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Media Arts and Technology |
IT Support
MAT provides email service and web hosting on servers that are located in Elings Hall, in a data center that belongs to the California NanoSystems Institute. The network/email server and web/file server are connected to an auxillary emergency power circuit (E-Power), whose power is supplied by a generator. In the event of a power loss to the campus or building, the MAT networking, email, and web service should remain available.
Contact Info
Email AccountsMAT provides email accounts for all MAT faculty, staff, students, and researchers. For students, starting Fall quarter 2008, the MAT department will use your MAT email address for correspondence. So make sure you monitor this email routinely. Alternatively, you can forward your MAT email to an external account. Contact support (at) mat.ucsb.edu for more information. There are two ways to access your email:
If you do not know your email password, or wish to change it, contact support (at) mat.ucsb.edu. |
MAT core servers: networking, |
CNSI Computing Facility |
Email List Server
The "Mailman" listserver is used to provide mailing lists for departmental lists, courses, and various projects. These lists take the form "listname (at) mat.ucsb.edu". If you would like to create a mailing list, be added to an existing list, or have any questions, contact
support (at) mat.ucsb.edu.
Unix Accounts
MAT provides a unix login account for all MAT faculty, staff, students, and researchers.
The server is: spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu
A word about FTP: You are not able to use ftp to connect to your personal unix account. This is by design. Use instead ssh, scp, sftp, or one of the client applications listed below that offer the SSH encryption protocol. There are FTP servers available for your use however, please see below for more information. Similiarly, the commands telnet, rlogin, and rsh are not available on the server.
The first time you connect to a server using the SSH protocol, you will receive a message that is telling you that the public encryption key has not yet been exchanged. Answer "yes" and you will not be asked this again in the future.
To access your unix account, use one of the following methods. The method to use depends on the type of platform from which you're connecting:
- Windows PC
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- WinSCP [Download] WinSCP is a widely used application for connecting to a unix host using the SSH protocol. Be sure you select SFTP as the protocol when connecting to your personal unix account, and FTP when connecting to a MAT FTP server.
- Putty [Download] From the Putty download page, download "putty.exe" and "psftp.exe", and save them to your desktop.
- Use "putty.exe" to open up a unix shell window in your unix account on spectrum. To do this, double-click on the icon, and enter the hostname of the server you want to connect to (spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu), then select the "Open" button.
- Enter your username at the login prompt, followed by your password.
- Use "psftp.exe" to transfer files (upload and download) to your unix account on spectrum. To do this, double-click on the icon, and type "open spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu", or whatever server you wish to connect to, then press the "Return Key" button.
- Enter your username at the login prompt, followed by your password.
- Apple Macintosh
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The following applications are popular tools for transferring files to and from your Mac and unix host. When using these tools, make sure you select SFTP as the protocol when connecting to your personal unix account, and FTP when connecting to a MAT FTP server. Remember that you cannot use FTP to connect to your personal unix account.
- Unix Host
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To connect to spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu from another unix account, or from a "Terminal" window on a Mac, use the following commands:
- ssh login shell: ssh username@spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu
- Replace "username" with your unix account name.
- Enter your password at the prompt.
- sftp (file transfer): sftp spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu
- Enter your username and password at the prompts.
- scp (file transfer): scp file spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu: <= remember the colon at the end
- The file will be copied to your home directory on spectrum. You may reverse the order of the source and destination above to copy files to your local host from the remote server.
Personal Web Pages
In your home directory on spectrum you will see a directory called public_html. If you put a web page in this directory (for example, an index.html file), it will appear under the main MAT website as:
www.mat.ucsb.edu/~user
If you don't already have a personal website somewhere, you can use this to showcase your work to the world. MAT strongly encourages students to create/maintain a quality website.
MAT FTP Servers
To facilitate file sharing and collaboration, MAT provides FTP services that are available to all MAT people.
The main MAT ftp server is: ftp.mat.ucsb.edu
Contact support (at) mat.ucsb.edu for the username and password.
Some other FTP servers that are used for more specific uses are translab.mat.ucsb.edu and legrady.mat.ucsb.edu.
Software Development
Your unix account on spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu can be used for software development. MAT maintains an environment suitable for both large and small software development projects. In addition to the standard set of compilers and libraries, the following tools are provided.
Subversion (SVN)
Subversion is a version control system used to maintain software repositories. To learn more about Subversion, visit: svnbook.red-bean.com. Some popular Subversion clients are listed here:
The MAT Subversion server is: svn.mat.ucsb.edu (spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu).
There are two protocols you can use to access your Subversion code repositories: svn+ssh and https. Both methods access the same repositories, but use two different routes. svn+ssh is the standard way to access your SVN repository. Use your unix username and password on spectrum.mat.ucsb.edu to authenticate. https is provided by request, and is useful for providing access to SVN repositories to external collaborators.
Examples:
The following examples use the unix Subversion command line client.
To import code into your repository for the first time:
svn import fubar svn+ssh://larry@svn.mat.ucsb.edu/svn/fubar -m "Initial import"
where "fubar" is the name of the source "tree" (sub-directory) on the local computer, "larry" is the username on the server, and "fubar" is the name of the code repository on the server.
Enter your password at the prompt.
To "check out" code:
svn co svn+ssh://svn.mat.ucsb.edu/svn/fubar
Note: By default, Subversion caches your authentication information, so you don't have to enter your username and password each time you access your repository.
If you're using "https" instead of "svn+ssh" as the transfer protocol, substitute "https://" for "svn+ssh://".
To "check in" code:
svn ci -m "Comment"
This command must be entered from the parent directory of the source code tree.
There is much more you can do with Subversion, but this should be enough to get you started.
If you would like to create and start using a new SVN software repository, contact
support (at) mat.ucsb.edu.
Apache mod_dav_svn module
This Apache module allows you to use the HTTPS protocol for accessing SVN code repositories. In addition, it provides the ability to be able to browse the code repositories using a standard web browser. Code repositories can either be "anonymously" viewable (by everybody), or access can be restricted by requiring username/password authentication.
To see the list of Subversion repositories using a web browser, go to: svn.mat.ucsb.edu/svn/.
Trac
Trac is a useful tool for collaborative software development projects. It is a web-based tool that is designed to integrate with Subversion repositories. Code modifications and version tracking is easily viewable, and a wiki page is assigned to each repository. A ticketing system is also available, as well as other features. To learn more about Trac, visit the Trac Project page.
To see the list of Subversion repositories configured with Trac, go to: www.mat.ucsb.edu/projects