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What Runs Where on Athena - Help Info

Athena Help

apropos

Description: searches for strings and key words in man pages
TO RUN:
athena% apropos search_string
See also: man

athinfo

Description: retrieves information about a workstation in multiple categories; can be run remotely
TO RUN:
athena% athinfo host query
athena% athinfo host* queries* (prints allowed queries for host)
See also: stella

info

Description: "pseudo-hypertext" browser for information files in GNU info format, used by many GNU applications. The second form below is most useful for viewing info files that are not linked to the "standard", system-wide ones
TO RUN:
athena% info ( starts from a "standard, system-wide info home page")
athena% *info -f *infofile (starts from the given info page)
See also: man, yelp

locate

Description: searches for full path to a file based on file name or path fragment which is input. The command will print back all full paths matching the search pattern (wildcard characters are allowed). Currently this is only useful for finding things on local hard drives of Linux machines
TO RUN:
athena% locate pattern
See also: man
*Note: *Depends on a "locate database" that must be kept current- typically this is rebuilt periodically from a cron script. This is currently not implemented on standard Athena machines

man, xman

Description: supplies information from the UNIX Programmer's Manual about many UNIX commands and applications. man *uses a command-line interface and {}xman uses an X interface. Can also be available for Third Party applications in lockers (i.e. if you run application {}foo* in locker bar by doing add bar; foo then man foo may give you useful information). If you want information about man itself, just do man man
TO RUN:
athena% man_ search_string _(for a command-line interface)
athena% xman &
See also: apropos, info, locate, olh, yelp
Note: xman is useful for browsing man pages when you don't have a specific one in mind

sendbug

Description: bug reporting system for Athena software. Prompts will guide you through questions to answer concerning the problem. *Please be as detailed and specific as possible.*Giving exact keystroke sequences that will reproduce the problem is particularly helpful and may hasten problem resolution
TO RUN:
athena% sendbug
See also: olh

stanley

Description: allows users to examine and edit information about a user in the Moira database
TO RUN:
athena% stanley username options
See also: athinfo, moira, stella
*Note: *Many or all of the update options will be inaccessible if you lack sufficient permission. Omitting options will supply all available information about username

stella

Description: allows users to examine and edit information about a workstation in the Moira database
TO RUN:
athena% stella host options
See also: athinfo, moira, stanley
*Note: *Many or all of the update options will be inaccessible if you lack sufficient permission. Omitting options will supply all available information about host

tellme

Description: tells Athena root password, Athena cluster combination
TO RUN:
athena% *tellme root *(for root password)
athena% *tellme combo *(for Athena cluster combination)

whichlocker

Description: tells which Athena locker a program is in
TO RUN:
athena% add outland
athena% *whichlocker *program
See also: lookup
Note: *whichlocker* will not find programs that are not in lockers but are in the Athena release instead. Currently the information database is maintained manually and may contain omissions, inaccuracies and be out of date. It is still a quite useful utility however

yelp

Description: Gnome help browser- displays information about various Gnome-related applications, as well as many system man and info pages
TO RUN:
athena% yelp &
See also: info, man

Database

LibreOffice Database

Description: database component of LibreOffice office suite
TO RUN:
From Ubuntu Dash: type LibreOffice Base in Search box
From command line:
athena% libreoffice & (select File -> New -> Database)
For documentation look here
See also: mysql, psql, sqlplus

mysql

Description: client, server and support utilities for MySQL SQL database
TO RUN:
athena% *add -f mysql *
athena% mysql -u **{}username __{*}-p --host=*hostname _(to log into a MySQL database as user {}username on host {}hostname_)
Once logged in, commands are entered at the mysql> prompt. Some of the major ones include:
mysql> create database foo; (to create a new database foo; database administrator needs to set permissions to let you do this)
mysql> use foo; (to use a database foo)
mysql> create table bar; (create a data table bar associated with current database)
mysql> insert into bar... (insert data into table bar)
athena% *mysqladmin *_options _(to perform various administrative tasks on a MySQL database; users need sufficient permissions to do this)
There is a home page and documentation download site
See also: LibreOffice Database, psql, sqlplus
Note: *To create databases, you need to run the {}mysqld* daemon on a machine dedicated to this purpose. You can also access and manipulate databases through C code linking against the libmysqlclient library. Other utility programs exist, mostly with names starting with {*}mysql... *See documentation for details

psql

Description: client for PostgreSQL SQL database
TO RUN:
athena% *psql -h *host options database username _(to log into a PostgreSQL database {}databaseas user {}username on host {}host_)
Once logged in, commands are entered in SQL at the prompt
There is a home page and documentation
See also: ***LibreOffice Database, mysql, *sqlplus

sqlplus (Oracle client)

