Instructions for Running X Applications Remotely

SETTINGS

1. The "DISPLAY" environment variable needs to be set on the machine on which the program will be running. It should be set to machine:0.0, where machine is the name of the machine at which you are sitting.

2. The xhost command needs to be given at the machine where you are sitting so that that machine will allow access from the outside world.

PROCEDURE

1. Start an X Server on the machine at which you are sitting. See "openwindows.txt" for directions on starting OpenWindows.

2. In a terminal window on your local machine, enter the command: xhost +remote_machine. Here remote_machine is the name of the machine you intend to run your remote application on.

3. Login to the remote machine, either in the same terminal window, or by some other means.

4. In the remote terminal window, set the DISPLAY environment variable: setenv DISPLAY local_machine:0.0 where local_machine should be replaced by the name of the machine at which you are sitting.

5. Run the remote application: e.g., remote_command &, where the "&" will cause the application to run in the background, allowing you to log out of the remote machine while keeping the remote X application running.

NOTE:

	Current (6/99) UH network security places restrictions on access.
	Particularly, computers outside the UH domain may not become X
	clients for computers within the domain, which means that commands 
	such as "xhost +machine.university.edu" will not have the desired
	effect when executed on IRTF machines. In case observers have 
	special requirements and can inform the IRTF staff well enough
	ahead of time, it may be possible to arrange for access permissions.
	It is also possible that this security policy may change in the 
	future.