Installing Motif-IRAS

This link describes one way to install Motif-IRAS on a workstation. It is intended only as a guide for those who are not well-versed in the workings of Unix.

Getting the Software

The first thing you want to do is decide where you want to put the software. Open up a command window and change your default directory to "/usr/local" as follows:

Next use ftp to get the software as follows:

Uncompress and unpack the archive as follows:

You should notice a bunch of text scrolling in the command window. When the scrolling has stopped, the software is installed. All of the software and accessory files can be found under :/usr/local/motif_iras". However, there are still some things you should do before you can run IRAS.

Helping your System find the IRAS binaries

An easy way to help your system find the IRAS binaries is to modify the "PATH" environment variable. Assuming that you run under the C Shell you should modify the ".cshrc" file in your login (HOME) directory and add the directory "/usr/local/motif_iras/bin" to the definition for "path" or "PATH".

Customizing IRAS resources

IRAS maintains a substantial number of global varials to define things such as window size, directory paths, color tables, etc. You can initialize many of these through the use of the IRAS resource file, ".iras-init". IRAS users should have a copy of this file in their login (HOME) directory. A sample copy can be found in "/usr/local/motif_iras", Copy this file to your home directory as follows:

Edit this file and make appropriate changes to fit the configuration of your system. For example, you should change the "iras_map_directory" entry to "/usr/local/motif_iras/maps". Any lines beginning with a "#" are ignored. Set the value of "scratch_directory" to a directory on a disk with adequate space (recommend >50mb).

Test IRAS command

If you just edited the ".cshrc" file in this session, then you need to make the changes effective by sourcing it as follows:

Otherwise, you won't have to source it since the ".cshrc" file is sourced automatically every time you log in.

If everything was set up properly you should see the following control bar appear in your display:

The first icon button starts the IRAS analysis/display tool. The second icon button provides an interface to the magnetic tape unit for cataloging and extracting files from tape. The third icon button provides a means for creating color PostScript copies of any display window. The last icon button closes the control menu.

Any comments, suggestions, etc., should be sent to dave@thunder.ias.sdsmt.edu