CDF Frequently Asked Questions

This frequently-asked-questions file contains a list of frequently asked questions and their frequently given answers. The purpose of such a frequently-asked-questions file is to save you time, and to provide answers to such questions 24/7. We recommend you read this file. Frequently. :-)

Getting Started

About the Labs

About the Computers

How To

Accounts

Printing

Print Quotas

Disk Quotas

Mail

News

Networks


Q's & A's

Getting Started


Q: What is CDF?

A: CDF stands for the Computing Disciplines Facility. It is collection of computer labs and computing environments provided by the University to support Computer Science courses. The primary environment is Debian GNU/Linux.


Q: Where is CDF located?

A: The CDF admin office is in the Bahen Centre. The CDF labs are located in two locations:

  1. Bahen Centre for Information Technology (40 St George St).

  2. Gerstein Science Information Centre (at the Sigmund Samuel Library, 7 King’s College Circle).

For more info about the labs and lab access, see About the Labs.


Q: What do I need to know to start using my account at CDF?

A: To get yourself started we recommend that you read the First Year or New User's Guide and/or the CDF Users Guide, which is oriented towards second year and higher students.

Additional information can be found in this document, on the CDF homepage and on the Working From Home pages.

You will need to know your CDF username. If you entered an email address in ROSI, the details will have been sent there, if not (or if you've forgotten) you can look up your CDF account.


Q: If I'm at home, how do I log in to the CDF machines?

A: To log into CDF from home, you must have internet access and a program that is capable using the secure shell protocol (ssh). Detailed information about working from home can be found on the CDF Working From Home pages.

Internet access can be obtained from numerous commercial Internet Service Providers (ISP), through a cable TV connection or your phone line, with a variety of fee structures. Alternatively, the University operates a large modem pool service known as (UTORdial). Information about UTORdial can be obtained from: http://www.utoronto.ca/welcome.html/utordist/general/utordial.html.


Q: How do I report problems?

A: Send mail to admin. Mail to admin will be seen by the system administrators. See the Student's Guide to CDF for details on how to send mail.


Q: What do I do if I'm having problems with my assignment?

A: Contact your TA or your course instructor. Do not contact the site administrators. Even if they could help you, they're not allowed to.


Q: How can I save or reserve a workstation? Can I leave for a while without logging out and losing the workstation I'm using?

A: Workstations are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you wish to leave for a short period of time without logging out, you can lock it using xlock, which will prevent anyone from meddling with it while you're gone.

If you remain away from your workstation too long, you will be automatically logged out. If there is no mouse movement or keyboard activity for 20 minutes, you will be given a warning. (The warning may be hidden by other windows). You will be logged off if there is no activity for 30 minutes.


Q: The answers in this FAQ appear to be out of date or just plain wrong! How come?

A: The FAQ is constantly being updated. We are always open to suggestions about missing questions and answers. Please let admin know if you have any suggestions or if you find errors.


About The Labs

Q: How to I get into the CDF labs?

A: The CDF labs in the Bahen Centre are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during term time. It is controlled by a card-access lock system that restricts entry to authorized individuals. To enter one of the labs you will need to swipe your T-Card through the card reader that is installed outside of each door.

In general, access is granted to all students enrolled in a computer science course, or enrolled in the computer science program. We obtain this information from the University's Student Information System (SIS). We receive updated information from SIS on a reasonably frequent basis, and it should take one full day for newly enrolled students to get added to the lock system database.

Access to the 2nd floor lab in Gerstein is allowed during the hours the library is open. Tcards are not required for access.


Q: What are the hours of operation of the CDF labs?

A: Most CDF labs in the Bahen are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the school term, including holidays with the exception ofChristmas break, or unless otherwise indicated. Some lab rooms operate as "closed labs" at some times during the day. The labs are used for tutorials during these times. The lab within the Gerstein Library is only available when the library is open.


Q: Is the Bahen Centre open 24 hours?

A: The Bahen Centre is open to the general public from 8am until 11pm, Monday - Friday. Outside of those hours, you will need your T-card to access the building. All of the major entrances to the building have card readers outside of the doors. If you can get into the labs with your T-card, you should be able to get into the building with your T-card.


Q: I just obtained a new T-Card and it won't let me into the labs. Why?

