[tbox-l] Building an open infrastructure to build (OSS) software for AIX. - Or replace the (L) in Linux with an (A)

[Hans-Joachim E. <Han...@eu...>]

Building an open infrastructure to build (OSS) software for AIX. 

Motivation:
The current status of having Open Source Software (OSS ) available for AIX is somehow disappointing.

Currenlty four main sides providing packages for AIX:
1) IBM: 							http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/linux/index.html
2) Hudson Valley Community College (Bill Jojo):	http://pware.hvcc.edu/
3) oss4aix.org ( Michael Perzl ) 			http://www.perzl.org/aix
4) Bull							http://www.bullfreeware.com/

1)IBM
 + Build with the xlc compiler
 = Using RPM package format not native bff
 - Interferes with the base OS ( uses /usr/bin , /lib )
 - No external access/support possible ( wiki, documentation , build  )
 - No official build environment
 -- Package are pretty outdated. Internal management takes 99.9% of the resources. 
 

2) HVCC
 + Building BFF packages
 + Does not interfere with the base OS. 
 = Basic build environment software ( tar file ) and documentation ( PDF )
 - No external access/support possible
 - One man show. If he is gone the project might fade out as well.
 - Uses the GCC and not the native IBM xlc

3) OSS4AIX
 + Using the native IBM xlc Compiler
 = Replacement of the AIX Toolbox. Newer Versions but depending on parts of the Original toolbox.
 - Partly builds with the GCC ( Perl and its modules ) breaking the compiler selection.
 - One man show. If he is gone the project might fade out as well.
 - No external access/support possible

4) BULL
Have no seen any progress at all within the last years. Thus not taking into account.


If I take a look at all the (-) I think that the situation should be somehow improved.


1) Free hardware und OS access
To build software for AIX you need simply access to an IBM AIX system with some kind of compiler.
The hardware access can be given nowadays through the internet to dedicated build machines  based on VM like the one from my side 
OpenAIX http://www.metamodul.com/10.html 

2) Having a free available compiler.
The GCC is freely available but also the Trial&Buy Version for the IBM XlC v8. 
In case a higher version of the IBM Compiler is needed and IBM is not able/willing to provide its own compiler for free to build OSS the charge for the compiler is imho not that high ( In case I have to pay per real CPU and not VM )

3) Documentation 
I like wikis to have some kind of rapid documentation. 

4) Code repository.
The code repository should contain all stuff which is needed to create/maintain a build environment as well as the "SPEC" files to build certain packages and should allow people to join the project!

One of the unpleasant tasks of building OSS is the solving of dependencies. To solve this problem the project should attach to a certain Linux distribution because they have done this task already. This would allow us as well to have the same (subset ) of software on AIX as on Linux.


Conclusion:

Already available 
 * Hardware: metamodul.com can at least provide AIX 5.3 and AIX 6.1 VM. 
 * Software: metamodul.com can at least provide xlc v8 ( T & B) for AIX 5.3 and AIX 6.1 VM. ( p5 510 )

Open Tasks
 * Documentation: Creating a wiki ( which name )
 * Communication: Creating a newsgroups or email list 
 * Repository: Creating a code repository ( Sourceforge ? )
 * Creating a build environment
 * Determine the Linux Enterprise Version on which the project will connect to.


Some notes:
Its all there for what is needed to a have an AIX+GNU instead of an Linus+GNU . It just must be brought together.


P.S Thanks a lot to Bill Jojo and Michael Perzl for providing OSS to AIX

P.S.S
To any reading CIO: You should step forward from a hunter type to a farmer type.

With kind regards
Hajo Ehlers