PowerBuilder for Unix

What is UNIX?
UNIX is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. There are as many versions of UNIX as there are hardware platforms that run it.
PowerBuilder runs on the following Unix Platforms:
IBM RS6000's run AIX

· AIX RS6000 class computer using POWER/POWER2 or PowerPC CPU(s). Release 4.1.5 is the only release supported with PowerBuilder 6.0 and 6.5. AIX 4.2 will not be supported at this level.
· AIX 4.3 will be supported with PowerBuilder 7.0.

HP 9000's runs HP-UX

· HP-UX 10.20 Series 715/64. There are several OS patches included on the PowerBuilder CD. These should be installed before installing PowerBuilder.

SUN Sparc computers run Solaris and Sun OS

· PowerBuilder for Solaris 5.x only works with Sun's Solaris 2.5.1 operating system on Sparc CPUs (we do have customers running earlier version of Solaris with 5.x).
· Powerbuilder 6.0 and 6.5 is currently supported with Solaris 2.5.1. Solaris 2.6 will be supported with PowerBuilder 7.0 and currently there is a beta version of 6.5 supported with this OS level.(GA Release set for January 1999).

Bristol Technology
Bristol Technology Inc. was founded in 1991 with the mission of providing an efficient, cost-effective solution for a Windows-to-UNIX cross-platform environment. The market for Bristol's technology includes Windows and UNIX software vendors, client/server tool companies, and in-house application developers in corporations and financial services companies that need to deliver Windows applications on UNIX workstations. Their product is called Wind/U. Bristol is a privately held company located in Danbury, CT.

What is PowerBuilder for UNIX?
PowerBuilder for UNIX is based on the M.S. Windows code base ported to the UNIX environment using Bristol Technologies Wind/U toolkit. The Wind/U toolkit takes standard Windows API calls and converts them to appropriate Motif compatible calls. Wind/U is a cross platform compiler, not an interpreter. Since the code base is common between platforms, the overall look and feel of PowerBuilder under UNIX is very similar to the Windows based product.
PowerBuilder for UNIX is a port of the Windows product. It uses the same source code base as the Windows product. Just as PowerBuilder for windows calls the standard windows source libraries to implement its window functionality, PowerBuilder for UNIX calls similar API libraries to implement its X window functionality. The Wind/U API libraries are linked into the PowerBuilder UNIX product. Their API libraries have code that translates the standard window calls into motif window calls. In cases where motif doesn't have a similar functionality they have written "widgets" that will imitate the correct functionality.


What is X Windows?

· X windows is a set of industry standard software libraries that let you run graphical applications more easily in the UNIX environment. These libraries come as standard equipment with most UNIX operating systems today. This toolkit contains a basic set of window functions that most programs use.
· X is designed for a networking environment. You can run the program on one machine and display/operate it on another as if it were running locally.

What is a Window Manager?

· The Window manager is what the user interacts with. There are many different window managers, PowerBuilder supports two, Motif Windows Manager (mwm) which is the standard Motif and Common Desktop Environment (CDE) 1.01 with Desktop Window Manager (dtwm) the standard Sun window manager.
· Powersoft has tested both Motif Window Manager (MWM) and Solaris 2.x Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and both are supported. PowerBuilder is a Motif application; it runs best using CDE or MWM

What is Motif?
Motif is an industry standard graphical interface (set of libraries) that can run on a variety of machines. You need "X" window capabilities to use Motif. Motif uses the mwm window manager.

What is CDE?
CDE is Sun's specific graphical user interface (like windows). You need "X" windows capabilities to run graphical user interfaces. The CDE code calls the "X" code libraries. CDE uses the dtwm window manager.

X-Terminal Support
Sybase will make a best effort to support customers who are running PowerBuilder on a properly configured workstation and using a remote XTerminal display. The X Window System, simply called X, is an industry standard in the UNIX world. Every UNIX application uses X to manage its display, effectively separating the application and its display into two. This allows an application to be run on one machine and displayed locally on the same machine or remotely on a different machine. Some vendors (Tektronix and NCD, for example) supply inexpensive, dedicated XTerminal hardware - Intelligent terminals which run X. These terminals are considered "intelligent because they have a processor and control their own displays. In addition, powerful UNIX workstations can be used as X display systems too. X gives users easy access to virtually any application that can run on any machine on the network - a benefit that makes the use of XTerminals extremely popular and common in UNIX environments.
PowerBuilder has been written to conform to X standards and Sybase supports the use of XTerminals, however, customers should be made aware that PowerBuilder has not been formally tested with all of the wide variety of XTerminals in use today. Sybase will make a best effort to resolve any issues that customers may have using PowerBuilder with XTerminals.


