Alternative Software Versions
In many cases TCM has installed several different versions of the same software package. This may be because the newest version is known to be too buggy to be the default, or it may be because retaining older versions so that one can check for any regressions is prudent.
Historically this was achieved by suffixing the application name. This is fairly user-friendly: one simply types the name, hits the tab key twice in quick succession, and a list of alternatives is presented. As a current example:
pc0:~$ vmd vmd vmd-1.8.2 vmd-1.8.6 vmd-1.8.7
It is immediately clear which versions of vmd one can specify.
However, a different technique is used for other applications, that of setting an environment variable to a specific version number. Applications, and corresponding environment variables, are:
| Gnuplot: | TCM_GNUPLOT_VER |
| Intel compilers (ifort, icc, icpc): | TCM_INTEL_VER |
| Jmol: | TCM_JMOL_VER |
| LibreOffice (soffice): | TCM_OOFFICE_VER |
| Mathematica: | TCM_MATHEMATICA_VER |
| Matlab: | TCM_MATLAB_VER |
| MPI (compiling and running): | MPI |
The recommended way of using the alternative versions is by typing
TCM_JMOL_VER=14.0.4 jmol
though in the case of large compilations it would be more reasonable to use something like
export TCM_INTEL_VER=14.0.3 ifort ...
There is no good way of listing all versions available, save that setting the relevant variable to an invalid version often gives clues.
pc0:~$ TCM_MATHEMATICA_VER=henry mathematica /usr/local/shared/bin/mathematica: line 13: /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/henry/Executables/mathematica: No such file or directory pc0:~$ ls /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/*/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/10.0.0/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/10.0.1/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/10.0.2/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/10.1.0/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/6.0.2.1/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/6.0.2/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/6.0.3/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/7.0.1/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/7.0/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/8.0.0/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/8.0.1/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/9.0.0/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/9.0.1/Executables/mathematica /usr/local/shared/Mathematica/current/Executables/mathematica
In some cases there is no obvious "front door" to older versions, but this does not mean that they do not exist if the package is installed in /usr/local/shared.
pc0:~$ type evince evince is /usr/bin/evince
Out of luck -- not a central TCM install.
pc0:~$ type bmp2eps bmp2eps is /usr/local/shared/bin/bmp2eps pc0:~$ ls -l /usr/local/shared/bin/bmp2eps lrwxrwxrwx 1 mjr 266 26 Aug 18 2010 /usr/local/shared/bin/bmp2eps -> ../bmp2eps/current/bmp2eps pc0:~$ ls -l /usr/local/shared/bmp2eps total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 32 Aug 18 2010 0.99a drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 28 Aug 18 2010 0.99c drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Aug 18 2010 1.00 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Dec 7 2011 1.01 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Jul 14 2012 1.10 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Aug 27 2012 1.16 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Feb 24 2013 1.17 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Mar 6 2013 1.18 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Apr 9 2013 1.19 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Nov 10 2013 1.20 drwxr-xr-x 2 mjr 266 48 Mar 6 2014 1.20a lrwxrwxrwx 1 mjr 266 5 Mar 6 2014 current -> 1.20a
Pretty obvious where earlier versions can be found.
pc0:~$ type soffice
soffice is /usr/local/shared/bin/soffice
pc0:~$ ls -l /usr/local/shared/bin/soffice
-rwxr-xr-x 1 mjr 266 74 Dec 31 2013 /usr/local/shared/bin/soffice
m1:~$ less /usr/local/shared/bin/soffice
#!/bin/bash
exec /usr/local/shared/openoffice/current/soffice ${1+"$@"}
pc0:~$ ls /usr/local/shared/openoffice
INSTALL.TCM lo3.6 lo4.0.3 lo4.1.3 lo4.2.1 lo4.3.1 lo4.4.1
current lo3.6.4 lo4.0.4 lo4.1.4 lo4.2.1_32bit lo4.3.3 lo4.4.2
current32 lo4.0 lo4.1.1 lo4.1.4_32bit lo4.2.4 lo4.3.5 oo3.3
Ditto