Glossary

Absolute path: An absolute path begins at the root of the file system and begins with a “/”. For example /home/joeuser/project1 is the path to directory project1 under joeuser’s home directory. See path and relative path.
bash: bash is a Bourne-type shell, one of the two main types of Unix shells. bash is the default shell on Bridges.
Batch job: A batch job is a way to queue up work on Bridges to be run when resources become available. In a batch job, a batch script is submitted to one of Bridges’ partitions. See interactive session.
Batch script: A batch script is a file containing SLURM directives and commands to execute your work. Batch scripts are submitted to Bridges’ scheduler (SLURM) and run as soon as resources are available, without further interaction on your part.
csh: csh (pronounced “c shell”) is one of the two main types of Unix shells.
Interactive session: An interactive session is a way to connect to Bridges’ compute nodes and execute commands interactively. See batch job.
Path: A path is a unique address to a file or directory in a file system. In Unix-like systems, it consists of directories separated by “/”, for example /home/joeuser/project1. See absolute path and relative path.
Partition: In SLURM, a partition is a logical group of nodes. Interactive sessions must specify which partition nodes should be allocated from. Batch jobs are queued in the specified partition.
Relative path: A relative path is the location of a file or directory relative to your current directory. For example, project1/results.dat is a relative path to the file results.dat in the project1 subdirectory of your current directory. Relative paths do not start with a “/”. See path and absolute path.
SLURM: SLURM (Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management) is Bridges’ scheduling software.
ssh: ssh stands for secure shell; it enables secure logins over an insecure network and is the recommended way to connect to Bridges.
Unix shell: A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter that provides a traditional user interface for Unix and Unix-like systems. The two major shell types are the Bourne shell and the C shell. Each type has its own commands and syntax.
X11 forwarding: X11 forwarding (through ssh) is a way to use a Windows-like interface on a Unix-like system, such that you can use a mouse to interact in the interface, for example.