Try < http://www.han.de/~jum/aix/ldd.c>. Also the "aix.tools"
package from < http://www-frec.bull.com>

---

Subject: 2.28:  How do I make my program binary executable on the
                POWER, POWER2, and POWERPC architecures?

AIX will emulate those instructions not available in POWERPC processors, but
you can avoid this emulation and consequent performance degradtation by
using only the common to all.

If you are using IBM's xlc (cc) compiler, the default is to use the common
instruction set.  If you want to be explicit, use the -qarch=com option.

The option -mcpu=common makes GCC use the common instruction set.  Please
note that (unlike xlc) this is *not* the default with GCC on AIX.

---

Subject: 2.29: How do I access more than 256 Megabytes of memory?

By default each program gets one segment register (see 2.24) for its
data segment. As each segment register covers 256 MB, any calls to
malloc more will fail. Also programs that declare large global or static
arrays may fail to load. To allocate more segment registers to your
program, use the linker option -bmaxdata to specify the number of bytes
you need in the data segment as follows:

cc -o myprog -bmaxdata:0x20000000 myprog.c

The example above would allocate an additional segment register to allow
for 512MB of data.

---

Subject: 2.30: How do I use POSIX threads with gcc 2.7.x?
From: David Edelsohn < [email protected]>

The code generated by GCC is compatible with threads, but gcc-2.7
was released so long ago that it did not provide an option to perform
the extra link steps necessary to support threads:

1) Compile all source files with "-D_THREAD_SAFE" macro defined.
2) Link with "-L/usr/lib/threads -lpthreads -lc_r /usr/lib/libc.a"
   to obtain the pthreads support
   and add "-nostartfiles /usr/lib/crt0_r.o" to the beginning of the
   link command line (using gcc to link!) to initialize threads.

---

Subject: 2.31: Why does pthread_create return the error code 22?

Using Posix threads under AIX requires a special C runtime startup
initialization as well as special versions of some libraries. The IBM C
compiler includes these special libraries if called by the name xlc_r
(or xlC_r for C++). There also other maing variations to support various
defaults, consult the file /etc/xlC.cf for details.

---

Subject: 2.32: How do I build programs under a later AIX release that run
under earlier releases as well?

IBM develops AIX only for binary compatibility with older AIX releases,
not the other way around. You will thus need to build programs on the
oldest AIX release the program is supposed to run on. You will also need
to link programs dynamically, if you link in the system libraries
statically the program will probably only run on the machine you
performed the link on.

With some preparation it is appearently possible to get around that
limitation. Bob Halblutzel has put together a web page describing the
detailed steps how to set up such a build environment at the following
web page:



Please not that this is not a supported way to build your programs, you
will probably receive not any support by IBM if you have problems with
that environment.

---

Subject: 3.00: Fortran and other compilers

This section covers all compilers other than C/C++.  On Fortran, there
seem to have been some problems with floating point handling, in
particular floating exceptions.

---

Subject: 3.01: I have problems mixing Fortran and C code, why?

A few routines (such as getenv, signal, and system) exist in both the
Fortran and C libraries but with different parameters. In the recent
past, if you have a mixed program that calls getenv from both C and
Fortran code, you have to link them carefully by specifying the correct
library first on your command line. This is no longer needed starting
with version 1.5 of the compilers.

---

Subject: 3.02: How do I statically bind Fortran libraries and dynamically
               bind C libraries?
From: [email protected] (Paul Amaranth)

[ Editor's note: Part of this is also discussed above under the C compiler
  section, but I felt it was so valuable that I have left it all in.
  I've done some minor editing, mostly typographical. ]

The linker and binder are rather versatile programs, but it is not
always clear how to make them do what you want them to.  In particular,
there are times when you do not want to use shared libraries, but
rather, staticly bind the required routines into your object.  Or, you
may need to use two versions of the same routine (eg, Fortran & C).  Here
are the results of my recent experiments.  I would like to thank Daniel
Premer and Brad Hollowbush, my SE, for hints.  Any mistakes or omissions
are my own and I have tended to interchange the terms "linker" and
"binder".  These experiments were performed on AIX 3.1.2.  Most of this
should be applicable to later upgrades of 3.1.

1)  I have some C programs, I want to bind in the runtime routines.  How
    do I do this? [Mentioned in section 2.04 of this article as well, ed.]

    You can put the -bnso binder command on the link line.  You should
    also include the -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp control argument:
     
      $ cc *.o -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp -o foo

    This will magically do everything you need.  Note that this will bind
    _all_ required routines in.  The -bI argument tells the linker that
    these entry points will be resolved dynamically at runtime (these are
    system calls).  If you omit this you will get lots of unresolved
    reference messages.

2)  I want to statically bind in the Fortran runtime so a) my customers
    do not need to buy it and b) I don't have to worry about the runtime
    changing on a new release.  Can I use the two binder arguments in
    1) to do this?

    You should be able to do so, but, at least under 3002, if you do
    you will get a linker error referencing getenv.  In addition, there
    are a number of potential conflicts between Fortran and C routines.
    The easy way just does not work.  See the section on
    2 stage linking for C and Fortran on how to do this.  The getenv
    problem is a mess, see the section on Comments & Caveats for more.

    From: Gary R. Hook

    The xlf runtime is a no-charge feature, you can download and install
    it without having to buy it. This change was made >2 years ago.

3)  I have a mixture of C and Fortran routines, how can I make sure
    that the C routines reference the C getenv, while the Fortran routines
    reference the Fortran getenv (which has different parameters and, if
    called mistakenly by a C routine results in a segmentation fault)?