A: Each issued T-card stores a unique bar-code which is used by the lock system. When a new card is issued by the Library, it takes a while for the information to propagate to us via the Student Information System. Updates to our access system generally occur overnight.


Q: I'm an Engineering student enrolled in a CS course, but my T-Card won't let me into the labs. Why?

A: Access to rooms in the Computer Science Department is administered separately from access to space in the Engineering Faculty. A similar division exists for students in CS and Engineering students. As a consequence, processing room access for situations where the two groups intersect has been tricky, but generally works correctly. If contacting us please indicate that you are in Engineering (or other "non-standard" conditions, such SGS, or staff), since this can delay finding the right person to address your problem.


Q: For whatever reason, my T-Card won't get me into the labs and/or the Bahen Centre. What should I do?

A: Send an e-mail to tcard@cdf.toronto.edu. Include your name, student number, the 16 digit bar-code at the very bottom of your T-Card, the names of the courses you are taking, and special conditions as indicated in the previous question. We can't promise that we'll get back to you right away, or fix your problem right away, but we will do our best to address problems as soon as we can. In the meantime, keep trying your card.

If your card itself is damaged, you need to go to the Information Commons to get a new card.


About The Computers

Q: What sort of computers are these?

A: There are approximately 200 workstations running Linux, and about 40 X terminals (Sun workstations converted to display sessions from central compute servers). There are three compute servers, accessed through the name cdf.toronto.edu, and three application servers running db2. (db2srv1, db2srv2 and db2srv3.cdf)


Q: What sort of operating system are they running?

A: The servers and workstations are running the most recent stable Debian release, on a 2.4.x kernel.


How To

Q: How do I make KDE my default Window Manager?

A: There are two ways to do this.

  1. Run the command:
       /local/bin/startupfiles .xwm
  2. Edit .xwm and make sure you comment out the other window manager you are using and put in the line about startkde. Your file will probably have these two lines in it:
       /local/bin/startkde
       #/local/bin/icewm

Q: How do I make ICEWM my default Window Manager?

A: You need to edit your .xwm, uncomment the icewm line, and comment out any other window manager lines. Your file will probably then have these two lines in it:

   #/local/bin/startkde
   /local/bin/icewm


Q: How do I reset my dot files to CDF defaults?

A: If you run the command:

   /local/bin/startupfiles
this will reset all of the CDF default files. If you only want to rest one of them, run:
   /local/bin/startupfiles <filename>


Q: How do I use my floppy disk?

A: If you have a 3 1/2" IBM formatted disk, you can use the disk drive built into the workstations. The X terminals (Sun hardware) do not support disks, and the floppy disk slots have been taped over. If you managed to insert your disk into a terminal anyway, don't worry, it will automatically be ejected when you log out.

If your Window Manager is KDE, you will find a floppy icon on your desktop. If you are using ICEWM, you will find MToolsFM under File Managers in the menu. If you are working at the command line, type "man mtools" to find out what you can do.

You might want to consider buying a USB key drive as they hold much more data and are more reliable than floppy disks. See the USB key FAQ entry.


Q: How do I read a pdf document?

A: Use acroread or xpdf.


Q: How do I preview a postscript document before printing it? How do I look at a postscript document without printing it?

A: You can use a utility called gv to view postscript files. For example, to view the postscript file named output.ps, type:

   gv output.ps
There is no easy way to preview a postscript document in a text-based terminal window. However, there are versions of ghostview available on the Internet for most PC operating systems. See the GhostScript homepage for these programs. See A First Guide to Postscript for more information about the Postscript page description language.


Q: How do I find out more about Unix?

A: Most commands have a "man page" (short for manual page) which tells you how to use them. If you want to find out about a command named foo, type:

   man foo
To find out more about man pages and the man command, type:
   man man

There are many books and guides about UNIX available. We recommend you start with A Student's Guide to CDF. Another good choice is "UNIX for Students", by Harley Hahn, and Unix is a four letter word.


Q: How do I get back or unerase an accidentally deleted file?

A: Unfortunately all too often, the answer is "You cannot".

If you deleted the file through KDE, you might find the file in Trash. (Please remember to empty your Trash regularly). However, it is better to follow the advice below than rely on Trash.

