Runtime control, Installation

With version 2.3 we introduced the run-script 'start'. This was convenient, if not necessary for the control of parallel calculations. The script still exists but we have now 'soft-linked' each of the program names (adf, band, densf, ...) to this particular script in $ADFBIN. This means that you can call 'adf' and thereby in fact invoke the 'start' script. The program name that you actually use in the command is passed to 'start' as the main argument. As a result, usage is simpler now and has the form

$ADFBIN/adf -n4 <in > out

This replaces the (still available) 2.3 variety

$ADFBIN/start -n4 adf <in >out

See also the Installation manual and the Examples document. Take a look at the sample runs for the new format used in practice.

Technical note: since the names 'adf', et cetera are now used as soft-links to the start script, the program binaries have acquired other names: adf.exe, band.exe, and so on, in $ADFBIN.

We are shifting the distribution from using ftp accounts (as we did up to release 2.3) to downloading from our web site: http://www.scm.com (starting with release 1999). All users will get password-protected access to the web site with their old ftp account data (user name and password). This will, we hope, make downloading easier for you.

The ftp facility remains in place, but only to upload files for error reports.

We have introduced a few more (UNIX) environment variables that should be defined when running programs of the ADF suite, in particular - but not only - when running in parallel. We recommend that you define these variables in your login script (.cshrc if you run C-shell). Consult the Installation manual for details.

Control of parallelization features at the first line of the input file has been disabled. All parallelization is now controlled by environment variables and by the -n flag to the program execution scripts. See the Installation manual.