4. Setup#
The first time the user starts the interface, they have a configuration by default that was set during installation. The configuration is then stored in the $ HOME /.astkrc directory.
If the user wants to go back to the original configuration, he must delete this directory and relaunch astk.
Note #1
Each time you define a command to be executed (terminal, editor…), it is recommended to specify the absolute path (from the root) to avoid that the command is not found if the variable $ PATHest is incorrect.
Note #2
When astk executes a command that attempts to display windows: if the command is run locally, no problem. If it is run on a remote machine, it is run using ssh -X, so the display should go well if the ssh server allows it.
The as_run part contains tools that simplify certain tasks for developers, such as consulting the source code or updating a local development version.
The $ HOME /.astkrc/prefs file therefore contains two pieces of information necessary to contact the reference server: the full name of this server and the user login. The latter must be set in this file to avoid the following alarm:
<A>_ ALARM remote connection may fail:
devel_server_user not defined in /home/xxxxxx/.astkrc/prefs
4.1. Servers#
The configuration window is accessed through the Configuration/Servers menu (see).
The first button allows you to switch from one server to another and to add a « New server ».
The fields are:
Full name or IP address: this is the name of the server on the network; you can indicate its full name with the domain name (for example: linux.labo.univ.fr) or its IP address (for example: 156.98.254.36).
The box indicates that astk should not use rsh or ssh to contact this machine.
Server status: you can turn off a server that is temporarily inaccessible.
Login: identifier with which you connect to the server.
Directory HOME: directory by default when browsing this machine.
Services directory: directory where the services are installed on this server (specify the installation path, for example: /opt/aster), leave empty for a file server.
Configuration download mode: none (for a file server), manual (you must click on the « Download now » button to retrieve the server’s Aster configuration), automatic (astk queries the server at startup every 30 days).
Last download: When the configuration information was last updated.
Terminal: command to open a terminal on the server. This allows you to open a command window on the server when using bsf.
Editor: text editor (for example, nedit). The installation procedure chooses an editor from (and in this order): nedit, gedit, xemacs, emacs, xedit, vi.
The following values are returned by as_run –info (nothing for a file server) and therefore depend on the configuration of the as_run part:
Platform type.
Versions available.
Accessible machines: list of compute nodes accessible from this server.
Batch/interactive: specifies whether the server accepts batch and interactive launch and provides memory limits, time CPU, number of processors fixed on the server.
Supported batch management software is LSF, Sun Grid Engine, and PBS.
4.2. Configurations#
4.2.1. General preferences#
You can access the general preferences configuration window through the Configuration/Preferences/General menu (see).
This window allows you to fill in the user’s personal information and to choose the language used by the interface.
Then, we find the version that will be selected by default, the commands to access a terminal and an editor (as for the servers).
Number of profiles in the File menu allows you to keep the names of the N most recently opened profiles in order to quickly recall them.
Message Level indicates the level of detail of the messages written in the message window in the Help menu. Level=0: only messages <INFO> and <ERREUR> are written; higher levels allow you to debug the behavior of the interface. Level 1 is recommended, it allows you to see the error messages that may appear during communication problems with remote servers.
For job tracking, you can choose the number of lines displayed when viewing the output file during the job (Search button), and how often the list should be refreshed.
4.2.2. Network preferences#
The window for configuring network preferences is accessed through the Configuration/Preferences/Network menu (see).
This window allows you to fill in the network settings. You must then specify the network domain name of the machine. For example, domain.org if the full machine name is mach00.domain.org. If the domain name is left empty, an alarm message is displayed at startup because machine names entered without a domain name will not be completed. This can cause problems, but it is also sometimes necessary to leave the domain name empty in some configurations.
If the DHCP/VPN mode is active, it is in this field that you can specify the IP address of the local machine. By clicking OK, the interface proposes the IP addresses of the network interfaces detected on the machine.
4.3. Tools#
See.
You select the tool to be configured from the dropdown list, or you add a new tool.
Standard tools are pre-defined (lowercase/uppercase letters are taken into account in tool names). The tools are necessarily executed on the « Local » machine (where the interface is launched).
In general, the tools are started either on a file in the ETUDE tab, or on a file when browsing the file system with bsf.
You simply define the command line required to launch a tool (absolute path recommended), you can place the codes @F, @R, @f, @D in the command line (see [§ 2.1.3]) to correctly pass a file to the tool. You can put these codes in brackets to be able to launch the tool alone, without a file as an argument.
File types may be associated with the tool. The type taken into account to launch the tool is the extension when browsing files with bsf, the type of the dropdown list when it comes to a tab.
You can choose whether the tool can be used on a remote file. In this case, astk takes care of bringing the file in question back to the local machine in a temporary directory, launching the tool, then reuploading the file to the remote server (even if it has not been modified by the tool).