Reviewed and revised July 2020
A-Shell/Unix releases are binary specific for a particular machine and architecture. However, the procedure is pretty much the same, regardless of the flavor of Linux / Unix. Where there are important differences, they will be noted.
Note that the document uses the term "Unix" to mean "Unix, AIX, HPUX, Linux and all Unix-variants." We of course recognize the differences between the operating systems. But because they all work about the same with regard to A-Shell, and the A-Shell commands are the same for the entirely family, we've chosen to use "Unix" as the family name.
A-Shell/Unix is downloaded from our web site in the form of one or more "cpio" files, typically named ash-###-???.bin, where "ash" indicates "A-Shell," ### indicates the version and build number, and ??? indicates the target platform. The file name ash-6.5.1676.7-el5.bin, for example, indicates A-Shell version 6.5, build 1676.7, for Enterprise Linux version 5. Often the file will have an additional extension, either Z or tz, in which case it first needs to be uncompressed, using uncompress <file>.Z or tar xvzf <file>.tz.
To install the A-Shell software, copy the cpio file to a convenient location, such as /tmp, and log into Unix using your normal user id. Do not log in as the superuser (root). Then enter the following:
$ cd /tmp
$ su
[Enter root's password if requested]
In the examples below, we assume you are installing from a cpio file, with an A-Shell build number of 827. For the installation from a file, replace the same filename given below with the actual one you downloaded.
For Linux
# cd /tmp
# cpio -iuB ash_install < /tmp/ash-6.5.1663.0-el7.bin
For AIX:
# cd /tmp
# uncompress ash-xxxxx.bin.Z (if .Z extension only)
# cpio -icuB ash_install < /tmp/ash-xxxxx.bin
Then, for all platforms:
# chmod +x ash_install
# ./ash_install
# exit
The ash_install script will prompt you for the directory location for the object and runtime files (we suggest /vm/miame for both) and for the name of the file or device you are installing from (which will be the same as the one you extracted the ash_install script from above.)
The ash_install script will execute two special customization scripts (pre_ash_install and post_ash_install) if they exist in the custom subdirectory of the specified target (object) directory tree. These allow you to customize the update process, perhaps saving, renaming, or removing certain commands or files, etc. See the sample scripts included with the release for further notes and examples.
The process will only take a couple of minutes. At the end, it will remind you to set up your MIAME and PATH environment variables and edit miame.ini as needed.
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