NRAO
 

Astronomical Image Processing System
The "Midnight" Job

 [AIPS]

A reminder: did you check the Change Log for the install.pl wizard? It tracks changes and bug fixes to that script, as well as listing the known problems.

Description

The AIPS "Midnight" (MNJ) job allows you to keep up with the latest development, bug fixes, and changes in AIPS. Originally designed for use within NRAO among the different sites, it has in recent times been extended to mnay outside institutions in both the US and elsewhere in the world. You may run the MNJ automatically if you set up cron to do so, but you may also run the MNJ by hand only when the mood strikes your fancy.

If you wish to run the MNJ, you must first install AIPS. Instructions for that are found in 31DEC09 release and 31DEC08 release. The former will be updated every day until the end of 2009, so a MNJ run at any time in 2008-2009 should work. The latter will be updated daily through December 2008 and may be updated on occasion (for patches) thereafter. Thus a MNJ on 31DEC08 will work through 2008 and may work without error messages (and do useful stuff) in 2009. Note that a MNJ will update documentation and source models at any time since they are not treated as version-dependent files.

The install.pl script invokes the MAKE.MNJ shell script; this now takes care of all the setup for the midnight job. All you have to provide is a start date (use the day before you fetched the 31DEC0x.tar.gz file which is the default in install.pl).

The install.pl script can now do a binary installation for Solaris Ultra, MacIntosh OS/X (PPC and Intel cpus), and Linux computers in the 31DEC05 and later versions. The binary installation uses rsync to copy the text and binaries from Socorro. Having done a binary installation, the MNJ will use cvs to update text files and rsync to update binary areas. You do not need to copy the tar.gz file for a binary installation; it takes care of all that for you.

There are certain minimal requirements for running the midnight job:

  • A computer on which AIPS already runs (!) and which is connected to the internet (need not be full time);
  • A version of perl (included with most Linux distributions);
  • A working version of the cvs software maintenance system. The secure shell is no longer required. If cvs is not in your $PATH, MAKE.MNJ will ask you where it is to be found. Be sure that you can answer that before running the MAKE.MNJ portion of install.pl.
  • rsync must also be available and enabled for binary MNJs.

Below are some tips that may make it easier to install/update:

  • type, e.g. perl ./install.pl (or perl ./install.pl -n if binary)
  • When done, make sure to get the new definitions:

    For bash, ksh, zshFor tcsh, csh
    . LOGIN.SH
    $CDTST    		 source LOGIN.CSH
    $CDTST

  • You may make a cron entry for the do_daily.$HOST script that MAKE.MNJ creates for you. Alternatively, you may run it by hand at any time you wish.

  • It almost certainly has to run from the account that installed AIPS.
  • You must run from an account that is able to send mail. Please make sure that the $SYSLOCAL/UPDCONFIG file specifies mail account(s) that are read regularly. Some sites start their cron job and fail to notice that it fails on a daily basis and fail to read the e-mails we attempt to send them asking for things to be corrected. It helps if you notify us to give us a person to contact regarding your MNJ. Or better yet, subscribe yourself with the list manager form.

    That's it. Given halfway reasonable network connectivity, you should be able to let it run unattended if you have cron run the MNJ.

    The MNJ goes on working on an AIPS version even though that version is no longer the development vesrion at NRAO. When the version is fully frozen, then you need only run one more MNJ to bring your version up to do with that final version. Further executions of the MNJ will produce error messages most of the time because files showing the dat no longer advance. The "frozen" version may be updated with patches once in a while during the year following its freezing, so the MNJ may run without complaint once in a while. Subscribe to bananas if you wish to be informed of those times. Subscribe to mnj if you wish to be informed of those times or any other mnj issues.

    Modified on $Date: 2008/12/08 22:43:10 $
    [Eric W. Greisen]