Configuring your GL Linux environment

There are at least two different versions of LaTeX on the GL. I have received reports about misconfigured GL Linux environments that access an obsolete (over 10 years old!) version of LaTeX which is missing quite a bit of functionality.

What to do

Whether or not your environment is configured badly, you will benefit from the following:

1. Log into your GL Linux machine. Bring up a terminal. At the prompt type “echo $SHELL” (without the quotation marks) and hit Enter. If the response is /bin/tcsh then follow the rest of these instructions, otherwise let me know what you got and I will give you alternative instructions.
2. Go to your home directory. The simple way to assure that you are in your home directory is to type “cd” (without the quotes) and hit Enter.
3. Type “wget http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rostamia/.tcshrc” (without the quotes) and hit Enter. This will download my .tcshrc file to your home directory.

   Remark: It is easiest to copy and paste that “wget” line to avoid typos. If you are going to type it by hand, beware that there is only a single space in that entire line.

   For your information: In Unix, files whose names begin with a dot, such as .tcshrc, are “hidden” in the sense that they are not shown when you list files with the “ls” command. Typing “ls -a” will show them.

4. Log out.
5. Log into your GL Linux machine. Everything should work much better now.

In addition to assuring that you are using the latest version of LaTeX, the downloaded .tcshrc file enhances your working environment in several other ways. For instance, the command prompt will change automatically to reflect the name of the subdirectory you are in at any moment.

Extra note for Unix-aware users

The file .tcshrc sets the tcsh's $path variable as:

set path = ( \
        ~/bin \
        /usr/bin \
        /bin \
        /usr/sbin \
        /sbin \
        /usr/X11R6/bin \
        /usr/local/X11 \
        /usr/local/bin \
	/afs/umbc.edu/common/bin \
        . \
        )