An unrecoverable file, particularly an important assignment file that gets accidentally erased shortly before the due date, can be very upsetting. To minimize the possibility, make copies of your important files, use a revision control system (eg. RCS or CVS), copy them onto floppy disk or a USB key, and keep an eye on your disk quota. When your disk quota fills up, you may not be able to write files successfully, and this sometimes results in lost work. You can see how much disk quota you have left by typing:

   quota -v

Backups of all the files on the system are made most nights to restore the entire system in the event of catastrophic loss. You can request a restore from these backups by email to cdf. Be aware the backup will very likely have taken place many hours previously and the file restoration will also take quite some time, possibly as long as a day, so if it is for an assignment, it is often quicker to re-create the file.


Q: How do I set up a home page?

A: Create a "public_html" directory for your home page and make it publicly accessible. The web server runs without privileges, and so it can't read your files unless you do this. You can put files there that you want to make available from your home page. They should be made publicly readable. The default filename is index.html. Files are accessible via the URL "http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~login/filename". NOTE: "public_html" does not show up in the URL.

For example, suppose Wanda W. Webb (g9www) wants to put up a simple home page consisting of a single html file and a picture of Wanda and her sister Wendy wiring a Coke machine for ethernet. She sets up her home page as follows:

     # First, Wanda creates the directory...
     mkdir $HOME/public_html

     # ...and makes it publicly accessible.
     chmod og+x $HOME $HOME/public_html

     # Now, she creates the home page using her favourite editor, which,
     # in her case, happens to be pico.  You can use vi, nedit, emacs, 
     # or whatever editor you want.
     pico $HOME/public_html/index.html

     # Next, she makes the home page publicly readable.
     chmod og+r $HOME/public_html/index.html

     # Okay, that's done.  Now she copies the picture....
     cp netcoke.gif $HOME/public_html

     # ...and make it publicly readable. 
     chmod og+r $HOME/public_html/netcoke.gif

     # All done.  Now Wanda can tell all her friends that her home page
     # can be browsed at "http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~g9www/".  Since Wanda's
     # sister Wendy also wants to reference the coke machine picture in 
     # her own home page, Wanda tells Wendy that the picture can be 
     # found at "http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~g9www/netcoke.gif".

Q: I typed Control-Z, and my job got "suspended". How do I get it back?

A: Suspended jobs can be resumed or brought to the foreground by typing fg. You can put a job into the background by typing bg. This is useful if you meant to start the job up in the background but forgot to type the & on the command line.

You can see all the suspended and background jobs by typing jobs -l. The output of jobs -l shows five things for each job:

    [job number] +/- <process number> <command stutus>              <command name>
For example, the output of jobs -l might look something like:
    [1]  - 22902 Suspended                     bluefish
    [2]  + 23082 Suspended                     konsole
    [3]    23106 Running                       nedit
If you type fg or bg, the job marked with the + will be the one that you get. You can specify another job for fg and bg by typing the job number preceeded by a %. For example, to change bluefish from being suspended to running in the background, type:
    bg %1
The manual page for csh has more information about job control.


Q: How do I start up a graphical application on a remote machine, and have it display on the machine that I am using?

A: In a terminal, type:

   ssh -X <server> <command>
For example, to run the bluefish editor from werewolf, use:
   ssh -X werewolf.cdf.toronto.edu bluefish
See the X11 forwarding section of the ssh man page for more details.


Q: How do I use my USB key drive?

A: Insert your USB key drive and double click on the "USB Device" icon on the Desktop. If you get an error message, click OK and try again.

When you are finished using your USB key drive, you must unmount your drive before you can remove it from the computer. If you don't unmount your drive, there is a possibility that some of the files on your drive will become corrupt. Unmounting your USB key drive is simple: right click the "USB Device" icon on the Desktop and go to "unmount".

If you get the error message "Could not unmount device", it means that there are programs still accessing files on the drive. You must close these programs before you can unmount the drive. This includes closing Konqueror if it is showing the contents of your drive.


Q: How do I remove or kill a process that I don't want?

