MIT Athena Computing Environment: What Runs Where: Miscellaneous Utilities
Description: MIT Athena Computing Environment: What Runs Where: Miscellaneous Utilities Detail
Keywords: athena, what runs where, athena help, utilities

What Runs Where
| Major Applications |
### Full Table:
| Help/Information Screen Accessories Communication Text Software Graphics Software Audio Software Numerical/Math Soft Languages/Debuggers Programming Libraries Simulation & Modeling Courseware Miscellaneous Utilities |
Help
| What's new? Tips for Using Athena Software Academic Computing locker configuration Web browser Java plugin issues Note on changing window managers |
| # What Runs Where on Athena: Utilities
| Utilities |
Title and description: TSM backup Description: network file backup utility for data on local hard drives of Athena workstations To run: This software can only be run if you have a TSM account set up first for each machine you use it on. Information is here athena% add adsm athena% dsmj & (for Java interface) athena% dsm & (for GUI interface) athena% dsmc (for command-line interface) athena% /mit/adsm/setpass (to set initial password, as root- please read information page before using) There is a pdf manual Note: files backed up with a given release cannot be restored by any earlier TSM version. However backups made with earlier versions can be restored by later ones
Title and description: attach-usb, detach-usb Description: mounts and unmounts USB flash drive on local machine To run: athena% add consult athena% attach-usb (to mount USB flash drive below /mnt/usb) athena% detach-usb (to unmount mounted USB flash drive) Note: you will need to know the root password to use these commands; on a public workstation the tellme command can be used to find out what it is
Title and description: blanche Description: command-line utility for examining and maintaining Moira lists; such lists can have elements of various types, such as users, lists, strings or Kerberos Principals. Please contact Athena accounts at x3-1325 (Email: accounts@mit.edu) or on the Web if you need to have a list set up To run: athena% blanche list -option Some of the most commonly used options are: get information about the list: athena% blanche list -i show list members of all types: athena% blanche list -m add member to the list (if you have permission): athena% blanche list -a member delete member from the list (if you have permission): athena% blanche list -d member There is also a Web interface (MIT only) See also: lastupd, listmaint, mailmaint, moira, rblanche There are Stock Answers for creating and editing Athena mailing lists and groups and how to add or delete yourself from Athena mailing lists
Title and description: cdrecord Description: records data on CD-R, CD-R/W drives To run: athena% cdrecord file.iso (to burn an iso image file) For other usage see man cdrecord; computer must be equipped with a CD-R or CD-R/W drive See also: nautilus-cd-burner Note: Nautilus (the Linux graphical file browser) can also burn CD-Rs and is preferred; to burn an iso image file: right-click on the file and select Write to Disk. To burn individual files and folders to CD-R: select Places -> CD Creator from a Nautilus window, drag files and folders you want to burn into the window that opens, then select File -> Write to Disk from that window
Title and description: clean Description: removes control characters from text files (will convert DOS-style <CR><LF> newlines to UNIX-style <LF>) To run: athena% add consult athena% clean infile outfile See also: dos2unix, unix2dos
Title and description: CVS Description: version control system, operating on hierarchical collections of directories To run: athena% add gnu athena% cvs options cvs-command command-options command-args see man cvs for more detailed information See also: git, hg (Mercurial), svn (Subversion)
Title and description: dos2unix, unix2dos Description: Sun utility that converts text file newline format between UNIX and DOS formats. UNIX normally ends lines with the <LF> character, while DOS ends them with <CR><LF> To run: athena% dos2unix dosfile unixfile athena% unix2dos unixfile dosfile See also: clean
Title and description: dsgrep Description: allows searching Discuss meetings for text strings To run: athena% dsgrep options "-e regexpr" meeting See also: discuss
Title and description: fs commands Description: entry point into a large suite of AFS file system commands. These commands will only work if you apply them to a directory that is within an AFS file system. fs help will list available commands. Some of the more commonly used ones are listed below: To run: look up access permissions on directory directory: athena% fs la directory look up the quota for the AFS volume the current directory is in: athena% fs lq set access permission on directory directory for user user: athena% fs sa directory user acl where user is a username or AFS group name, and acl is an AFS access control list that contains several letters that set various access permissions. Several shorthand values for acl are allowed: read sets read permission, write sets read and write permission, all sets all permissions and none removes all permissions. There are Athena and SIPB online documents explaining AFS in more detail; see also some AFS Stock Answers and AFS at MIT
