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Computing Resources

Domains, Servers and Applications

The Electrical and Information Engineering department is divided into a number of computer domains:

•  ee.usyd.edu.au main research/staff network
• eelab.usyd.edu.au main undergraduate domain with staff and postgraduate access
   

email adressess are of the form username@ee.usyd.edu.au

The department runs a mix of unix workstation (Sun), X-terminals, PC's and various postscript printers.

The main machine is a Sparcserver 1000 with 2 CPU's 128MB RAM and 13GB of disk space. It is the master DNS, NIS, WWW and email server.
It can be used by all users but there are restriction on some jobs that are memory intensive or long computational.
See later sections on rules.
It currently runs Solaris 2.8/9 Most of the groups run their own Sparcstation 5's, 10's or 20's which provide the computational grunt for postgraduate work.

Some groups have a number of older Sparcstation 2's, IPX's and IPC's. Most groups provide their own disk space without quotas.

Groups also provide X-terminals or PC's on their postgraduates desk. Postgraduate students (Research) should ask their supervisors reguarding their computer and computing needs.

The eelab domain also provides resources for postgraduates with 100+ Linux boxes, 2xSun systems, 6+ PostScript printers and a range of Linux, Sun and PC software.
The eelab domain is used to support undergraduate teaching so may not be fully available at all times. The unix operating systems are a mix of Solaris 2.4/2.5 and SunOS4.1.x.
We are moving all main machines to Solaris as time and resources permit.

Support personnel

The people responsible for the various domains are:

• David Brown (daveb J13-412- 1x2247)
• Rodica Popp (rhody J13-412 1x6575)
• Wesley Wu (wesley J13-412 1x7222)
• Michael Zhou (zhou J13-412 1x6304)
• Michael Rados (miker J03-305 1x2633 1x2798)

There are a number of other support staff.

• Dhruba Roy (dhruba J13-421 1x3911) Undergrad Lab

Accounts in EIE Domain

This is the main domain and all staff and postgrads have accounts here.
Postgraduates' supervisors are responsible for sending email to the system administrators to get them authorised.

Postgraduates who show up and ask for accounts will be told to get their supervisor to fill in the form.
Staff and postgraduates should print out the form that can be found on cassius at account-form and follow the instructions written in the form
Please read the Conditions of Use of Computing Facilities.

Problems

email helpdesk with the following data

• Urgency
• Problem:
• Occurred on Host(s):
• Command(s) used:
• Directory:
• Data File(s):
• Error Messages:
• Room:
• Date:
• Time:

Email is the preferred contact method. Phone only if mail won't work or the computer is on fire. Or on cassius type problem which will prompt for the above information.

Solving problems for Yourself

The unix documention is available by the man command.
You can use the UNIXhelp tutorial online now.

Try typing man man If you don't know what command you want, supply a keyword
man -k some-key-word | more

If you don't know where to find something use the locate (Solaris) command.
locate somefilename

You may wish to pipe the output through grep or more as there can be lots of references to your keyword.
Be aware that there are different versions of the same command. e.g. mail can be found in /usr/bin (System 5) or /usr/ucb (BSD).
Similarly for commands like ls or ps. They perform the same basic function but the output and options may differ. On cassius both versions are available and the default path place /usr/ucb before /usr/bin.
The following books make good references:

• The C programming Language 2nd Edition

  Kernighan B. & Ritchie D.

• The Unix C shell Field Guide

  Anderson G. & Anderson P.

• The AWK programming Language

  Aho A., Kernighan B. & Weinberger P.

An extensive range of books on Unix and associated utilities by O'Reilly & Associates Inc - The Nutshell Handbook Series are very good. Unfortunately we do NOT have any books available for lending.

Login Procedure

On cassius and all other sun workstations the login procedure has been modified and has been for several months or more. Check your unix shell location. It should begin with /lbin

cassius> ypcat passwd | grep tony

tonym:vg0ekB3sdDe4:104:100:Tony Maher,J03 705,x12843:/home/tonym:/lbin/csh

If it doesn't then email helpdesk. You have a choice of shells:

• sh (Bourne shell) - the original unix shell - mostly used for system admin programming.
• csh (C-shell) - is standard for most people in EIE.
• tcsh - (improved C-shell) with command line editing via arrow keys
• ksh (Korn shell) - improved Bourne shell

(NB all the files located in /lbin are the SAME file (program) that is refered to by different names. It is a program used to run a standard setup procedure which then calls the appropriate "real" shell based on the name by which it was called)

The login procedure /lbin/(someshell) executes the following in order:

