Advanced C Programming

Autumn 2016 :: ECE 264 :: Purdue University

This is for Fall 2016 (8 years ago)

Setup

Throughout ECE 264, you will be working via an SSH terminal connection to ecegrid.  You can connect to this address:
ecegrid-thin3.ecn.purdue.edu.
This is one of several identical nodes in the ecegrid cluster. This web page has chosen one at random, to avoid having the entire class overload one.

Overview

  1. (Windows) Install and configure PuTTY
  2. Connect to ecegrid
  3. Install the course .bashrc and .vimrc configuration files
  4. (Windows, later) Install Xming.

(Windows) Install and configure PuTTY

  1. From the PuTTY Download Page choose the "latest release version" (green section) » "Windows MSI installer".
  2. Run PuTTY and create a saved session as follows:
    1. Session » Host Name » yourUsername@ecegrid-thin3.ecn.purdue.edu
    2. Connection » Data » Terminal-type string » xterm-256color
    3. Window » Appearance » Font » Lucida Console
    4. Window » Behavior » Full screen on Alt-Enter
    5. Window » Colours » Allow terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode » (checked)
    6. SSH » X11 » Enable X11 forwarding
    7. SSH » X11 » X display location » localhost:0
    8. Session » Saved Sessions » 264
    9. Session » Saved Sessions » click Save
  3. Create a shortcut on your desktop.
    1. Right-click your desktop.
    2. Enter "C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe" -load 264

Note:  The first two "Window" configurations are optional, but recommended. The options related to X11 won't be important until/unless you want to use the DDD debugger later in the semester.

Connect to ecegrid

Linux / Mac: Open your console (aka "Terminal") and enter ssh yourUsername@ecegrid-thin3.ecn.purdue.edu window asking for your password.

Windows: Double-click the shortcut you just created. You should get a PuTTY window asking for your password.

Install the course .bashrc and .vimrc configuration files

This step will install our starter .bashrc and .vimrc configuration files in your home directory. You can preview them here: .bashrc, .bash_profile, and .vimrc. Among other things, these ensure that you can access the 264get and 264submit commands, which you will need for every assignment. They also set up a few shortcuts, which we think you will find useful when working in bash (your command line on ecegrid) and vim (programming editor).

If you already have a .bashrc and/or .vimrc file that you like, just add these two lines to your .bashrc: 
export PATH=/opt/gcc/6.1.0/bin:$PATH:/home/shay/a/ece264s0/16au/bin
alias gcc='gcc -g -Wall -Wshadow -Wvla -std=c99'
If you do that, you can ignore the instructions below, though you will not have some of the shortcuts and other niceties we will be referring to in class.
  1. Enter the following commands to install starter files provided by the instructor. If you are using PuTTY, you can paste these in by right-clicking the screen.
    WARNING: These are old instructions from Autumn 2016. They will not work for any other semester.
    cp -i ~ece264s0/16au/.bashrc ~
    cp -i ~ece264s0/16au/.bash_profile ~
    cp -i ~ece264s0/16au/.vimrc ~
    chmod 600 .vimrc .bashrc .bash_profile
    The first three commands copy the files from a shared directory. The last command sets the permissions so others can't see their contents.
  2. Log out and log back in to let your .bashrc changes take effect.
  3. Create a new directory for your 264 files. We will assume your directory is called 264.
    mkdir 264
    cd 264
    The first command creates a directory called 264. The second command changes into it.