The cluster computers run Linux with the following setup (and commands to check for changes)

Running CentOS. On econ1-5 it is release 5.11 (Final) (Linux kernel version 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 64 bit (x86_64). On econ0,6-18 it is 6.6

cat /etc/issue
uname -a

gcc v4.1.2 20080704

gcc --version

mpich3.1 and openmpi v1.8 are installed (mpich2 v1.2.1p1 is also installed)

rpm -qid mpich
rpm -qid openmpi

Openoffice (free office software like Microsoft Office) is installed. Type openoffice.org.

===== Browser =====. econ0-5 have Firefox. This requires X-forwarding (so the GUI shows up on your home machine). This might have a significant lag so you can also try the text-only browser elinks. This can be much faster if all you want to do is download large files to the cluster.

Nano is a very simple console text editor. To use it to edit a file, type:

$ nano [file name]

Note that nano may automatically wrap long lines (unless started with

-w

) and it does not have an undo function.

Gedit is a simple GUI text editor. You will need an X-server to run it. It's only installed on some of the machines (econ1-5).

$ gedit [file name]

Emacs is one of the oldest text-editors (along with vi(m)). If you have an X-server running it will start with a GUI otherwise it will automatically start in console-mode. To start, enter the command:

$ emacs

To edit a file, use:

$ emacs [file name]

You can find an interactive emacs tutorial by typing

C-h t

(Control+h together, then t).

To quit, type

C-x C-c

(Control+h together, then Control-c together).

You can run [http://www.vim.org/ Vim] with:

$ vim

Upon starting Vim, you will be in 'command mode'. In command mode, you cannot actually edit a file. To edit the file press i to enter 'insert mode' and press Esc to return to 'command mode'. A tutorial is available for Vim, by typing

:help

and pressing enter (in command mode). To quit, type

:quit

+Enter (in command mode).

You can in general install program that are stored completely in your user directory and don't require “administrative” privileges.

• In general, you should be able to run “portable” apps such as those listed at portablelinuxapps.org
• R and Stata packages will automatically be installed in your user-space when you use normal install commands.
• Python packages: You can install them into your user scheme. Installing packages is easiest with python2.7. Example:

easy_install-2.7 --user pip