How to Run GAMS in the HPC Lab

How to run GAMS in the HPC lab, ETC 3.140

Notes

1. The computers in the Lab use Linux SuSE as an operating system and they have a window-based user interface program, KDesktop, which looks very much like Microsoft windows.
2. In KDesktop, no double-click is used; single-click only.
3. Linux is case-sensitive, i.e., ‘a’ is different from ‘A’.

Step1: Login

On a computer in the lab, type your ID and press enter. Type your password and press enter. You will see the window-based user interface similar to Microsoft windows.Generally, at the first login, the display has no active windows. You should see several icons on the desktop and a “task bar”at the bottom of the display.

Step 2: Create a working folder

Click the “My Computer” icon on the desktop and a window should pop up.On the menu bar of this window, click “go” -> “Home URL”. You will see any files in your home directory.

On the menu bar of this window, click “Edit” -> “Create New” -> “Folder”.The system asks you to specify the folder name. Enter the folder name, say, “gams”.On the display of the window, the folder “gams” will appear.Click “gams” folder. (Let’s call the window in which the “gams” folder is opened asGAMS window.)

Step 3: Create a GAMS file

On the menu bar of the GAMS window, click “Edit” -> ”Create New” -> “File” -> “Text file”.

Enter the name, say, “blind.gms”. It makes an empty file named “blind.gms”.

Move the cursor overthe “blind.gms” icon, which is inside the window and click the right button of your mouse. Choose “Open with” -> “KWrite”. This opens the editor, KWrite, in which you can type the contents of the GAMS model. After typing the contents of the model, click “Save” -> “Quit” on the menu bar.

Step 4: Run GAMS

In the task bar, which is on the bottom of the display similar to Microsoft Windows, there is an icon named “Konsole” which is the second icon from the left corner.It pops up a text-based window with a prompt “$” (or possibly some other symbol) in which you can use Linux commands.

Type:

$ cd gams [hit enter]

$ gams blend [hit enter]

The second command calls GAMS to solve the problem in the“blend.gms” file. In the gams window, you can see the list file, blend.lst, which is created when the run starts. By clicking the icon, you can see the contents of list file. If necessary, modify the GAMS file the same way as you created it in Step 3 to correct the errors in the list file.

Step 5: Print a file

There are two ways to print a file.

1. On the menu bar of the window in which the file is opened, click “File” -> “Print”.

2. On the “Konsole” window, type:

$ lpr filename or $ enscript filename

If you have any problem with printing, ask a TA in the lab.

Step 6: Logout

To log out, click “Start” -> “Logout”.

(The start icon is not exactly a “start” button. It is the icon that is in the place ofthe “Start” button in Microsoft Windows, and looks like a ball.)

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