1. /etc/shell/profile (which internally calls /etc/shell/environment)
2. the real shell which is located in /usr/bin or /local/bin the real shell then runs its appropriate dot file
   • sh -> .profile
   • csh -> .cshrc
   • tcsh -> .tcshrc (or .cshrc)
   • ksh -> .profile
3. for csh (and tcsh) .login is also run (.login is only ever run at login)

The system defined /etc/shell/profile was created so you DON'T have to define paths libraries manpaths etc.
Also if something changes location on the system we modify /etc/shell/profile so you don't have to do anything.
So it is suggested you don't remap paths in your .cshrc (or whatever the appropriate dot file is for your shell) or .login.
You can look at the default dot files (/etc/skel) to see what sort of things are set. They make a reasonably sane set of configuration files you may wish to copy.
First make sure you copy your own dot files to another name. You may wish to refer back to them. We won't recover them from backup tapes if you overwrite them!!!! If you do need to remap your path it is suggested that you just append or prepend the additional elements to the system path. e.g. set path=(/some/where/bin $path) Other dot files:

• .Xdefaults - configures basic X environment
• .xsession - configures the X windows when log into an X-terminal or Sun that has XDM running (you see a box in middle of screen that says login and passwd.
• .xinitrc - configures X windows when you run startx on a sun console
• .rhosts - list of hostnames that you trust. It allows you to rsh or rlogin to these machines without providing a password.
• .mwmrc - configures the look and feel of the motif window manager similarly .twmrc for twm
• .mailrc - configure (you guessed it) the mail
• .pinerc - configure pine mail reader
• .aliases - has to be explicitly sourced by your shells dot file. I source it from my .cshrc It defines some nice aliases to reduce typing.
• .newsrc - configures the news
• .logout - csh only. runs when you log out so you can add cleanup commands
• .plan .project - provides info to people who finger you

General Policies

The only machines available to all members of staff and postgraduates are cassius and cocka2. All other machines belong to individuals or groups and are not to be used without asking first.

The various groups have specialised software that is only available to group members but you may be able to get permission to use it. Ask first.

We are in a transition period moving from SunOS 4.1.x to Solaris 2.4/2.5 which causes some inconsistencies. The basic disk space allocation is 20MB if your home directory resides on cassius. Most groups have their own disks which do not enforce disk quotas.
The network is moving to a switched ethernet based on 3 hubs in J03. In J13 the network remains thin ethernet and repeaters.
Report suspected problems with ethernet to ITU.

Do NOT add/remove or otherwise modify any of the ethernet network. Consult ITU.
All PC's should have, at the minimum, the capability to telnet/ftp onto the network. If you buy a PC and install an ethernet card, in order to get an IP address we require the following information:

• Hardware - PC-Direct Pentium 75
• OS - Windows 3.11
• ethernet - 00:00:C0:AF:43:6E
• Build/room - J03-705

See ITU for installation.

Some PC's are running freeBSD or linux. EIE domain will only support freeBSD.
PC's are a nightmare to support. We recommend X-terminals rather than PC's (especially if they are going to run BSD just to obtain X-windows).
Color X-terminals cost between 2k-6k depending on screen size and performance A reasonable choice would be a NCD 17" Explora Pro at $2800.

Policies on long computational and memory intensive jobs.

In order to get best and fairest uses of limited computer resources there are a number of policies regarding computer use in force. These policies refer primarily to the use of the main departmental server cassius but form good guidelines for the group servers as well. The difference being that the group servers don't limit the amount of memory consumed by jobs.

Carrot - everyone gets fair access to resources.
Interactive jobs (vi mail etc) will run quicker without those annoying delays. Long running batch jobs will take only 0% to 50% longer (typically they will only take 5% longer), it depends on the interactive load.

Stick - any long running computational job which is not running at an appropriate "nice" (see later for description) level will be killed.

These rules will cost you basically nothing but improve computer response for everyone. We do not use system configuration to enforce limits (apart from disk quotas on cassius). The system relies on you following guidelines.

This allows flexibility but if you continually ignore the rules you will find your account suspended. On cassius there is a 20MB limit on system memory (RAM+swap) during business hours. This limit may be removed as cassius gets upgraded.
For long computational jobs on any UNIX machine but especially cassius please observe the following rules. (It makes sense to follow these guidelines even if you have your own machine!!

If nothing else is running then the niced process will get all the CPU time, whatever the nice value, and this is what typically happens at night.

