February 2007
Note:
This page is extremely out of date and may not be accurate.
If you question the veracity of any information in this
document, please speak with Kelley or Bill before proceeding further.
Thank You.
NAME
astron - information specific to the Berkeley Astronomy Com-
puters
SYNOPSIS
astron
DESCRIPTION
astron (Berkeley Astronomy Unix junk)
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
Our intention is to keep this html document in sync with the
man pages available by entering:
man astron
However, this is for most purposes the preferred medium to
use for help, as it is possible to index and provide links
to other documentation.
HUMAN HELP
For help, or to report problems, please e-mail:
central@astron. Mail sent there will go to both Kelley and
Bill, and one will respond soon. If you have any error mes-
sages, please include these, and also give the name of the
computer you are using (if you don't know, enter: uname
-n). For urgent problems, or for relatively simple ques-
tions, stop by our offices, 543 and 527 respectively.
OPERATING SYSTEM(s)
We are running versions Solaris 2.7, 2.8 (a.k.a. 8), and 2.9
(including the public
machine, grus). Solaris is to be considered fully supported
by central@astron: everything described in these notes is
expected to function fully, so please report all problems,
bugs, needs for new versions of software, etc.
(We also have six Intel pcs running Solaris x86. These are
intended for TAs and those who do not need to use them for
program development, and there is no guarantee that all of
the software listed below will be installed. If you have
one of these machines, talk with central@astron about what
is/isn't currently supported.)
We are beginning to support Linux workstations to some
extent ( and that extent to be expanded), but you cannot
assume that anything you buy will be supported even par-
tially: if it is not running Solaris, you MUST discuss sup-
port with Kelley first! See: man purchasing.
There is a Beowulf cluster running Linux which we do sup-
port fully, see below for more information under: AQUILA.
We do not offer any support for Macs, PCs, beyond helping
you connect them to the network. For more details about pol-
icy, see below under: LAPTOPS.
PATCHING and SYSTEM MAINTAINANCE DOWNTIME
All machines are patched at least once per month. You will
be notified of approaching patch days, usually scheduled for
a Saturday morning. During these hours the cluster, or your
particular machine, may reboot without additional warning,
or even be inaccessable for an hour or more.
If you are connecting a laptop or any machine of your own to
our network, you are expected to keep up-to-date with secu-
rity patches so as not to jeopardize the rest of us on the
network (this is part of campus policy).
LOGIN
You will have .login, .cshrc, .dtprofile, .openwin-init,
other startup files copied into your account when it is ini-
tiated. We suggest that regardless of your shell, make
modifications to your .cshrc when you need to add aliases,
setenvs, etc. All commands listed below will be executable
with the path as it is defined by default.
To be able to find all programs, libraries, and documenta-
tion, you should have the following set (in your .cshrc).
setenv OPENWINHOME /usr/openwin
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /opt/SUNWspro/lib:$OPENWINHOME/lib:\
/usr/dt/lib:/usr/local/lib
set path= ($OPENWINHOME/bin /opt/SUNWspro/bin /usr/ccs/bin \
/usr/local/bin /usr/bin /usr/ucb /usr/sbin /usr/etc \
$OPENWINHOME/bin/xview . /bin )
setenv MANPATH "/usr/man:/usr/openwin/share/man:\
/opt/SUNWspro/man:/usr/dt/man"
SYSTEM SECURITY
Security has become a major concern here, as hackers have
successfully gotten onto several of our systems in recent
years. For that reason, we have installed ssh and slogin,
which replace rlogin and telnet. Also, scp is preferred
over ftp.
PASSWORDS
Please keep a secure password, one with 6-8 characters, of
which at least two are not [a-z 0-9]. To change your pass-
word, first ssh irk, then enter:
passwd -r nisplus
If you get the message: permission denied, enter:
chkey -p
When prompted for your password, enter your old (current)
password. Then again try: passwd -r nisplus. If you still
get an error message, see central@astron - there are some-
times some problems with NIS+.
