The pulsar group servers (dogmatix0/1 and miraculix/miraculix2) used to have Docker installed. Since Docker needs root permissions to execute, and therefore a security hazard, the service was discontinued on the group servers. Instead, we have decided to use the Singularity container, which can be also be used to run previously built Docker containers without the need for root privileges.

Here is a short how-to on getting access to PSRCHIVE/DSPSR based on a previously build Docker container.

• If you arein a hurry and have to use psrchive/dspsr, use a prebuilt Singularity container:

singularity shell -B /fpra/timing/01 /homes/ramesh/dspsr_fits_mt.sif

 ramesh@dogmatix0 ~ $ singularity shell -B /fpra/timing/01 /homes/ramesh/dspsr_fits_mt.sif 
 bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)
 Singularity dspsr_fits_mt.sif:~> pwd
 /homes/ramesh
 Singularity dspsr_fits_mt.sif:~> cd /fpra/timing/01/MAGNETARS/
 Singularity dspsr_fits_mt.sif:/fpra/timing/01/MAGNETARS> cd J1818-1607/PSRIX0/20200314/search/
 Singularity dspsr_fits_mt.sif:/fpra/timing/01/MAGNETARS/J1818-1607/PSRIX0/20200314/search> vap -c "freq bw" 2020-03-14-06:37:20.ar
 filename   freq   bw
 2020-03-14-06:37:20.ar   1358.926   -250.000
 Singularity dspsr_fits_mt.sif:/fpra/timing/01/MAGNETARS/J1818-1607/PSRIX0/20200314/search>

Note that the container above has tempo2 only.

• Make sure that a prebuilt Docker container exists on Dockerhub
• Build a singularity image by: singularity pull docker:mpifrpsr/dspsr:fits_mt. * The above will create a singularity image dspsr_fits_mt.sif'' in the current directory. You can run this as above, and use all commands that you normally use in a terminal.