BABAR Login Scripts

11 Feb 1997
revision history: 6/2/97, 5/5/98, 6/9/98, 6/29/98
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Using the HEPiX Scripts

Background

When a shell is started, a user start-up script is run to customize your environment. In the case of C-shell (csh), for example, that script is $HOME/.cshrc (where $HOME is your home directory). The .cshrc file is intended to set environment variables, define aliases, and whatever other steps are needed. A special case is a "login shell" which is identical to an ordinary shell except that, in the case of the C-shell, a second start-up script called $HOME/.login is run after the $HOME/.cshrc. It is intended that the .login script perform terminal-specific actions, such as setting keyboard mappings.

The HEPiX group has created a set of login scripts to make the appearance of logging in and the method of customization appear standard from site to site and across multiple Unix architectures. Customizations prepared in this way, e.g. the BABAR environment, should be reasonably portable from site to site. There are six levels of script in this system (executed in order):

HEP

HEP-wide customizations

site

Site-wide customizations (e.g. SLAC or CERN)

system

A particular type of system (e.g. architecture)

cluster

A particular defined group of machines

group

A particular defined group of users (e.g. BABAR)

user

Individual user customizations

New users

1. Make tcsh your default login shell (this should be the default if you have a new account, otherwise, you must send email to unix-admin@slac.stanford.edu with this request).
2. Copy the template login files to your home directory (remove any pre-existing .cshrc, .login, .kshrc files first)

   cp /afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/Newuser/cshrc $HOME/.cshrc
   cp /afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/Newuser/login $HOME/.login
         
   

3. Edit the templates to suit your needs. There are a number of commented-out lines that may be reactivated with your choice, for example, of a nearby printer.
4. Create the directory $HOME/.hepix and copy a small file identifying "babar" as the preferred group. This will cause the BABAR-specific environment to be established.

   mkdir $HOME/.hepix
   cp /afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/Newuser/preferred-group $HOME/.hepix
          
   

5. To test the new system, DO NOT LOGOUT! From your current shell, telnet to any SLAC machine. If something fails, you will have your original shell still running to make corrections.

Existing C-shell (and tcsh) users

To convert your login to a HEPiX-style login do the following steps.

1. Copy your $HOME/.cshrc just in case something screws up:

   cd $HOME
   cp .cshrc original.cshrc
   

2. Create the directory $HOME/.hepix and copy a small file identifying "babar" as the preferred group. This will cause the BABAR-specific environment to be established.

   mkdir $HOME/.hepix
   cp /afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/Newuser/preferred-group $HOME/.hepix
          
   

3. Add the following lines at or near the beginning of your $HOME/.cshrc file:

   if ( -r /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_env.csh ) then
     source /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_env.csh
   endif
   

   Note there is a somewhat longer version of this code in the template described in the New users section above. The only difference is how oddball platforms (e.g. SGI, Linux, NeXT) are handled; in particular, if the HEPiX scripts do not exist for a particular platform, an attempt is made to execute the BABAR group script.
4. If you currently call the BABAR login scripts in your $HOME/.cshrc, remove them as they are no longer needed and the old scripts are obsolete and will not be maintained. This code may look like any of the following lines (other variations are possible):

   source /nfs/juno/u5/etc/profile/.babar_environ
   source /afs/slac.stanford.edu/g/babar/etc/profile/.babar_environ
   source $BFPROFILE/.babar_slac
   source /nfs/juno/u5/etc/profile/.bfcshrc
   source /afs/slac.stanford.edu/g/babar/etc/profile/.bfcshrc
   

5. If you currently call the SLAC "environ" script, remove it as it is superceded by the HEPiX scripts and will, eventually, become obsolete and unsupported. This line may look like this:

   eval `/usr/local/bin/environ /bin/tcsh -i${?prompt} motif -e emacs:vi`
   

6. Look through your.cshrc file for other BABAR-related items, such as defining environmental variables ("setenv BF...") or setting up the SRT system,

   source $BFROOT/dist/releases/current/SoftRelTools/SRTstartup.csh
   

   In most cases, all of this stuff may be safely discarded. If you do not know if you need this or not, it is probably safe to discard it, otherwise keep it.
7. Add the following code at or near the beginning of your $HOME/.login

   if ( -r /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_login.csh ) then
     source /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_login.csh
   endif
   

8. If you currently call the BABAR login script from your $HOME/.login, remove them as they are now obsolete. The code will look similar to the that in step 2. above, but with names like ".bflogin"
9. (recommended only) Remove any pre-existing ~/.kshrc file you may have.
10. To test the new system, DO NOT LOGOUT! From your current shell, telnet to any SLAC machine. If something fails, you will have your original shell still running to make corrections.

Existing Bourne-shell (and bash/korn/zsh) users

To convert your login to a HEPiX-style login do the following steps.

1. Backup your $HOME/.profile file and any other configuration file your shell may use just in case something screws up:

   cd $HOME
   cp .profile original.profile
   

2. If your shell has a resource dot file, (e.g. $HOME/.bashrc), add the following lines at or near the beginning of it:

   if [ -r /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_env.sh ]; then
     . /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_env.sh
   fi
   

3. If you currently source any BABAR login scripts in your resource files or any Bourne shell equivalents you created, remove them as they are no longer needed and the old scripts are obsolete and will not be maintained. These scripts define BABAR specific environment variables ("setenv BF..."), set up the SRT system and add BABAR binary directories to your PATH. Example:

   source $BFROOT/dist/releases/current/SoftRelTools/SRTstartup.sh
   

4. If you currently call the SLAC "environ" script, remove it as it is superceded by the HEPiX scripts and will, eventually, become obsolete and unsupported. This line may look like this:

   eval `/usr/local/bin/environ /bin/ksh -i${?prompt} motif -e emacs:vi`
   

5. Add the following code at or near the beginning of your $HOME/.profile

   if [ -r /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_login.sh ]; then
     . /usr/local/lib/hepix/central_login.sh
   fi
   

6. Create the directory $HOME/.hepix and copy a small file identifying "babar" as the preferred group. This will cause the BABAR-specific environment to be established.

   mkdir $HOME/.hepix
   cp /afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/Newuser/preferred-group $HOME/.hepix
          
   

7. To test the new system, DO NOT LOGOUT! From your current shell, telnet to any SLAC machine. If something fails, you will have your original shell still running to make corrections.

Exceptional Cases

Overriding $BFARCH
Temporary "transitional" architecture names were used in the past during the change from using gcc to the vendor C++ compiler. We needed distinct locations for libraries and binaries created by different compilers as they were not interchangable, hence the designation "HPUX9-native", etc. It likely we will need to use this mechanism again in the future, e.g. as we migrate to new versions of compilers.
Another need arises when an underlying architecture changes (e.g. an OS upgrade), but old libraries and executables continue to function. For example, OSF1v3 binaries continued to work even if your machine had been upgraded to OSF1v4. When this happens, the normal mechanism for setting BFARCH will attempt to use the new architecture designation - even if there is no release for it.
The suggested way to deal with both situations is to define the value of BFARCH in your .cshrc script before calling the HEPiX scripts. For example, (in C-shell for a SLAC user):

set flavor = `/afs/slac/g/babar/etc/hepix/flavor`
switch($flavor )
#                   Point to native AIX compiler
 case *_AIX-4*:
    setenv BFARCH AIX4-native
 breaksw
#                   Let DUX4 pretend to be DUX3
 case *_OSF-4*:
    setenv BFARCH OSF1V3-native
 breaksw
endsw

Reference

This page is maintained by Tom Glanzman