ACS HELP - AIX Hints

AIX Hints

INTRODUCTION
The following paragraphs are an informal list of hints on the AIX version of the UNIX operating system. These hints are of two general types: 1) command behavior or syntax that differs from standard BSD UNIX; and 2) advice on where to find information on a variety of subjects.

If you have suggestions for additions to this list, please mail them to help@acs.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND HELP
There are several ways to get information and help. In addition to the online manual pages (on the ACS command type man man, man topic, or apropos topic), there is a collection of locally written help files (type help to access these files; type man help for details). This help system has both X and ASCII interfaces.

InfoExplorer is IBM's "hyper-text" information system, complete with graphics; type info on the ACS command line to access this program.

PROGRAMMING

There are several variants of the C compiler and about a zillion flags. Type man cc for more info, and see the C help file. For old C code try:
```
       % cc -D_NO_PROTO -U_POSIX_SOURCE
```
If you want more BSD compatibility try "bsdcc" instead of "cc".
If you use alloca() anywhere be sure to do a "#pragma alloca" at the top of your C program.
If you use the BSD rand() subroutine, beware: see the "rand" man page for details. Also see the man pages for "drand48" and "random", and type "apropos rand" to find other random-number generators.
Read /usr/lpp/bos/bsdport for more tips on porting code.
TTY-mode hackers should look at /etc/tty and the info page on ioctl. The ttys behave in several modes. For bsd-like stuff use the command "stty disp bsd". >From a program you can make the call: ioctl(fd, TXSETLD, "bsd").
Tcsh is available -- use the "chsh" command if you want to change your login shell.

MISCELLANEOUS

Examples of a number of useful dotfiles are available in the directory /usr/local/examples/UserDotFiles. The then-current versions of these files were placed in your home directory at the time your account was created, but from time to time the examples are updated so you might want to check there for new ideas.
The standard UNIX error messages will be displayed if your LANG environment variable is set to "C" ("setenv LANG C"; this is the default). Setting LANG to "En_US" ("setenv LANG En_US") will produce quasi-english equivalents.
Tar isn't happy if the "f" option isn't last; i.e., use "tar cvf file" instead of "tar cfv file".