Description: Oracle database SQL client
TO RUN:
athena% add oracle10g
athena% *setenv ORACLE_HOME /mit/oracle10g/arch/i386_rhel4 *(C shell)
or
athena% *export ORACLE_HOME=/mit/oracle10g/arch/i386_rhel4 *(bash shell)
athena% *sqlplus *username/password@database
where username __and_ password* need to be set up for you by the administrator of the database you are connecting to. They are not necessarily the same as your Athena username and password. Allowed values for {}database _*are at the beginning of stanzas in [file:
]
/mit/oracle10g/10.2.0/i386_rhel4/network/admin/tnsnames.ora
After logging on, you will get an *SQL> *prompt and can run SQL commands on the database you are connected to.
See also:[ LibreOffice Database|What Runs Where on Athena - Help Info#Opendatabase], mysql, psql
Note: *Databases may come and go over time- currently accessible ones will always be listed in file {}tnsnames.ora. *Only the client is available on Athena- you can't create new databases with it, you can only access existing ones you have access to

MIT Information

Course Descriptions & Schedules

Description: course listings, abstracts and schedules for all current MIT courses
TO RUN:
go to the Subject Listings & Schedule page

cview, xcluster

Description: monitors current cluster usage. cview uses a command-line interface; xclusteruses a campus map and an X interface
TO RUN:
athena% cview (for a command-line interface)
athena% cview printers (for printer information)
athena% cview phones (for cluster phone numbers)
athena% xcluster & (for an X interface)
There is a campus map with Athena cluster locations, a detailed machine information list by cluster and a list of IS&T maintained Athena clusters

Humanities Enrollment Tools

Description: enrollment tools for Humanities class sections
TO RUN:
go to the information guide

Freshman Housing Lottery

Description: runs freshman housing lottery
TO RUN:
go to the lottery page; if you don't have a certificate which is needed get one here

Phys. Ed. Lottery

Description: runs lottery for Physical Education class sections
TO RUN:
go to the Phys. Ed. lottery page

SIS

Description: Student Information Service, which allows students to access their grades, register and access other academic information
TO RUN:
go to the SIS Web page

MIT Library Reference

Ask Us!

Description: enables users to electronically ask questions of MIT librarians
TO RUN:
go to the Ask Us! Web page

Cn3D, entrez

Description: entrez allows users to search Genbank and other molecular sequencing databases- now also on Web. Cn3D is a 3d molecular image viewer
TO RUN:
athena% Cn3D & (to run Cn3D viewer)
athena% entrez & (to run entrez database search client)
the NCBI search page has much information about bioinformatic databases; Cn3D information is here
See also: ***Avogadro,* babel, CLC Sequence Viewer, Deep View, Geneious, molscript, pymol, rasmol, VMD
Note: entrez is currently broken

Research Guides

Description: library information for finding online bibliographic resources
TO RUN:
go to the Research guides & expert librarians page

Reference Materials

Artha

Description: Wordnet-based thesaurus that can be invoked on selected text by pressing a hotkey combination
TO RUN:
athena% artha &
or: launch Artha and minimize it, select text and press ctrl-alt-w hotkey
*See also: *gnome-dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary, Webster Dictionary, Wordnet
Note: You may get Artha in a state where nothing happens when you attempt to launch it and the hotkey combination fails to work; you can reset it by deleting file ~/.config/artha.conf *in your home directory and killing any running {}Artha* processes if there are any

dict

Description: command-line dictionary based on multiple sources
TO RUN:
athena% *dict *options word
*See also: *gnome-dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary, Webster Dictionary

gnome-dictionary

Description: GUI dictionary with internal cross-referencing
TO RUN:
athena% gnome-dictionary &
See also: Artha, dict, Oxford English Dictionary, Webster Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

