Using AIX packages from Pware

P-ware is an actively supported repository of AIX packages which seems to be far more up to date than BullFreeware or IBM's own Toolbox for Linux site. It can be found at:- http://pware.hvcc.edu. Downloaded packages are also stored on b0045nim under /export/dsl/freeware/pware/. Please store any additional files you download to this location.

Rather than use rpm or tarballs, pware is built to use AIX's own package manager, so installed packages show up along with AIX packages, however the install root is /opt/pware64 so no clashes occur with existing IBM packages. eg nano installed from pware shows up as:-

bash-3.00# lslpp -l | grep nano
pware53-64.nano.rte        2.0.9.0  COMMITTED  GNU nano 2.0.9 (64-bit)

bash-3.00# lslpp -h pware53-64.nano.rte
  Fileset         Level     Action       Status       Date         Time        
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
  pware53-64.nano.rte
                  2.0.9.0   COMMIT       COMPLETE     01/04/10     10:34:29   

Current files downloaded from pware have been stored on b0045nim under /export/dsl/freeware/pware.
Freeware is an incorrect term to use here (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware)

Freeware may or may not be free and open source software and, in order to distinguish, the Free Software Foundation asks users to avoid calling “freeware” free software. The principal difference being that free software can be used, studied, and modified without restriction; free software embodies the concept of freedom to use, while freeware that of free-of-charge.

1. Copy the pware53-64.base.5.3.0.0.bff.gz file from b0045nim to the local server under /opt/support/pware.
2. Unzip the file and run “smitty install” to start the AIX installer.
3. Select “.” as the source directory to use and F4 to see the files selected.
4. Use tab to do a Preview not an install and see if the install fails because of dependencies. Note that all the dependencies can be resolved from pware, the web site packaging guidelines state:- “This document shows a simplified approach to packaging applications that are intended to be used with pWare. It must be remembered that at no point should any pWare packages rely on packages from external projects - not that any of those packages or projects are necessarily bad. Rather, the intent is to keep the pWare environment as clean as possible with dependencies provided from within.”
5. Add the /opt/pware64/bin to the $PATH in /etc/environment to allow binaries to be found and as a good measure, add MANPATH=/usr/man:/opt/pware64/share/man:/opt/pware64/man to allow man pages to work.

If this has been done ok, this will work:-

bash-3.00# which nano
/opt/pware64/bin/nano