PC X-Window Emulation Software Packages
Some customers also use X-Terminal emulation software to access X-based applications from their PCs.
PowerBuilder has been written to conform to X standards and Sybase supports the use of XTerminals, however, customers should be made aware that PowerBuilder has not been formally tested with PC emulation software. Sybase will make a best effort to resolve any issues that customers may have using.
Sybase will make best attempts to resolve or work around any compatibility problems specific to PowerBuilder applications encountered while running an Exceed v6.0 PC X-Server, provided it does not adversely affect cross-platform consistency or capabilities, including all Enterprise development and deployment aspects of PowerBuilder. Other PC X-Servers would be addressed only if the issue is reproducible on the platform's primary graphics head. As with any bug, it must be reproduced and documented so that it can be assigned a case number. Before calling technical support when using one of these software emulation packages the customer should test the application using a supported windowing environment local to the UNIX environment the software is installed on.


What is the ROOT user?

· The root user is the system administrator user account for the UNIX computer.
· You normally log on as root (sometimes called super-user) to install software and set up user accounts and configure the hardware and software. Users should be logged on with their own accounts.

How do I install the product?

· PowerBuilder is installed by issuing the /cdrom/POWERBUILDER/install/install.pb command on all three Unix operating systems. (On Solaris - PowerBuilder is installed as a package using Sun's "pkgadd" facility - pkgadd is a Sun specific utility. HP and AIX use the tar command to install the product)
· PowerBuilder ships on a CD-ROM

What is a tar file?

· A tar file is similar to a *.zip file on windows. The entire PowerBuilder directory structure is stored in a tar file.
· It is also a standard way of archiving files for backup and restoring.
· We used the tar command to package PowerBuilder. The install script uses the tar command to install and deinstall the files. We use the tar file format because it is standard among all Unix systems.

How do I get a pbl from DOS to UNIX?

· First make sure you have a clean pbl by regenerating the .pbl on the Operating System the .pbl resides on.
· Use ftp in "binary mode" to transfer the pbl.
· From the MS-DOS prompt on your PC type "ftp <IP address> or <machine name>".
· Enter your user name and password when prompted. You will receive an ftp> prompt.
· Type: ftp> bin (to place in binary mode).
· Type: ftp> put your.pbl
· Type: ftp> quit
· Run PowerBuilder for Unix
· Make sure the PowerBuilder for Windows matches the Unix version of PowerBuilder.
· Regen the app in PowerBuilder UNIX
· Note: Pbls are portable from Windows to Unix (and Unix to Windows)...executables are not. Users must recreate executables on the platform they wish to run the application on. This is also true for different Unix environments (AIX, HP & Solaris).

Environment Variables
Environment variables are key words with assigned meaning, similar to the DOS path variable.
The following environment variables are required to bring up PowerBuilder.

· $PBHOME - location of PowerBuilder install
· $WUHOME - $PBHOME/Windu
· $XPPATH - $PBHOME/windu/xprinter
· $HHHOME - $PBHOME/bin
· $HHPATH - $PBHOME/bin -
· $HOME - location of your home directory
· $LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Solaris - $LIBPATH on AIX - $SHLIB_PATH on HP-UX - location of necessary library paths to run Powerbuilder.

Initialization Files

· There are 2 important initialization files in the Unix version. the . pb.ini file and the .windu file
· The .WindU file contains all of the settings needed for Wind/U including printer settings.
· The .pb.ini file contains all of the settings for preferences within Powerbuilder such as the last database connected to, the last pbl used, debugger settings and display characteristics.
· There is a "." in the beginning of the name of these files. The release notes explain how to copy these from the default directory to the users home directory.
Example (see release notes for more info):
cp $PBHOME /.pb.ini $HOME
cp $WUHOME/.WindU $HOME

Collect this information first!

· What OS is being used?
· What version of PowerBuilder?
· What type of display are they using (local to machine?).
· What shell is being used? ( 'C' shell, Korn shell, Bourne shell ) run the command echo $SHELL it should come back with /bin/csh or /bin/ksh
· What window manager are they using, mwm also called motif or CDE (dtwm).
· Is this an install, connect or PowerBuilder specific problem?

Install:

· Were they the root user when they installed?
· Do they have the required software/hardware prerequisites? See PowerBuilder Installation Guide for Unix Pages 3-6
· Do they have write permission to the <$PBHOME> directory? The directory where PowerBuilder was installed. Run the command ls -la on the directory above where PowerBuilder was installed to see the permissions for the <$PBHOME> directory. It should look as follows:
dr-xr-xr-x 11 root bin 512 Oct 6 11:45 pb6/
· Did they run out of space in the file system? Run the command df -k to see if filesystems are full.
· Did they set up all the ENVIRONMENT variables? (Run env to see environment variables). PowerBuilder has a script called pbstart. If the user uses this script they will only need to set $PBHOME to get PowerBuilder running.

Things To Remember About UNIX

· Unix is case sensitive! Do not install PowerBuilder into a mixed case path directory. It will not work.
· Most UNIX OS problems are inadequate file permissions or not enough space left in a filesystem.
· The most frequent problem is ENVIRONMENT variables set up incorrectly.
· PowerBuilder library extensions are different on the three supported Unix environments.
· AIX - .a
· Solaris - .so
· HPUX - .sl