    From Mike Heath ([email protected]):

    Use -brename:symbol1,symbol2 when pre-linking the modules from one
    of the languages. It does not matter which one you choose.

4)  I have C and Fortran routines.  I want to bind in the xlf library, while
    letting the rest of the libraries be shared.  How do I do this?

    You need to do a 2 stage link.  In the first stage, you bind in the
    xlf library routines, creating an intermediate object file.  The
    second stage resolves the remaining references to the shared libraries.

    This is a general technique that allows you to bind in specific system
    routines, while still referencing the standard shared libraries.

    Specifically, use this command to bind the xlf libraries to the Fortran
    objects:

       $ ld -bh:4 -T512 -H512 -o intermediat.o /
         -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp -berok -lxlf -bexport:/usr/lib/libg.exp /
         -lg -bexport:

    The argument -bexport: specifies a file with the
    name of all entry points that are to be visible outside the intermediate
    module.  Put one entrypoint name on a line.  The -bI:/lib/libg.exp line
    is required for proper functioning of the program.  The -berok argument
    tells the binder that it is ok to have unresolved references, at least
    at this time (you would think -r would work here, but it doesn't seem to). 
    The -bnso argument causes the required modules to be imported
    into the object.  The -lxlf, of course, is the xlf library.

    Then, bind the intermediate object with the other shared libraries in
    the normal fashion:

       $ ld -bh:4 -T512 -H512 intermediate.o /
         /lib/crt0.o -lm -lc

    Note the absence of -berok.  After this link, all references should
    be resolved (unless you're doing a multistage link and making another
    intermediate).

    NOTE THE ORDER OF MODULES.  This is extremely important if, for example,
    you had a subroutine named "load" in your Fortran stuff.  Putting the
    C libraries before the intermediate module would make the C "load"
    the operable definition, rather than the Fortran version EVEN THOUGH
    THE FORTRAN MODULE HAS ALREADY BEEN THROUGH A LINK AND ALL REFERENCES
    TO THE SYMBOL ARE CONTAINED IN THE FORTRAN MODULE.  This can
    be extremely difficult to find (trust me on this one :-)  Is this
    a bug, a feature, or what?
   
    [As mentioned in section 2.03 of this article, it is a feature that you
    can replace individual objects in linked files, ed.]

    The result will be a slightly larger object than normal.  (I say slightly
    because mine went up 5%, but then it's a 2 MB object :-)


Comments & Caveats:

   From the documentation the -r argument to the linker should do what
   -berok does.  It does not.  Very strange results come from using the
   -r argument.  I have not been able to make -r work in a sensible manner
   (even for intermediate links which is what it is supposed to be for).

       Note from Mike Heath ([email protected]):

       'ld -r' is essentially shorthand for 'ld -berok -bnogc -bnoglink'.
       Certainly, using -berok with an export file (so garbage collection
       can be done) is preferable to ld -r, but the latter is easier.

   When binding an intermediate module, use an export file to define the
   entry points you want visible in the later link.  If you don't do this,
   you'll get the dreaded "unresolved reference" error.  Import files name
   entry points that will be dynamically resolved (and possibly where).

   If you are in doubt about what parameters or libraries to link, use the
   -v arg when linking and modify the exec call that shows up into
   an ld command.  Some thought about the libraries will usually yield an
   idea of when to use what.  If you don't know what an argument is for,
   leave it in.  It's there for a purpose (even if you don't understand it).

   Watch the order of external definitions (ie, libraries) when more than
   one version of a routine may show up, eg "load".  The first one defined
   on the ld command line is the winner. 

   The getenv (and system and signal) problem is a problem that started out
   minor, got somewhat worse in 3003 and, eventually will be correctly fixed.
   Basically, you should extract the 3002 version of these three routines
   from xlf.a before doing the update and save them away, then link these
   routines in if you use these Fortran system services. 

---

Subject: 3.03: How do I check if a number is NaN?
From: [email protected] (Stephen Linam)

NaN is "Not a Number".  It arises because the RISC System/6000 uses
IEEE floating point arithmetic.

To determine if a variable is a NaN you can make use of the property
that a NaN does not compare equal to anything, including itself.
Thus, for real variable X, use

IF (X .NE. X) THEN ! this will be true if X is NaN

Floating point operations which cause exceptions (such as an overflow)
cause status bits to be set in the Floating Point Status and Control
Register (FPSCR).  There is a Fortran interface to query the FPSCR, and
it is described in the XLF Fortran manuals -- I don't have the manuals
right here, but look for FPGETS and FPSETS.

The IBM manual "Risc System/6000 Hardware Technical Reference - General
Information" (SA23-2643) describes what floating point exceptions can
occur and which bits are set in the FPSCR as a result of those exceptions.

---

Subject: 3.04: Some info sources on IEEE floating point.

1. ANSI/IEEE STD 754-1985 (IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point
   Arithmetic) and ANSI/IEEE STD 854-1987 (IEEE Standard for
   Radix-Independent Floating-Point Arithmetic), both available from IEEE.

2. David Goldberg, "What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About
   Floating-Point Arithmetic", ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 23, No. 1,
   March 1991, pp. 5-48.

---

Subject: 3.05: Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlf?

[read 2.07]

---

Subject: 4.00: GNU and Public Domain software

GNU software comes from the Free Software Foundation and various other
sources. A number of ftp sites archive them. Read the GNU license for
rules on distributing their software.

Lots of useful public domain software have been and continue to be ported
to the RS/6000. See below for ftp or download information.

