Mathematics Department
Penn State University
August, 2003
Your "path" is a list of directories that tells the system where to look for executable files. Before you can use grader for the first time, you need to change your default path so that your command prompt will know where to find the executable files.
WARNING! It is not completely safe to change your path in the way described below. You are trusting that no harmful programs are in the directory you add to your path. One completely safe alternative is to make your own copy of the executable files and read the source to verify they don't do anything harmful. Another option is to avoid running programs that other MathNet users have in their home directories.
To change you path, you need to change your .cshrc file. To do so, type pico .cshrc at the command prompt. This will open the editor pico. You want to change the line in the .cshrc file that says
set mypath = ( )to say
set mypath = ( /home/fourier3/mummert/bin/grader )
You will need to log out and log back in for changes in your .cshrc to be effective.
For each class for which you use grader to record grades, you need to create a directory to hold the grade files. To do this, type mkdir directory-name to make the directory, then chmod 700 directory-name to set the file permissions correctly. This process only needs to be done one time per class. Each time you want to use the grader commands, you need to type cd directory-name before you begin, so that you are in the correct directory. You can check which directory you are currently in by typing pwd. Before you start using grader each time, you should run xterm, which will give you another command line. The "Command Tool" has bugs with backspacing and related issues; you should not use grader from the Command Tool window. xterm doesn't have these problems.
There is documentation for grader available online. For help with this program, send email to mummert at math.psu.edu, not to help at math.psu.edu
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