ECON Knowledge Base

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======Cluster Software======

The list of currently installed software on the cluster. If you wish to have additional software installed, please email econcluster@umd.edu.

^Software ^Version ^Terminal Command ^
| GCC | 11.4.1 | gcc |
| Matlab | R2023a | matlab |
| Python | 3.9 | python |
| Python | 3.11 | python3.11 |
| R | 4.4.2 | R |
| Stata | 18 MP8 | stata-mp |

=====Python=====

To run a pre-written python script, type <code>python script.py</code>

==== Installing Libraries via VENV ====

To install a library that doesn't come with the initial installation, you first need to create a virtual environment (where $NAME is what you choose to name your virtual environment)
<code>python -m venv $NAME</code>
after creating, activate the environment
<code>source environment_name/bin/activate</code>
(you should now see the environment on the far left of the terminal line). After that, you can simply install any library using pip from the command line
<code>pip install pandas</code>

=====R=====
====Batch Mode====
You can run an R file in batch mode with <code>R CMD BATCH filename.R</code>
To run your R command in the background, see [[cluster:managing_jobs|Managing Jobs]].

====Installing Packages=====
To install an R package, type in the interactive mode <code>install.packages($PACKAGE_NAME)</code>
 
====Introduction to R====
The following section comes initially from an introductory talk on R given by Paul Bailey in February 2011.  The data used in the examples is located at [[http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pdbailey/R/MDemp.csv|this link]].

===R Background===
  * Based on Bell Labs S
  * Open source software
    * Large group of contributors
    * Most R code is written in R
    * Computationally intensive code written in FORTRAN or C
  * Datasets, matrices are native types
  * Easy, customizable graphics

===R Pros===
  * Free
  * Easy to get a sense of what is going on with data
  * Excellent at simulation
  * Interfaces with lots of other software (i.e. WINBUGS, SQL)

===R Cons===
  * Uses RAM to store data
  * Support mainly via listserves
  * Difficult to get started

===Read in Data===
  * Some type specific methods, and a general method <code>dat <- read.csv("MDemp.csv")</code> and general methods <code>dat <- read.table("MDemp.csv",sep=",")</code>

===Getting Help===
  * You can use the following command to get the help page for a command: <code>?</code>
  * To search for text in help text use the following command: <code>??</code>

===Summary===
  * Getting summaries is easy: ''summary(dat)''
  * You can also focus on one variable
<code>
summary(dat$num_child)
table(dat$num_child)
</code>

===Subset Data===
  * When you reference something with ''[condition,]'' you can select rows:
<code>
dat.lf <- dat[dat$emp %in% c("emp","unemp"),]
dat.hs <- dat.lf[dat.lf$educ==39,]
</code>

===Linear Models===
  * The **lm** function fits linear models with a formula:
<code>
lm1 <- lm(weekly_earn ~ age + year,data=dat)
summary(lm1)
</code>
  * You can also treat a variable as a factor:
<code>
dat$yearf <- as.factor(dat$year)
lm2 <- lm(weekly_earn ~ age + yearf,data=dat)
summary(lm2)
</code>
  * And change constraints:
<code>
contrasts(dat$yearf) <- "contr.sum"
lm3 <- lm(weekly_earn ~ age + yearf,data=dat)
summary(lm3)
</code>

===Aggregate===
  * Allows you to create summary statistics for groups
  * First argument is what you want to summarize
  * Second argument is what you want to group by
  * Their argument is what to do to the groups
<code>
agg.hs <- aggregate(dat.hs$emps,by=list(dat.lf$yq),mean)
</code>
  * Results names a little odd.
  * 
===Merge===
  * Groups two datasets by shared columns
<code>
merged <- merge(data.a,data.b)
</code>
* Lots of options for this one

===Parallel===
Some basic info can be found at the [[http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/HighPerformanceComputing.html|High Performance Computing CRAN view]]. You can use the "parallel" package (which merges both "snow" and "multicore"). 

You can also use [[http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rmpi/index.html|Rmpi]] and [[http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/npRmpi/index.html|npRmpi]] packages. You have your choice of MPI2 libraries (both OpenMPI and MPICH2). You will have to install the packages in your userspace (requiring compilation).

^^OpenMPI^MPICH2^
|Before anything (installation or usage)|>module load openmpi-x86_64|>module load mpich2-x86_64|
|Installation|	R> install.packages("<package>", configure.args="--with-Rmpi-include=/usr/lib64/openmpi/1.4-gcc/include --with-Rmpi-libpath=/usr/lib64/openmpi/1.4-gcc/lib --with-Rmpi-type=OPENMPI")|R> install.packages("<package>", configure.args="-with-Rmpi-include=/usr/include/mpich2-x86_64 --with-Rmpi-libpath=/usr/lib64/mpich2/lib --with-Rmpi-type=MPICH")|

A good intro guide is [[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jae.1221/pdf|npRmpi: A package for parallel distributed kernel estimation in R]].

===Other functions===
  * ''merge'' merges datasets
  * ''glm'' fits limited dependent variable models.
  * ''optim'' minimizes / finds zeros
  * [[http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Econometrics.html|Contributed econometrics packages]]

=====Stata=====
====Batch Mode=====
You can run a .do file in batch mode with
<code>
stata-mp -b do dofile.do
</code>

To allow your do-file to continue running when you log off from your terminal, preface the command with "nohup". For example:
<code>
nohup stata-mp -b do dofile.do &
</code>

For more information on how to run your Stata command in the background, see [[Managing_Jobs|Managing Jobs]]

==== Temporary Files ====
By default, Stata saves tempfiles (from -tempfile- or -preserve-) to /nfs/home/$USERNAME/stata-tmp/. If you would like Stata to save temporary files in a new location (e.g. $HOME/statatmp) then from the command-line execute the follow before executing Stata:
<code>
export STATATMP=$HOME/statatmp 
</code>

One reason you might want to do this is that files are removed from /home/stata-tmp/ if they haven't been touched for a day. If you have a Stata process that runs for longer this may cause problems with reading from tempfiles or -restore-.

==== Installing Extra Packages ====
If you are using extra packages on your home/work computer and need them installed on the cluster, you can install them via ssc: 

<code>
ssc install outreg
</code>

You will then have a folder installed within your home directory called "ado", which contains your new commands filed away.
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