Oct. 2006: If you change your password on irk, please let
central@astro know about it so we can change your password
on the newer machines that do not use NIS+.
We recommend that if you plan to login remotely while trav-
eling, change your password before leaving, and again
immediately upon your return. Also, for security reasons,
you are prohibited from giving your password to anyone else.
We are happy to set up accounts for Department guests; con-
tact central.
GETTING STARTED ON A WORKSTATION
We have several public workstations for use by anyone in the
department in 501B, and two more in 547 for visitors, in
addition to individually owned workstations. On all of
these, you will be greeted by a banner which asks for your
username and then password. The first time you login, you
will be asked to choose either "Openwindows," or CDE (Common
Desktop Environment). we suggest CDE, as only CDE is sup-
ported under Solaris 9. If you later want to switch from
one to the other, pull down the "Options" menu and from
there choose "Session" and from there choose the windowing
system you desire. From these options you can also choose a
remote login (useful for visitors who don't have accounts
here - please don't give visitors your password!!), or com-
mand line login, which you will find useful if through some
editing mistake you render Operwindows or CDE unstartable!
CDE
If you choose CDE, beware that your .login won't be
executed, so that various things (e.g., xv, ghostview, For-
tran and cc) won't work. The solution is to merge your
.login into your .cshrc. When CDE starts, it executes your
.dtprofile, but not your .login. Your .cshrc is run when-
ever you start a new shell (most commonly, when you open a
new window). Note that .dtprofile is in Korn Shell (as
opposed to C shell, which is used for .login and .cshrc), so
we suggest you simply put all the commands from your .login
into .cshrc.
Note that the default terminal (window) under CDE is a
dtterm (which is an xterm window without the graphics, but
with the ability to run the standard editors and have a
scrollbar); it's not recognized as a terminal type by some
programs. You have to either use real xterm windows, or do:
setenv TERM xterm; stty.
OPENWINDOWS windowing system
Users needing an introduction to OpenWindows and its tools
(e.g., mailtool, file manager, clock), and the various types
of windows (e.g., shelltool, xterm, command-tool) are
referred to the "Desktop SPARC DeskSet Reference Guide" (a
manual which comes with each Sparc), and to man pages on
olwm(1), openwin(1), X(1).
The most useful documentation for OpenWindows is found in
man pages for olwm, which describe all the options available
in creating windows, and the syntax of the openwindows menu
and startup files: .openwin-menu and .openwin-init, respec-
tively.
DISK SPACE, BACKUPS
You will have been given a home directory on a relatively
small public disk shared with other users. (These disks are
used because they're attached to our primary servers and are
thus most reliable, with the least frequent and shortest
downtime.) If you need more than a couple hundred Mbytes
permanently, please talk with your PI about getting space,
and then ask central@astron to create a directory for you.
For short-term storage, /scratch will have a directory for
each regular account; files will be deleted after they are 8
days old; you will be billed for files on /scratch just like
your regular account. Please keep track of the amount of
disk space available on your home disk, and when space is
low look for files to delete or copy to archive tapes!
Also, there are currently 11 other large and extra-large
disks for scratch: /scratch1, /scratch2... /scratch11.
Here too files are deleted when 8 days old. On these disks,
create a top-level directory with your username, and put
your files here.
Most filesystems are now being backed up by a new method
that saves most disk partitions early each morning. Files
are saved for 4 weeks; to have one restored, send mail to
central@astron with the date that it was last present and
exact pathname(s). Some of the larger filesystems are NOT
backed up, so be certain that you know whether your files
are/aren't being backed up!
SHELLS
By default, your shell is the tcsh shell
/usr/local/bin/tcsh. To change to a different shell, first
look at /etc/shells to see what's available. Then, to change
to /bin/csh, for example, do the following: type: nispasswd
-s, and choose /bin/csh for your new shell.
