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--- computing:department:unix:software:idl [2009/01/19 19:47] – allan
+++ computing:department:unix:software:idl [2015/11/25 10:50] (current) – allan
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== IDL on Physics linux systems ======
-Online help in IDL 7.0 may not work properly without taking special steps.
+IDL is supported on the linux cluster primarily for specific research groups in Astronomy and Cosmology. A few licenses are also provided by Physics and Astronomy for general use.
-IDL's release notes have this to say about the fix to their help system:
+To use IDL, you first need to load the software module:
-<code>
+  module load idl
-  If you use the IDL Workbench, simply starting the Workbench
-  with the
+After that, for a command line interface, type
+  idl
-    idlde
+or for IDL's development environment, type
+  idlde
-  command causes IDL to use the newly-installed version of
+For interactive help, type
-  XULRunner. If you use IDL in command-line mode (without starting
+  idlhelp
-  the IDL Workbench), you must start the IDL help server before
-  starting IDL in order for the ? command to work properly.
-  To do this, enter the following commands at the shell prompt:
-    idlhelp
+===== The IDL Astronomy User's Library =====
-    idl
-  Note that the IDL help server continues to run after you have
+<note>possibly outdated info?</note>
-  ended your IDL session. If you prefer to shut down the IDL help
-  server, enter the following command at the shell prompt:
-    idlhelp -command shutdown
+The IDL Astronomy Users Library is a central repository for low-level astronomy software written in the commercial language IDL. More info at http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
-  Depending on your system, it may take several moments for the
+In order to use the network copy of this software, you must modify the IDL_PATH environment path.
-  help server to start. Leaving the help server running speeds up
-  the response time of the ? command significantly.
+For csh:
-</code>
+  setenv IDL_PATH "<IDL_DEFAULT>:/local/astro/idl_astro/pro"
+for bash:
+  export IDL_PATH="<IDL_DEFAULT>:/local/astro/idl_astro/pro"
+===== Running multiple copies of IDL on the same machine =====
+This hint was taken from Princeton Astronomy department: IDL hands out licenses based on hostname+username+display. If all three of those are equal, you can start as many sessions as you want and only consume one license. The modern habit of letting ssh create X tunnels causes the display name to be different for each ssh connection, even if several connections come from a single host. There are several ways of making your DISPLAY name the same for all such connections. The simplest is to note which your first one is (echo $DISPLAY), and set DISPLAY on other connections to that. Or for a console-only IDL session, simply unset DISPLAY completely.
+===== Running IDL jobs without license restrictions =====
+The IDL Virtual Machine which lets you run an IDL "executable" file without the need for licenses. Here's some more information about this feature from NYU Physics: http://www.physics.nyu.edu/grierlab/idl_html_help/distributing6.html
+This can also help you run multiple IDL jobs in parallel through **condor** without being encumbered by available licenses. See http://www.iac.es/sieinvens/siepedia/pmwiki.php?n=HOWTOs.CondorAndIDLVirtualMachine for some pointers.
+===== Problems and workarounds =====
+none at present

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