Unix Calls from OCL

Published: July 12, 2006

Hey, Ted:

Our shop runs a System/36 emulation environment on an RS/6000 AIX machine. We want to move this environment to an i5. In our current situation, we issue a ton of Unix calls within our OCL procedures. We have over 5,500 of these calls. We're trying to wrap our arms around understanding the impact/feasibility of the move to the i5. If we can't continue the Unix calls "as is," going to the i5 probably will not happen.

We plan to keep the RS/6000 along with the i5. So, in a nutshell, is there a way to issue the Unix calls from the i5 in a way that they are executed on the RS/6000? Do we define the RS/6000 so that it's "seen" through the IFS? Is Qshell a part of the solution? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

--Bob

This question was so out of the ordinary from the correspondence I usually get, I couldn't help but address it in Four Hundred Guru. It also struck me as strange that IBM announced end of support for the S/36 compilers about the same time I got Bob's email. (IBM has since then changed its collective mind.)

I would think it is probably possible to use remote command support to run commands on the Unix machine from an OCL procedure that runs on an i5, but it's not something I've ever done, have any need to do, or have time to look into. If anybody out there has made this happen, I'd like to hear from you.

I did find a way to run Unix commands on the i5, but I don't know what to make of it.

Since the sample code Bob sent me used a Unix command to execute the AIX commands, the first thing I did was to create a one-line OCL procedure called UNIX.

QSH CMD('?1?')

Then I put a Unix command in a test OCL procedure.

// UNIX 'ls /home/tholt/backup >/home/tholt/dir.txt'

Here are a few observations.

1. I am proud that IBM has gone to such great lengths to help System i software continue to run in spite of changes in technology.
2. It worked, but I don't know what performance will be like. I would think it would be much slower than on Bob's present AIX system.
3. I suspect Bob's best bet is to remain with the AIX system. Maybe the i5 is not the best host for S/36 applications.

--Ted