Re: [IBMiOSS] gcc for all Litmis Spaces?

"OpenSource" <opensource-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 08/18/2016
02:00:46 PM:

From: John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
To: IBMi Open Source Roundtable <opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08/18/2016 02:01 PM
Subject: Re: [IBMiOSS] gcc for all Litmis Spaces?
Sent by: "OpenSource" <opensource-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

We've also thought about hosting a "package server" (for lack of a

better

term) that would operate similar to other package managers except this
would be specifically for PASE on IBM i (to deal with all

idiosyncrasies).

Then a user could do the following:

$ ipm install gcc

That would be very cool. It seems we've kind of gotten close with
perzl.org and AIX, but the last step (to be truly PASE-specific) has
been elusive. I have often wondered whether it would be easier (1) to
build a repository of RPMs that are specifically built for PASE, or
(2) to add tooling to PASE until it can run ready-made solutions built
for other platforms (most likely AIX, but maybe it would be even
better to target Linux on Power).

While having PASE be able to run POWER Linux executables would be ideal,
that's not going to happen in the short term. That would require:
1) Full Linux runtime (/QOpenLinux ?)
2) Changes in SLIC to understand Linux syscall convention
3) Getting the PASE loader/linker to understand Linux ELF-format
executables
4) Defining interactions between AIX-PASE and Linux-PASE


PASE is never going to be a drop-in replacement for AIX (or Linux), so
attempting to run applications built for those platforms in PASE is always
going to be a crapshoot. Better to build your applications targeting PASE
instead. Nothing can be done for other people's proprietary software, but
for open source software, the source is there if only you have the time,
motivation, and ability to get it working.