TO RUN:
go to the OED Web page (MIT only); there is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus
See also: ***Artha, *dict, gnome-dictionary

rolodex

Description: phone number database for common local numbers (both MIT and off-campus)
TO RUN:
athena% add sipb
athena% *rolodex *resource
Typical usage: rolodex pizza, rolodex police, rolodex helpdesk, rolodex eaps

Shakespeare

Description: Shakespeare's plays online
TO RUN:
Go to The Tech for a hypertext version with glossary and search capabilities

webster, xwebster (dictionary)

Description: simple command-line-interface dictionary lookup
TO RUN:
athena% add sipb
athena% *webster *word
athena% *xwebster & *(X interface; left-click on window that opens for instructions)
There is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus
See also: Artha, dict, gnome-dictionary, ispell, thesaurus, Oxford English Dictionary, Wordnet

whats

Description: acronym expander for both local MIT and general acronyms
TO RUN:
athena% add sipb
athena% *whats *acronym

Wordnet

Description: Wordnet is a lexicographical database from Princeton University that most closely resembles a thesaurus, although it also has features of a dictionary and even an encyclopedia, and some unique ones that are best experienced by trying it out
TO RUN:
athena% *wnb *(for an X interface)
athena% wn *(for a command-line interface ; typing {}wn* lists command-line options)
athena% *wn *option _word_
go to the Wordnet Web page
See also: Artha, Webster Dictionary

Internet Exploration

chromium-browser

Description: Google's Web browser
TO RUN:
athena% chromium-browser
Typing about:plugins in the address bar will show currently installed plugins
There is a chrome home page and chromium home page
See also: firefox, konqueror, opera, weblint

firefox

Description: default Athena Web browser, based on the Mozilla engine
TO RUN:
Click on Firefox icon on Gnome applet bar
From command line:
athena% *firefox & *
Typing about:plugins in the address bar will show currently installed plugins; the Enabledcolumn entry on the right must be set to Yes for a given plugin to be active
Typing about:config in the address bar will show current configuration settings; selecting one, right-clicking and picking a selection from the popup that appears allows editing these
*See also: *chromium-browser, thunderbird, weblint, zap-firefox-certs

konqueror

Description: Web browser, graphical file manager and file viewer, based on KDE desktop environment
TO RUN:
athena% konqueror
There is a konqueror Website
See also: chromium-browser, opera, weblint
Note: This application is not installed. You can install it temporarily (on a debathena-cluster machine) or permanently (on a debathena-workstation or non-Athena Ubuntu machine) but not on the Athena dialups by doing the following:
sudo to root and install from the konqueror Ubuntu package using aptitude or synaptic

liferea

Description: RSS feed reader
TO RUN:
athena% liferea --mainwindow-state=shown &
There is a *liferea *home page

lynx

Description: text-only Web browser for vt-100 capable clients. Usable over dialup
TO RUN:
athena% *lynx *url
See also: weblint, w3m

opera

Description: general-purpose Web browser
TO RUN:
athena% opera &
The opera development site is here
See also: chromium-browser, konqueror, weblint, w3m
Note: This application isn't currently installed. To install it on a debathena-cluster machine (temporarily) or on a debathena-workstation or plain Ubuntu machine (permanently) but not on the Athena dialups please see instructions here

scripts

Description: Athena-based Web hosting service supported by SIPB with automatic configuration for many popular Website hosting, Blog and Wiki Web-based services (MediaWiki, WordPress, Joomla, e107, others)
TO RUN:
athena% add scripts
athena%* scripts*
Detailed information is here

weblint

Description: utility for checking validity and style of HTML pages
TO RUN:
Accessible online here; see also the World Wide Web Consortium's validator
See also: chromium-browser, firefox, konqueror, lynx, opera, w3m

w3m

Description: text-based Web browser; can display graphics, tables and frames
TO RUN:
athena% *w3m *URL
See also: lynx, opera, weblint
Note: This application is not installed. You can install it temporarily (on a debathena-cluster machine) or permanently (on a debathena-workstation or non-Athena Ubuntu machine) but not on the Athena dialups by doing the following:
sudo to root and install from the w3m Ubuntu package using aptitude or synaptic; there is an older version in the sipb locker

IS&T Contributions

Documentation and information provided by IS&T staff members


Last Modified:

March 24, 2021

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