Unix setup

In order to run any Starlink software, your Unix startup must be adapted appropriately. If you work at a Starlink site, chances are that your site manager has already taken care of this.

It is necessary that you use a Unix shell similar to the C shell. A Unix shell is a command line interpreter between you and the Unix operating system. When you log into the Unix system one or another shell will be started for you, namely the one that is your `login shell'. The most basic Unix shell is the Bourne shell `sh', but the most common interactive shell is the C shell `csh'. Some system administrators may try to educate you to use more fashionable shells like `korn' or `bash'.

The Starlink startup scripts all assume that you use the C shell, but a similar, enhanced shell is `tcsh', and this is what probably most users of Starlink software have as their login shell.

When you login, the login shell will execute two scripts in your home directory. One is `.cshrc', or Tc shell users may have a similar file `.tcshrc' instead. The second startup script is `.login'.

What you have to do to make Starlink software work, is to include one command in each of these two files. In `.cshrc' or `.tcshrc' you insert the line

   source /star/etc/cshrc

and in `.login' you insert the equivalent

   source /star/etc/login

Figaro and other Starlink packages use a common mechanism for providing input values to, and obtaining output values from, individual applications. This so-called `parameter system' allows values to be passed between related applications, saves un-necessary typing and assists the applications in suggesting sensible default values. The details are not germane here, but files containing the parameter values passed between applications need to be kept somewhere. By default these files reside in a subdirectory of your home directory called (for historical reasons) `adam'. This directory is created automatically the first time that you run a Figaro (or other Starlink) application. However, you can create it manually if you prefer. You can choose to use a different directory by adding a command to your `.login' script. Say, you want to use directory `parameters' under your home directory, then add

   setenv ADAM_USER $HOME/parameters

Similarly, Figaro, and other Starlink packages, use the `Applications Graphics Interface' (AGI) to pass graphical information between related applications, allowing them to inter-operate smoothly. The associated files are created in your home directory by default. However, again you can specify their location by adding a line to your `.login' script. For example

   setenv AGI_USER $HOME/graphics

It is a good idea to delete these files occasionally, since they grow ever bigger and mainly contain old, useless information. The files are called `agi_$<$host$>$.sdf' and there is one for each machine you have used for Starlink graphics.