ePiX -- POST-INSTALL
 
Last Change: December 20, 2002
 
This file contains post-install configuration instruction for users.
Commands should be typed as shown; the "%" represents the prompt and
should not be typed. A few data files are mentioned below. Copies are
in the directory where you unpacked the ePiX sources, and are placed
in $INSTALL_DIR/share/epix/config/ during installation.


The SHELL, and ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

ePiX is a command-driven program. A "shell" is a program that presents
a command prompt, interprets commands you type, and runs other programs
accordingly. Under GNU/Linux, the default shell is "bash", a derivative
of the Bourne shell (Bourne Again SHell), while under many Unices (such
as Solaris) the default shell is "csh" (the C shell). While you must have
bash on your system in order to run ePiX, you need not use bash as your
command shell.

The behavior of a shell is controlled by "environment variables". For
example, the PATH variable is the list of directories searched by the
shell when you type a command. If you installed ePiX for personal use,
you need to ensure the directory $HOME/bin is in your PATH. To check,
do

% echo $PATH

at a prompt. If $HOME/bin is not in your PATH, you need to determine 
what shell you're using and edit the appropriate shell configuration 
file:

% ?

If the response is:		Put this line:			Into the file:
-------------------		--------------			--------------
bash: ?: command not found	export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin	~/.bashrc

?: no match			setenv PATH $PATH:$HOME/bin	~/.cshrc

If the response is something else, please consult someone knowledgeable
at your site for assistance.


PROGRAMMABLE COMPLETION

Users of bash, zsh, and tcsh can take advantage of TAB completion; if
you type part of a command and press TAB, the shell will display a list
of valid completions. Each of these shells supports "programmable"
completion, which narrows the list of valid completions intelligently.
Programmable completion in bash is available only with Version 2.05 and
later, and you must install Ian MacDonald's bash completion package. Do
a search for "bash programmable completion" at

  http://freshmeat.net

The file "$INSTALL_DIR/share/epix/config/bash_completions" contains
lines that tell epix, laps, and elaps to complete only on files with
appropriate suffix. These lines should be put into your bash config
file (~/.bashrc) just after the line that includes the system-wide
bash completion config file (q.v.).


EMACS MODE

Jay Belanger has kindly provided an emacs mode (epix.el) and info file
(epix.texi) for working with ePiX source files. To use epix mode, put
a copy of the file "epix.el" in your emacs load path; under GNU/Linux,
an appropriate system directory is /usr/share/emacs. If you are not
the superuser, use a directory such as ~/share/emacs:
 
% mkdir ~/share
% mkdir ~/share/emacs
% cp epix.el epix.texi ~/share/emacs/.
 
Then add lines such as the following to your .emacs file:
 
(setq load-path (cons "~/share/emacs/" load-path))
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.xp" . epix-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(autoload 'epix-mode "epix" "ePiX editing mode" t)
(setq epix-mark-files-as-epix t)
(setq epix-insert-template-in-empty-buffer t)
 
Change "~/share/emacs/" in the first line as appropriate. You use epix
mode by typing

M-x epix-mode

in emacs. (The notation "M-x" means the emacs META key, usually ESC,
followed by "x".) If you open a new file with extension ".xp", emacs
will automatically insert a preamble template. You can also compile
and preview ePiX source files with emacs commands, and view some of
the documentation as an info file; please see epix.el for more
details.


OTHER CONFIG FILES

The files ~/.dvipsrc and ~/.epixrc affect the behavior of epix, elaps,
and laps. The use of these files in documented in the tutorial. Neither
file is required in order to use ePiX.

Guido Gonzato has kindly written an RPM spec file for creating Red Hat
packages for ePiX; see "$INSTALL_DIR/share/epix/config/epix.spec". The
author does not use RPM 4.x, so this file is relatively unsupported.