---

Subject: 4.01: How do I find sources?
From: [email protected] (Jonathan Kamens)

There is a newsgroup devoted to posting about how to get a certain
source, comp.sources.wanted.  An archive of information about sources,
including FTP sites is available from

---

Subject: 4.02: Are there any ftp or WWW sites?

SMIT-installable precompiled packages of popular freeware for AIX 4.x at
< http://www-frec.bull.com/>.  Download the ".exe" files with your WWW
browser. These are auto-uncompressing files, just like on PCs (it uses
similar technology to PKZIP). Mark the file as executable (chmod +x),
then execute it to generate a .bff file. The .bff file can then be
installed using "smit install_latest". For more information
read the INSTALL.txt file on the server.

There are mirrors of this site at http://www.bull.de/ and
http://ftp.univie.ac.at/aix/.

The package explicitly referenced below are ones Ciaran consideres
"solid."  That is, the binary has been "tested by lots of people."

Bull provides many other freeware packages as well.  If you use the
service,  be sure and thank Ciaran and Bull.

Below are some ftp sites that are supposed to have RS/6000 specific
software.  I haven't verified all the entries.

US sites:
< ftp://aixpdslib.seas.ucla.edu/pub/>
< ftp://aix.boulder.ibm.com/>


European sites:
< ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/unix/AIX/RS6000/>
< ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/sw/rs_aix32/>

The first one is dedicated to software running on AIX.  It might not
always be the latest versions of the software, but it has been ported
to AIX (normally AIX version 3 only).  Please use the European sites
very sparingly.  They are primarily to serve people in Europe and most
of the software can be found in the US sites originally.

The remaining sites are simply ones that archie indicated contained
AIX related materials.

< ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/pub/RS6000/>

< ftp://ftp-aix.polytechnique.fr/pub/binaries/rios/>

---

Subject: 4.03: Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail?

This answer was moved to section 2.22

---

Subject: 4.04: GNU Emacs

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
.

If you get a segmentation fault in GNU EMACS 19.* during hilit19 use,
you can set locale to C (export LC_ALL=C) to get around the AIX bug.

Version 18.57 of GNU Emacs started to have RS/6000 support.  Use
s-aix3-2.h for AIX 3.2. Emacs is going through rapid changes recently.
Current release is 19.x.

Emacs will core-dump if it is stripped, so don't strip when you install
it.  You can edit a copy of the Makefile in src replacing all 'install -s'
with /usr/ucb/install.

---

Subject: 4.05: gcc/gdb

GNU C version 2.0 and later supports the RS/6000, and compiles straight
out of the box on AIX 3 and AIX 4.1 and 4.2.  You may, however,
experience that compiling it requires large amounts of paging space.

On AIX 4.3, compiling gcc appears to be much more difficult due to
changes for the 64 bit environment. A precompiled gcc is available in
the form of egcs in the Bull archive at .

From: Ciaran Deignan < [email protected]>

Note:
  - there is a link problem on AIX 4.3. Until I find a way of building
    a distribution on AIX 4.3, you'll have to use 'ld'.
  - The package gnu.egcs-1.1.0.0.exe does not contain the C++ compiler
    (G++). However since you can't link a G++ object file with 'ld',
    this is just part of the same problem.

[Editor's note: from the latest postings it appears that the latest
(post 1.1b) egcs snapshots fixes the problem with collect2. The problem
here is that there are no binary distributions yet, one has to bootstrap
this version using IBM's C compiler.]

From: Brent Burkholder < [email protected]>

In order to compile and link using egcs on AIX you first
need to download and apply fix APAR IX87327
from

Looking up the APAR # should allow you to download
bos.rte.bind_cmds.4.3.2.2 which fixes all problems.

---

Subject: 4.06: GNU Ghostscript

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
.

The PostScript interpreter GNU Ghostscript Version 2.3 and later supports
the RS/6000 and can be found on various ftp sites. Current version is 2.6.1.

Compile time problems:
  Compile idict.c and zstack.c _without_ optimization, add the following
  to the Makefile:

  idict.o: idict.c
        $(CC) -c idict.c

  zstack.o: zstack.c
        $(CC) -c zstack.c

Run time problems:
  Running ghostview-1.5 with ghostscript-2.6.1, I get
   gs: Malformed ghostview color property.
  Solution: replace buggy version of ghostscript-2.6.1 X11 driver
  with at least 2.6.1pl4

---

Subject: 4.07  TeX - Document processing
From: "Patrick TJ McPhee" < [email protected]>

TeX can be retrieved via ftp from the comprehensive TeX archive
network (CTAN). The principle sites are
ftp.tex.ac.uk (UK)
ftp.dante.de  (Deutschland)
ftp.tug.org  (USA)
but there are many mirrors. finger [email protected] for a list.

---

Subject: 4.08  Perl - Scripting language

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
.

If you want the source code, < http://www.perl.com/perl/> is good place
to start.

As of AIX 4.3.3, perl is packaged with AIX but not supported.

---

Subject: 4.09: X-Windows

AIX 4.x ships with X11R5 and Motif 1.2.

On AIX 3.2 the base version has X11R4 and Motif 1.1 and the extended
version has X11R5 as AIXwindows 1.2.3.  See question 1.500 for more
information about determining your revision.

AIXwindows version 1.2.0 (X11rte 1.2.0) is X11R4 with Motif 1.1
AIXwindows version 1.2.3 (X11rte 1.2.3) is X11R5 with Motif 1.1
'lslpp -h X11rte.motif1.2.obj' should tell you if you are
running Motif 1.2.

