Version 3.0 of the HEPIX scripts

Arnaud Taddei


Acknowlegdments

To Roger Jones Roger.Jones@mail.cern.ch and Alan Silverman alan@mail.cern.ch for their very good feed back and for improving my very bad English.


This document describes the new 3.0 version of the HEPiX scripts. The last production version was number 2.5.1.

This new version is a major new release of the HEPiX startup-scripts because it introduces the HEPiX X11 startup scripts beside the shell startup-scripts which are more well-known and much more mature now. The latter have been in production on several HEP sites since the end of 1994.

Because of the introduction of the HEPiX X11 scripts, a major reorganisation was necessary. The main consequence is that the /usr/local/lib/hepix directory have been re-organised and all the internal references have been reset. In previous versions, all the files were under /usr/local/lib/hepix which is unmanageable now.

The /usr/local/lib/hepix directory is structured in the following way:

                               #============================================
   /usr/local/lib/hepix	       # The directory should contain only 9 
      |                        # files called "central" files and these files
      |                        #  should stay there. 
      |                        #============================================
      |---X11                  # All the files for the HEPiX X11 
      |    |                   #--------------------------------------------
      |    |---hep             # the hep level (main engine) 
      |    |---site            # the site customisation
      |    |---xdm             # the xdm configuration hepix wrappers
      |                        #============================================
      |---shells               # All the files for HEPiX shells
      |    |                   #--------------------------------------------
      |    |---hep             # the hep level (main engine) 
      |    |---site            # the site customisation
      |    |---wrappers        # the shells wrappers
      |                        #============================================
      |---templates            # The user templates
      |                        #============================================
      |---tools                # The auxiliary VERY useful tools!
                               #============================================
Warning: because of this new organisation, if you were using the HEPiX scripts in enforced mode, you must make a full installation of this new version in enforced mode to make sure that you are using the 3.0 shells wrappers. (For more information consult the sysadmin guide).

Why is it called "3.0"?

Usually people dislike a version when it is called .0 or beta It is called 3.0 because it is the first release of the X11 part and although it is workable and already in production on some machines, we don't yet know all the needs and users/system administrators wishes. Indeed, this version provides only few keyboard xmodmap settings and some aspects of the interface haven't been discussed yet (like the HX_ROOT_WINDOW major switch default, etc.). These are more "taste" problems and "cosmetic" aspects. The main point here is that the HEPiX X11 feature provides a powerful architecture and we can now build a decent default quite easily.

What is in this new version?

This version fixes some bugs and enables new features. Let's go through the components and list them:

  1. Shells
  2. X11
  3. Templates
  4. Tools
  5. Documentation


Shells

Bug fixes

New features


X11 features


Templates

shell templates:
The only new thing is the addition of an example of how to set the FMHOME environment variable to be used by FrameMaker.

X11 templates


Tools

uco
The "User Companion" or the reset button if you messed up something in your home directory.
The interface is completely new, much more verbose and displays menus. You can operate on the following areas:

This tool should evolve and an Xclient interface may be provided, in order to have some kind of equivalent to the "Control Panel" on Windows.

Once installed enter

        uco -h
for help.

make.pl
This command uses the same flags as before but has been completely rewritten.
Enter ./make.pl -h for Help
Note as well that you can install the HEPiX scripts as joe user in your HOME directory. Of course these would be better installed on the system level (consult the help or the sysadmin guide).


Documentation

Several documents are available for you:
  1. README
    This document
  2. Architectural Design Documentation --- Not Ready Yet ---
    The document which contains the design ideas and motivations:
    What is available today.
  3. Project Management Document --- Not Ready Yet ---
    The document which contains the project management issues:
    What had been done in the past
  4. Todo list --- Not Ready Yet ---
    The "Todo" list:
    What has to be done in the future
  5. Reference Guide --- Not Ready Yet ---
    The reference which contains all the details.
  6. User Guide
    How a user can use and customise his environment if he really wants
  7. System Administrator Guide
    How to install and customise the HEPiX scripts for a system, a site, a cluster of machines or a group of users.
  8. Copyright
    The legal aspects
  9. Version
    A basic description of the current Version 3.0 (file propagated by the CERN ASIS system)
  10. Description
    A short description of the HEPiX scripts version 3.0 (file propagated by the CERN ASIS system)

Arnaud Taddei, 22-Nov-1995