Installing Allegro Runtime SIPE-2

Only people without Lucid or Allegro Lisp should consider using a runtime image. This document describes how to retrieve SIPE-2, and how to install it to run on a computer at your site. The Allegro runtime version of SIPE-2 has not been extensively tested, and is distributed in a runtime image without the compiler, and without source code. The distribution contains system code, the Allegro runtime image, documentation, and example input files.

Hardware and Software Requirements for SIPE-2

In its final configuration SIPE-2 system will require approximately 30 megabytes of disk space on the computer on which it is installed (on a UNIX system you can determine the amount of free disk space using the df command). The current version of SIPE-2 requires SPARCstation hardware (SPARC-2 or greater) with at least 32MB of physical memory.

Your Sun must be running SunOS version 4.1 or newer and the X-Window system. Note that Solaris users must retrieve a different image than SunOS users. SIPE-2 requires significant amounts of swap space (at least 50MB). Your Unix system swap file may require adjustment.

Version Control

If you are installing SIPE-2 for the first time, you can skip the rest of this section.

The SIPE-2 directory tree is rooted in a directory called aic-export. Each version of SIPE-2 is in a subdirectory of aic-export/sipe that is named after its version number (e.g., aic-export/sipe/2.4 contains SIPE-2 version 2.4). The version of SIPE-2 in current use is denoted by a symbolic link named released (e.g., aic-export/sipe/released might link to aic-export/sipe/2.4). You can install a new SIPE-2 version into the same aic-export directory tree as a previous version. The new version of SIPE-2 will appear in new version subdirectories, leaving the old versions intact. All released links will be updated to the latest versions during unpacking. To revert to an earlier version of SIPE-2, simply reset the link.

Old versions of systems can be retained as backups, or deleted. For example, version 1.0 of SIPE-2 can be deleted as follows (assuming you are connected to $AIC):

        rm -r -f sipe/1.0

Locating the Distribution

Decide where in your filesystem you wish to place the SIPE-2 directory tree. Our examples assume that you are placing the directory in /usr/local/. You may wish to substitute a different location for the value of SRI below.

        setenv SRI /usr/local/
        cd $SRI

The above cd command is important, as the following ftp and tar commands will create an aic-export directory in your current directory, which will hold all SIPE-related directories.

Obtaining the Distribution

You will obtain the distribution by FTPing it via Internet. After a license has been signed, SRI will provide you with instructions that specify the site and directory from which to FTP. Use the FTP program to connect appropriately, then:

Log in as user anonymous; give your email address as the password
Connect to the appropriate directory
Put FTP in binary mode (usually simply typing binary to FTP will do the trick)
Retrieve the file sipe-runtime.tar.Z for the Allegro runtime version, or the file sipe-runtime-solaris.tar.Z for the Solaris runtime version. (Do not be surprised if you cannot list the contents of the directory. The file is present, but you should not be able to list the directory.)
Retrieve (optionally) documentation files. The files named aic-sys-spec document the SRI system code that provides version control and a patch facility. It is highly recommended that this documentation be retrieved. These documentation files are provided in 3 different formats, so there are .tex.Z .ps.Z and .dvi.Z files. Pick the one easiest to print at your site. The files are compressed and must be uncompressed before printing. (Print dvi files with lpr -d and ps files with lpr, and run latex on the tex files.) Installation.text contains these html instructions.
Here is a listing of the documentation files available for ftp:
```
aic-sys-spec.dvi.Z
aic-sys-spec.ps.Z
aic-sys-spec.tex.Z
installation.text
```

Unpacking the Distribution

Unpack the distribution file on a Unix system by entering the following command exactly as shown. For a SunOS system:

        uncompress -c -v sipe-runtime.tar.Z | tar xf -

For a Solaris system:

        uncompress -c -v sipe-runtime-solaris.tar.Z | tar xf -

On Solaris machines, a shell script is used to run the image since some environment variables must be set. During installation, you must edit the script to include the pathname for your aic-export directoy. Edit the file
$SRI/aic-export/sipe/released/run-sipe

and change the first line of code (begining with "AIC =") to use you local pathname for aic-export. If aic-export is in /user/local, the line should be:

AIC = /usr/local/aic-export

The distribution tar file can be deleted after successful installation.

Please do NOT rearrange the SIPE-2 directory tree after installation. Proper operation of the system depends on the placement of different files within the directory structure. When starting the image, SRI system code should correctly identify the AIC root if the image is in its proper place in the directory tree.

In case of error, the system may ask for the AIC root, or the $SRI/aic-export/aic-install script can be run.

Configuring X Windows

The following task is optional but may improve the functionality of SIPE-2 under the X-window system.

The behavior of graphics applications under the X-window system is dependent on the configuration of the window manager. For example, pop-up menus behave differently under different window manager resource settings. We find the configuration in file aic-export/clim.Xdefaults useful for the olwm window manager. Therefore, we suggest that the following line be added to the file .openwin-init (or its equivalent) in the home directory of every user of SIPE-2. The workings of these resource settings will also depend on what window manager you use.

        xrdb -merge $SRI/aic-export/clim.Xdefaults

SIPE-2 Documentation

SIPE-2 documentation is contained in your distribution, and can be found in the directory $SRI/aic-export/sipe/released/doc as a poscript file. Hardcopy can be obtained from SRI. Please read the SIPE-2 User's Manual before your first session.

Running the Image

The Allegro runtime version of SIPE-2 has not been extensively tested, and hardly tested at all on Solaris. Please report any problems.

Run the following script to start the image (named sipe-runtime-solaris):

$AIC/sipe/released/run-sipe

On SunOS machines, the image can be run in an xterm by invoking:

$SRI/aic-export/sipe/released/sipe-runtime

When the image gives a prompt, in either SunOS or Solaris, start the system as follows:

(in-package :sipe)
(run-sipe)

The SIPE-2 process can be killed through the Application menu of SIPE-2, or by calling the function (sipe::q).

The :cont and :pop commands can be used to return from an error, :cont takes an integer as an argument. Beware, :pop at the top level will exit the image.

If you use ILISP and GnuEmacs, the image can be run through ILISP in Emacs if desired. (In Solaris, you will have to set the environment variables from the run-sipe script in your environment.)

Reporting Problems

Please report problems by email to wilkins@ai.sri.com.

SIPE-2 is a trademark of SRI International.

AI Center Home Page

David E. Wilkins wilkins@ai.sri.com

Last modified: Thu Jan 9 13:34:45 1997