---

Subject: 4.10  Bash - /bin/ksh alternative from FSF

Bash is an alternative to ksh and is availible from prep.ai.mit.edu
and places that mirror the GNU software.  /etc/security/login.cfg
needs to be modified if this will be used as a default shell.

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
.

[Editor's note: bash's command line expansion and new
meta-expressions make it an absolute "must" for system
administrators]

---

Subject: 4.11: Elm

A very nice replacement for mail. Elm should be pretty straightforward,
the only thing to remember is to link with -lcurses as the only
curses/termlib library. You may also run into the problem listed under
point 2.13 above.

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
.

---

Subject: 4.12: Oberon 2.2
From: [email protected] (Andreas Siegert)

Oberon is Wirth's follow on to Modula-2, but is not compatible. A free
version of Modula-3 is available from DEC/Olivetti at
gatekeeper.dec.com. This is not a Modula-2 replacement but a new
language. There are currently two M2 compilers for the 6000 that I
know of. One from Edinburgh Portable Compilers, +44 31 225 6262 (UK)
and the other from Gardens Point is availible through A+L in
Switzerland (+41 65 520311) or Real Time Associates in the UK
( [email protected]).

Oberon can be obtained via anonymous ftp from neptune.inf.ethz.ch
(129.132.101.33) under the directory Oberon/RS6000 or gatekeeper.dec.com
(16.1.0.2).

---

Subject: 4.13: Kermit - Communications
From: Frank da Cruz < [email protected]>

Available for all versions of AIX on RS/6000, PowerPC, PS/2, RT PC,
and 370-Series mainframes.  For complete information on Kermit software
for AIX and hundreds of other platforms, visit the Kermit Web site:

  < http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/>

C-Kermit 6.0 was announced November 30, 1996:

  < http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60.html>

The nonprofit Kermit Project is funded primarily by manual sales.
For C-Kermit 6.0 the manual is the new second edition of "Using C-Kermit":

  < http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60manual.html>

For RS/6000 and PowerPC with AIX 3.x or 4.x:

  < ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/archives/cku192.tar.Z> (or .gz)

Uncompress, untar (tar xvf cku192.tar) then:

  make rs6aix32c  <--  For AIX 3.x
  make rs6aix41c  <--  For AIX 4.x

This produces an exutable called "wermit".  Before installing, read the
instructions in ckuins.doc from the tar file.

If you don't have a C compiler, you can get binaries at:

  < http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ck60ubin.html>

Send questions to [email protected].

---

Subject: 4.14: Gnu dbm
From: [email protected] (Doug Sewell)

Here's the fixes for RS/6000's:

apply this to testgdbm.c:
158c158
<   char opt;
---
>   int opt;
166c166
<   while ((opt = getopt (argc, argv, "rn")) != -1)
---
>   while ((opt = getopt (argc, argv, "rn")) != EOF)

Apply this to systems.h:
111a112,114
> #ifdef RS6000
> #pragma alloca
> #else
112a116
> #endif

To compile, edit the Makefile.  Set CC to bsdcc (see /usr/lpp/bos/bsdport
if you don't have 'bsdcc' on your system) and set CFLAGS to -DRS6000 and
whatever options (-g, -O) you prefer.  Don't define SYSV.

---

Subject: 4.15  tcsh - an alternative shell
From: [email protected] (David Cordes)

tcsh is available from < ftp://ftp.deshaw.com/pub/tcsh>
Compiles with no problems. You must edit /etc/security/login.cfg to
permit users to change to this shell (chsh), adding the path where the
shell is installed (in my case, /usr/local/bin/tcsh).

>From: "A. Bryan Curnutt" < [email protected]>

Under AIX 3.2.5, you need to modify the "config.h" file, changing
    #define BSDSIGS
to
    #undef BSDSIGS

---

Subject: 4.16: Kyoto Common Lisp

The sources are available from cli.com. The kcl package is the needed
base; also retrieve the latest akcl distribution. akcl provides a
front-end that "ports" the original kcl to a number of different
platforms. The port to the 6000 worked with no problems. However, you
must be root for make to work properly with some memory protection
routines.

---

Subject: 4.17  Tcl/Tk - X-Windows scripting

Current versions: Tcl 8.0b2 and Tk 8.0b2.  They are available from
. The Tcl/Tk web page is at
< http://sunscript.sun.com/>.

Prebuilt installp (smit) installable packages for several versions of Tcl and
Tk are available from .

---

Subject: 4.18: Expect
From: Doug Sewell < [email protected]>
  
To build the command-interpreter version, you must have the tcl library
built successfully. The expect library doesn't require tcl.  Note:
Expect and its library are built with bsdcc, so applications using
the library probably also need to be developed with bsdcc.

I ftp'd expect from ftp.cme.nist.gov.

You need to change several lines in the makefile.  First you need
to customize source and target directories and files:
#
TCLHDIR = /usr/include
TCLLIB = -ltcl
MANDIR = /usr/man/manl               (local man-pages)
MANEXT = l
BINDIR = /u/local/bin
LIBDIR = /usr/lib
HDIR = /usr/include
...
Next set the compiler, switches, and configuration options:
#
CC = bsdcc
CFLAGS = -O
...
PTY_TYPE = bsd
...
INTERACT_TYPE = select
...
Then you need to make these changes about line 90 or so:
comment out CFLAGS = $(CLFLAGS)
un-comment these lines:
CFLAGS = $(CLFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)
LFLAGS = ($CLFLAGS)

Then run 'make'.

You can't run some of the examples without modification (host name,
etc).  I don't remember if I ran all of them or not, but I ran enough
that I was satisfied it worked.

