Institutional Computing Services

Frequently Asked Questions
UNIX

Q: I've forgotten my login password. How do I find out what it is?

A: In most cases, you cannot find out what the password was, you can only request that a user-ID be given a new password. This is the case for Banner, and any HP (Unix) user-ID.

For the account types indicated, new passwords may be requested from the following sources:

• Banner, HP "jade" server (Unix) - Vicki Winn (ext. 3351)
• IA system, IBM ("A" machine) - Vicki Winn
  (ext. 3351)
• network (LAN) - ACNS Help Desk (ext. 2910)

Examples:

     im4isu     nine11     2sexy4myshirt

NOTE: You must change your password at least every 90 days. The system will prompt you if this deadline expires.
- John Gallagher

Q: What is 'finger' information, and how do I change it?

A: The UNIX command chfn ("change finger") is used to change information about a user. The information consists of the user's "real life" name, location, office phone number, and home phone number which is used by the finger command and other programs. chfn prompts the user for each field. Included in the prompt is a default value, which is enclosed in brackets. The default value is accepted simply by pressing the [Return] or [Enter] key. To enter a blank field, type the word none. Also, chfn allows phone numbers to be entered with or without hyphens.

NOTE: Location is actually the person's control area mail box number, NOT his/her office room number. Location is where output printed on the system printer is distributed at the Computing Services control counter.

Example:

     BOX09

To verify that your new information was processed correctly, enter the UNIX command finger username where username is your login ID.
- John Gallagher

Q: How do I copy a file from someone else's user-ID in HP-UNIX?

A: Use the cp command to copy files. You must have read-execute permission in order to copy the file. (I've tried it with read-only, but it doesn't work.) You can name your copy something different than the original file.

HINT: Use the tilda (~) to indicate a home directory. This saves typing in the entire pathname.

Examples:

COPYING TO A FILE WITH THE SAME NAME: To copy the file lbltest2.fex from (the home directory of) user-ID ccjohn, you can use the following command:

cp /u22/user/ccjohn/lbltest2.fex lbltest2.fex

OR

cp ~ccjohn/lbltest2.fex lbltest2.fex

COPYING TO A FILE WITH A DIFFERENT NAME: To copy the file pidm.fex from (the home directory of) user-ID ccjohn and rename it whozat.fex in your directory, you may use the following command: cp /u22/user/ccjohn/pidm.fex whozat.fex

OR

cp ~/ccjohn/pidm.fex whozat.fex

COPYING FROM ONE OF THEIR SUBDIRECTORIES: To copy the file rpthead.fex from the subdirectory finance in user-ID ccjohn, you may use the following command: cp /u22/user/ccjohn/finance/rpthead.fex rpthead.fex

OR

cp ~ccjohn/finance/cashier2.fex cashier2.fex

COPYING TO ONE OF YOUR SUBDIRECTORIES: [This example assumes you have a subdirectory named test.]

To copy the file chartest.fex from (the home directory of) user-ID ccjohn to your subdirectory test while you are in your home directory, you may use the following command: cp /u22/user/ccjohn/chartest.fex ./test/chartest.fex

OR

cp ~ccjohn/chartest.fex ./test/chartest.fex

(The period "." in the pathname indicates "starting from the current directory"; in other words, test is a subdirectory relative to where you currently are.)
- John Gallagher

Q: In HP-UNIX the other person set the permissions correctly on the file that I want, but when I try to copy it to my user-ID, I get an error saying I don't have access or permission. What's wrong?

A: It is possible that the file itself has the correct permissions, but the other user's home directory does not, in which case you cannot "get into" their user-ID to copy the file you want. An analogy might be having permission to the file cabinet in their office, but not being able to get to it because their office door is locked.

FINDING WHAT THE FILE PERMISSIONS ARE: Someone wants to copy a file from the home directory of user-ID ccconf, but is denied access. One can check the file permissions for that home directory by going to the parent directory and listing all the subdirectories and permissions.

     cd /u22/user/cc/

     ll

     ls -l

=> shows all the files/subdirectories and their permissions

If the subdirectory ccconf is set such that group and others do not have read-execute permission, then no one else can "get into" ccconf's home directory to copy any files.

