Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment

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February 10, 2024

Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment

By NickLitten

February 10, 2024


Following on from the previous blog, lets have a play with the PASE environment and install Node.JS

Step 1: PASE from the IBM i Command Line

From your IBM i 5250 session call the PASE program to enter the environment:

CALL QP2TERM

Alternatively, you can initiate a terminal session using Powershell, PuTTY, VSCode Terminal, Git Bash, or any similar PC client.

Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment

Step 2: Define the Opensource Installation Directory to PASE using the PATH Environment Variable

Open source packages are installed in /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin on an IBM I.

The /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin directory on IBM i (formerly known as AS/400) is a crucial part of the open systems file system. Let’s delve into its significance:

  1. Compatibility with UNIX Standards:
    • The QOpenSys file system is designed to be compatible with open system standards based on UNIX, such as POSIX and the X/Open Portability Guide (XPG).
    • Similar to the root (/) file system, QOpenSys leverages the stream file and directory support provided by the integrated file system.
    • Key characteristics of QOpenSys include:
  2. Accessing QOpenSys:
  3. Setting Up the PATH:
    • The PATH environment variable helps resolve program names to their absolute paths, similar to library lists.

In summary, /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin is a critical directory for open source development on IBM i, providing compatibility with UNIX standards and enabling efficient access to essential tools and utilities.

Define the opensource path on IBM i PASE

You need to add the open-source installation directory to your PATH environment variable in PASE.

Add the open-source installation directory like this:

PATH=/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin:$PATH
export PATH
Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment 1

Step 3: What version of Node.js do we have?

Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment 2

To verify that Node.js is installed and running properly type:

node -v
Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment 3

What version do I use – or – I do not see any version!

What version do I use?

You can have multiple versions of Node.js installed.

With a local install like this, you can manually install different Node.js versions side by side and switch between them as needed. Best practice is to always specify the desired Node.js runtime versions explicitly in your project configuration. This ensures consistency and avoids unexpected behavior.

Choose and activate your version like this:

alternatives --config node

You can select your version.

In my case I only have one version installed, so I see this:

Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment

I do not see any version!

So, if you see a screen like this:

Starting and Testing your IBM i PASE Environment 4

You don’t have Node.JS installed!

How about we use IBM i ACS to download and setup Node.JS?

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