---

Subject: 4.19: Public domain software on CD
From: [email protected] (Mel Beckman)

The Prime Time Freeware CD collection is a package of two CD's and docs
containing over THREE GIGABYTES of compressed Unix software. It costs $69
>from Prime Time Freeware, 415-112 N. Mary Ave., Suite 50, Sunnyvale, CA
94086. Phone 408-738-4832 voice, 408-738-2050 fax. No internet orders as
far as I can tell.

I've extracted and compiled a number of the packages, and all have worked
flawlessly so far on my 220. Everything from programming languages to 3D
solid modeling is in this bonanza!

[Ed: The O'Reilly book, Unix Power Tools, also contains a CD-ROM with lots
of useful programs compiled for the RS/6000, among other platforms.]

---

Subject: 4.20: Andrew Toolkit
From: Gary Keim < [email protected]>

The Andrew Toolkit Consortium of Carnegie Mellon University's School of
Computer Science has released new versions of the Andrew User
Environment, Andrew Toolkit, and Andrew Message System.

The Andrew User Environment (AUE) is an integrated set of applications
beginning with a 'generic object' editor, ez, a help system, a system
monitoring tool (console), an editor-based shell interface (typescript),
and support for printing multi-media documents.

The Andrew Toolkit (ATK) is a portable user-interface toolkit that runs
under X11. It provides a dynamically-loadable object-oriented
environment wherein objects can be embedded in one another. Thus, one
could edit text that, in addition to containing multiple fonts, contains
embedded raster images, spreadsheets, drawing editors, equations, simple
animations, etc. These embedded objects can also be nested.

The Andrew Message System (AMS) provides a multi-media interface to mail
and bulletin-boards. AMS supports several mail management strategies
and implements many advanced features including authentication, return
receipts, automatic sorting of mail, vote collection and tabulation,
enclosures, audit trails of related messages, and subscription
management. It has interfaces that support ttys, personal computers,
and workstations.

Release 5.1 of Andrew contains many bug fixes and updates. There is now
support for the new Internet MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
standards for multipart, and multimedia mail. For more information on
MIME, please see the CHANGES files in the ftp directory on
emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu.

This release can be obtained as follows. The sources are available via
anonymous ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.30.0.238) in the
./contrib/andrew tree. For details, see ./contrib/andrew/README.

PATCH for AIX3.2: A patch to the AUIS 5.1 sources can be ftp'ed from
emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.45.40) in ./aixpatch. For those without
internet access, a 3.5" diskette can be ordered for a nominal fee of $10
by sending, or faxing, a purchase order to the Consortium address below.

Andrew, as well as a variety of other CMU software, can also be ftp'ed
>from emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.30.62). Those with AFS access look
at /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/itc/sm/releases/X.V11R5/ftp.

Remote Andrew Demo Service

This network service allows you to run Andrew Toolkit applications
without obtaining or compiling the Andrew software. You need a host
machine running X11 on the Internet. A simple "finger" command will let
you experience ATK applications firsthand. You'll be able to compose
multimedia documents, navigate through the interactive Andrew Tour, and
use the Andrew Message System to browse through CMU's three thousand
bulletin boards and newsgroups.

To use the Remote Andrew Demo service, run the following command:

    finger [email protected]

The service will give you further instructions.

Information Sources

Your bug reports are welcome; kindly send them to
[email protected] and we will periodically post a status
report to the mailing list [email protected]. To be added to
the mailing list or make other requests, send mail to
[email protected].

We also distribute the following related materials:

ATK and AMS sources and binaries on CDROM. Binaries are available
for the following system types:

        IBM RiscSystem/6000
Sun SparcStation
HP 700 Series
DECstation

ATK and AMS sources on QIC and Iotamat tapes Hardcopies of the
documentation for ATK and AMS. Introductory video tape: Welcome to
Andrew: An Overview of the Andrew System. Technical video tape: The
Andrew Project: A Session at the Winter 1988 Usenix Conference.

More information about these materials is available from:

    Information Requests
    Andrew Toolkit Consortium
    Carnegie Mellon University
    4910 Forbes Avenue, UCC 214
    Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
    USA
    phone: +1-412-268-6710
    fax: +1-412-621-8081
    [email protected]

There is also a netnews distribution list, comp.soft-sys.andrew, which
is identical to the info-andrew list except that it does not support the
multi-media capabilities of info-andrew.

---

Subject: 4.21: sudo

Sudo (superuser do) allows a system administrator to give certain users (or
groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands as root while
logging all commands and arguments. Sudo operates on a per-command basis, it
is not a replacement for the shell.

The latest version of sudo is cu-sudo v1.5.  There is a web page for sudo at
< http://www.courtesan.com/courtesan/products/sudo/sudo.html>.  The program
itself can be obtained from < ftp://ftp.courtesan.com/pub/sudo/>.  Sudo's
author, Todd Miller < [email protected]> reports that sudo works on
both AIX 3.2.X and 4.1.X.

---

Subject: 4.22: Flexfax/HylaFax and other fax software
From: Christian Zahl < [email protected]>

Sam Leffler has released a new version of FlexFax called HylaFax.  It
is availible from < ftp://sgi.com/sgi/fax/>.  There is a HlyaFax web
page at < http://www.vix.com/hylafax/>.  Version V3.0pl1
supported many types of Class 1/2 fax modems and several UNIX systems
including AIX 3.2.3 or greater.  There is also a fax modem review
document at the same site as < ftp://sgi.com/pub/fax/bakeoff>. The FlexFax
related files on sgi.com are replicated on ftp.bsc.no as well.

