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Who administrates this system, should I encounter problems?
This system if administrated by the support staff of Digital Indigo Technologies. If you have any questions, comments, or problems with this system, please report them to support@digitalindigo.com.

 
Is there a fast way to go to/represent my home directory?
To move back to your home directory (the directory you start off in when you log on) simply type "cd" from anywhere in the shell. If you wish to represent your home directory in a regular expression, use the "~". For example, to copy your "index.html" file to the directory you are currently in, type "cp ~/public_html/index.html .".

Can I use wild cards in regular expressions?
Sure! For example, if you are in a distant directory, and wish to move to you web directory, you can type "cd ~/pu*" to take you back to your web directory. ***This works only if there are no ambiguous filenames. For example, if you type "cd ~/pu*" and there is a directory called "public_html" and a directory called "pureJava", the computer won't know which to enter (since they both start with "pu". In cases like this, simply spell of the file more completely. "cd ~/pub*" would work in this case.

Do I have a quota on my account?
All users are set up with a quota (a limit to the amount of drive space they can use) to protect the system should a user mistake occur. Your individual quota depends on the plan and hosting options you chose. If your quota is too low and presents a problem for you, please contact the system administration for an increase of quota. To see your quota, type "quota -v" in the shell.

Can I customize my finger information?
You can customize the ".plan" portion of your finger information. This is done by editing the ".plan" file in your home directory. When people request finger information about you, this file will be sent to their display.

Can I forward my mail to another system?
Mail that you receive can be forwarded to another system by editing the ".forward" file in your home directory. For example to send all of your mail to user@foobar.com you would edit your ".forward" file to look like this:

user@foobar.com
If you would like to send it to multiple accounts, seperate address with commas, for example:

user@foobar.com,
frank@unix.com
You will notice that when using the forward feature, none of your mail is kept locally on the system. If you wish to keep a local copy of your mail, you would set up a .forward file like this:

\your_login_name_here,
first_forward@somewhere.com,
another_forward@anywhere.com
This would cause mail to be kept locally, and be sent to the two users listed on lines two and three. To resume normal interception of mail, simply remove the .forward file. "rm ~/.forward"

How do I see all of my files including ones starting with a period?
When you do an "ls" command in UNIX, it lists all files, except those beginning with a period. However, there may be times when you wish to see these files--.forward, .plan, and .cshrc just to name a few. To see these files add the "-a" switch to your ls statement. "ls -a" will show you all filenames, including those that start with a period.

How can I make a script run at a certain time?
To launch scripts and programs at a specific time, you need to use the cron (short for chronometer) daemon. To set up a cron job, type "crontab -e" in the shell. This will bring up your preferred editor (set with the EDITOR variable). The syntax for a crontab process is Minute (0-59), Hour (0-23), Day of the month (1-31), Month (1-12), Day of the week (0-6 with 0 being Sunday). The "*" wildcard can be used to substitute all numbers. See the man pages for crontab "man crontab" for more specific information.
For example, if you wanted a script called "webinfo" to run every night as 2359 hours, another script called "weekend.sh" to run every friday at 1700 hours, and a script called "birthday.pl" to run every January 24th, from your home directory, your crontab edit would look something like this:


59 23 * * * ~/webinfo
0 17 * * 5 ~/weekend.sh
0 0 24 1 * ~/birthday.pl
After choosing to save and exit your editing session, the system will automatically launch your crontab processes. If a crontab encounters any problems (or output) during the execution of programs/scripts, an e-mail will be sent to the user who set the crontab. For addition information on time-based launches, see the at command man page "man at".

I have shell variables set in my .bashrc file--they aren't working, though.
If your shell variables aren't taking effect, check what shell you're using. This can be done by typing "finger $USER". If you are using the "bash" shell, you're .cshrc file won't be read, or put into effect. In other words, make sure you have your enviroment settings in the correct .Xrc file. To change your shell, see "Changing Shell."

How do I change my default shell.
In UNIX/Linux, various system shells can be used. Bash, tcsh, ksh, and sh are just a few of the many you can choose from. To set your shell on this system type "chsh" for the change shell prompt.

How do I cause events to happen on login, or logout?
You can write scripts or put shell commands in two different files, ".login" and ".logout". These files are automatically processed each time you log in or out, respectivly.

Can I make aliases or shortcuts for commands?
To make aliases you need to find out what shell you are using. By default, this system sets you to the "tcsh" shell. That means the shell automatically looks in the ".cshrc" file in your home directory when you login. It is in this file you set your enviroment variables, including aliases. For example, if you wanted to be able to type "lm" and have it do the same thing as if you had typed "last | more", you would type:


alias lm 'last | more'
An alias can have no spaces in it. Make sure you remember this when creating new aliases. Also, new aliases will not go into effect until the shell is restarted (i.e. log out and log back in again).

Is there an easy way to move many files using UNIX FTP?
The FTP program can move multiple files between machines at one time. However, it is usually default for it to ask permission for each file, making it cumbersome to use. To move multiple files at one time, ftp to the machine you wish to get the files from. Next, go to the directory that contains the data you wish to download. After that, type "binary" which will allow you to transfer binary files such as graphics and programs. Next type "prompt", this disables the computers query function for each file. Finally type "mget *" to specify that you want to receive all files. That's it! For a sample, see text below.
Example of user downloading the contents of "public_html" from the machine named "alpha.fiorill.com".


ftp alpha.fiorill.com
Connected to alpha.fiorill.com.
220 alpha.fiorill.com FTP server (Version wu-2.4.2-academ[BETA-12](1)
Name (alpha.millersv.edu:fiorill): fiorill
331 Password required for fiorill.
Password:
230 User fiorill logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> cd public_html
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> prompt
Interactive mode off.
ftp> mget *

My executables used to work. Now they don't. Why?
The system may have been recently upgraded in a way such that your binaries do not run. To make your executables work, you must download the source code for the binaries, and make them again. A comman mistake is made by those who already have the source code, and type "make" again. Unfortunatly, this can include old object files from the old operating system. Thus, your "new" binary will still not run. It's a very good idea, and quite essential, to type "make clean" before creating a binary. This should clear out all of the old object files. Don't forget, you'll still need to type "make" after the "make clean" to actually make the new binary!

Summary:
1) Follow compilation instructions (usually in a file called README)
2) Type "make clean" to erase all old object and other files.
3) Type "make" to actually make the new binary.
Note, compilation of source code varies from program to program. The above may not work for you. Please read the README file included with your software before attempting compilation.

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