Sometimes, package names may not be as descriptive as they could be. As an example, consider GNU make. For OS/2, this is actually kbuild-make. The best way to find this from ANPM is:
Find | File…(or click the Find package by included filename button)
In the dialog box, enter:
*/make.exe
Click OK.
Note that kbuild-make is displayed in the search results.
Another way would be to search for package names containing “make”:
Find | Package… (or click the Find package by name button)
*make*
Click OK.
This may produce more results than desired, but selecting one of the packages in the search results and then:
Selected | Cotents… (or click the View package contents button)
should reveal more information.
Congratulations!
Now that you have completed your installation or update of the OS, you should review this section of the Post-Install Tips & Hints wiki page. If updating, you should also review this wiki page.
The primary indicator of a usable Unix Compatibility Subsystem is the presence of a valid location for %UNIXROOT%. In general, this should be the root of a local volume (results may be unpredictable when this is directed to a network share or removable media which may not always be available). To test for this, open an OS/2 window and type:
set UNIXROOT <Enter>
This should return the value (if set) of the %UNIXROOT% variable. On that volume, look for the directories as discussed on this wiki page. This is a good indication that there is a working subsystem in place.
ANPM manages the installation, update, downgrade, and removal of software available as RPM (RedHat Package Manager) packages. RPM is a standard packaging method for Linux applications. These files end with a .rpm extension, and may only be extracted with a limited set of tools.
Whereas rpm (on OS/2, rpm.exe) itself is a standalone utility for installing, updating, downgrading, and removing such packages, YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) provides the ability to store collections of RPMs in local or (more commonly) remote collections on the internet, called repositories.
Currently, the main repositories for ported applications for the OS/2 platform are located at Netlabs. Arca Noae also maintains repositories of varying types (see this wiki page for more information about available repositories, what types of packages they contain, and how to add them to ANPM to access their content).
It is important to note that the Netlabs and Arca Noae repositories may contain ported Linux applications and other software and/or documentation. In short, the RPM packaging structure is not limited to only ported Linux applications.
In terms of ported applications, there is quite a selection, and it is growing daily. From development tools to networking utilities to scripting engines to documentation readers, many well known and freely available apps are only a few clicks away from being useful to the average OS/2 user.
ANPM is much more than an installer, and has become much more than a graphical interface to YUM. ANPM should be updated when new versions are made available. These are announced in our blog.
Updates to ANPM ensure the highest level of stability and reliability, as well as ease of use of the utility. New features are being added after rigorous testing, and some of these new features may make it possible to manage software packages not previously handled.
By definition, the bootstrap is only that: something used to get up and running. Once running, the bootstrap itself is no longer useful. It is not a component to be updated and maintained. It is merely a barebones layout of the overall Unix Compatibility Subsystem, and the programs of which it is comprised will be updated by ANPM as updates for them become available.
We update the bootstrap from time to time to keep it more current with the latest package versions available. This is for logistical reasons, as it is less likely to be problematic when updating from one minor version of an included component to the next, than it is to have to upgrade to a version several major revisions newer. Thus, we try to ship a recent set of components in the bootstrap.
We do not generally announce the availability of new bootstrap builds. This is because such information is essentially irrelevant. ANPM will automatically download and apply the latest bootstrap available, anyway, and the bootstrap, as stated above, need only be applied once and only under very specific conditions.
On systems with no existing RPM & YUM installation, ANPM should prompt to download and install the base package (the YUM-RPM Bootstrap) upon first program start. The bootstrap itself is a compressed archive of a basic Unix Compatibility Subsystem, with enough functionality for RPM and YUM to function, thus providing the required “back end” for ANPM to install, update, downgrade, and remove installed packages.
Once downloaded, you will be asked to select the drive to be designated as UNIXROOT, and the requisite directories and files contained in the bootstrap will be placed under the root of that volume.
ArcaOS includes a useful Unix Compatibility Subsystem, and does not require the bootstrap to be installed except in rare instances as directed by Support. Likewise, most later releases of eComStation already have a usable Unix Compatibility Subsystem. Early eCS versions and OS/2 Warp 4 which have not had a bootstrap applied to them will need this. Upon first run, ANPM will determine whether the bootstrap is needed, and will download and install it. The bootstrap does not need to be manually downloaded and extracted under any circumstances.
The Unix Compatibility Subsystem is built around a component known as kLIBC, which is itself a project hosted at OS/2 Netlabs. The subsystem consists of a collection of applications generally ported from Linux, and when built from source using the gcc compiler, become native OS/2 applications.
This subsystem brings a whole new world of modern, maintained applications to the OS/2 platform.
While this subsystem is installed as part of ArcaOS, earlier OS/2 Warp 4 distributions may take advantage of this environment and run these applications as well. All that is required to get started is to download and install Arca Noae Package Manager (ANPM), available from this page.
See this wiki page for more information about the Unix Compatibility Subsystem.
Arca Noae Package Manager (ANPM) is a free utility designed to make the installation of certain software easier for OS/2 users.
Originally conceived as a graphical interface for YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified), a standard Linux package manager (a utility to install, update, downgrade, and remove software), ANPM is evolving to become the unified software manager for the OS/2 platform.
Users of OS/2 Warp 4 FixPak 13 and above, all versions of eComStation, and of course, ArcaOS have leveraged the convenience of ANPM to keep the Unix Compatibility Subsystem on their systems up to date. Soon, this same level of organization and access to remote repositories of software will be just as useful for software packaged in more traditionally-OS/2 methods (WarpIN).
ANPM is fully open source, licensed under GPLv3.
Learn more about ANPM here.