NETWORKING and FTP
All of our workstations are networked together using
10baseT/100baseT ethernet. The unix workstations use TCP/IP
protocols and are connected directly to the internet which
allows network packets to be exchanged with millions of com-
puters all over the world. You are not permitted to unplug
the ethernet cable from any workstation without explicit
permission from Kelley or Bill (see: LAPTOPS).
SSH and SCP
To login on any of our workstations either from the outside
world (including home) or from another machine in the
department, you can only use ssh. To copy files from a
machine outside our network which is not mounting our disks,
use scp:
scp username@node:/fullpathname/file .
Note that there are different versions of ssh, scp which are
not fully compatible. We're running ssh.com's version 3.1.0
of ssh2.
ANONYMOUS FTP
We do not have a central anonymous ftp account. However, if
you want to have an anonymous ftp account set up on your
computer, contact central@astron. We do not want you to
allow writing from the outside world into your account.
This has frequently resulted in disks being used by outsid-
ers to store games!
Internet mail is a basic feature of our networking; mail can
be exchanged with any other user/node on the internet. The
mail programs which we use are mailtool or dtmail
which are icons/menu items on the workstation screens for
Openwindows and CDE respectively, and mailx or pine for ter-
minal based users. Mail is sent to addresses of the form:
user@node where user is the login name and node is of the
form machine.berkely.edu.
Note that "mail" is an alias for mailx, so if you really
want to use the bare-bones Sun mail, enter: /usr/bin/mail.
Also, if you want help on what we call "mail" (that is,
really mailx), enter: man mailx.
Our sun machines recognize a standard alias for members of
the astronomy department: InitialName@astro.berkeley.edu
(example: whoffman@astro.berkeley.edu). This type of alias
is used at many university astronomy departments in the US.
(You might test that this was set up correctly for you - if
not, or if you want additional aliases for yourself, contact
central@astron.)
Incoming mail is stored in system space on one machine so
that you can log in on any machine and read/edit your mail.
Please remember to delete large mail (or mail with large
attachments)!!
If you are away for a while, you may create a .forward file
in your home directory to forward mail to wherever:
user@node where user is your login name and node is the name
of the machine where you want your mail to go.
The IP number for astron is 128.32.178.108 If you need to
know the IP address of a particular machine, enter:
nslookup nodename
MAIL ALIASES
We have established the following mail aliases for groups
within the department. Tell central@astron if you notice
that one of these files is out of date.
everyone entire department /adm/users/mail.lis
allusers all local computer users /adm/users/mail.allusers
staff administrative staff /adm/users/mail.staff
allstaff all staff (admin & research) /adm/users/mail.allstaff
faculty faculty /adm/users/mail.faculty
research non-faculty RAL researchers /adm/users/mail.research
postdocs postdocs /adm/users/mail.postdocs
ralusers RAL faculty, staff, students /adm/users/mail.ralusers
students grad students /adm/users/mail.students
fraculty Related faculty in non-astro departments;
fr-iends of astro f-aculty /adm/users/mail.fraculty
everyone@astro == all of the above, plus undergrads, visitors, and
any interested parties from other departments: /adm/users/mail.lis
For all undergrads:
everyone@ugastro
(Undergrads also get mail sent to everyone@astro)
PACKAGES ON ALL MACHINES:
Following is a brief list of supported software. Many of
these products/programs are discussed in greater detail
below. (When searching for them, search for the name in all
uppercase.) There are also man pages for most of these; see
man command unless otherwise specified.
