(SNIC) Standardized Environment Variables at HPC2N

These environment variables are available on most Swedish HPC resources (formerly SNIC centres), so they are set as default for all users at HPC2N. They can be used in e.g. job scripts, and it is preferred that the variables are used instead of the absolute value.

Here follows a short description of the variables:

Environment Variables

There are many environment variables. Some will be set automatically at login and some which you can change if needed. Many of the environment variables will be related to paths and storage locations, but there are also some which are set for specific applications (like compilers). These environment variables willl be set when you load the 'module' for the application in question. (Read more about modules in the section about them.)

The Environment

The systems at HPC2N predominantly run various versions of Linux. If you have no experience with that, there are several good online sources that can be used to familiarize yourself with the basic commands. 

FAQ

Email

Together with an account at HPC2N you will also get an email address. However, you cannot log in to read it at HPC2N so it will need to be forwarded to your home/other email. This email address will be pulled from SUPR by HPC2N, and will be used by HPC2N to determine where to send you any information.

Thus you must make sure to keep the email address given in SUPR updated and valid. You can change it from this page: SUPR personal information.

Shells

When your account is activated, your default shell will be set to bash - the GNU Bourne-Again SHell (bash), which is completely compatible with the Bourne shell (sh). For more details on bash, enter "man bash" while logged in.

SSH X11 Forwarding

In order to enable this, you must login with

ssh -X <username>@<host>

SSH supports tunneling of X11 (X-Windows). This is also very useful if you want to open graphical displays from the remote machine on your local computer. To achieve this, an X11 server must be running on your local machine. The X11 connections are then tunneled and automatically encrypted by your SSH client.

For some types of graphical software this does not work correctly (if they need input from keystrokes). In those cases you must use

Login and password

[Secure Shell Login and File Transfer | Passwordless Login | GSSAPI with ssh and PuTTY clients | First Time Login / Password Change | Forgotten Password ]