AIX > Tips & Techniques > Application Development

Best of Both Worlds - AIX and LINUX

The AIX Toolbox for Linux helps you implement open-source software.

The AIX* OS is IBM's primary UNIX* OS and runs on many mission-critical servers around the world. As part of its commitment to Linux*, IBM developed the AIX Toolbox for Linux that allows you to port and run Linux applications on AIX. This offers the user the best of both worlds--the proven benefits of running AIX and the ability to use open-source software and the RPM install feature.

Since many of the open-source tools are developed on Linux today and thus depend on Linux libraries and APIs, it makes sense to have a toolset on AIX that makes it easy to port those tools to AIX. The toolbox that's provided includes both recompiled versions and source code for a number of utilities, including the Gnome and KDE desktops, Samba, various shells, the GNU base utilities and several compilers. A complete list of the current content of the toolbox can be found online (www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/rpmgroups.html).

Getting and Installing the Toolbox

The toolbox itself can be obtained in three different ways:

1. From the toolbox Web site
2. From the toolbox FTP site
3. From the toolbox CD that's shipped with your copy of AIX 5L

The tools and applications that come with the toolbox are all in RPM format, the standard Linux install format. Therefore, before using the toolbox, you must install the RPM Package Manager. This can be obtained from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/INSTALLP/ppc/rpm.rte.

This is installed using the installp command. You're then able to use RPM to install the rest of the toolbox utilities if you so choose.

The root directory for the toolbox is /opt, and it's recommended that you create a separate file system called /opt/freeware before installing the toolbox. This will ensure you have sufficient space for all of the toolbox applications that you may want to install. You should also check that /var has plenty of free space and that the following directory exists: /var/opt/freeware/tmp.

Once RPM is installed, you should now be able to install and use the toolbox software. It's important to note that the software will be installed in the default location for that software (normally /opt/freeware) and symbolic links will be created to the correct AIX directories to make the software useable. However, where there are conflicts between the AIX software and the toolbox software, the software will be installed in the /usr/linux directory structure (most likely in /usr/linux/bin). You'll need to create an alternate PATH to use commands located there. Man pages get installed into /opt/ freeware/man, so you'll need to add this to your MANPATH in order to use the man command. When the toolbox is installed, AIX will also create a symbolic link from /usr/opt/freeware to /opt/freeware.

The AIX Toolbox for Linux is a useful supplement to your system to implement some of the open-source software.

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