EDITORS
emacs (GiganticEmacs - giant editor which does everything)
mem (MicroEmacs - see /usr/local/mem/emacs-doc.tex)
vi (vi - old but good, works almost everywhere)
TEXT PROCESSING, TYPESETTING
tex, latex (typesetting languages)
pdftex, pdflatex ( same as above, but outputs directly to pdf)
xdvi (previews tex/latex output dvi files)
xwp (WordPerfect: word processing)
soffice (Sun's program to allow editing of MS word, excel, etc.)
ispell (Interactive spelling checking)
xmrolodex (fancy gui address book)
GRAPHICS, IMAGE PROCESSING/CONVERSION
xterm (vt100/tek emulating windows for OpenWindows)
xgterm (for IRAF users - emulates old gterm windows)
saoimage (image display for OpenWindows)
mongo (interactive graphics program and subroutine library)
sm (SuperMongo: like mongo, but more stuff - man sm)
pgplot (graphics subroutines)
enscript (print out ascii files on the postscript printer)
xfig (drawing pictures)
fig2dev (makes xfig pictures into PostScript files)
pageview (previews postscript files)
xv (displays and writes postscript, gif, and others)
imagetool (Sun's image-display tool)
ImageMagick (suite of image processing tools, notably: convert)
makempeg (makes mpeg movies from a series of image files)
mpeg_player (plays movies)
gv (previews postscript files)
ghostview (older previewer of postscript files)
ps2pdf (converts ps to pdf)
ps2ps (converts new/fancy ps files to ones printable/viewable here)
macps (reformat macintosh postscript files for our printer)
DATA REDUCTION PACKAGES
aips (package for radio astronomy data 15JAN96 version)
miriad (package for radio astronomy data)
idl (general purpose image processing)
iraf (package for optical data, supported by NOAO)
mathematica (available on astron only - man math)
matlab (similar to mathematica, available from all nodes)
vista (old package for optical data, no longer supported here)
TAPE, DISKETTE, FILE TRANSFER UTILITIES
copytape (dup tapes through disk)
kermit (file transfer to/from pc's)
schily (writes CDs <on phoebe, titan only>)
ftptool (gui version of ftp allows easier directory copies)
SNORKELING THE INTERNET: WWW, NEWS, etc.
netscape (various versions of netscape)
xmosaic (access documents, images, sound worldwide)
gopher (access text documents worldwide)
rn,tin,trn (new read news programs)
lynx (access the WWW from a terminal w/o image display)
MISCELLANEOUS
top (shows busiest processes on your cpu)
pine (mail program for non-workstation environment)
procmail (mail filtering program)
xlock (screen lock program; the CDE padlock doesn't work here)
perl (obtuse scripting language)
js (Java Studio is a visual java applet creation program)
other stuff (do ls /usr/local/bin to get list or try man name)
And many more. Look at /usr/local/bin to check for your
favorite commands (e.g., "less", "cgrep," etc.)
EDITORS: vi, mem, emacs
Three editors are supported: vi and mem (micro emacs) and
emacs.
COMPILERS
We presently have the SunSoft 4.2 compilers and the 4.0
Workshop tools installed. Documentation for these products
is available at Sun's website
cc (Sunsoft ansi-C compiler)
gcc (gnu C compiler)
CC (C++ compiler, we also have Tools.h++)
f77 (FORTRAN compiler)
f90 (FORTRAN 90 compiler)
If you are attempting to install a package written else-
where, you may find that errors are caused by our compiler
being a different (usually more recent) version of Fortran,
or C.
SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES
Subroutine libraries are in /usr/local/lib Libraries
include:
Numerical Recipes (version 2) routines are available as
source code in /usr/local/nr and /usr/local/nr2, and as com-
piled libraries.
librecipes2f.a, librecipes2c.a, librecipes2ckr.a
(libraries).
Compile as:
f77 -o prog prog.f -lrecipes2f
cc -o prog prog.c -lrecipes2c
The source code can be found in sub-directories of
/usr/local/nr
nag library (compile as for recipes, but with -lnag). Docu-
mentation and examples are to be found in a set of books in
the computer room and at /usr/local/nag.
pgplot libpgplot.a (pgplot plotting package). See below.
mongo libmongo.a (mongo plotting package). See below.
LINKING PROGRAMS
The most frequent cause of programs not linking, or not
finding a given subroutine library when running is that
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is undefined.
