AIX

Hey'all... I'm so use to using bash in unix, that aix is driving me batty on the command line using arrow keys and so forth. Even cuts and pastes are creating a problem using the esc k and set -o vi. Is there anything else that is abit safer or better...like bash?

Well, IBM has bash for AIX according to this page: IBM AIX Toolbox Download Page - Alphabetical Listing

Thanks for the response. I will see if I can get the SA's to load.
Does it really work like unix bash?

AIX default shell is the Korn shell. There are quite some other shells one can use with AIX. However IMHO anything but ksh or ksh93 in AIX is about 99.xx% compatible only. The missing .xx% can cause you quite some headaches when you rather would concentrate on some other os related problem. Therefore, as an AIX administrator I'd always recommend to stick to ksh
If your problem was just which editor to use (vi, emacs...) and using its corresponding keys to move through the command history, cut and paste and so on - this was just a matter of configuring it in the user profile. This should work the same way in any shell. I.e. if you do not define your keys for your environment bash might not behave differently to ksh.

Amen to that! ;-))

Seriously, as shockneck already said using some non-standard shell (or non-standard tool in general) is always asking for trouble. Most of the times this asking goes unanswered but in the least convenient moment you will have to deal with some subtle intricacy on top of your already pending deadline.

I would rather learn an additional tool instead of taking that chance.

As a systems administrator i have seem many software developers using bash instead of ksh, nawk/gawk/whatever instead of awk, etc., etc.. Many times this ended at my desk asking questions like "why doesn't this script run correctly in my environment" or "why does this not work at the customers site, it is working for me".

This does not mean that these tools are bad at all. They are just a glimpse of a hint different in some way from their standard counterparts - maybe even better, but different. Chances are these differences will have an adverse effect once when you least expect it.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
(first statement in my .kshrc is indispensably "set -o vi")