SWAP memory being used handling large datasets (Ubuntu 12.04)

I ran into an issue where SWAP memory was being used in moving around large files in Ubuntu 12.04. This slowed down my computer and I had to restart a couple of times a time. I found the solution at http://askubuntu.com/questions/157793/why-is-swap-being-used-even-though-i-have-plenty-of-free-ram. A similar solution probably works for other distributions.

Installing AIPS on ubuntu 13.04

Just as installing AIPS earlier - you need

        libx11-dev and its dependancies

        x11proto-xext-dev

        libxext-dev

        libxpm-dev

        libncurses5-dev

        libncursesw5-dev

        libbsd-dev

        libedit-dev

I use gcc and gfortran to compile AIPS - you need to specify their location in the AIPS installer (/usr/bin/gfortran is both the fortran compiler and the linker for me, while /usr/bin/gcc compiles for C). I also have trouble with the fortran compiler flags -axWPT and -ip options, so I turn them off. XAS isn't built using these directives however, so you need to go to Y/SERVERS and edit XAS.SHR to remove the use of the axWPT and -ip flags when compiling the TV server.

The above was enough to install AIPS on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, but for 13.04 you also need to specify the additional C compiler option -DHAVE_LINUX_GLIBC.

I doubt this is an optimal installation - it might be possible to compile with those flags on a different system (I use a sandybridge based laptop with 64-bit ubuntu 13.04 at the moment) and some of the dependencies might not be necessary (especially if you use the -DHAVE_LINUX_GLIBC the bsd dependencies may drop out). It does result in a working AIPS however!

Make sure to add

        sssin        5000/tcp    SSSIN        # AIPS TV
        ssslock        5002/tcp    SSSLOCK        # AIPS TV Lock
        msgserv        5008/tcp    MSGSERV        # AIPS Message Server
        tekserv        5009/tcp    TEKSERV        # AIPS TekServer
        aipsmt0        5010/tcp    AIPSMT0
        aipsmt1        5011/tcp    AIPSMT1
        aipsmt2        5012/tcp    AIPSMT2
        aipsmt3        5013/tcp    AIPSMT3
        aipsmt4        5014/tcp    AIPSMT4
        aipsmt5        5015/tcp    AIPSMT5
        aipsmt6        5016/tcp    AIPSMT6
        aipsmt7        5017/tcp    AIPSMT7

to /etc/services to get AIPS to run properly. To do this you may need to open the file as root.

One last thing - add the aips path to your profile so you can run it straight from the terminal. For me the line was ". /home/colm/aips/LOGIN.SH; $CDTST". The CDTST bit at the end is needed if you intend to compile custom AIPS tasks.