You should find the following critical definitions in your
.cshrc. If programs don't run, check to see how these
environment variables are set, e.g.,
env | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If you delete or copy over one of the startup files (e.g.,
.login, .cshrc), you can get a fresh copy from
/usr/local/adm/skel
POSTERS
The "poster" printer makes color posters of up to 35" x 47".
For instructions on how to make PostScript files which it
can deal with, see:
/usr/local/posters/using-poster-printer.txt
/usr/local/posters/enlarge.txt
/usr/local/posters/powerpoint.txt
Once your file is ready print:
lp -d poster filename.ps
It takes about 15-20 minutes to ship the data to the
printer, and another 45 minutes to print! If it becomes
immediately apparent that it's not printing correctly, you
can hit the cancel button on the printer. Again, do not
attempt to insert new paper, or do any servicing for the
printer: call Kelley or Bill!
For more information, see: Making Posters.
IMAGE FORMATS, CONVERSION
To convert images from one format to another, try: convert
(see man convert for a list of formats). You can also
display the image in imagetool or xv and write it out in
various other formats.
To convert from pdf to ps, use acroread or pdf2ps.
To go from ps to pdf: ps2pdf
IRK, PUCK, GRUS, TITAN, SATURN and
irk and puck are two of our primary servers, located in the
basement. You can use these for lighter tasks. grus,
titan, saturn and phoebe are Sun SPARCstations located in
the computer room. All are available for use by anyone with
a Unix account. Users wishing to write CDs are given prior-
ity on phoebe and titan, the only nodes from which CDs may
be written. (Due to the fragility of the CD-writing process,
CD makers must have exclusive access to those workstations).
If you are using a public workstation, please do not lock
the screen! If you are going away for more than 10 minutes,
logout.
There are approximately 140 other workstations in the
department, but these are privately owned and can only be
used with the permission of the owner.
TAPE DRIVES
There are currently several public tape drives: the exabytes
and DATS and DLT 8000 on titan and saturn.
To write a tar tape: load the tape. Then cd to the directory
which you wish to backup (you will get all sub-directories
under this point). Enter:
tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 .
To read a tape:
tar xvf /dev/rmt/0
Append 'n' to the end of drive names for "norewind" if you
plan on appending to a tape, or reading more than one file.
Details on using the DLT drive
CDROM
To use the CDROM on any machine which has one, eject any
cdrom already present by: eject cdrom. Then put in your CD
drive in your workstation, and the CD will be automatically
mounted, with the contents in /cdrom/cdrom0. Note: before
ejecting your CD, cd to a directory outside of /cdrom, oth-
erwise eject won't work.
To use the CDROM within IRAF, enter stsdas; gasp; cdrom.
To use a CDROM for listening to music, insert the CD, and
wait a few seconds for workman to pop up a GUI. If workman
doesn't start, you can simply enter: workman &
Use the eject button on workman's window to eject the CD.
(See man workman)
CDROM WRITING
For information about writing a CD using the hardware
attached to the workstations titan and phoebe (in room 501B),
see: Details writing CDs
FLOPPY DISKS
Most of the SPARCstations have floppy drives built-in, how-
ever they break frequently. If the following doesn't work
for you, try again on a machine known to have a working
floppy drive.
Insert the floppy. Then enter: volcheck This alerts the
system that a floppy disk is present. Now you should be able
to see the contents of the disk under /floppy or
/floppy/floppy0.
As with CDs, you must cd out of the /floppy directory struc-
ture before you can eject. The command is: eject floppy
For help on converting DOS disks, see: man dos2unix.
MONGO
Mongo is a simple graphics program which can be run interac-
tively (enter: mongo) or used as a subroutine library. This
version of mongo supports X11 (openwindows). The terminal
type to use is 7.
To create a postscript file, use printer 1 or 2 (correspond-
ing to 5 and 6, landscape and portrait mode).
To compile a program and link to the MONGO library, enter
the following:
f77 -o program program.f -I/usr/openwin/include -lmongo
-lX11
A copy of the MONGO manual is kept in the computer room.