A: Killing a process in Linux involves sending the KILL signal to the process. The simplest way to this, is to use the "pkill" utility in a terminal window. To kill a program, type:

   pkill -KILL -U <CDF user name> <program name>

For example, if user g5stujan wanted to kill a firefox process that had crashed, she could type:

   pkill -KILL -U g5stujan firefox

One disadvantage to killing processes this way is that all instances of the named program will be killed. To get around this, you need to find out the process identification (PID) of the specific instance of the program you want to kill and send the KILL signal directly to it. To get a list of the instances of a specific program, type:

   ps aux | grep <CDF user name> | grep <program name>

For example, to see the instances of nedit, user g5stujan would type:

   ps aux | grep g5stujan | grep nedit

The output might look something like:

   g5stujan  1681  0.2  0.0  8856 4952 pts/6    S    15:09   0:00 nedit ClassOne.java
   g5stujan  1700  0.3  0.0  8856 4960 pts/6    S    15:10   0:00 nedit ClassTwo.java
   g0stujan  1709  0.0  0.0  1544  460 pts/6    S+   15:10   0:00 grep nedit

The PID is the number beside the cdf user name. Processes can be killed using the the following command:

   kill -KILL <PID>

Using the example process listing from above, user g5stujan would kill the nedit instance that had ClassTwo.java open by typing:

   kill -KILL 1700

More information about sending signals to processes can be found in the man pages for pkill, kill and killall.


Q: How do I clean up the Firefox profile if the browser refuses to start?

A: If your Firefox browser refuses to start and displays a message telling you that Firefox is already running, you can run the following two commands to clean up your Firefox profile. Please, first ensure that there really are no other instances of Firefox running, next start a terminal by clicking on the Konsole icon on the KDE panel (at the bottom of the screen), and then run:

   rm `find .mozilla/ -name lock`
   rm `find .mozilla/ -name .parentlock`


Accounts

Q: How do I get a program account?

A: If you are an undergraduate student and are enrolled in one of the Computer Science major or specialist programs at the St. George campus, you are entitled to a "program" account at CDF. You must apply for your program account on-line. You will be able to use your account while you remain in an eligible program, even during periods you are not taking a course.

Graduate students are not eligible for program accounts on CDF; they should see their graduate supervisor to get an account on a research system (eg. CSlab/ECE/EECG).

Scarborough and Mississauga students should consult with their campus Computer Science office about the availability of program accounts.


Q: What are the rules for using my account?

A: Run the rules command to read the general CDF rules. The rules -g command describes the CDF games policy, while the rules -x command provides a general explanation and rationale. Also, see the Arts & Science (or Engineering) calendar, in particular, the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters and the Code of Student Conduct.


Q: When exactly do accounts get deleted?

A: Course accounts for non-program students are suspended shortly after that course's final exam. Course accounts for graduate courses are suspended when the instructor directs.

Suspended accounts remain dormant (files intact) for a period of time, generally two academic sessions, then are deleted. Program accounts are suspended if the student leaves the Computer Science programme.


Q: I just applied for a program account. What do I do with my course account?

A: You will keep using your course account for your current courses until the end of the term. We don't want to risk changing your account during a term, for fear that your assignments and submissions may go astray. Your program account will be created at the start of the next term and the courses you enroll in will use the program account. There will be a brief period when both accounts are active. Please copy your files from your old account to the new one during this time. If you miss this window of opportunity, mail admin.


Q: I've just graduated. When will I lose my program account?

A: Program accounts are removed two or three times a year, usually near the beginning of a term. As part of our procedure, we send out an e-mail warning to the user approx. one month prior to account suspension. Once we suspend the accounts, we leave them on the system for another month or two, just to make sure no one's account is removed by accident. In general, we give you plenty of warning, so you don't need to worry about your account going away until you hear from us.


Q How are accounts suspended for rules violations?

A: If you don't comply with the CDF's usage policies, a systems administrator may suspend your account without a warning. You will know your account is suspended if you see a message telling you so when you try to log into a CDF computer (remotely or locally). The message will also include instructions that you need to follow in order to get the account unsuspended. Usually this would involve talking to a faculty member at the Department of Computer Science.


Printing

Q: How do I print a text file?

A: We recommend you use the print command. This prints a text file on the laser printer using two columns and both sides of the page. See man print for details. You can use the enscript command if you want to play with the details of how the text is formatted. See man enscript for details. Or you can use the lpr command directly if you wish.


Q: How do I print a pdf file?

You can print from acroread. This will print on both sides of a page. If you want to print more than one page per side, use the pdfnup command to get multiple pages. For example, type the following to make a new pdf file with 4 pages of the original on 1 page of the new pdf:

   pdfnup file_name.pdf --nup 2x2

This will create a new file called file_name-2x2.pdf that can be viewed and printed with acroread. See the man page for pdfnup for more details.


