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#	APP LAUNCHER for SAGE2
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# Ratko Jagodic - Nov 8, 2006	
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1) INSTALLATION:
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- appLauncher comes with sage and is placed in the bin/appLauncher folder
- there is no need to install it but you do have to have python2.4 or 
  later in order to run it



2) CONFIGURATION:
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- you need to modify the "applications.conf" file in the appLauncher folder
- the format of the file and additional comments are in the file itself



3) HOW TO RUN:
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- to run type (from bin/appLauncher directory):

	python appLauncher [sage_config_file][-v]

- the first (optional) parameter is an alternative config file that the appLauncher
  will use instead of the default "applications.conf"
- '-v' shows the output of the appLauncher on the console, if not specified
  the output will be written to 'output.txt' and 'errors.txt'
- you can also run the appLauncher constantly in the background since it's 
  not necessary to restart it whenever sage is restarted:

	python appLauncher &



4) APP CONFIG GENERATION:
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- one of the main goals of the applauncher is to generate the app config files,
  copy them to the rendering machine and execute the application
- for this to work you need to have "scp" enabled and you need to have ssh permissions
  on the rendering machines (the best is to set up ssh keys so that you dont have to 
  type in passwords every time you launch an application)
- the appLauncher also makes use of the SAGE_DIRECTORY environment variable in order 
  to copy the app config files into SAGE_DIRECTORY/bin 
- the app config files are generated from the applications.conf AND from the requests made by 
  SAGE UI when launching applications. For example, if SAGE UI requests that the app be
  shareable, the appLauncher will write the sageBridge info into the app config file,
  otherwise the app will connect directly to SAGE and it wont be shareable.