Basic Commands

The vuw Commands

In an effort to make using Rāpoi just a bit easier, CAD staff have created commands to help you view useful information. We call these the vuw commands. This is because all the commands begin with the string vuw. This makes it easier to see the commands available to you. If, at a command prompt you type vuw followed immediately by two TAB keys you will see a list of available commands beginning with vuw. Go ahead and type vuw-TAB-TAB to see for yourself.

The commands available as of this update are:

Command Description
vuw-help Prints this help information
vuw-job-report Provides summary information about a job
vuw-quota Prints current storage quota and usage
vuw-partitions Lists available partitions and compute node availability
vuw-alljobs Lists all user jobs
vuw-myjobs Lists your running or pending jobs
vuw-job-history Shows jobs finished in the last 5 days
vuw-job-eff Shows job efficiency (use vuw-job-eff --help for details)
vuw-info Shows node resource usage and availability (use vuw-info --help for details)
vuw-alloc Shows current usage against user accounts (use vuw-alloc --help for details)

Tip

If you are unable to use these commands (e.g. with an error message "command not found") then double check you have the "config" module loaded (i.e. enter the command module load config).

Linux Commands

Rāpoi is built using the Linux operating system. Access is primarily via command line interface (CLI) as opposed to the graphical user interfaces (GUI) that you are more familiar with (such as those on Windows or Mac) Below are a list of common commands for viewing and managing files and directories (replace the file and directory names with ones you own):

ls - This command lists the contents of the current directory

  • ls -l This is the same command with a flag (-l) which lists the contents with more information, including access permissions
  • ls -a Same ls command but this time the -a flag which will also list hidden files. Hidden files start with a . (period)
  • ls -la Stringing flags together

cd - This will change your location to a different directory (folder)

  • cd projects/calctest_proj
  • Typing cd with no arguments will take you back to your home directory

mv - This will move or rename a file

  • mv project1.txt project2.txt
  • mv project2.txt projects/calctest_proj/

cp - This allows you to copy file/s and/or directories to defined locations. The cp command works very much like mv, except it copies a file instead of moving it. The general form of the command is cp source destination, for example:

  • cp myfile.txt myfilecopy.txt

Further examples and options can be seen here.

rm - This will delete a file

  • rm projects/calctest_proj/projects2.txt
  • rm -r projects/calctest_proj/code The -r flag recursively removes files and directories

mkdir - This will create a new directory

  • mkdir /nfs/home/myusername/financial

To find more detailed information about any command you can use the manpages, eg: man ls

Learning the Linux Shell