LIGOtools includes several types of software, including executable programs/scripts, libraries, and Matlab scripts. To make use of these things, you have to set or modify some environment variables such as PATH. Version 1.3 of the 'ltadmin' package, released March 28, 2001, includes a script called 'use_ligotools' to make it easy to do this. Assuming that your installation of LIGOtools has this version (or later) of the 'ltadmin' package, you can execute the following command in your shell:
eval `<dir>/use_ligotools`
where <dir> is the full path of the directory
containing the use_ligotools script. This directory varies
from one place to another, and you'll need to determine what it is for
the system you are working on. Here are some examples:
at Caltech: eval `/ligoapps/ligotools/bin/use_ligotools`
at LHO: eval `/export/apps4/bin/use_ligotools`
This command sets the LIGOTOOLS environment variable and ensures that the $LIGOTOOLS/bin directory is in your PATH, etc. It works with all popular shells (sh, bash, ksh, csh, tcsh) and is rather smart about modifying PATH, etc., so that it can safely be executed multiple times.
It's a good idea to put this command into your .login or .cshrc file to be executed whenever you log in. At some sites, this may automatically be done in a system-wide setup script. (Ideally these system-wide scripts would make use of use_ligotools, but several were created before use_ligotools existed, and may still be in use.) It is safe to put the call to use_ligotools into your .login or .cshrc, even if there is already a system-wide setup script.
If you are curious about what use_ligotools does, just type
<dir>/use_ligotools
i.e. without the "eval" or backticks. (If your environment
variables have already been set up for LIGOtools, you can just type
use_ligotools.)