In mid-March 2017, A-Shell version 6.4 was finalized and released. This means that the development version 6.3 was renamed to 6.4, new development stopped, and no further changes (aside from bug fixes) were made to this version of A-Shell. 6.4 is now the stable and recommended version of A-Shell. The 6.3 / 6.4 development cycle ran from November 2015 (version 6.3.1500) through the March 2017 (version 6.4.1547). See the Downloads page for information on older releases of A-Shell, and also for information on the now-current development version 6.5.
Recommendations and Comments
- MicroSabio recommends that all sites running A-Shell 6.0 or later update to version 6.4. There are no structural differences between 6.0, 6.2 and 6.4, and the update process should be smooth and painless.
- Sites running A-Shell 5.x or earlier should update to 6.4—but should have updated to 6.0 some time ago. Contact MicroSabio if you have questions about updating.
- Support for version 6.2 will be phased out in the coming months. Support for A-Shell versions prior to 6.0 is officially ended.
- A-Shell 6.4 Release Notes (link below) contain both summary and detailed information about all changes and enhancements made during the 6.3 / 6.4 development cycle.
Updating A-
If you are updating A-Shell or ATE from 6.x—i.e., any version beginning with a “6:”
- Go to Help on the menu bar and select Check for Updates. You should be offered the chance to update to version 6.4.####; if offered that choice, say yes. If NOT offered a 6.4.#### choice, then you should run the “downloading A-Shell Windows” steps below and then do the update again.
Downloading A-
For new installations of A-Shell:
- Determine whether you should use the standard version or the “C” version. Use the standard version if you’re not sure, and see the Special C Version page if you have questions.
- Download by clicking one of these: A-
Shell for Windows 6.4 – Standard Version or A- Shell 6.4 for Windows – C Version. - Run the installation program. Make your selections and options during the installation as you would with any Windows program.
- When the installation is complete, run A-
Shell itself. - Run the update procedure described above. This guarantees that you have the latest published version of the software. It is important that you do not skip this step because the version you just downloaded may not be the most current one available.
Downloading ATE
The ATE installation procedure is the same as above, except for the download. Click here to download ATE 6.4 and then follow the steps above, including “Updating.”
Linux, AIX, UNIX, Other
The A-Shell installation files and procedures for Linux, AIX, UNIX and other platforms are not as automated as those for Windows. If you have any questions about what the files are, or which ones to use, or how to use them, or you don’t see the files you need, please contact MicroSabio. Select one of the “bin-linux” folders from our 6.4 distribution page and download (a) “install-notes-linux.txt” and (b) the appropriate file set.
Note the following special circumstances for AIX:
- A-Shell 6.2 requires AIX version 5.3 or greater
- A-Shell/AIX does not support ordered maps (associative arrays) or secure sockets (TLS, SLL).
Documentation
Below are the two primary documentation resources for A-Shell. The A-Shell Reference linked below is a copy published in April 2017, at the end of the 6.4 development cycle. The release notes linked below, by contrast, have continued to be updated as minor changes are made to A-Shell 6.4 well beyond April 2017.
Libraries
In addition to the core A-Shell software, A-Shell includes an assortment of examples (“EXLIB”), shared open-source programs (“SOSLIB”), a function library (“LIBXL”) and an editor (“APN”). These files are managed via a third-party tool and website called BitBucket, which you can see here. Note that LIBXL requires A-Shell 6.3 or later.