st: shell stata invokes IC Stata instead of MP

[M Hollis <m73hollis_stata@yahoo.com>]

Hi,

I've run into a slightly strange thing with trying to run stata within a shell on a Unix system. I'll explain below why I want to do this. The issue I'm running into is that while our school has Stata MP installed on the unix machine, when I issue the shell command and start stata within the shell it starts Stata IC instead. I discovered this because I ran into errors about maxvar because of the limits of IC. If I do this interactively, starting Stata and then typing -shell-, it appears to return me to my usual unix prompt, but the same exact command that started Stata MP the first time, -stata-, now calls Stata IC instead. I'll post an edited version of the output demonstrating this issue at the end of this message. The command in both cases is just -stata-, the license number is identical in the two calls of stata, but they end up bringing up two different flavors of Stata.

I'm not sure if this is some quirk to our particular unix system. Any suggestions on fixing this would be appreciated.

So why am I doing this? Basically, I'm trying to do my analysis even more in parallel. There's a point in my do-file where I want to run a bunch of the same regressions on different age groups. So, within the overall do-file, I use the shell command and start each of the regressions in batch mode so they process in parallel. Since the command brings up Stata IC, though, that's defeating the purpose, since that's going to slow down the analysis. 

Thanks,

Matissa Hollister

Edited output:

> stata

  ___  ____  ____  ____  ____ (R)
 /__    /   ____/   /   ____/
___/   /   /___/   /   /___/   12.1   Copyright 1985-2011 StataCorp LP
  Statistics/Data Analysis            StataCorp
                                      4905 Lakeway Drive
     MP - Parallel Edition            College Station, Texas 77845 USA
                                      800-STATA-PC        http://www.stata.com
                                      979-696-4600        stata@stata.com
                                      979-696-4601 (fax)

3-user 6-core Stata network perpetual license:
       Serial number:  xxx
         Licensed to:  xxx

Notes:
      1.  (-v# option or -set maxvar-) 5000 maximum variables
      2.  Command line editing enabled

. about

Stata/MP 12.1 for Unix (Linux 64-bit x86-64)
Revision 22 Oct 2012
Copyright 1985-2011 StataCorp LP

3-user 6-core Stata network perpetual license:
       Serial number:  xxx
         Licensed to:  xxx

. shell stata


  ___  ____  ____  ____  ____ (R)
 /__    /   ____/   /   ____/
___/   /   /___/   /   /___/   12.1   Copyright 1985-2011 StataCorp LP
  Statistics/Data Analysis            StataCorp
                                      4905 Lakeway Drive
                                      College Station, Texas 77845 USA
                                      800-STATA-PC        http://www.stata.com
                                      979-696-4600        stata@stata.com
                                      979-696-4601 (fax)

3-user Stata network perpetual license:
       Serial number:  xxx
         Licensed to:  xxx

Notes:
      1.  Command line editing enabled

2012/08/27 Upgraded to v12.1, 6-processor MP version
2012/12/17 Upgraded to latest patch level

. about

Stata/IC 12.1 for Unix (Linux 64-bit x86-64)
Revision 22 Oct 2012
Copyright 1985-2011 StataCorp LP

3-user Stata network perpetual license:
       Serial number:  xxx
         Licensed to:  xxx

. 

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