Q: How do I print a postscript file?

A: First, check the postscript file to make sure that the first line is something that looks like %!PS-Adobe-1.0 (actually only the leading %! is strictly required). If the postscript file was generated on a PC, make sure it uses UNIX newline conventions (use the flip command to do this).

Then send your file to the printer using lpr or print. Warning: it's a good idea to check it first using gv, because if you didn't get the first line correct, the printing software won't know it's postscript, and will print it out as text, which is probably not what you want.

If you want to print more than one page per side, use the psnup command:

   psnup -4 file_name.ps > new_file_name.ps 
This creates new_file_name.ps that you can view and/or print with gv. See the man page for psnup for more details.


Q: On what printer will my printout appear? How do I pick which printer I want?

A: You can find out which printers are available using the printers command. This command also shows the room locations of the printers.

In general, printouts are sent to a printer on the same floor of the building as the computer that you are printing from.

You can specify the printer you want by providing a -Pprintername argument to whatever command you use to print. You can set the PRINTER environment variable to the name of the printer you want to be your default.


Q: How do I see the status of my print job? How can I cancel it?

A: Each job has a "job number". You can find the job number of all the jobs currently printing or waiting to be printed using lpq, which stands for Line Printer Queue. (Unix usually calls its printers "line printers" for historical reasons.) Like most printer commands, lpq can take a -P argument; use -Pp2210a to see the queue for that downstairs printer, and -Pp3185a for the upstairs printer. The output will look something like this:

   Rank Owner       Pr Job Host        Files                Size   Date
 active wayne       Z  319 eddie       (stdin)              7      Jan  6 23:51
    2nd you         Z  320 frood       foo.txt              7      Jan  6 23:51
meaning that wayne's job (number 319) is currently printing, and job number 320, belonging to "you", is next. Both jobs are 7 bytes. To remove your job, type lprm 320. Don't forget to use -Pprintername.

You can sometimes remove an active job, but often the printer will have printed it before the command is processed, unless it has jammed or is otherwise delayed. You may want to do this as a courtesy to others if you are printing a big job and many other people are behind you in a hurry. In fact, you shouldn't print big jobs at all when the printer is busy.


Q: How do I make my postscript file print out on both sides of the page?

A: Use the print command.

If you prefer to modify your file by hand, do the following: Edit the postscript file using your favourite text editor, and after the first line, which reads something like %!PS-Adobe-1.0, insert the following line:

statusdict begin true setduplexmode end
If your document has an odd number of pages, before the last page is printed, insert the line:
statusdict begin false setduplexmode end
If you don't do this, the final blank side will count as a printed page in your print quota.


Q: How do I print a picture of one of my windows?

A: There are two methods you can use. The first produces a .png file and the second produces a file you can easily print.

  1. If you Window Manager is KDE, you will find "ksnapshot" in the menu, under Programs->Graphics->More Applications. You can also run this from the command line. This application produces a .png file by default, although you can choose other formats, including jpeg.

  2. This method method takes several steps. The first step is to create an X window dump file using the xwd (X Window Dump) program. This program takes an exact snapshot of the area occupied by a window on your screen and outputs a special binary file to the standard output. Make sure the window is not covered by any others. Run:

       xwd > foo.xwd
    where foo.xwd is a temporary dump file which you should erase when you are done because it takes up lots of disk space. When the mouse cursor changes to a +, click on the window you want a picture of. If you want a picture of the whole screen, click on the background. xwd will beep once when its starts the dump, and twice when it is finished. If the window is particularly big, you may need to put the .xwd file in /tmp:
       xwd >/tmp/foo.xwd
    You may also have to make xwd pause between the time you type the command and the time it starts taking the dump because the very first window you click on (even just the title bar) is the one that gets dumped. You have to make sure your window is in front before xwd changes the cursor to a +. To pause for 10 seconds, you can use the sleep command first:
       sleep 10; xwd > foo.xwd
    You can view the picture of your window using xwud (X Window Un-Dump):
       xwud < foo.xwd
    To convert the file to postscript for printing, use xpr:
       xpr foo.ps
    There are several options to xpr that may be helpful. The -gray N option (N = 2, 3, or 4) does simple gray-scale conversion for colour images. -rv reverses black and white on the image. You should definitely use this option if your window is mostly dark/black, or else you will waste tons of printer ink and the image will look terrible. Finally, use the following command to see what the final image will look like:
       ghostview foo.ps
    You can send it to the printer with:
       lpr foo.ps
    For more information, see the man pages for xwd, xwud, xpr, and ghostview.

