PC-IRAF V2.11

The V2.11 PC-IRAF release replaces the earlier Linux/IRAF V2.10.4 release and adds support for FreeBSD as well as separate binaries for Red Hat 5.0 (which now use the GNU libc, 'glibc') and Slackware (or any other non-glibc distribution). Ports to Solaris x86 and MkLinux are in progress and should be released shortly.

The PC-IRAF project to date has been hugely successful, coming in second only to Sun in the number of distributions. The Linux architecture is by far the most popular, however FreeBSD is used as a development system at NOAO and has proven to be every bit as good.

Information specific to the PC-IRAF release, including information about installation options, a streamlined installation procedure, and any timely notes added after the initial release can be found in the README file. More detailed information on installing and maintaining PC-IRAF may be found in the PC-IRAF Installation Guide and the Unix IRAF Site Manager's Guide respectively. The distribution is available from the IRAF ftp archive or a tape or CD-ROM distribution may be ordered at cost by returning the ORDERFORM

A paper describing the PC-IRAF project entitled "PC-IRAF: The Choice of a GNU Generation" was presented at the ADASS '95 Conference held in Tucson. A postscript version is also available.

Linux Distributions and Information

Linux is evolving rapidly and there are a number of different Linux distributions out there:

Red Hat
Slackware
Debian
Yggdrasil
InfoMagic

A list of companies selling Linux distributions or services is also available from this link in the Yahoo! index.

While we lack the resources to help users actually install Linux on their machine, there are a number of excellent resources available on the net for those who run into Linux-specific trouble:

Linux Documentation Project Home Page
comp.os.linux newsgroups
Linux Frequently Asked Questions List. Contains answers to many common questions about Linux.
Linux INFO-SHEET, a technical overview of Linux system features.
Linux META-FAQ, a listing of Linux sources of information, such as FTP sites, available documents, and so on.
Linux GCC FAQ, which includes questions and answers about the gcc compiler for Linux.
The XFree86 Home Page
The FVWM Home Page

Running Linux, published by O'Reilly and Associates, is also a very good introduction to linux and installation.

FUTURE WORK

PC-IRAF CDROM

We also have plans for a dedicated PC-IRAF CD-ROM distribution. This will likely include not only the distributions and other FTP archive materials on the current CD, but also a complete run-time system allowing IRAF to be run from the CD without installing it on disk. A laptop computer with a CD-ROM and limited disk space will be just as powerful an IRAF machine as a deskside system.

IRAF

NOAO

Last updated: 23Mar1998