>From: [email protected] (Michael Staats)

We're using mgetty+sendfax for the basic modem I/O, I wrote a printer
backend for the modem so that users can send faxes as easy as they print
postscript. I also wrote a little X interface composer to generate a
fax form that makes sending faxes very easy. You can find these
programs at hal6000.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE under /pub/source.

program comment

mgetty+sendfax-0.14.tar.gz basic modem I/O, needs hacking for AIX
X11/xform-1.1.tar.gz      small and simple X interface composer
with an example fax form. Needs
libxview.a incl. headers.
faxiobe.tar.gz fax backend, needs configuring for
your local site

If you need a binary version of libxview.a and the headers you'll find
them under /pub/binaries/AIX-3-2/lxview.tar.gz.

---

Subject: 4.23:  lsof - LiSt Open Files
From: [email protected] (Vic Abell)

Q. How can I determine the files that a process has opened?
Q. How can I locate the process that is using a specific network address?
Q. How can I locate the processes that have files open on a file system?

A. Use lsof (LiSt Open Files).

From: "Juan G. Ruiz Pinto" < [email protected]>

Lsof is available via anonymous ftp from

(for the most current version). There are binary distributions in the
"binary" directory.

A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from
. The installation scripts in this package
automatically creates a group "kmem" during the install
and uses "acledit" to allow the kmem group to read /dev/mem and /dev/kmem.
This configuration is recommended by Vic Abell , the
author of lsof.

---

Subject: 4.24:  popper - POP3 mail daemon

The POP server is available via anonymous ftp from
ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/quest/unix/servers/
  The makefile supports AIX
ftp.CC.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.136.9, 128.32.206.12).
  There are two versions in the pub directory: a compressed tar file
  popper-version.tar.Z and a Macintosh StuffIt archive in BinHex format
  called MacPOP.sit.hqx.

Problems building some versions of popper can sometimes be resolved by
compiling with bsdcc or -D_BSD.

The pine 3.95 package on contains "plug
and play" support for both POP3 and IMAP mail reading protocols.  You
can also get a compiled version of qpopper 2.2 there also.

---

Subject: 4.26: mpeg link errors version 2.0
From: Nathan Lane < [email protected]>

.XShmCreateImage
.XShmDetach
.XShmAttach
.XShmGetEventBase
.XShmPutImage
.XShmQueryExtension

... are for the Shared Memory extension of the X server.
You can either choose to build it with shared memory or without.  I
always do it without the performance increase is not really
incredible, except on something like a 2x0 machine with the local bus
graphics adapter.  Just take out "DSH_MEM" in the CFLAGS in the
makefile for mpeg_play.  There is more information about shared memory
link errors in section 1.513.

Also, in the module "video.c" for mpeg_play it will complain about not
having enough memory to fully optimize one of the loops.  You can get
around that by specificying "qmaxmem=8000" in your cflags line, BUT,
the extra optimization does little good in my tests.

---

Subject: 4.27: NNTP, INN

Link errors compiling nntp may occur because your machine lacks the
"patch" command.  Patch can be obtained from GNU repositories.  See question
4.29 for more information on patch.

---

Subject: 4.28: Zmodem - File transfer

RZSZ is Chuck Forsberg's script for Z-modem. It is available by ftp at
or
directly from Forsberg at Omen Technology BBS at 503-621-3746.

Hints:
0. Build with "make posix"
1. Use an 8-bit clean version of rlogin or telnet (Note: below)
2. Set the system to be transparent, I use "terminal download"
3. Ensure hardware flow-control

Note, [email protected] (James Carlson) suggests: Rlogin is
"slightly" unclean -- if an FF FF 73 73 appears in the datastream, it
can be ripped out by rlogind as a 'window size change' request.

[Ed note: The important part is using an 8-bit clean application,
since there are several implemenations of rlogin and telnet availible
you may need to try both and hunt down manuals to find the right flags
for your system]

---

Subject: 4.29: Patch - automated file updates

AIX 3.2.5 does not ship with patch, a utility to apply the differences
between two files to make them identical.  This tool is often used to
update source code.

---

Subject: 4.30: XNTP - network time protocol, synchronizes clocks
From: Joerg Schumacher < [email protected]>

   AIX 4:   xntpd in bos.net.tcp.client
   source:  ftp://ftp.udel.edu/pub/ntp/
   WWW:     http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/

---

Subject: 4.31: GNU Screen and AIX 4.1.x

Once again,  binaries can be had from .

---

Subject: 4.32: SCSI scanner software

There is the SANE project that strives to deliver an open source scanner
solution for Unix:

< http://www.mostang.com/sane/>

---

Subject: 4.33: Pager/Paging software

There is information on Paging, Paging programs and  listing of the
Archive sites to download at the web site:
< ftp://ftp.airnote.net:/pub/paging-info/ixo.faq>.

HylaFAX (see 4.22) supports sending messages to alphanumeric pagers.

Commercially there is: AlphaPage(r) MD2001 from Information Radio
Technology, Inc. in Cleveland, OH.

---

Subject: 4.34: JAVA Development Kit
From: Curt Finch < [email protected]>

---

Subject: 4.35: Sendmail



If you want to use SRC to start and stop BSD sendmail,  do the following
after installing it:

chssys -s sendmail -S -n 15 -f 9 -a -d99.100

This tells SRC that sendmail may be stopped with signals 15 and 9.  It also
arranges for sendmail not to daemonize itself,  since it will run under SRC.

