This is not even close to a complete guide to Athena. There are documentation racks in most clusters; the ones in Barker and Hayden libraries are the largest and have thousands of pages of manuals covering every bit of esoterica on the system. This document is simply the least you need to know to use Athena. For more detail, see Working on Athena and Managing Your Athena Account, both available at Graphic Arts for free. If you want to become a more advanced user, pick up a copy of the SIPB Inessential Guide to Athena.
The large window on the left side of your screen is an ``xterm''
window. X is the name of the window system on Athena, and xterm is a
program that provides ``terminal'' windows in X. You can start
another xterm by typing xterm & at the athena%
prompt. You can have as many xterms as you want.
If you stay logged in for more than ten hours, your ``Kerberos
tickets'' will expire. You will be unable to read new mail or access
some of your files. (Kerberos is the security system on
Athena; the ten-hour limit helps prevent someone else from stealing
your tickets and gaining access to your account.) If this happens,
find a free xterm and type renew to get new tickets. These
will last another ten hours.
To change your current directory and move around, type cd
followed by the name of the directory you want to go to. (For
example, cd /usr/athena.) If you just type cd on a
line by itself, you'll go back to your home directory.
You can create ``subdirectories'' (which are sort of like drawers in a
filing cabinet) by typing mkdir (make
directory) and the new directory at the athena% prompt.
You can move into a different directory with the cd
(change directory) command. If you type cd on a
line by itself, you'll go back to your home directory; if you type a
directory name after cd, you will go to that directory.
Athena uses the Andrew File System, or AFS, for managing
files. See the SIPB document
Inessential AFS for detailed information.
If you are planning to use LaTeX, you must end your filename with
.tex. Paragraphs don't have to be indented, but you should
leave a blank line between paragraphs. When you run your paper
through LaTeX, indentation will be added.
Here is a list of some useful Emacs commands:
You will need to put LaTeX commands in the Emacs file. All LaTeX
commands begin with a backslash. The first line in your file should
be \documentstyle{article}. (There are other styles besides
article, including report, book, and
letter. For more information on the LaTeX commands, see
Inessential LaTeX from SIPB, or look in help.)
Your title page is set up with \title{This is My Title} and
\author{This is My Name}. The body of your paper goes after
\begin{document} and \maketitle. At the end of the
file, put \end{document}.
There are some special characters in LaTeX that are one-character
commands. These are \#, \$, \%, \&, \{, \}, and \_. If you want to
type any of these in your paper, put a backslash in front of them as
shown. You can't use backslashes, tildes, or carets without more
advanced magic. Most accents are entered with \'a,
\`a, or \~n (for á , à , and ñ ).
For a comprehensive list of accents, see Inessential LaTeX or
the Latex Manual.
To start a new section, type \section{Purple Ogres}. Inside a
section, you can use \subsection and \subsubsection.
If you want to put something in italics, you need to type
{\em italics}. If you want bold, type {\bf
bold}. {\sf Sans-serif}, {\sl slant}, and
{\sc Small Caps} give sans-serif letters, slanted letters, and
small capitals, respectively (but these can't be shown here).
LaTeX is very powerful when it comes to typesetting equations and
other mathematics. It also does tables, lists, poetry, and other
special ``environments.'' If you're going to need any of these, pick
up a copy of Inessential LaTeX.
Logging In and Logging Out
When you type your username and password in the login window, you will
be ``logged in'' to Athena. While you are logged in you can read and
send electronic mail, write papers, play games, and lots more. When
you are done with your ``session,'' click a mouse button on the
``Logout'' window at the bottom of the screen to log out. Don't
turn the machine off! Once you have logged out the workstation is
ready for the next user.
Changing Your Password
Type passwd at the athena% prompt to change your
password. It should take effect immediately. You should change your
password at least once every term, and be sure to use a
good password.
