Platforms and packaging
What Xi-Batch and Xi-Text are built for, how they are packaged, and which distributions are certified.
Xi-Batch and Xi-Text run on many Unix platforms and most Linux distributions.
New development and certification work is focused on Linux, where most of our customers now are. Unix support continues for the customers who remain there, and we are not withdrawing it.
The products make no kernel modification, which is why the range is as wide as it is and why they coexist cleanly with everything else on the system.
Linux
| Distribution | Status |
|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux | RPM packages for RHEL 8 and 9. EL7 install certified. |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | SLES 15 install certified. |
| openSUSE Leap | Install certified. |
| Debian | DEB packages. |
| Ubuntu and other Debian derivatives | DEB packages. |
| Other distributions | Tarball; can be adapted for less common distributions on request. |
Unix
We have supported the major commercial Unix variants for four decades. Confirm current status with us for your platform and release.
Actively supported: IBM AIX, Oracle Solaris, HP-UX.
Leaving a commercial Unix? HP-UX support from HPE ended on 31 December 2025, and Solaris and AIX estates are being consolidated onto Linux across the same customer base. The position is the same in every case: Xi-Batch and Xi-Text run on the platform you are leaving and on the distributions you are moving to.
Same interfaces, same job and printer definitions, same command syntax and exit codes. A job that ran on HP-UX or Solaris runs on Red Hat or SUSE without being rewritten, so the scheduler and the print estate are the parts of the migration you do not have to plan around. Moving between platforms within a processor class carries no additional licence fee, so the two can run in parallel while you move.
Packaging
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| RPM | For RHEL, SUSE and derivatives. |
| DEB | For Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives. |
| Tarball | For platforms without native packaging, and for controlled installs. |
RPM and DEB packages are generated from a single manifest with shared install hooks, so the two cannot drift apart from each other or from the paths the build was configured with. Packages ship a systemd unit, create the service account at install time, and install to standard filesystem locations.
Packaging itself is tested: the full chain - staging, packaging, validation - runs in a throwaway container as part of the build.
Interfaces by product
| Interface | Xi-Batch | Xi-Text | Xi-Exec |
|---|---|---|---|
| Command line | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full-screen character | Yes | Yes | - |
| Motif (X-Windows) | Yes | Yes | - |
| GTK3 | Yes | Yes | - |
| Programmer's API | Yes | Yes | REST with OpenAPI |
Where Windows fits
Neither Xi-Batch nor Xi-Text runs on Windows, and the interfaces above are the current ones.
Xi-Text does sit on a Windows network, in both directions. Windows clients print to it through Samba, and it prints out to a Windows print server over LPD, which requires the LPD Print Service feature to be enabled on the Windows host. Print data arriving from Windows is already formatted by the Windows printer driver, so a form type is defined for those printers that leaves it alone.
Requirements
No relational database. No kernel modification. No external package registries required at install or at runtime.
Both products are event-driven and scale from a single desktop to large multi-processor systems, providing the same functionality and the same interfaces throughout.
Which release you get
Current versions and their dates are stated on the release notes, which is the one place they are maintained. Every entry names the releases it applies to.
Release notes ยท Downloads and licensing
Not sure about your platform?
Tell us the operating system and release and we will confirm. If we do not support it, we will tell you that too.