---

Subject: 5.00: Third party products

[ Ed.: Entries in this section are edited to prevent them from looking
  like advertising. Prices given may be obsolete. Companies mentioned
  are for reference only and are not endorsed in any fashion. ]

---

Subject: 5.01: Non-IBM AIX hosts.

Bull < http://www.bull.com/> manufactures and sells AIX systems.  To
find a distributor in your country,  check the web page at
and/or
.

Other vendors and manufactures include Motorola, Harris, General
Automation and Apple.

Kenetics Technology Inc.
35 Campus Drive
Edison NJ 08837
Contact : Brian Walsh
Phone - 908-805-0998
Fax  - 908-346-1288

Manufactures a Power PC based RS-6000 clone that runs AIX versions
3.2.5 and 4.1.4.

A typical configuration with a 100 MHz Power PC 601 and 32 MB RAM, and 2
GB Hard drive, monitor, keyboard and networking is about $4995.00

---

Subject: 5.02: Disk/Tape/SCSI
From: anonymous

- Most SCSI disk drives work (IBM resells Maxtor, tested Wren 6&7 myself);
  use osdisk when configuring (other SCSI disk).

- Exabyte: Unfortunately only the ones IBM sells are working.
  A few other tape drives will work;
  use ostape when configuring (other SCSI tape).

- STK 3480 "Summit": Works with Microcode Version 5.2b


>From: [email protected] (John Bell)
              
In summary, third party tape drives work fine with the RS/6000 unless
you want to boot from them. This is because IBM drives have 'extended
tape marks', which IBM claims are needed because the standard marks
between files stored on the 8mm tape are unreliable. These extended
marks are used when building boot tapes, so when the RS/6000 boots, it
searches for an IBM tape drive and refuses to boot without it.

>From: [email protected] (John Rogers)

On booting with non-IBM SCSI tape drives: I haven't tried it myself but
someone offered:

Turn machine on with key in secure position.
Wait until LED shows 200 and 8mm tape has stopped loading.
Turn key to service position.


>From: [email protected] (Andrew Mel'cuk)

The IBM DAT is cheap and works.  If you get all the patches beforehand
(U407435, U410140) and remember to buy special "Media Recognition
System" tapes (Maxell, available from APS 800.443.4461 or IBM #21F8758)
the drive can even be a pleasure to use.  You can also flip a DIP switch
on the drive to enable using any computer grade DAT tapes (read the
hardware service manual).

Other DAT drives also work.  I have tried the Archive Python (works) and
experimented extensively with the Archive TurboDAT.  The TurboDAT is a
very fast compression unit, is not finicky with tapes and doesn't
require the many patches that the IBM 7206 does.  Works fine with the
base AIX 3.2 'ost' driver.


>From: [email protected] (Daniel Packman)

>>You can boot off of several different brands of non-IBM Exabytes.
>>At least TTI and Contemporary Cybernetics have done rather complete
>>jobs of emulating genuine IBM products.

A model that has worked for us from early AIX 3.1 through 3.2 is a TTI
CTS 8210.  This is the old low density drive.  The newer 8510 is dual
density (2.2gig and 5gig).  Twelve dip switches on the back control the
SCSI address and set up the emulation mode.  These drives have a very
useful set of lights for read-outs (eg, soft error rate, tape remaining,
tape motion, etc.).

---

Subject: 5.03: Memory

Nordisk Computer Services (Portland 503-598-0111, Seattle
206-242-7777) is reputed to have memory for use on AIX platforms.

5xx & 9xx machines have 8 memory slots, 3x0s have 2, and 3x5s have
only one.  You need to add memory in pairs for the 5xx & 9xx machines
excepting the 520.
Some highend 5xx's & 9xx's get memory as 2, 4, 4+4 cards.

RS/6000 Models M20, 220, 230 and 250 can use "PS/2" style SIMM memory.
All have 8 SIMM sockets.  60ns or better is needed for the 250, 70ns
should be OK in the M20, 220 and 230.  The M20, 220 and 230 are limited
to 64MB of memory, the 250 is limited to 256MB.

40P, C10, C20, 41T and 42T also user SIMM memory.

G30 & G40 have two memory slots.
J30, J40, J50, R30, R40, R50 have four memory slots.
These eight models have cards populated with DIMM-like memory.

7248 (Old 43P's) and 7043 (New 43P's) use DIMM-like memory.

F40, F50 & H50 use have two memory slots.

S70, S7A & S80 get memory "books".

Still unidentified: E20, E30, F30, B50, H70

Caveat: Do not mix manufacturers or batches in the same memory card/bank.

PS: [Ed's notice] I say DIMM-like memory because it won't even fit on
my PC's DIMM slots.

---

Subject: 5.04: Others
From: anonymous
      
IBM RISC System/6000 Interface Products

National Instruments Corporation markets a family of instrumentation
interface products for the IBM RISC System/6000 workstation family.  The
interface family consists of three products that give the RISC
System/6000 connectivity to the standards of VMEbus, VXIbus and GPIB.
For more information, contact National Instruments Corporation,
512-794-0100 or 1-800-433-3488.

---

Subject: 5.05: C++ compilers

Several C++ compilers are available. You can choose from Glockenspiel,
Greenhills, IBM's xlC (sold seperately :), and GNU's g++. Glockenspiel
may now be part of Computer Associates. Comeau Computing
(718-945-0009) offers Comeau C++ 3.0 with Templates. For a full
development environment there's ObjectCenter's C++ (formerly Saber
C++).

---

Subject: 5.06: Memory leak detectors

IBM's xlC comes with a product called the HeapView debugger that can
trace memory problems in C and C++ code.