    Of course, if you are very confident that the picture will come out the way you want, you can avoid all those temporary files by typing one line:

       sleep 5; xwd | xpr | lpr
    Don't forget to use xpr -rv if the image is mostly black.

    One last thing; it often takes a long time to print a picture, so for the sake of your fellow students, please don't print any pictures when the printers are busy.


Print Quotas

Q: What is a print quota? Why do we have them?

A: A print quota is a limit on the number of pages you are allowed to print. We have print quotas because laserprinting (especially the toner) is expensive, and we can't afford to let everybody print all they want for free. The print quotas are set high enough so that most people will normally be able to do all their printing without running out of pages.

For the purpose of quotas, a "page" is what you'd expect: a printed side of a sheet of paper.


Q: How are print quotas assigned?

A: For each course, a number of pages is assigned (usually 300 per programming course, 200 for a theory course, possibly less). Accounts in only one course get this number as their print quota. Accounts whose owners are enrolled in multiple courses are given the print quota of one of these courses, and the available print quota can be increased by running:

   pquota -i
If you have trouble with this command you should send an e-mail to CDF system administrators admin. Program accounts not enrolled in courses get a small, token print quota.

At the beginning of term, all program accounts get the token print quota. When course accounts are created for the courses they are enrolled in, their print quotas will be increased as above.


Q: How do I find out how many pages I have left?

A: The print command will tell you, each time you print a file. Or you can find out directly by typing pquota.


Q: I'm running out of pages. How do I get more?

A: If you are enrolled in more than one course that uses CDF, you can run:

   pquota -i
It will increase at most 300 pages at a time. It will not increase your print quota unless you have less than 100 available pages. Otherwise, you can visit the the System Administrator offices in BA3224 and purchase more pages. The current cost is $2 for every 50 pages, non-refundable. Print quotas are reset at the beginning of each term.


Q: What can I do to print less?

A: First, don't print unless you have to. Take advantage of the workstation's high-resolution screen to preview your document. When you have to print, use the print program to print text files. This prints text files in two columns on the page.

Use pdfup command to get multiple pages on a side when the source is a pdf file. This creates a new pdf file that you can view or print with acroread:

   pdfnup file_name.pdf --nup 2x2
This will create file_name-2x2.pdf. See the man page for more details.

Use psnup command when the source is a ps file:

   psnup -4 file_name.ps > new_file_name.ps 
This creates new_file_name.ps that you can view and/or print with gv. See the man page for the psnup for more details.

If you have a computer and printer at home, you can bring your document home, on a floppy, USB key or over the network, and print it there.


Q: I have a program account, and I am taking a course this term, but my print quota hasn't been increased. Why?

A: Program accounts are enrolled in a course (and their print quotas increased accordingly) when the course accounts are created for that course. If the course accounts have not yet been created, wait until they are. This usually occurs a few days into the term. If the course accounts have been created, but your program account still isn't enrolled in the course (type groups to find out for sure), check your enrolment in ROSI.


Disk Quotas

Q: What is a disk quota? Why do we have them?

A: A disk quota is a limit on the amount of hard disk space your files are permitted to occupy. We have only a limited amount of hard disk space, and disk quotas help to ensure that everybody gets their fair share.


Q: How are disk quotas assigned?

A: Each course has an alloted amount of disk space, usually 25 MB. Program accounts have a base amount of disk quota (40 MB). This will increase by the amount for each course if enrolled in more than one course that uses CDF.


Q: How do I find out how much space I have left?

A: Type quota -v. See the manual page for details.


Q: I'm running out of space. How do I determine where it is used?

A: This command will summarize your usage for each subdirectory:

   diskusage
You will often find that cache directories from your browser and the KDE Trash folder consume your quota, so be careful to set the preferences to use a small amount of cache. Be aware of the hidden files in your account (files that begin with a . eg .mozilla). The command given above shows the size of hidden files as well as non-hidden files.
Q: How can I conserve disk space?

