The SIPB Locker The fuzzball will take you home-->

SIPB maintains a locker, /mit/sipb. There is a README file in /mit/sipb/README which describes the layout of the filesystem. To access the programs and files on it, you type attach sipb. This filesystem is the place where SIPB-written or modified programs and documentation can be found. The source code for most of the programs in /mit/sipb can be found on the /mit/sipbsrc filesystem (attach sipbsrc) in the /mit/sipbsrc/src subdirectory. We hope that people will find the programs useful and the source code instructive.

Since Athena provides SGI Indigo, SGI Oxygen, Sun SPARC, and Sun Ultra workstations for public use, most SIPB programs are compiled for use on all these platforms. In addition, some SIPB programs are compiled for the DEC VAXstation, IBM RT, Linux, NetBSD, IBM RS/6000, Sun4 and NeXT machines. To automatically use the versions of the program appropriate to the workstation type you are using, you should add the appropriate bin subdirectory (vaxbin, rtbin, decmipsbin, rsaixbin, sun4bin, or NeXTbin) of the filesystem to your PATH. The PATH variable determines which directories are searched for executable programs if no explicit pathname is given.

To tell Unix to use the /mit/sipb programs in addition to the standard Unix programs, add the following line to your .path file:

set path=($HOME/$bindir /mit/sipb/$bindir $athena_path .)

This will put SIPB programs in your path before standard Unix and Athena commands. Any SIPB programs that have the same names as standard Unix or Athena commands will "mask'' these other programs, so that when you type only the program name the SIPB version will be used. (You can still use the Athena versions by typing the full pathname for their version of the program.) We believe that the programs in the SIPB directories which have the same names as standard Athena programs are more useful than the standard Athena versions, and so we recommend putting the SIPB directory in your path before the Athena path. If you wish to always use the Athena-supplied programs in preference to the SIPB programs, put /mit/sipb/$bindir after $athena_path in the line above. After you attach the SIPB filesystem, you will need to type rehash to re-initialize your shell. Your shell is the program to find the programs in /mit/sipb. In order to read SIPB manual pages, set your MANPATH variable in your .environment file as follows:

setenv MANPATH /mit/sipb/man:$MANPATH

Read the manual page on man for details on how MANPATH works. If you invert the order of $MANPATH and /mit/sipb/man, you will get the standard manual pages before SIPB manual pages if there are identical names in both; as presented above, the SIPB manual pages have precedence. There are many other attachable filesystems with interesting and useful programs on them; it is not possible to catalog all of them here. We can only suggest you ask your friends who might know where the interesting "hacks" are stored. However, there is a short list of some useful filesystems presented later in this document.

Problems or questions with sipb programs should be sent to bug-sipb@mit.edu, except for problems with Usenet news programs, which should be sent to usenet@mit.edu.