Quick Reference Guides

QREF stands for Quick Reference. The idea behind these documents is to provide quick help for common problems, and to point you towards other documentation for more in-depth solutions.

Getting Started

Using the Wiki

How to use this site.

Accounts

How to get your account

Getting Started with Knuth

What to do once you have an account.

CS Accounts and Quotas

What is the CS account quota?

Using the Lab Macs

Answers to common questions about the lab machines.

Official Policy

Computer Science Department policies.

UNIX, The Basics

The absolute, essential basics on using UNIX.

Help! My terminal exploded

and other common UNIX beginner mishaps.

Text Editors

Ed, Vim, Emacs, nano.

Running Long Jobs

Quick reference on proper procedure for running long jobs.

Getting Help

How to get things done on the system and where to go for help.

Mac-Specific Issues

Using the Lab Macs

Answers to common questions about the lab machines

Keychain Issues

Issues related to the OS X Keychain

Connection Programs

SSH

Using SSH and finding SSH clients.

VNC

Window-sharing and remote-access software.

Remote X Connections

Getting graphical connections to remote machines.

Mail

Mail Basics

Using alpine, forwarding mail, going on vacation, etc.

procmail

Using procmail to sort and filter email.

Default .procmailrc

Using the department-provided .procmailrc file.

SpamAssassin

Getting rid of spam in knuth accounts.

General Spam Tips

How to deal with spam in other accounts.

Default SpamAssassin Preferences

A description of the department-provided SpamAssassin preferences file.

IMAP

Setting up IMAP for accessing email.

Sending Mail

Sending mail through the CS department mail server.

Using Maildirs with Mutt

How to use Maildirs with Mutt.

Transferring Files Between Machines

SCP

How to securely copy files between machines.

SFTP

A secure version of FTP.

UNIX Topics

passwd

How to set and change your password.

chmod

How to set file protections using chmod(1).

dot files

What are dot (.) files and what do they do?

Environment variables

How to change your environment variables.

kill

How to kill your processes and other information about controlling processes

make

How to use make(1) to maintain groups of files.

GnuPG

How and why to use GnuPG.

Disk Quotas

How to check disk space usage.

SVN

How to manage projects with Subversion.

request

How to use the request program to create/edit system requests

sed

A guide to the sed(1) stream editor.

X Windows and Window Managers

Help on various X Windows topics and how to switch window managers.

Clearing Space

Guide to freeing up space in your home directory.

xmodmap

A guide to binding keys in X11.

tar and gzip

Guide to using tar(1) and gzip(1) for archiving and compressing your stuff (respectively).

daemons

What a "daemon" is, and how to find them.

Printing

Printing

How to use the department printers.

Printing from Windows

How to use the department printers from Windows.

Printing from Macs

How to use the department printers from Macs.

CS Dept. Printers

A list of printers and their locations.

Parchment Copier

About the copier shared by the biology and CS departments.

Programming

Shell Scripting

A short introduction to shell scripting.

IPC Structures

A quick briefing on IPC structures and how to destroy them

awk

A guide to using the awk language

C++ and C help

Help on various C++ and C topics

Fortran

How to compile Fortran code

Java

How to compile Java code

Formatting and Publishing Programs

LaTeX

How to use LaTeX

Prosper

How to use the LaTeX class prosper

troff/nroff

How to use troff/nroff

Printing Clinic Posters

How to print large-format posters, as for Clinic

Printing Clinic Final Reports

How to print final reports, for Clinic

Publishing on the Web

Homepage

Help writing your homepage

.htaccess

How to use distributed configuration files in Apache

CGI

Running CGI scripts on the web server

Server Side Includes (SSI)

Basic SSI Usage and Setup

Trac

Trac project management software

JSMath

How to use jsMath on TWiki

Math Programs

Mathematica

Help on Mathematica

MATLAB

Help on MATLAB

Unsorted

User Memory Limits

A quick note on the current memory limits, and how to remove the old limit if it causes bugs.

Software from MSDNAA

Getting Microsoft software through our MSDNAA membership.

Mirroring a TWiki

How to mirror a TWiki in another place.

Off-site Access

How to Arrange Wiki and SVN Access for Off-Site Developers.

TCP/IP

An explanation of TCP/IP.

PeriodicProcesses

What they are and how they work on our system.

HMCLogos

Where to get copies of the files for the CS Dept. and college logos.

The Lab Chairs

How to work the chairs in the CS labs.

Portage

How to use the Portage package manager and some info about it.

ListKeeper

Using the CIS list keeper.