Xnetlib Client Program Operation

Start the Xnetlib client program by typing xnetlib. When Xnetlib starts up, it attempts to connect to each server on its list of active hosts. The default active host list is netlib.org, netlib.brl.mil and softlib.cs.rice.edu. When these connections have been tested, a window will appear displaying the Xnetlib help screen (Figure 2).

The top row of buttons controls mode changes. In general, Xnetlib reuses the bottom portion of the main window for displays instead of popping up new windows.

Clicking on Library displays the top-level listing of libraries available from the Netlib repository (Figure 3).

You can think of this top-level listing as a set of UNIX-style directories. Clicking on a library name displays a description of the library's contents. For example, clicking on lapack displays the contents of the LAPACK library in library selection mode (Figure 4).

There may be further subdirectories, which are indicated by the folder icon. Files are indicated by the dog-eared page icon. You can select files to be downloaded by clicking on them. Move up the library hierarchy by using the Go Up button and move down by clicking on a library name.

When you have selected one or more files to download from the server, click the Download button to enter download mode (Figure 5). A list of the files you selected will be displayed. You can alter your selections if desired. Click Get Files Now to begin file downloading.

The default directory in which download files are placed is xnlFiles in your home directory. You can change the default directory by clicking on the Download path button. You can choose to have dependency checking either on or off (default is on) by clicking the Dependency checking button. If dependency checking is on, routines required by the requested file will be appended to the file before it is downloaded.

As you traverse the Netlib tree to examine libraries, the Netlib server at UT/ORNL downloads index files for the libraries to your site. Depending on your network connection, this file transfer may be hardly noticeable or may cause a significant delay. If you prefer to have all the index files loaded at once instead of as you need them, click Set Up, then Press to Check Each Index File. This will check every index file older than indexLifetime (see Section 7.4.1 on Xnetlib X Resources), and will copy from the server any that are missing or changed. To find out how to have several users at your site use one shared collection of index files, instead of several separate collections, see Xnetlib Installation and Customization in the System Manager's Guide (Section 7).

Clicking on Classifications lists library topics (Figure 6). The classification is an augmentation of the top level of the GAMS hierarchy. For more information about GAMS, see [2].

Selecting one of these topics displays a subset of the main library list.

Clicking on Search takes you into search mode . Buttons for the various types of searches are displayed, along with an explanation of these search types in the main window. The result of a search is a listing of files, from which you can choose files for downloading.

Clicking on Who changes to whois mode and allows you to query the NA-NET Whitepages and SIAM membership list for information about members of these groups.

Clicking on Conferences takes you into the Conferences Database mode. This mode is an experimental interface to a more general database service based on the relational database model. The Conferences Database contains conference and meeting announcements entered by UT staff and by Xnetlib users.

Clicking on Performance takes you into the Performance Database mode. This mode gives you access to benchmark performance data for a wide range of machines. For more information, see [1].