SuperMongo (a.k.a. sm)
This is a mongo lookalike program that adds column arith-
metic, fancy macros, and lots of devices to the standard
mongo commands. It doesn't seem to have greyscale or
hr:min:sec labels. To run it, copy the startup file to your
home directory: cp /usr/local/adm/skel/.sm .sm and then
invoke sm by typing sm. See .I man sm for more information,
and/or see the manual in 501B. Copies of the manual are
available from Central.
For hardcopies, use device postscript, postport, or post-
land. To save files as encapsulated postscript, use
postscripte, postporte, or postlande. For color hardcopies,
use post_color.
PGPLOT
pgplot is a set of graphics subroutines. to link, do some-
thing like:
f77 -o prog prog.f -lpgplot -lX11 -lnsl -lsocket
If your program is in C, then instead:
gcc -O -c prog.c
and then link with f77:
f77 -o prog prog.o -lcpgplot -lpgplot -lX11 -lnsl -lsocket
MATHEMATICA
Available from node astron only. And recently, the Xwindow
version only works from openwindows. Enter: math for the
terminal version or enter: mathematica for the Xwindow ver-
sion.
MATLAB
MATLAB is accessible from every machine. This package is
basically a rival to MATHEMATICA without the MAPLE symbolic
algebra package. UCB has a site license for MATLAB so it
can be run from all unix machines.
IDL
Current versions are 6.1/6.2. Now available from any node. Intro-
duction, user guide and manual are available in the computer
room. There are 50 floating network licenses so you should
always be able to get a license. Setup information and tutorials
IRAF
To use IRAF for the first time: Create a subdirectory for
IRAF stuff (image header files will go here): mkdir iraf;
cd iraf
Create IRAF startup files using the command mkiraf.
You may want to edit your .openwin-init or .openwin-menu
files so you will have an xgterm or xterm window (for both
text and graphics) and saoimage for image display. Look at
the versions of these files in the iraf account; specifi-
cally, look at how gterm and imtool are added to the
To run IRAF, enter cl to start the IRAF command language.
The following IRAF add-on packages are also available from
iraf: stsdas, tables, rv0, xray (PROS), daophot (from digi-
phot), and a bunch more... If you need a new package, con-
tact Central.
AIPS
See central@astron if you want to run Aips.
TEX and LATEX
For help getting started with TeX or LaTeX, see manuals in
the computer room, and/or ask Central for a copy of
"First Grade TeX."
To run TeX, enter tex filename
To print the resulting output file, enter dvipr filename.dvi
To print in 'landscape' mode (sideways), enter:
dvips -t landscape filename.dvi | lp
Or, you can use \special{landscape} in your tex file.
To include PostScript figures in your tex or latex file, you
have several options which all work equally well (i.e., you
have to fudge a bit). One option is to use psfig (for either
tex or latex): Documentation on how to use psfig is in:
/apps/teTeX/share/texmf/tex/astro/epsf.tex Another option is
to use epsf. Documentation on how to use epsf is in:
/apps/teTeX/share/texmf/tex/astro/epsf.tex
You must use encapulated postscript files (EPSF), as pro-
duced by supermongo with device postlande, postporte, and
post_colore. EPSF files have a line near the top with the
word: BoundingBox followed by four arguments: llx lly urx
ury (ll=lower left, ur=upper right) which specify the dimen-
sions of a box which enclose all the marks on the PostScript
page. Thus, if the bottom 25% of the figure is white space,
increase the value of lly by .25 * (ury - lly) to trim off
the entire margin.
LATEX
Use LaTeX like TeX, i.e., to process a latex file, enter:
latex filename
and preview and print as above for TeX.
We have installed LaTeX2e, which will process both original
LaTeX and LaTeX2e files. We have also installed metafont,
and its front end MakeTeXPK to generate fonts at odd magnif-
ications. When you run dvips or xdvi, they will automati-
cally run MakeTeXPK to generate any fonts which are not
found in the standard directories.