Title and description: g3data Description: utility that captures numeric data values from graphs published in various image formats To run: athena% add g3data athena% g3data options imagefile There is a Web site See also: fityk
Title and description: git Description: fast, scalable distributed version control system with a rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals To run: athena% add git athena% git [options] command [arguments] There are many local man pages- look below /mit/git/man in the git locker to see what these are; there is much information at the Git home page See also: CVS , hg (Mercurial), svn (Subversion)
Title and description: GnuCash Description: Personal finance manager, similar to Quicken. Used to track income, expenses, investments, etc. There is a GnuCash Web page To run: athena% add gnucash athena% gnucash &
Title and description: gpg Description: GNU Privacy Guard, tool for signing and encrypting digital files. Usage is complex and there are many options; the UNIX man page will supply a lot of information; see also the documentation site. There is a gpg Web page To run: athena% add gnu athena% gpg options file athena% gpg -h (for a command summary) See also: alpine, pgp, pine, ssh
Title and description: helpquota Description: Utility that allows users to examine files stored in AFS lockers (including user's home directories), ranked in various ways, and to optionally compress or delete them with the object of staying within the quota on the locker. Files that are generally considered deletable, such as various kinds of backup or temporary files, can be displayed and deleted selectively To run: athena% add consult athena% helpquota options Note: running as helpquota will print some usage explanations
Title and description: hesinfo Description: Athena-specific interface to portions of the Hesiod database. This database is maintained by Athena Operations staff and contains information about user and filesystem names and ids, groups and various local services as well as resources associated with specific machines. Some typical usage forms are below- see man hesinfo for more To run: athena% hesinfo name filsys (gives file system and local mount point info associated with name (name is an Athena username or locker name) athena% hesinfo name passwd (gives password file entry associated with name (name is an Athena username) athena% hesinfo name cluster (gives system pack version(s) and printers associated with name (name is a computer name) athena% hesinfo uid uid (gives username associated with uid (uid is a UNIX user id number) See also: lookup
Title and description: hfs, xhfs Description: collection of utilities allowing users to read and write to HFS (Macintosh) formatted media. There also are commands that are analogous to equivalent DOS commands with "h" prepended, i.e hdir, hcopy etc. To run: athena% add hfstools athena% hfs (for a TTY command-line interface) athena% xhfs & (for a GUI interface) See also: Mtools
Title and description: lastupd Description: queries moira to determine when each of the mail hubs has last been updated. Any changes made in moira after an update will not be reflected when you send mail. Mostly of use to maintainers of mailing lists To run: athena% add consult athena% lastupd See also: blanche, chpobox, moira, rblanche
Title and description: listmaint Description: text-based menu-driven application for administering Moira lists; types of operation allowed include getting information about lists and their members, adding and deleting members and adding and deleting lists. Many of these operations involve privileges that must be set by Athena administrators. Please contact Athena accounts at x3-1325 (Email: accounts@mit.edu) or on the Web if you need to get such privileges or have a list set up To run: athena% listmaint There is also a Web interface (MIT only) See also: blanche, mailmaint, moira There are Stock Answers for creating and editing Athena mailing lists and groups and how to add or delete yourself from Athena mailing lists
Title and description: lookup Description: finds AFS volumes(s) a locker is stored on, or volume a user's home directory is on. This is useful when you need to check if a file system is inaccessible due to servers being down To run: athena% add consult athena% lookup locker athena% lookup username See also: hesinfo, whichlocker
Title and description: lsof Description: lists information about files open for reading or writing on the computer; many options exist- see man page for details To run: athena% lsof options See also: ps
Title and description: mailmaint Description: text-based menu-driven application for examining and manipulating Athena mailing lists; emphasis is on operations Athena end-users are allowed to do themselves (add or remove yourself to/from a list, look up lists you are a member of...) To run: athena% mailmaint See also: blanche, listmaint, moira
