D.2 Graphical Access using X11

Your remote CCA environment will be on a Linux(-like) system (because at present, the CCA tools do not run directly on Windows), in which graphical tools (such as text editors, debuggers, performance tools, etc.) typically use the X11 environment. If you wish to use these graphical tools remotely, you'll need an X11 environment on your local system. This is standard on most Linux(-like) systems. On Windows, you will probably have to install an X11 server.

Warning Running X11 tools remotely can be annoyingly slow, especially over a long-haul connection or a slow network. You may prefer to stick to commandline tools

Most SSH clients are capable of forwarding X11 traffic through your SSH session. If this option is available to you, it is probably the most convenient and definitely the most secure way of running X11 tools remotely. (It is possible for the administrator of the remote system to configure the SSH server to prevent X11 forwarding, but we try to insure that this is not the case on the systems we use for organized tutorials.)