At this point it should be possible for any user to run IRAF. First however, you should verify this by using the IRAF account itself. Before testing a newly installed or upgraded system it is wise to read the CL User's Guide, the revisions notes, and the list of known bugs, if one has not already done so.
The default LOGIN.COM in the IRAF login directory [IRAF.LOCAL] will automatically execute the globally defined system command `iraf', which defines the IRAF logicals. Login as IRAF so IRAFUSER.COM is executed and the IRAF logicals are defined.
Before starting the IRAF CL (command language) you should do what a regular user would do, i.e., run mkiraf to initialize the IRAF uparm directory and create a new LOGIN.CL (answer yes to the purge query, as it is advisable to delete the contents of the old uparm). You may edit the LOGIN.CL created by mkiraf as desired.
Any modifications you wish to preserve across another mkiraf may be placed into an optional "loginuser.cl" file to avoid having to edit the login.cl file. The loginuser.cl file can have the same kinds of commands in it as login.cl, but must have the statement keep as the last line.
Once the IRAF environment is configured one need only enter the command cl to start up the CL. From an X windows workstation, you should always start the CL from an xtermwindow (or xgterm if available). See Xterm
If the CL runs successfully, the screen will be cleared (if the terminal type is set correctly) and the message of the day printed. You can then type logout to stop the CL and return to DCL, or stay in the CL to edit and test the device files described in the next section. When logging back into the CL (as `IRAF'), always return to the [IRAF.LOCAL] directory before logging in. A little command h (for `home') is defined in the default IRAF LOGIN.COM file for this purpose.
If the CL does not run successfully, it is probably because the iraf command was not executed in the LOGIN.COM file at login time. The iraf command must be executed to define cl and the other VMS logical names and symbols used by IRAF, before trying to run the IRAF system.
Important Note: any users wishing to execute IRAF tasks in VMS batch queues must issue the `iraf' command inside their LOGIN.COM, prior to any
command, otherwise critical IRAF logical names will be undefined when executing tasks remotely using IRAF networking.
Once in the CL, you should be able to draw vector graphics on the workstation screen (xterm) or graphics terminal and have printer access (device vmsprint). If working from a workstation on which you've started saoimage (see Saoimage ), you should be able to display images. In addition, you may have magtape access with minimum modifications to dev$tapecap and may or may not have graphics plotter access. If the graphics terminal capability is ready the next step is to run the IRAF test procedure to verify that all is working well, as well as try out a few of the many tasks in the system. If the graphics terminal is not up yet, there is probably no point in running the test procedure. To run the test procedure, read the documentation in the IRAF User Handbook, Volumn 1A, and follow the instructions therein. The test procedure is also available separately from the anonftp archive on iraf.noao.edu.