What Runs Where on Athena: Help Info

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

olh

Description: online Athena-specific information system, accessed via Web browser

TO RUN:

go to the olh Web page

See also: man, sendbug

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

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 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 database as 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

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, 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

Course Descriptions & Schedules

TO RUN:

go to the Subject Listings & Schedule page

cview, xcluster

Description: monitors current cluster usage. cview uses a command-line interface; xcluster uses 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 Lottery

Description: runs lottery 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

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 Entrez Web page has much information about bioinformatic databases; Cn3D information is here

See also: babel, CLC Sequence Viewer, Deep View, Geneious, molscript, pymol, rasmol, VMD

Research Guides

Description: library information for finding online bibliographic resources

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 or elsewhere for hypertext versions 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

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 Enabled column 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 from the konqueror Ubuntu package using aptitude or synaptic

liferea

Description: RSS feed reader

TO RUN:

athena% liferea &

There is a liferea page

lynx

Description: text-only Web browser for vt-100 capable clients. Usable over dialup

TO RUN:

athena% lynx

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. Please see instructions for obtaining it 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 from the w3m Ubuntu package using aptitude or synaptic; there is an older version in the sipb locker