A: Erase all the files you don't need, or copy them onto a floppy disk, a USB key drive or your UTorWeb space. Use compress or gzip to make your files take up less room. Erase files that you can recreate from source code (eg. object code of the form *.o, *.x, a.out, *.class etc.).


Mail

Q: What is electronic mail? How do I send/receive mail?

A: Electronic mail is a message-transmission service which allows electronic messages to be transmitted from one person to another. When a message arives for somebody, it is placed in the person's mailbox (usually /var/spool/mail/"login", where "login" is the person's login name).

Thunderbird is a GUI mail and news reader available on the CDF system. Command line email clients are pine, mail, elm and mutt, and you can read more about them from the man pages. Web browsers and xemacs have GUI email client components.

To send mail, you need to know the person's address. This is usually of the form "loginname@machinename.domain". For example, to mail to "Jane Doe" who has the login name "jdoe" on the machine "geronimo" in the domain "uwaterloo.ca", use the address "jdoe@geronimo.uwaterloo.ca".

On CDF, our default domain name is "toronto.edu", and our machine name (for purposes of mail) is "cdf". We have an alternative domain name, "utoronto.ca", which can also be used. If the machine and/or domain name is skipped, then the defaults are used.


Q: What is my e-mail address?

A: Your email address on CDF is "loginname@cdf.toronto.edu", where "loginname" is your login name. "loginname@cdf.utoronto.ca" will also work.


Q: How do I find out somebody's e-mail address?

A: On CDF, you can find somebody's e-mail address by finding their CDF user name. To do this, type:

   finger <name>

For example, to find out Jane Student's user name, you would type:

   finger Jane Student

The output might look something like:

   Login: g5stujan                         Name: Student Jane
   Directory: /h/u3/g5/00/g5stujan         Shell: /var/shell/csh
   On since Tue Dec 20 15:08 (EST) on pts/6 from werewolf.cdf.toronto.edu
   No mail.
   No Plan.
The CDF user name is listed as the Login. In this case, Jane Student's email address would be g5stujan@cdf.toronto.edu.

For facilities outside of CDF, the procedure for finding someone's e-mail address is a little different. If you know their login name, machine name, and domain is, then try "loginname@machine.domain". If you don't know their login name, but you do know the machine and domain name, you can try:

   "finger <name>@<machine.domain>"
The best and most sure way to find someone's e-mail address is to ask them. There's not usually an easy way to automatically find out the email address of "my friend Kim at Harvard".


Q: How do I forward e-mail?

A: You may wish to forward e-mail that is addressed for your CDF account to another e-mail account. This can be accomplished by creating a file named ".forward" in your home directory, and listing the e-mail address of the destination to which you wish to have mail forwarded. The file can be created with any program that can edit text, including DrJava.

For example, Jane Student may wish to forward her CDF e-mail to her jane.student@utoronto.ca account. To do this, she would create a new file with the her UTORmail address on the first line and would save this file as .forward in her home directory. The file would look like this:

   jane.student@utoronto.ca


News

Q: What happened to the News server?

A: As of Summer 2007, the news server has been decomissioned. Instead of newsgroups, CDF has set up web-based discussion boards. To access the Computer Science Community Discussion Boards, please follow this link and log in with your CDF username and password.


Networks

Q: What network services are available?

A: Electronic Mail is available, world-wide. Other network services, like file transfer (ftp, rcp or scp), remote login (rlogin, telnet or ssh), remote typing conversation (talk, irc, icq), etc. may or may not be available to sites outside the University of Toronto.


Q: What do I need to know about network services?

A: Firstly, respect other people's machines. The fact that a machine is accessible over the network does not give you permission to use it. Attempts to access other computers without authorization (by circumventing password protection, for example) is an offence, and can result in the loss of your CDF account or even academic or legal sanctions.

Secondly, respect other people's use of the network. Don't overload a network with lots of traffic. Don't use services that require lots of network bandwidth, except in off periods. Don't send large or many files via e-mail unless you know that the network bandwidth between you and your destination site is sufficient.

Finally, don't set up any network servers of your own without consulting the CDF administrators.


Q: How do I access the Library Computers (UTLink)?

A: You can use your favourite web browser to access http://www.library.utoronto.ca. The library will provide you with other ways to make use of its facilities from its web site.

Many central U of T resources are available using your UTorID.


Credits: This FAQ was mostly written by various CDF administrators. It was translated to HTML by Wayne Hayes.


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