Directories
Your information is stored in files, which are stored in
directories. Your ``home directory'' is /mit/
followed by your username (e.g., /mit/amgreene). This is
where all your files will be stored.
Listing, Copying, and Deleting Files
To get a list of the files in the current directory, type ls.
To look at files in another directory, type the directory name after
ls (e.g., ls /usr/athena). To copy a file from one
name to another, type cp followed by the old name and the new
name (e.g., cp paper paper-backup). When you want to get rid
of a file, you can use the delete command (e.g., delete
junk). If you made a mistake, the undelete command will
bring your file back if you do it within a day or so(e.g.,
undelete thesis).
Mail
To see if you have new mail, type from; this is the command
that tells you if you have new mail when you login. If you have mail,
you can get it with inc. You can view your mail with
show and next. To list your messages, type
scan. To start composing a mail message to send out, type
comp. (All of these commands get typed at the
athena% prompt.)
Word Processing
You have three options for word processing on Athena. The usual
method for editing a paper is a three-step process: first you type it
in, then you format it, then you print it. More detailed instructions
for LaTeX are below. EZ is a simpler
``what-you-see-is-what-you-get'' program; Frame is a more
complicated option that's best for larger documents. Documentation is
available on all of these.
Getting Help
The following resources are available:
Resource How to Use
On-Line Help Type help at the athena% prompt.
On-Line Consultants Type olc at the athena% prompt.
Athena Consultants Call x3-4435 or stop by 11-115.
Athena Accounts Call x3-1325 for help with accounts or passwords.
Athena Documentation Purchase at Graphic Arts in 11-004.
Unix Manual Pages Type man and the command you want to look up.
(For example, ``man ls''.)
SIPB Call x3-7788 or stop by W20-557.
Other users Ask someone who looks friendly.
Emacs
To start the text editor Emacs, simply type emacs & at the
athena% prompt. Emacs commands are usually written as
follows: C-x means hold down the Ctrl key while
hitting the x key; M-x means do the same thing with
the ``Meta'' key (which is labelled ``Compose Character'' or ``Alt''
on most keyboards).
Help C-h Help (tutorial) C-h t
Get rid of the help window C-x 1 Switch buffers C-x b
Edit a file C-x C-f Page up M-v
Save current file C-x C-s Page down C-v
Word-wrap a paragraph M-q Find a command M-x apropos
Exit C-x C-c Undo C-backspace
More information on Emacs is available in the booklet Emacs on
Athena also available from Graphic Arts.
LaTeX
LaTeX will convert an Emacs file to a printable file. To run
LaTeX over your file, use C-x C-s in Emacs to save it and
then, at an athena% prompt, type latex
filename.tex.
Previewing Output on the Screen
You can see what your LaTeX output looks like by typing xdvi
followed by the filename, without the .tex suffix.
If you want to keep it running in the ``background,'' put an ampersand
(&) at the end of the command line (e.g., xdvi paper1 &). In
xdvi, you can use the space bar and backspace key to go forward or
back one page, and the mouse buttons to ``zoom in'' on an area of the
page. Xdvi will automatically update whenever you rerun LaTeX to
display any changes you made.
Printing
LaTeX output is stored in a file whose name ends in .dvi. To print
it, you need to convert it to PostScript and send it to a printer. If
the file is paper1.dvi, and you want to print it on the printer
named python, type dvips -Ppython paper1 at the athena%
prompt. (Be sure to add sipb first.)
About this Document
SIPB Documents are traditionally called ``Inessential,''
even when they contain useful information.
The following are trademarks: X - MIT X Consortium; Unix - AT&T; LaTeX
- American Mathematical Society; PostScript - Adobe Systems.
Version 1.3 by amgreene 18-Oct-89;
Version 1.4 by amgreene 21-Aug-90;
Version 1.5 by sorokin 3-Oct-93;
Converted to HTML by rjbarbal 29-Aug-94;
Copyright 1994 by the SIPB of MIT.