Linux Computing

Most Linux machines in Natural Sciences computing are running a derivative of RedHat Enterprise with the same software base. Whether you are using one of our Linux compute servers, or a desktop machine, the environment should be very similar. If you have difficulties, or notice missing packages, don't hesitate to let us know.

Documentation may often be found in /usr/share/doc/packagename. Alternatively, try man 'application-name' to view the manual page.

Usage Tips

Connecting a USB Drive

Recommended Software by Category:

Astronomical Software
- IFRIT - IFRIT - 3-dimensional visualization tool
- IRAF - Image Reduction and Analysis Facility
- HEAsoft - Ftools + Xanadu
- Root - object oriented data analysis framework
- Supermongo - an interactive plotting package for drawing graphs
- SAS - software to reduce and analyze data collected by the XMM-Newton observatory
Compilers
- gcc - the GNU compiler collection
- Intel Fortran Compiler - includes Fortran 90 compiler
- PGI - includes Fortran 90 compiler
Troubleshooting Intel, PGI, GNU Compilers
Conversion
- convert - convert jpg to postscript
- gzip - compress and uncompress files
- djvu - convert various formats to djvu
- netpbm-progs - contains many scripts for converting from one graphics file format to another
- pdftex,pdflatex - convert latex to pdf
- ps2pdf - convert postscript to pdf
- pdf2ps - convert pdf to postscript
- Converting Byte Endianness of Unformatted Data
Distributed Computing
- SNS Condor Project - run jobs on multiple machines transparently
Drawing
- dia - diagram drawing program
- xfig - interactive figure generation tool
Editors
- emacs
- nedit
- vi
Email
- mozilla
- pine
- thunderbird
Image Manipulation
- gimp - a free Adobe Photoshop clone
- xv - interactive image display
Libraries
- CERNLIB
- CFITSIO
- FFTW
- HDF5
- IDL Astronomy User's Library
- Lapack
- NAG Libraries
- Numerical Recipes
- PGPLOT
Mathematical
- IDL
- Maple
- Mathematica
- Matlab
- Singular/Plural - a computer algebra system for polynomial computations
Miscellaneous
- Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT)
- CVS - change management for your code
- Subversion - change management for your code; a compelling replacement to CVS
Multimedia
- RealPlayer
Office
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Endnote
- Microsoft Word with Endnote
- OpenOffice
Web Browsers
- lynx - a text-based browser
- firefox
- mozilla
Visualization
- ds9
- gnuplot - a simple, interactive plotting program
- IDL
- Matlab
- OpenDX
- PawX11
- Povray - a tool for creating 3D graphics
- xmgr - a two dimensional data visualization tool
Viewers
- acroread - view pdf documents
- djvu - view djvu documents
- gv/ghostview - view postscript documents
- xdiff - graphical utility to compare files and selectively combine differences between them
- xdvi - view dvi files
Windows
- Citrix - access a full Windows desktop from a terminal server
- Crossover Office - access Windows applications directly on your desktop