If you run more than one batch job, you can use different values (in the ranges suggested) so that one of your jobs will get completed faster than the others.
Note: the nice command comes in two flavours with an important difference that in one case the nice value is negative and the other it is positive.

In csh nice +15 run_job (csh has a built-in nice command)
In sh,ksh /usr/bin/nice -15 run_job

If you forget to nice your program at the start then use /usr/ucb/ps -uxw to get the process id and issue /usr/ucb/renice command.
On some machines you can run top to see running processes. You can use top to renice your process.
Do NOT leave top running as it just wastes CPU cycles.

Mail

There are a number of ways to read mail in ee.
Cassius is the mail server for the department (ee) and everyone has accounts here. Some individuals can be mailed directly to their accounts in the other domains (speech sedal eelab).
The domain ee maintains aliases to people who read their mail in one of the other domains (as requested by the individual concerned). You can use mail on PC's.
The mail readers currently being used include minuet and eudora. On the unix boxes most people use xmailtool (a X front end to standard unix mail), pine (ascii based) or the generic standard mail (mailx == /usr/ucb/mail).

If you use EIE domain for handling your mail then the mail should be read on cassius to ensure greatest reliability.
If you use xmailtool define the alias as follows

alias xmailtool "rx cassius xmailtool -fn 10x20 -color"

The PC based readers transfer from cassius using either smtp or pop protocols. In this case the mail messages are stored on your PC. (pop2 and pop3 supported) from /etc/services the port assignments are 109/110 services:pop-2 109/tcp # Post Office
services:pop3 110/tcp postoffice # Post Office

Please do not keep mail spooled in /var/mail
Create a subdirectory mail in your home directory and store the mail there. See /etc/skel/.mailrc to see how to define mailx to do this.

One idea is to keep mail sorted into folders based on the username of who originated the mail or project. Keep current messages in ~/mail/mbox

Xmailtool provides a nice front end to handling mail. However if you don't have an X display then pine makes a good news reader. Not all mail readers are mime compliant or handle all encodings.

Pine is mime compliant and gives a psuedo-graphical display suitable for vt100 style screens and is driven by single key strokes and arrow keys.
+ When it first starts up it asks if you want instructions.
+ Answer yes and latest instructions will be sent to you via mail from the program's originators automatically.

If you want to use the basic mail facility then the following a short summmary of the most useful commands.

mailx or /usr/ucb/mail (as opposed to /usr/bin/mail)
mail read new mail spooled in /var/mail
mail -f read old mail in your mailbox typically ~/mail/mbox
mail -f +fname read mail in file fname in your mail directory typ. ~/mail/fname
mail -f fname read mail from file fname
s +fname save curent mail in file fname in your mail directory typ. ~/mail/fname
d delete current mail message
d 1-8 delete message 1 to 8
u undelete last message deleted
u 1-5 undelete message 1 to 5
q quit - abnormal mode of exiting
x eXit - exit with out changing anything i.e. mail remains in the state when it was opened.
~v when sending mail drop into visual edit mode (vi but depends on environment variable VISUAL)
~m include the current message into the mail you are composing
~m 2 include message 2 into the composing mail message
~r filename read in from filename into the mail message

To send a file via mail directly mail -s"subject line" username@domain

Available Software - Brief listFramemaker - A WYSIWYG document processor.5 licences

• latex
• gcc, g++
• X11r6
• gv - ghostview - X based Postscript previewer
• netscape
• matlab (network licences as available. There is no guarantee that any licences will be available!!!)
• X11r6
• Motif
• xv - Image viewer filtering
• We run MIT X windows.

Sun Openwindows is NOT supported.
The window manger of choice is mwm and Motif is the supported X library. There is no cc, use gcc.

There is a single licence for cc that is reserved for system administration purposes only.

There is a single Fortran licence and C++ licence. Due to problems with the licence manager they are not generally available but there is public domain (g++ and f2c) available. The various groups have specialised software that is only available to group members but you may be able to get permission to use it but ask first.

File Transfer Program

cassius> ftp hostname
ftp> ?

Commands may be abbreviated.

- Some of the more useful commands are (and how to get them)

ftp> help cd
cd change remote working directory

- Similarly can obtain the following info.

cd - change remote working directory
lcd - change local working directory
pwd - print working directory on remote machine
mkdir - make directory on the remote machine
ls - list contents of remote directory short form
dir - list contents of remote directory long form
mls - nlist contents of multiple remote directories
mdir - list contents of multiple remote directories
get - receive file
mget - get multiple files
put - send one file
send - send one file
mput - send multiple files
binary set binary transfer type
ascii - set ascii transfer type
hash - toggle printing `#' for each buffer transferred prompt toggle interactive prompting on multiple commands
status - show current status
verbose - toggle verbose mode
quit - terminate ftp session and
exit - filename in following example can contain directory and sub-dir

Remember to get binary files in bin mode.

