Frequently Asked Questions: Other Services

How do I get a Mailman mailing list set up?

Email sysadmins@srcf.ucam.org with the name of the list you would like. We prefer list names to be of the form <soc>-<list>@srcf.ucam.org, where <soc> is the name of the society or organization with which the list is associated and <list> is the name of the list which should reflect its purpose, for example foosoc-chat@srcf.ucam.org.

Once the mailing list has been created, it can be managed through a web interface. Members can also configure their subscription automatically by sending appropriate emails.

How do I find documentation?

The program 'man' (short for manual) is your friend here. For example, 'man emacs' will tell you about the emacs text editor. You may also find the `info' command to be useful here — many programs with man pages also have info entries. The info system is navigated by pressing return when the cursor is over an active region and using `u' and `d' to move up and down through the hierarchy. `q' is used to quit in both programs.

Another good source of documentation, often more detailed and/or user friendly than the man page is /usr/doc/[package_name]/. The files tend to be in a variety of formats and/or compressed, so the command see is your friend here as it will (most of the time!) automatically choose the correct program to display the document.

Can you host the mail exchange or name server for my domain?

Unfortunately we are prevented from doing this by the University Computing Service.

This means that you must not point MX DNS records at the SRCF machine. If you do this then mail will be blocked as it enters the CUDN, and therefore will not reach you.

Can you install the piece of software “foo”?

Maybe - we normally only install software which is available from the latest stable release of Ubuntu GNU/Linux and which won't place excessive load on our machine. If there is something you would like to use then email sysadmins@srcf.ucam.org and we'll consider it. Details of Ubuntu packages can be found here.

Of course, if it is possible you are welcome to install things locally in your home directory. Please don't run anything which will kill the machine though, otherwise we'll come after you with sticks.

Can you upgrade “piece of software foo” to version 2046?

Unfortunately this isn't possible. We use the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux and installing non-Ubuntu packages is a considerable administrative burden. When the next version of Ubuntu appears we'll be able to upgrade.

Why don't you run Netscape Navigator or Mozilla?

Unfortunately Netscape Navigator and Mozilla put too great a load on the machine if multiple people use them at once, so they are not available. We have lynx, links and w3m (all of which are text-only browsers) if you need to surf the web. This policy was suggested by Bob Dowling, the Senior Treasurer, who has been involved in the Computing Service's Central UNIX Service, where Netscape use is a real problem.

Access to the web in general is forced (by firewall rules against outgoing packets) through the University web cache. The various text-mode browsers installed are configured to use the cache by default, though this relies on a lot of startup script hackery you may need to duplicate if you change your shell from bash, which no-one does. If you need specific sites or networks removed from the outbound web traffic block, contact the sysadmins.