sp-announcements mailing list archive
Index tcsh on NERSC's IBM SP

From: Richard Gerber (ragerber_at_lbl.gov)
Date: 11/12/2001


Dear Seaborg user,

The "tcsh" shell has been installed in /usr/bin on NERSC's IBM
SP, Seaborg. This allows you to use "tcsh" as a true login shell
and also eliminates the possibility of tcsh-related errors
associated with GPFS file system problems.

To use tcsh as a true login shell:

1. Check your ~/.login.ext file and remove any line that reads

        source $TCSH_DIR/login.tcsh

   Also remove tcsh from any "module load" lines.

2. Log in to sadmin.nersc.gov and use the "chsh" command to
   make tcsh your login shell:

        1. ssh -P sadmin.nersc.gov
        2. chsh
        3. answer yes to the "Change ?" question
        4. type /usr/bin/tcsh at the To?> prompt.

It may take up to 1 hour for the change to propagate to all the
login nodes.

We have tested tcsh as a login shell and all appears to
work well.  However, if you experience any problems please
report them to the NERSC consultants.

If no problems are encountered with /usr/bin/tcsh, tcsh will be
removed from the module environment on December 12, 2001.


For submitting LoadLeveler scripts:

I would recommend that, if you don't already use the "shell"
keyword,  you add a line to your LoadLeveler scripts
that sets the parsing shell to /usr/bin/csh. I think this is
safer than parsing your script through tcsh, simply because
tcsh is not an IBM product and has not been extensively tested
with LoadLeveler. A line like the following can be used:

#@shell         =       /usr/bin/csh

I believe csh has all the scripting capabilities of tcsh.

Thanks,
Richard Gerber

--
******************************************************
* Richard A. Gerber, Ph.D.                           *
* National Energy Research Scientific Computing Ctr  *
* Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory              *
* ragerber_at_nersc_dot_gov                  (510) 486-6820 *
* http://www.nersc.gov/~ragerber                     *
******************************************************