Getting Started

The Choice

With the addition of Conda to our workflow we at present have two different methods of Getting Started with mantid development. Therefore you can choose which method to setup with (We recommend Conda as it will be the only supported method eventually).

Custom git setup for inside the ORNL firewall:

Due to security configuration at ORNL one needs to do additional configuration to access github from within the lab. One option is to use the https protocol listed above The alternative is to access github through ssh.github.com. Add the following lines to ~/.ssh/config:

Host github.com
    Hostname ssh.github.com
    Port 443
    PreferredAuthentications publickey

If you need further help, ask another developer at the facility how to configure ssh.

Building Mantid

See Building with CMake for information about building Mantid.

Archive access - ISIS

It is very convenient to be able to access the data archive directly. At ISIS, this is automatically done on the Windows machines, however OSX and Linux require some extra setup.

OSX

  • In Finder “command”+k opens a mounting dialogue

  • For Server address enter smb://isisdatar80/inst$/ hit Connect

  • This should prompt you for federal ID clrc.… and password

  • After completing this the drive is now mounted

  • It can be found at /Volumes/inst$

NB the address in step 2 sometimes changes - if it does not work, replace 80 with 55 or 3.

Linux

  1. Install packages:

sudo apt-get install -y autofs cifs-utils keyutils

  1. Create an /archive.creds file in the root directory containing this, filling in the relevant details:

This should only be done if full disk encryption is enabled or if the archive.creds file is stored in a secure (encrypted) location; to ensure passwords are kept safe.

username=FEDERAL_ID_HERE
password=FED_PASSWD_HERE
domain=CLRC

  1. Edit /etc/auto.master and add the line:

/archive      /etc/auto.archive

  1. Create /etc/auto.archive and add the single line:

*     -fstype=cifs,ro,credentials=/archive.creds,file_mode=0444,dir_mode=0555,vers=3.0,noserverino,nounix    ://isis.cclrc.ac.uk/inst\$/&

  1. Enter the following commands:

sudo chmod 400 /archive.creds
sudo mkdir /archive
service autofs restart

Done. You can now access directories in the archive. Test it by doing:

ls /archive/ndxalf

If it’s working the command should return ls: cannot access '/archive/ndxalf/DfsrPrivate': Permission denied