Telnet

This program is used on PC's to create VT100 style window to allow login to remote (unix) boxes via the ethernet.
The packages in general use are NCSA or CUTCP (a development of NCSA) and are located usually in C:\cutcp C:\telnet C:\ncsa C:\ee\cutcp etc etc.

This package also provides ftp program for PC's.
You can have multiple sessions to different or same machine. While it is running (depending on configuration setup) you can ftp to your PC and transfer files)
There is a main configuration file config.tel which defines parameters . The important thing is to set myip=bootp # cassius will then provide an IP number

Mail helpdesk for help to sort this out. There are security risks with using this package if it is not set up correctly.
Once it is configured you simply type telnet machinename.domain
PC> telnet cassius
PC> telnet vax.eng.usyd.edu.au

There are meta key sequences; for NCSA they are the following

Alt-A add a session
Alt-Y Interrupt Process
Alt-N next session
Alt-O Abort Output
Alt-M message screen
Alt-Q Are you there?
Alt-E escape to DOS shell
Alt-U Erase line
Alt-G graphics menu
Alt-K Erase Character
Alt-C toggle capture on/off
Alt-X close connection
Alt-R reset VT102 screen
HOME exit graphics mode
Alt-H this help screen
Ctrl-HOME clear/enter graphics mode
ScrLock pause/restart screen (DO NOT use Ctrl-NumLock)
ScrLock enter/exit scroll-back mode
Alt-T start file transfer as if typed: ftp [internet address]
Alt-I send my internet address to host as if typed
Alt-S skip scrolling, jump ahead
Alt-P change a parameter, one of: color, capture file name, backspace, session name, screen mode
Alt-F3 abort program completely.
STRONGLY discouraged Alt-W send internal FTP password
ALT-L last (previous) session
ALT-D Dump screen to the Capture file

Press ESC for information page,
space bar to return to session:
news rn or trn are available.

We spool news articles on cassius.

WWW Access - Netscape

On cassius just type netscape

EIE homepage is http://www.ee.usyd.edu.au/ & http://www.eelab.usyd.edu.au/
Uni http://www.usyd.edu.au/

Under options "Window and Links Styles" subpage is where you can define
your desired homepage.
The "Proxies" subpage should be set to: http://www.usyd.edu.au/proxy.pac for automatic configuration in Internet Options for 4.0 and above versions of IE or Netscape or manual as follows for older versions of the browsers:

Add bookmarks allows you to keep a book mark for an interesting site. The program has a GUI and its use is fairly self-explanatory. Just play and see.

Editors

•  Standard unix editors - ed, ex, vi

• added unix - emacs, jove, pico

• Xbased editors - edit, axe, sam

• imaker (framemaker)

  This is the WYSIWYG document processor. We have only 5 licences (hopefully we will get more) To start on cassius type imaker. There is on-line help. 

   

Some Useful Programs

• xarchie

  allows you to find remote ftp sites that contain distributions for various packages.

   

• rx

  a locally written program that allows you to run X programs on remote machines. It takes care of setting the DISPLAY environment variable and runs xhost command on the local display.

   

• rxterm

  creates an xterm on a remote machine. It utilizes rx. e.g. rxterm cassius

   

Information Utilities

The University Information Services provides a number of services for accessing information.

Usage: finger key%database@dir.su.edu.au

where "key" is usually an "egrep" regular expression and "database" can be:

aarnet - resources available on AARNet
buildings - buildings and their codes at Sydney Uni
archie - query anonymous FTP databases
internet - resources available on the Internet
library - library access available via AARNet
newsgroups - find NetNews newsgroups
phone - The Sydney Uni Phone Book
postcodes - Australian Postcodes
shop - prices at the UCS shop

Usage:

• finger help@dir.su.edu.au - this help

• finger help%database@dir.su.edu.au - on a particular database facility

• finger copyright@dir.su.edu.au- please read this copyright notice

• finger egrep@dir.su.edu.au - a manual on egrep regular expressions

Note: When spcifying patterns, please take note to escape any characters special to your system. Spaces will usually need escaping also.

In Electrical and Information Engineering you can also access the following two databases more simply by:

• phone - eg phone smith

• shop - e.g. shop "hard disk"

(Original document by Tony Maher)

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