XDVI
xdvi previewer for dvi files (the output of tex/latex). Use:
xdvi filename
A useful alias for xdvi is: alias xdvi 'xdvi -s 3'
GV, GHOSTVIEW, GHOSTSCRIPT
gv is the recommended tool for viewing postscript files. gv
filename.ps
WordPerfect
To use WordPerfect, add:
alias wp '/usr/local/wp/wpbin/xwp&'
to your .cshrc, and then start it by entering: wp (while
running openwindows or CDE).
STAROFFICE, DEJAVU and MICROSOFT WORD files
There are two ways to read MS files: sofffice and dejaVu.
We prefer soffice, as it also allows you to read ms-excel
spreadsheets, make drawings, and you can print from it.
For soffice (a.k.a., StarOffice), enter: soffice filename
The first time you use it, soffice will ask you questions to
help it set up an area to store its files.
We now also have StarOffice version 6.0 for your use. To set
it up and run it, do the following:
1) /apps1/staroffice6.0/setup
2) when it asks, pick the Workstation Install option
3) after it is finished, you run it with the command:
/apps1/staroffice6.0/program/soffice
It is quite a different look than version 5.2. And a lot
quicker. Star Office 5.2 will still work, this does not
replace it...it is a separate installation.
For dejaVu, you must first add /opt/SUNWdtpcv/lib to your
LD_LIBRARY_PATH. (which is set in one or more of your
.cshrc, .login, .dtprofile). After adding it, source that
file.
Once it's there, enter: dejaVu filename, then select all or
part of the file (you can use "select all" from the Edit
menu), then from the Edit menu, choose "copy." Now the file
is in your cut/paste buffer and can be pasted anywhere. If
dejaVu fails, do: ls /opt/SUNWdtpcv and if you see nothing,
ask central@astron to mount it on your machine.
SCANNER
The scanner is attached to a PC in room 501B. To use it, you
must get a (free) account on the PC - ask central@astron to
set it up, and to show you how to use the scanner (which is
fairly simple and straightforward).
LIBRARY SEARCHES, FINDING AND READING ABSTRACTS
You can access the campus library computer systems:
melvyl
and gladis
through the web.
xsimbad and xads are also available. To run xsimbad (an x
front-end to simbad), you must have a simbad account and
password. Send e-mail to question@simbad.u-strasbg.fr if
you're interested.
INTERNET SURFING, SNORKELING, DIVING and DROWNING
To access internet newsgroups, you can use netscape, or the
older tin, trn or rn. Each have advantages and disadvan-
tages. Both trn and tin thread the news for you, enabling a
quick perusal by subject line.
To access WWW pages, use netscape or xmosaic. Netscape is
updated frequently, and is generally preferred. Users
without workstations may use lynx to browse through the WWW.
lynx does everything but load pictures and sounds. We don't
have man pages for xmosaic or netscape, but they've got
their own internal help files and pages.
The Astronomy Department's home page is at:
http://astro.berkeley.edu/
To create your own home page, see:
Creating your Astronomy Department website
The Department's homepage is maintained primarily by a team
of grad students. To have a link added to your home page,
or to suggest additions or modifications, send e-mail to:
webmaster@astron.
To alter the way that netscape processes various image,
movie, sound, PostScript files automatically, copy:
/usr/local/adm/skel/.mailcap
to your home directory, and then edit it.
To convert mosaic's bookmarks to netscape's, exit netscape
and then enter: hot-convert.sh
To print from netscape, especially pdf and postscript files,
you're best off using lp -d p544. The other printers have
older postscript interpreters and frequently do nothing when
asked to print from netscape.
GNU SOFTWARE
Some gnu software is installed in /usr/local/bin where you
can access it directly (e.g., gzip, gunzip; useful in con-
junction with gopher). Other programs have not been copied
due to lack of space in /usr, and to less than universal
interest.
