Open-Source Tools (rsync, cURL, Git and more) on IBM i

Open-source tools aren’t just for Linux anymore. Popular tools such as rsync, cURL, Git, and Wget have come to IBM i.

Although such open-source tools have been available for years in AIX distributions by Michael Perzl, those RPM packages required extra know-how, and weren’t officially supported by IBM.

For an illustration of how common these tools are on Linux, I was asked today by one of our PHP developers,  “Could it be that IBM i does not have rsync?” He needed to synchronize PHP scripts between his PC and the server. I was happy to answer that rsync was supported on IBM i. We just had to ask the system administrator to install the IBM i open source tools option of licensed program product 5733-OPS.

While it might be said that IBM Rochester had a slow start introducing open source to IBM i, such efforts have accelerated. The open-source experts in Rochester have hit their stride, moving at a blistering pace to add commonly requested tools. Such tools make the IBM i a more welcoming platform to the Linux-oriented professional.

To learn more about these open source tools and 5733-OPS, see these resources (outdated — links removed):

• Video and slides about rsync and other tools on IBM i (Jesse Gorzinski)
• How to obtain the Open Source for IBM i product – 5733-OPS (Kevin Adler)
• Technical details about rsync and other tools in the 5733-OPS package (Jesse)