just type @file.batch
Carleton Astronet Admin Log
just type @file.batch
Drew Brisbin gently and helpfully reminded me (Joel) of these three helpful ways of getting online documentation help.
It is useful to remember these three commands to help you find your way in IDL:
1. help, VARIABLE
this will tell you stuff about the variable (is it a string? float? double? is it an array? how big is it?)
So when you did “help, point_lun ” it was trying to find a variable named point_lun. When it didn’t find one, it told you it was undefined.
2. ? IDLCOMMAND
When you hit ? [return] it opens up the IDL help browser. If you stick an IDL command you’re curious about after the ?-mark, it searches for that in the help browser. Very useful for figuring out how to use commands.
3. doc_library, ‘USERCOMMAND’
(remember to use single quotes around USERCOMMAND)
if you’re using a user-defined command (such as readcol, for instance), there wont be any help info in the built in help browser. So instead of using the ?-mark, you have to use doc_library. If the author of the command was courteous enough to include help-like information, it will be displayed when you type this.
Also see Sep 15 post below entitled: IDL path; IDL help; unix inside IDL
There is a faily brain-dead unix utilitiy for differencing two files:
diff file1 file2
There is a lovely graphical version on linux called kompare. i highly recommend it (jmw).
Its output can be exported as text to send to distant colleagues. Furthermore the following diff command gives similar (text) output – much to be preferred to raw diff:
diff -U 3 -dHrN — file1 file2
(the 3 means it places 3 lines of context around the change to help you visualize it)
–Joel
Thuban as the server, is more sensitive to rebooting than other machines. Therefore do not reboot thuban unless absolutely necessary.
If it is rebooted, be sure that it has exported all the shared disks for use on other astro net clients. To check that this has successfully happened, log in to another desktop and try cd-ing to various shared disks like /data/psrdata and /docs and so on. If thuban has NOT mounted these disks for sharing, then James Fuller says to enter the following command on thuban:
(as root):# /usr/sbin/exportfs -a
–Joel
OUT OF DATE as of 2008-11-01.
xfig, a figure drawing program, is now installed at /usr/share/astro . The executable is called xfig. The Imakefile I used to compile and install this program can be found a /etc/secret/Imakefile.xfig
If this ever needs to be compiled again, download the source and follow the directions to compile located in the README, using my Imakefile
As of this post date, arcturus is now a functioning workstation in the Astro network (no longer has any trace of being a server).
As of this post date 2007, the Astro network syncs thuban’s sudoers file to the other workstations, just as it does with user accounts. Please contact fullerj with any problems regarding sudo.
This is an entry to explain how IDL 6.4 was installed.
First we received an email telling us to upgrade our licensing to IDL 6.4. We followed the website instructions to upgrade our 3 licenses from 6.3 to 6.4. The newly upgraded license files were then emailed to Joel who forwarded them onto me(Josh).
I downloaded the tar file from the ITT website through Joel’s login.
I then went to /usr/local and created a directory called itt. I unpacked the 6.4 software in this directory using the command: tar -xvzf idl_linux.x86.tar.gz
Next, run the install binary by typing ./install if you are in the ITT directory or /usr/local/itt/install if you need the absolute path. You will be prompted a few times, just hit yes to install the software and yes to create the symbolic links. Ignore the web server questions just by hitting enter. IDL 6.4 is now installed.
However, in order to use the software, you must now do the licensing correctly.
I placed a copy of all 3 licenses in one flat file in /etc/secret/license.txt.
Copy license.txt and edit it so that the license for the machine you are installing to is the only entry in the file. Then rename the file license.dat.
Move this file to /usr/local/itt/license/
Then restart the license manager on the machine by typing:
/usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmdown
followed by:
/usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat
This will then restart the license manager with the new license for IDL 6.4
Now, make sure the license manager is starting at boot time. To do this, simply look in /etc/rc.d/rc.local.
If this command is not there, add it to the end of the rc.local script: /usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat
Added by JMW 07/2007: Note that idl without the goddard routines is like a fish without a bicycle. As of July 2007, they must be manually copied on all three computers from the old idl’s lib directory to the new idls lib directory. crude! (See goddard libe entry below for more details, but basically root has to do a cp -r.)
Finally test and finish.
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The final step is to make sure you have overwritten any environment variables you have set up in your .tcshrc or .cshrc.
To do this, look in your .cshrc and if you have the line:
source /usr/local/rsi/idl_6.3/bin/idl_setup
Make sure you change it to:
source /usr/local/itt/idl/bin/idl_setup
(Joel supplied the above July 29, 2007. note that rsi->itt and idl_6.3->idl (assuming idl dir is linked to idl64 and future ones) )
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OUT OF DATE as of 2008-11-01.
Here is how to set the path or add to the path for all users when they log in. The procedure depends on whether the users’ shell is tcsh (usual case) or bash. (To determine if your shell is tcsh, type ‘printenv SHELL’.)
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TCSH:
For tcsh users, the file to modify is /etc/csh.login. (Also note that other startup conditions can be set for all users in /etc/csh.cshrc). To add an environment variable simply type
setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/java/1.3.1
To append to the Path in say YOUR OWN .cshrc, type:
setenv PATH “${PATH}:/path/to/be/added”
(This will append your new desired path to the path set for everyone in /etc/csh.login)
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BASH:
For users that like bashrc, you can modify /etc/bashrc to add the necessary path or variable. To add a variable, for instance java’s home directory, simply type
export JAVA_HOME=”/usr/java/jdk1.3.1″
If you wanted to add an extra path to sys set up path in YOUR OWN bashrc, type:
export PATH=$PATH:path/to/be/added
this nice simple plot program is at /usr/share/astro/sm
if you put /usr/share/astro in your path, all you have to do is type sm
list device tells you what graphics devices are set up. i recommend x11 or postscript, for screen or paper, respectively.