SUN DOCUMENTATION
For information beyond what is in the man pages, see Sun's
Answerbook, which includes most of their current manuals and
user guides. CDE users can simply choose from the "?
bookshelf" sub-menu in their menu bar. All users can go to:
Sunsolve
and: Sun Documentation.
AQUILA: a BEOWULF CLUSTER
Two professors, Marc Davis and Martin White have assembled a
Beowulf cluster: a number of interconnected nodes which
function as a relatively low-cost supercomputer. This clus-
ter, named aquila, requires a seperate account from your
general astronomy account, and must be first approved by
Davis or White. (Another possibility for users is to "buy
into" the cluster by purchasing additional node(s), this may
be discussed with Davis, White, and Kelley.)
aquila is running Suse Linux.
See: aquila documentation.
LAPTOPS
Many members of the Department own laptop computers. We
(central) do NOT maintain these, other than to help you
connect them to the internet when in Campbell Hall. If you
need help with your laptop, you may either seek help infor-
mally from students, postdocs, faculty, or purchase a sup-
port contract (see Sandy Bowne).
For information about connecting your laptop to the net, see
laptops.
Very important notes on connecting laptops: You are NOT per-
mitted to disconnect any workstation's ethernet cable in the
department to connect your laptop!! (Even if no one is
logged-in on the workstation, there may be users relying on
that machine's disks.) You may use the one public ethernet
cable in 501B (on the cutting board). Its IP address, the
gateway, netmask, and nameserver are written on a label on
the cutting board. For something more permanent, see Kelley
for information about obtaining an IP address, and the pos-
sible need to have a new port connected in your office.
COMPUTING FROM HOME
UC Berkeley offers some resources for home computing. Your
first stop should be the Computing and Communications web site.
From here, we suggest you follow the link For all new users
or you can go directly to links to _The Scholar's Worksta-
tion_, which sells Macs, PCs, and peripherals; you can set
up a UC e-mail address (at uclink, independent of the
Astronomy department), gain Internet access from _Berkeley
Internet Link_, and there too you can learn about "CalNet"
(see below). From _Berkeley Internet Link_ follow a link to:
Home IP
which will lead you through steps to establishing connec-
tions to UCB computing from home. In addition to these
instructions, you will need an up-to-date version of SSH
Secure Shell software to connect to you Astronomy Department
account. You can get free versions from SSH,
or from OpenSSH.
Back at the Computing and Communications site, you'll find
links to _Letters & Sciences Computer Resources_, the group
which can be paid to maintain your laptop.
You'll also find links to text of the
University's e-mail policy
and UCB campus's computer use policies.
Remember that when your Astronomy account was established,
you signed an agreement to abide by these policies!
CALNET
CalNet is a means for authenticating you as being who you
are so you can access both UC services and maintain your
Health Plan, Retirement Plan etc. CalNet also has directory
information for UC employees, and provides a means for the
campus to send mail to all personnel. To establish your
CalNet ID, have your employee ID ready and go to the
CalNet site. The second step of
authoriztion will be to go to our local CalNet deputy, Kel-
ley McDonald.
SEE ALSO
For information on buying and maintaining computers, see
Purchasing.
For information on our computing policies, including a list-
ing of computing charges, see Policy.
The following books are available in the computer room (501B
Campbell):
Unix for the Impatient
Sun SPARCworks documentation set
NAG Fortran Library manuals
Numerical Recipes 2nd Edition
IDL User Guide and Reference Manual
IRAF User Handbooks
MONGO Manual
PGPLOT Manual
Mathematica
AIPS Cookbook
Practical C Programming
GNU Emacs Unix Text Editing and
GNU Emacs Manual
A Beginnner's Book of TeX
TeX for the Impatient
The TeXBook
LaTeX User's Guide and Reference Manual
sed and awk
CONVERTING THESE PAGES TO HTML
(This is a reminder for those maintaining this documenta-
tion!)
To convert these (or any) man pages to html:
man astron | man2html -sun > astron-man.html
Then login to astron and move the file to:
/www/docs/astron-man.html
Man(1) output converted with man2html