SE3E - Programming Languages - SW Setup

For having all the software setup prepared for SE3E available in all your sessions, you should include the command

source /u2/se3e03/admin/etc/.cshrc

into the file .cshrc in your home directory in such a way that at least all interactive shells read it.

What does this command do?

The source command:

 source [ -h ]  name
 
 source reads commands from name.  source  commands  may  be
 nested,  but if they are nested too deeply the shell may run
 out of file descriptors.  An error in a sourced file at  any
 level terminates all nested source commands.

Taken from the source manpage (type 'man source' in the command shell)

The .cshrc file:

setenv JAVAHOME /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.0

set SE3E = /u2/se3e03/admin

set path = ($SE3E/bin $JAVAHOME/bin $path)

setenv MANPATH=$SE3E/man:$JAVAHOME/man:$MANPATH

Typing

source /u2/se3e03/admin/etc/.cshrc

causes the lines in the .cshrc file to be run one at a time. Starting with the setting of the JAVAHOME environment variable. Next, another environment variable, SE3E, is set. The next two lines add these two variables to the PATH variable (where the operating system looks for programs) and the MANPATH variable (where the operating system looks for man pages).

What does this actually do?
By placing these two directories at the front of the path variables, it overrides any pre-existing programs with the same names. This way, when you type java or javac you run the version from the most up to date directory, instead of the default version, which is out of date.

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