SENTINEL has full memory access debugging capabilities including detection
of memory leaks.  Contact [email protected] (800) 296-3000 or (703) 430-9247.

Insight from ParaSoft (818) 792-9941.
There is also a debug_malloc posted in one of the comp.sources groups.

A shareware dmalloc is available.  Details at
< http://www.letters.com/dmalloc/>.

TestCenter is now available for the RS/6000.  It supports AIX 3.2.5
and AIX 4.1 on POWER, POWER2 and PowerPC machines.  More information
is available from < http://www.centerline.com/>.

Purify (408) 720-1600 is not availible for the RS/6000.

ZeroFault detects memory violations and leaks without recompiling or
relinking.  Works on all RS/6000 systems running AIX 3.2.5 or later,
DCE and pthreads.  Contact The Kernel Group, Inc. +1 512 433 3333,
email < [email protected]>, < http://www.tkg.com/>.

---

Subject: 5.07: PPP

PPP does not come with AIX 3.2.x (only SLIP).

PPP support was announced for AIX 4.1.4, see:
< http://www.austin.ibm.com/software/OS/aix414.html>

David Crow caught the announcement of a non-IBM ppp package that
claims to support AIX 4.x.  More information is availible from
or


A comercial PPP for AIX is availible from Morningstar
( [email protected] or [email protected]) (800) 558 7827.

---

Subject: 5.08: Graphics adapters

Abstract Technologies Inc. (Austin TX, 512-441-4040, [email protected])
has several high performance graphics adapters for the RS/6000.
1600x1200, 24-bit true-color, and low cost 1024x768 adapters are
available.  Retail prices are between US$1000-2000.

---

Subject: 5.09: Training Courses

Email [email protected] with "help" in the body of the message for
information about how to receive a list course descriptions for AIX*
and/or UNIX* courses offered by Skill Dynamics.

---

Subject: 5.10: Hardware Vendors

New & Used RS6000s, peripherals

Core Systems Inc
1605 12th Ave
Seattle WA 98122
Phone (800) 329-2449
Fax (206) 329-3799


Optimus Solutions
5825-A Peachtree Corners East
Norcross GA 30092
Phone 770-447-1951
Fax  678-291-9201
email  [email protected]
< http://www.optimussolutions.com/>

---

Subject: 5.11: Debugging aides
From: Curt Finch

SCTrace reports system calls (and more) made by an AIX process.
SCTrace from SevOne Software < http://www.tkg.com>.  It is $199 and a
demo is available from .

---

Subject: 6.00: Miscellaneous other stuff

Information that defies catagories.  ;-)

---

Subject: 6.01: Can I get support by e-mail?

In general, no, < [email protected]> and < [email protected]>
are no longer supported.

IBM does maintain a fee based system, the AIX Support Family Services
at 1-800-CALL-AIX (1-800-225-5249) option 8.

In Canada:

Gary Tomic mentioned that Canadian customers can get support from their
BBS, cac.toronto.ibm.com at 142.77.253.16.

In Germany:

Thomas Braunbeck reported that German customers with ESS (extended
software service) contracts can get support by e-mail too. They can
obtain information by sending mail with Subject: help to
[email protected].

Various flavors of service offerings are available. Contact your IBM rep
for details.

---

Subject: 6.02: List of useful faxes

You can get some informative faxes by dialing IBM's Faxserver at
1-800-IBM-4FAX. 1-415-855-4329 from outside the US.  If you're calling
for the first time, push 3 then 2 to request a list of RS/6000 related faxes.

IBM's AIX Support WWW site,
,
contains many of the same documents.  Select a country or region from the
menu,  then look for "Technical Tips from IBM" on the returned page.

---

Subject: 6.03: IBM's gopher, WWW, aftp presence.

There is now a new section dedicated to AIX on IBM's main web server:

< http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix>

The following are various other resources:

(verified Aug 9 1996 by Frank Wortner)
Thanks to Ronald S. Woan < [email protected]>

(FixDist ptfs)
(rlogin fixes & more)
< gopher://gopher.ibmlink.ibm.com> (anonouncements & press releases)
< http://www.austin.ibm.com/> (software, hardware, service & support)

General IBM information like product announcements and press releases
are available through World Wide Web at < http://www.ibm.com/>.

Specific information on the RISC System/6000 product line and AIX
(highlights include marketing information, technology White Papers and
the POWER 2 technology book online before it hits the presses,
searchable APAR database and AIX support FAX tips online so you don't
have to type in all those scripts) is available at

---

Subject: 6.04: Some RS232 hints
From: [email protected], sactoh0.SAC.CA.US!jak

Q: How do you connect a terminal to the RS232 tty ports when not using
   the standard IBM cable & terminal transposer?
A: 1- Connect pins 2->3, 3->2, 7->7 on the DB25's
   2- On the computer side, most of the time cross 6->20 (DSR, DTR).
      Some equipment may require connecting 6, 8, and 20 (DSR, DCD, DTR).

Also, pin 1 (FG) should be a bare metal wire and the cable should be
shielded with a connection all the way through. Most people don't run
pin 1 because pins 1 & 7 (SG) are jumpered on many equipment.

When booting from diskettes, the port speed is always 9600 baud.  If you
use SMIT to set a higher speed (38400 is nice) for normal use, remember
to reset your terminal before booting.

Q: How do you connect a printer to the RS232 tty ports
A: 1- Connect pins 2->3, 3->2, 7->7 on the DB25's
   2- On the computer side, loop pins 4->5 (CTS & RTS)