How to Resolve Yum Command FTP Errors on IBM i

While installing packages from IBM’s original open source repository, ibm, users may encounter errors, including:

  • [​Errno 12] Timeout on: ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/ibmi/products/pase/rpms/repo/repodata/repomd.xml: (28, ‘Connection time-out’) Trying other mirror. Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: ibm. Please verify its path and try again.
  • [​Errno 14] FTP Error 451 – server did not report OK, got 451 Trying other mirror
  • [Errno 14] FTP Error 550 – Access denied: 550 Trying other mirror

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How to Report an Issue with VS Code for IBM i

If you believe you have found a bug or other issue with the Code for IBM i extension, you can post it to the Code for i issue tracker. The maintainers are very good about resolving issues.

In fact, with Code for IBM i it’s always worth checking for (and applying) updates before reporting an issue.

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How to Update the Code for i Extension

Code for IBM i has been moving quickly. As the popularity of this Visual Studio Code extension has grown, updates and enhancements have arrived regularly.

If you encounter a bug or issue, installing the latest update may resolve it. Updating Code for i requires only a restart of VS Code. Here are some details to clarify how to restart as well as how to roll back the update, if desired.

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PHP 8.3 Coming to IBM i This Year

PHP on IBM iI had to chuckle when someone at a recent conference seemed surprised that PHP was still a vital force in web and API development. He hadn’t heard much about PHP lately at conferences.

My explanation: “It’s reliable and the major problems have been solved.”

I continued: “There’s a significant PHP update each year, plus monthly fixes. It’s evolving steadily, with attention to backward compatibility, all changes discussed in the open, easy to manage, no surprises.”

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Common Europe Congress 2023 in Prague

IBM Champions Jack Woehr, Niels Liisberg, and Alan Seiden mug for the camera

IBM Champions Jack Woehr, Niels Liisberg, and Alan Seiden mug for the camera

The Common Europe Congress 2023 in Prague hosted around 400 international attendees steeped in IBM Power Systems from 11 June to 14 June.

This was my first visit to a Common Europe event, and I was greatly impressed. The organization was tight, the venue world-class, and the level of enthusiasm among the participants high. The sessions were interesting and useful.

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Running the x86 IBM i ODBC driver on ARM Linux with Rosetta

ODBC with Db2 for IBM iI recently did some research on how to run the IBM i ODBC driver under Linux on newer macOS architecture and thought I’d share what I learned.

Over the last few years, macOS has changed from x86 (Intel) to ARM architecture. IBM has kept pace by updating its IBM i ODBC driver to support ARM on macOS as of version 1.1.0.15.

Developers who use a Linux virtual machine, however, will note that there is no ARM version of the Linux driver available yet. While an ARM-native version of the driver would be ideal, Mac users running a Linux virtual machine can run the existing x86 version of the driver using Rosetta for Linux. Read more

Basic Authentication Credentials are Encrypted with TLS

https://You may have heard claims that HTTP “basic” authentication (classic user/password popup prompt or via an API call) leaves credentials unencrypted and exposed. While it’s true that basic auth itself doesn’t encrypt credentials, this doesn’t matter in practice.

Modern sites and APIs should be using HTTPS, which encrypts everything over the wire, protecting basic authentication credentials in transit. This article will explain why that’s the case.

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What’s New in Open Source on IBM i

Open source on IBM i is moving fast these days. Alan recently shared his favorite updates to IBM i open source—focusing on improved security, performance, and ease of programming—at a Summit Lunch & Learn hosted by Paul Tuohy.

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curl Your RPG Apps with QSHCURL

curlIn this post we’ll take a closer look at how IBM i developers can use the QSHCURL command to easily reach out from CL or RPG and talk to internet-based services and APIs, then consume the resulting data, without a lot of extra effort.

First we’ll provide a short curl intro, and then we’ll look at an example of how to use the PASE-based curl command with an RPG program.

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Integrate Python, Node, PHP, etc. with CL & RPG on IBM i – 2023 Update

QSHONIA few years ago I introduced you to my QShell on i utility – QSHONI. QSHONI makes it easy for traditional CL, RPG, and COBOL programs to call Python utilities and other QShell/PASE utility programs (PHP, Node, Java, etc.) and directly use their output. QSHONI opened up a whole new world of integrations to open source apps from RPG, CL, and COBOL.

In this post I will update you on new features that have been added to the QSHONI utilities over the past 12 months.

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