Title and description: hg (Mercurial) Description: lightweight source code management system designed for efficient handling of large distributed objects To run: athena% add mercurial athena% hg command argument options See man hg and a local manual for more detailed information; a local quickstart sheet; there is much information at the Mercurial home page See also: CVS , git, svn (Subversion)
Title and description: moira Description: general text-based interface to the Moira database. This database contains information about many named entities on Athena, such as usernames, locker names, lists etc. . Access permission is required to view or edit many of the entries To run: athena% moira See also: listmaint, blanche, lastupd, mailmaint, stella
Title and description: Mtools, mtoolsfm Description: set of disk file I/O commands similar to DOS ones that allow users on UNIX systems to manipulate files on DOS filesystems (typically on a diskette). ZIP drives are also supported. Wildcarding follows UNIX, not DOS rules. mtoolsfm is a new, gtk-based GUI front end Some of the major available commands: mattrib - change MSDOS file attribute flags mbadblocks - tests an MSDOS diskette and marks bad blocks in the FAT mbackup - script that copies a tree, skipping AFS mountpoints mcd - change MSDOS directory mcopy - copy MSDOS files to/from UNIX mdel - delete an MSDOS file mdeltree - delete an MSDOS directory tree (use with caution) mdir - display an MSDOS directory mformat - add an MSDOS filesystem to a low-level formatted diskette mkmanifest - creates a script that aids in restoring UNIX filenames clobbered by MSDOS name restrictions mlabel - make an MSDOS volume label mmd - make an MSDOS subdirectory mmount - mounts an MSDOS disk (Linux only) mmove - moves or renames an existing MSDOS file or directory mrd - remove an MSDOS subdirectory mren - rename an existing MSDOS file mtype - display contents of an MSDOS file mzip - issues ZIP drive-specific commands (Sun only) To run: athena% add mtools athena% command file_or_directory (to run "traditional" commands) athena% mtoolsfm & (to run mtoolsfm GUI) See also: hfs, Zmodem
Title and description: nautilus-cd-burner Description: records iso images on CD-R, CD-R/W drives To run: athena% nautilus-cd-burner file.iso (to burn an iso image file) Computer must be equipped with a CD-R or CD-R/W drive See also: cdrecord Note: For other uses, see Note in cdrecord entry
Title and description: pgp Description: public key encryption package. pgp has many features and you will need to read a considerable amount of documentation before you are able to use it. A good place to start is the man page (man pgp after adding the locker), and the docs in the doc directory of the locker To run: athena% add pgp athena% pgp options file athena% pgp -h (for a command summary) There is an OpenPGP home page and a quickstart guide See also: gpg, ssh
Title and description: pkgadd Description: On Suns, installs packages stored in Sun package format To run: athena% pkgadd options package(s) See also: pkginfo, pkgrm, rpm Note: only for use on private Athena workstations. Use with caution- deleting or changing essential system files may affect your workstation's operation or may make it unbootable. You generally need to be root to run this application
Title and description: pkginfo Description: On Suns, supplies information about installed packages To run: athena% pkginfo See also: pkgadd, pkgrm, rpm
Title and description: pkgrm Description: On Suns, deletes packages stored in Sun package format To run: athena% pkgrm package(s) See also: pkgadd, pkginfo, rpm Note: only for use on private Athena workstations. Use with caution- deleting or changing essential system files may affect your workstation's operation or may make it unbootable. You generally need to be root to run this application
Title and description: ps Description: lists information about processes running on the computer; many options exist- see man page for details To run: athena% ps options See also: lsof
Title and description: rblanche Description: Recursively lists all members of a mailing list, specifying members of each sublist; also indicates when users have forwarded their mail using chpobox, and if an account is deactivated. Uses the Moira database limited by permissions you have on respective lists To run: athena% add consult athena% rblanche listname See also: blanche, chpobox, lastupd
Title and description: recode Description: utility that converts files between various character sets and "surfaces" To run: athena% add gnu athena% recode options [charset | request file ] Typing info recode will give you access to a manual
Title and description: renew, grenew Description: renews user's Kerberos tickets and AFS tokens, which grant access to Athena services and file systems. These are currently set to expire 10 hours after login by default and you will need to renew them if you need to continue the current login session for longer than this. renew is a command-line utility; grenew runs the same command within a very simple GUI To run: athena% grenew & athena% renew
