Computing Resources

Note:Part of this document has been taken from the `New Users' Guide' maintained by the mathematics department, UNC, with a few modifications/changes to suit local needs. Some of the links will be available for local users only.



Contents




Linux Basics
Depending on your requirement, you can have a look at one (or more) of the following documents: [Top] [Editors] [Encryption]




Editors
It is quite possible that you will spend more time using an editor than any other application--for programming, for LaTeXing, for writing web pages, and so on.

For Linux/Unix environment, best editor without doubt is XEmacs. It is installed in all the Linux machines in our computer centre (cc15 and cc10). There is a Windows version of XEmacs also. XEmacs is h-u-g-e in size for a text editor; but thats because it has about 3 mail readers, one web browser, and several games among other things, built in! It is totally customizable, and easily much more powerful than any other text editor you would have seen. You can make xemacs download your pop mails and read/reply/compose mails, just like the netscape mailer or the microsoft outlook express.

In the Windows environment, you might try NoteTab Light, which is a freeware, or WinEdt (there is no `i'!), which is a shareware. Both these editors work well with the MikTeX distribution, which is what we would advocate as the TeX environment for Windows systems.

A Bit More on XEmacs

If you are working in a Linux machine, and have XEmacs installed there (all the Linux machines in the computer centre have it), then all you have to do is to download the file myxemacs.tar.gz in your home directory, then type the following at the shell prompt:
tar zxvf myxemacs.tar.gz
Now you are ready to go! Just type
xemacs &
at the shell prompt, or click on the xemacs icon in the start menu if you are using any of the computer centre linux machines.

[Top] [Encryption]





GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard)
(For the latest versions of the following softwares, you should visit the page www.gnupg.org)
"Gnu Privacy Guard"--a free equivalent of PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy"). gpg is more secure than PGP and  does not use any patented algorithms. gpg is mostly used for signing your e-mail messages and checking signatures of others. You can also encrypt/decrypt messages. http://www.gnupg.org/ contains all the details, including a legible, detailed manual.
To start, I needed a pair of keys: private and public. The private key is used for signing my messages. The public key I give away so that other can use it to verify my signatures. [One can also use a public key to encrypt message so it can only be read using the private key.] I generated my keypair using this command:
gpg --gen-key

My keys are stored in the directory ~/.gnupg (encrypted using a passphrase I supplied during the key generation). To list my public key in plain text file, I use:
gpg --armor --export my_email_address > public_key_stan.gpg

which created a file public_key_stan.gpg containing something like this:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
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=X1k2
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Now, I can e-mail my public key to the people with whom I want to communicate securely. They can store it on their pgp system using;
gpg --import public_key_stan.gpg

Now, I can start using gpg. To nicely sign a plain text file my_message, I use:
gpg --clearsign my_message

This created file my_message.asc which may contain something like:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hello World!

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE5p9+3t+ZBooH8bHcRApn/AJ9kx9+pU3GJBuvJN9Bo3bW3ku/5PwCgquht
mfrPrt7PQtdmGox72jkY0lo=
=rtK0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

To verify a signed message, I could do:
gpg --verify my_message.asc

If the contents of the signed section in my_message.asc was even slightly modified, the signature will not check.

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File converters

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