What is UnixOS/2?
=================

If you have used programs that have been ported from Unix, you probably have
noticed some of the problems that can make the installation and use of such
ports difficult:

- if a program requires a DLL, there may be more than one version of this
  DLL with the same name, and your program will only run with one of them.

- there are several OS/2 ports of the same program. Which one is the latest 
  version? Or the most complete?

- the OS/2 port requires an environment variable to find its configuration
  or data files. Therefore you will have to change your CONFIG.SYS and reboot
  before you can use this program.

- the program uses hardcoded paths to find its files, and this path contains
  a drive letter that does not exist on your system.

- etc.

The UnixOS/2 project aims to remedy this situation by developing a distribution
of Unix ports that follow common guidelines to make it easier to install and
use ported Unix applications on OS/2. Together with POSIX/2 / libemu this will
hopefully lead to a complete Unix-like subsystem for OS/2.

For more information on UnixOS/2 visit the web site at http://www.unixos2.org/

Installation
============

Before you can install any UnixOS/2 packages, you have to properly
install the ux2_base package first by following the instructions below.

- You have to decide what the root directory of the UnixOS/2 distribution
  (the UNIXROOT) should be. Below this directory a complete directory tree 
  with the directories typical for Unix systems will be created, e.g. if your 
  UNIXROOT is D:\unixos2, binaries will be placed in D:\unixos2\bin, 
  D:\unixos2\usr\bin and D:\unixos2\usr\sbin. (UNIXROOT can also be the root 
  directory of a drive)

- create the UNIXROOT directory if it does not exist yet and unpack the ux2_base
  package in it.
       md unixos2
       cd unixos2
       unzip ux2_base

- change to the directory 'install' and start doinst.cmd
       cd install
       doinst

- this script will ask you a few questions and will make some changes to your 
  CONFIG.SYS (a SET UNIXROOT= line will be added and the PATH and LIBPATH will 
  be modified)

- if you do not want to reboot now, you can already start installing and using 
  UnixOS/2 packages as long as you start everything from the same cmd.exe as 
  doinst.cmd.