Title and description: rpm Description: Redhat Package Manager- on Linux machines, installs/uninstalls/gives information about software packages in rpm format To run: athena% rpm -Uvh instfilename.rpm (install) athena% rpm -e uninstname (uninstall) athena% rpm -qa (list all installed packages) See also: pkgadd, pkginfo, pkgrm Note: only for use on private Athena workstations. Use with caution- deleting or changing essential system files may affect your workstation's operation or may make it unbootable. You generally need to be root if you want to install or uninstall packages
Title and description: rp3, usernet Description: graphical network load monitors; rp3 queries for what interface you want to monitor, usernet monitors them all To run: athena% add outland athena% rp3 & athena% usernet & See also: xload
Title and description: samba Description: utilities that allow access to SMB/CIFS/DFS file servers (usually Windows file systems). smbclient offers an interface similar to ftp; operations include things like getting files from the server to the local machine (and vice versa), retrieving directory information from the server and so on. Usage is complex, and users should consult the man page for smbclient for details. dfsclient is a locally developed script that wraps around smbclient to make it easier to use; see the README for usage examples To run: athena% add -f samba athena% smbclient [options] servicename (to log in; then enter samba commands at the smb:\> prompt) athena% dfsclient /profiles/u/username commands (to perform commands on \\win.mit.edu\dfs share for user username)
Title and description: saplogon Description: Java-based client for accessing SAP databases To run: This software can only be run if you are an administrator with access to a current SAP account athena% add sapgui athena% saplogon
Title and description: setup Description: attaches Athena lockers, adds appropriate bin directory to user's path (similar to add command), but in addition automatically executes C-shell syntax commands in a file called .attachrc placed in the top level of the locker To run: athena% setup lockername Note: to properly use setup, create a file .attachrc and put any initialization commands necessary in it, using C-shell syntax. These commands will be automatically executed when the setup command is run
Title and description: svn (Subversion) Description: version control system offering significant enhancements to older systems like CVS To run: athena% add svn athena% svn command options arguments see man svn for more detailed information; please also read file /mit/svn/README for important information about using svn at MIT. There is also a Subversion home page See also: CVS, git, hg (Mercurial)
Title and description: units Description: interactive utility that converts various physical quantities between different units of measure To run: athena% units
Title and description: weather Description: weather data retrieval program. weather reports weather conditions and forecasts for over 1100 U.S. cities. See the man page (man weather) after adding the locker for info on finding city identifiers such as BOS (Boston) To run: athena% add weather athena% weather options identifier athena% zctl add message weather \* (to receive hourly weather Zephyrgrams) There are a number of good Web-based weather services, notably Intellicast
Title and description: wine Description: utility that allows running certain Windows applications on Linux by emulating the Win32 API. Not all applications are fully supported, but wine is under rapid development and the list of compatible programs increases continually There is a wine home page and supported application database (please note that the latter is for the most recent release, which is likely to be newer than the version in the wine locker) To run: athena% add wine athena% wine application [options]
Title and description: xephem Description: graphical astronomical epehmeris: displays positions of celestial objects visible at various times and locations To run: athena% add xephem athena% xephem &
Title and description: zap-firefox-certs, zap-mozilla-certs Description: utility for deleting expired or damaged firefox or mozilla browser certificates and passwords. Please make sure to exit from any browser instances you are running before using this utility To run: athena% add infoagents athena% zap-firefox-certs athena% zap-mozilla-certs See also: firefox, mozilla Note: There is a support page; you can get a new certificate here
Title and description: Zip utilities Description: file compression/decompression programs for single files and directory trees, using the zip compression format. zip and unzip are compatible with pkzip and pkunzip on PCs and create archives of directory trees. gzip and gunzip operate on single files. gzip is often used in conjunction with tar to make compressed archives of directory trees on UNIX systems To run: athena% gzip file athena% gunzip file.gz athena% bzip2 file athena% bunzip2 file.bz2 athena% zip archive_name directory/* athena% unzip archive_name.zip Note: bzip2 is a new compression protocol that operates essentially like gzip, but generally achieves higher compression ratios

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