WHAT TO DO:

TO CHANGE FILE PERMISSIONS FOR YOUR HOME DIRECTORY: While you are in your home directory, you can issue the following UNIX command. (ATTENTION: The period "." at the end is part of the command.)

     chmod 755 .

     chmod u=rwx,go=rx .

=> changes your home directory permissions to read-write-execute for owner, read-execute for group and others. (The period "." at the end indicates the current directory.)

TO CHANGE FILE PERMISSIONS FOR ALL YOUR FILES AND SUBDIRECTORIES: You can use the recursive option (hyphen followed by uppercase R) to change all the files that are within that directory and all subsequent subdirectories. (ATTENTION: The period "." at the end is part of the command.)

     chmod -R 755 .

     chmod -R u=rwx,go=rx .

CAUTION: You can grant more access if you want, but remember that if you allow anyone else write permission to a file, they are able to change or delete that file. For these reasons, I recommend ONLY read-execute permission for anyone else.
- John Gallagher

Q: I've submitted a job through Banner Job Submission, and I get the errror message:

Error communicating with job submission program. Seek Help

What does this mean, and what should I do?

A: There is a program that runs 'behind the scenes' on the HP called gurjobs. This program is basically always looking for 'work to do'. The problem described is resulting from this program not running at the current time. You can check this yourself by logging into an HP user-ID and typing:

look gurjobs

If you do not see a listing of gurjobs for the Banner instance you are trying to run the job for, that is the problem.

What do you do then? Call someone in the ICS department (preferably your BANNER area coordinator), and explain the problem. They should have gurjobs running in no time. You will need to log out of Banner,and log back in again once they have started the program.
- Kevin Smith

Q: I received an error message that there is no more available disk space. I have some reports that I need to run. Is there anything I can do?

A: Most usernames on cmljade are on the disk /u22, which is shared by several departments, and as such, people need to cooperate to ensure that there is enough disk space free and available so everyone can run reports when needed.

The first thing you can do is remove old FOCUS temporary files (filenames ending with .ftm) and Banner output files (filenames ending with .lis). To list the names of these files in the current directory, enter the following command at the Unix prompt ($):

     ls -o *.ftm *.lis

Here is an example of results from this command:

     -rw-------    1 ccread  1295  Oct 18 16:12 fpabidd.lis
     -rw-------    1 ccread  2871  Oct 18 16:23 fpapord.lis
     -rw-------    1 ccread   714  Oct 18 16:07 fptbidd.lis
     -rw-------    1 ccread  1530  Apr  5 11:08 hold1.ftm
     -rw-------    1 ccread   742  Apr  5 11:08 hold2.ftm
     -rw-------    1 ccread  1440  Apr  5 11:08 holdadd.ftm

Unneeded files such as fptbidd.lis and holdadd.ftm could be discarded by entering the following commands at the Unix prompt ($):

    rm fptbidd.lis holdadd.ftm


Some people organize their files in directories to make it easier to keep track of them. The find command is especially helpful here because it can search through many directories. Here are several options that may prove helpful.

• To see the names of all files that have not been accessed in the past 30 days:

       find ~ -atime +30 -print | xargs ls  -otr

• To see the names of all FOCUS temp files (i.e., that end with the suffix .ftm:

       find ~ -name \*.ftm -print | xargs ls -otr

• To see the names of all files larger than 10Mb:

       find ~ -size +10000000c -print | xargs ls -l

The second thing you can do is compress large files that you choose to keep so they don't take up as much space.. There is a utility gzip that may be used to accomplish this. The file isn't usable while it is compressed but it can be uncompressed when needed. The amount of space saved depends on the file. Reports that have a lot of blanks in them compress the most.

• To compress the file myfile.ftm, enter the following command at the Unix prompt ($):

      gzip -9 myfile.ftm

  When the gzip process has completed, the file myfile.ftm will be replaced by the file myfile.ftm.gz.

• To reverse the process (i.e., to uncompress the file), enter the following command at the Unix prompt ($):

      gzip -d myfile.ftm.gz

  The original file myfile.ftm will be re-created and the -d option will remove the compressed file myfile.ftm.gz.

- Steve Read