The Local Computing Environment
The Workstations
There are 9 Intel Linux Workstations:
Annapurna (Rm 226), Belford (Rm 226), Denali (Rm 205B),
Longs (Rm 208), Maroon (Rm 208), Radarmet (Rm 205B), Rainier (Rm 203),
Rawah (Rm 226), and Shasta (Rm 203).
Linux is a free Unix operating system. Radarmet is the server for the group.
Email for the group comes to Radarmet, and Radarmet serves as the group's
ftp and web server. The /home directories are on Denali.
We also have one Network Attached Storage Appliance running Linux
(Massive, Rm 226) that holds some of our large datasets.
We have two Mac OS X workstations: Unita (Rm 205B) and Cook (Rm 208).
And there is one Sun Workstation running Solaris 9, Sun's Unix: Wasatch (Rm 205B).
There are only minor differences between the Linux and Solaris and Mac
OS X operating systems, since they are Unix. However the hardware
differences between Linux Workstations (Intel CPU), the Macs (PowerPC),
and the Sun (Sparc) are
significant. Programs compiled on one system can not run on the other.
Also the way binary data is stored is different between the two systems.
Binary data created on a Sun computer or a Mac computer may not be
readable (initially) on Intel Linux workstations, and visa versa.
Also there are two PCs (Rooms 203, 226) which have Microsoft Office.
Hard Disk Usage
It is best (but not necessary) to run the programs on the same machine where
the data resides.
The data disks are remotely available on most all machines, so one can access
the data on a variety of machines. To access a data disk on another machine
one goes to the directory '/net/machinename/diskname'. The
diskname is usually 'data'.
You may also need to set an environmental variable to point to the data.
There are several
environmental variables (TMPDIR, SCRATCH, DISK1, DISK2, DORADE_DIR) which point
programs to the chosen directory.
Changing the Environment
C Shell (tcsh) is the shell (i.e. environment) that is default.
For each window
has its own shell running with the default settings in '.cshrc'. (The default
settings are set when the window is created.) When one changes the settings
in a window (by 'source .cshrc'), it is changed only for that window.
Files that begin with a '.'
are hidden files and can be viewed with 'ls -a'. Many of the files that
begin with a '.' are configuration files. Many default configurations are set
at the system level, but they can be overridden by one's local configuration
files. One common configuration is the mail alias 'radarmet' which allows
one to send mail to everyone in the group.
Printing
From the Linux workstations
one can send a text file or a black/white postscript file to the laserjet
printer by 'lpr File'. To send a text file or a postscript file to
the color printer, type 'lpr -P spectrum File'. For the Sun
workstation the commands are 'lp File' (black/white) and
'lp -d spectrum File' (color). One can save
paper and put several pages of text on one page by 'T2 File' (two
pages) and by 'T4 File' (four pages). Similarly four pages of
black/white postscript output can be put on one page by 'P4 File'.
Description of "Commonly Used" Programs
Editors
Graphics Programs and Packages
Radar Programs
Remote Secure Access From MS Windows
Secure Remote Shell
Shells