Installing Algae on UNIX Systems ================================ Copyright (C) 1994-2003 K. Scott Hunziker. Copyright (C) 1990-1994 The Boeing Company. Algae is free software. See the file "COPYING" for license, warranty, and permission details. Here are some instructions for compiling and installing Algae on Unix systems. Check the "PROBLEMS" file for any additional information specific to your system. If you're impatient, try this: ./configure make check make install Algae is normally distributed in source form, and must be configured and compiled for your machine before you install it. "Package" distributions (such as RedHat rpm's) are available, and are probably the most convenient form for many users. There may also be a "binary" distribution appropriate for your particular machine. These are in files whose names (like "algae-3.0.7-alpha-dec-osf3.0.tar.gz" contain information about the machine for which they were compiled. If you are installing a "binary" distribution, please read the "Binary Distributions" section at the bottom of this file. System Requirements =================== Algae has been developed and tested on Unix machines, including the following: * Apollo (DomainOS) * Cray Y-MP and T94 (Unicos) * HP (DEC) Alpha (OSF) * DECstation (Ultrix) * HP PA1.1 (hpux) * IBM RS/6000 (aix) * Intel 386 and up (Linux, FreeBSD, and UnixWare) * Intel Itanium (Linux) * SGI (Irix) * Sun SPARC (SunOS and Solaris) The Algae source consists of both C and Fortran code; to compile it you'll need a C compiler and a Fortran compiler or translator. For the C compiler, I recommend GNU gcc (http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/). Instead, you may wish to use the native C compiler on your system; it might give you a faster Algae interpreter, although it is not uncommon for Algae to uncover bugs in native compilers. If you already have a Fortran compiler, it will probably work just fine. Otherwise, I recommend the GNU g77 compiler. It had a few problems at first, but I've been using it since February 1996 with few complaints. Recent versions are excellent. If you don't have a Fortran compiler, you'll need the f2c translator (ftp://netlib.org/f2c). Compiled Fortran will execute faster than translated Fortran, but don't be shy about using f2c -- it's reliable and reasonably efficient. Still, you should definitely use g77 instead of f2c if possible. Many systems, even new ones, have a deficient `make' utility. You may need to install GNU make. Although we've attempted to make configuration as automatic and general as possible, we still have much work to do. Floating point exception handling is a constant problem due to the lack of standards. Another problem area is in getting the Fortran libraries linked in properly. If Algae does not configure correctly for you, please let me know. Optional Libraries and Packages =============================== Several libraries and packages can be used by Algae if they're available. Before starting the installation, you should check to see which of these are on your system and where they're located. The installation instructions below will explain how to tell Algae where to find them. (The configure script will try to find them, but you may need to give it some help.) gnuplot http://www.gnuplot.org/ Algae's "plot" function is a front end for gnuplot. This is a free plotting package that you can get from ftp.dartmouth.edu. This package is optional, but you can't plot without it. Readline http://www.gnu.org/directory/readline.html The GNU Readline Library is a command-line editing and history utility. It isn't required, but it's pretty handy. It's available from prep.ai.mit.edu. In the past, readline tempted us with more capabilities (like completion on variable names) than it could deliver. This may have changed -- taking a new look at it is on my to-do list. BLAS http://www.netlib.org/blas The BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines) library is optional in that Algae supplies its own if you don't have it. If your system provides a BLAS library, it may be much faster than the one that comes with Algae. Some systems, though, have BLAS libraries that are broken or that contain only a subset of the routines you'll need. See the README file in the blas directory for more information. LAPACK http://www.netlib.org/lapack The LAPACK library is also optional, as Algae supplies its own if you don't have it. It contains routines for many numerical linear algebra operations. The LAPACK source is available from netlib. Algae requires version 3.0 or later. BCSLIB BCSLIB is a package of high-quality linear algebra routines from Boeing. (BCS was the acronym for "Boeing Computer Services".) If you have BCSLIB, Algae can use its sparse matrix capabilities to good advantage. Actually, it's BCSLIB-EXT that we use -- it then calls BCSLIB. I'm told that all Cray machines have this. There seems to be no standard names for these libraries. Algae looks for `libbcslib.a' and `libbcsext.a', except on the Cray where they're all in `libsci.a'. As of July, 2003, we have not yet gone to the new version of BCSLIB-EXT, which involves substantial changes in function names and arguments. Info ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ Algae can use the Info documentation browsing system to provide on-line help. This is done either with Emacs or with one of the stand-alone Info programs. One of these is in the Texinfo package, available from prep.ai.mit.edu. Another one is tkinfo, a tcl/tk program available from ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu. Originally, Info was the only choice for browsing Algae's on-line help. Now it's more common to use an HTML browser like Mozilla. Basic Installation ================== The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package. It may also create one or more `.h' files containing system-dependent definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script `config.status' that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring, and a file `config.log' containing compiler output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the `README' so they can be considered for the next release. If at some point `config.cache' contains results you don't want to keep, you may remove or edit it. The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program called `autoconf'. You only need `configure.in' if you want to change it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'. The simplest way to compile this package is: 1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type `./configure' to configure the package for your system. If you're using `csh' on an old version of System V, you might need to type `sh ./configure' instead to prevent `csh' from trying to execute `configure' itself. (Why do people still use csh?) The `configure' script accepts a number of optional arguments. Type `./configure --help' for a description. Use the --prefix option if you wish to install Algae in a location other than /usr/local. If LAPACK and the other libraries are not in /usr/local/lib, you'll probably need to tell Algae where to find them; use the --with-PACKAGE options for this, and be sure to use absolute path names. Running `configure' takes some time. While running, it prints messages telling which features it is checking for. I encourage you to at least skim through its output. 2. Type `make' to compile the package. 3. Optionally, type `make check' to run Algae's self-tests. Three types of tests are performed. First, a number of Algae files are executed. Some of them print some insignificant output, but none should report any warnings or errors and every one should report either "passed" or "skipped". If all of the Algae files are executed without error, then the "error tests" are run. These check Algae to make sure that it's reporting errors correctly. This should report "passed". Finally, the "trap tests" are performed. These tests check Algae's response to math errors like overflow and division by zero. Unlike the previous tests, these simply say "done" when finished. Messages about "sloppy handling" are common and can probably be ignored. Any other failures are serious. 4. Type `make install' to install the programs and any data files and documentation. By default, these go in directories beginning with /usr/local. You can change this in step #1 above by giving the --prefix option to configure. Don't simply edit the Makefile after you've compiled the code, because some of the paths are built into the code. 5. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source code directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files that `configure' created (so you can compile the package for a different kind of computer), type `make distclean'. There is also a `make maintainer-clean' target, but that is intended mainly for the package's developers. If you use it, you may have to get all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came with the distribution. Compilers and Options ===================== Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that the `configure' script does not know about. You can give `configure' initial values for variables by setting them in the environment. Using a Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like this: CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure On systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this: env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure Compiling For Multiple Architectures ==================================== You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the same time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'. If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH' variable, you have to compile the package for one architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have installed the package for one architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another architecture. Installation Names ================== By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for installing programs and libraries. Documentation and other data files will still use the regular prefix. Specifying the System Type ========================== There may be some features `configure' can not figure out automatically, but needs to determine by the type of host the package will run on. Usually `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints a message saying it can not guess the host type, give it the `--host=TYPE' option. TYPE can either be a short name for the system type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name with three fields: CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field. If `config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't need to know the host type. If you are building compiler tools for cross-compiling, you can also use the `--target=TYPE' option to select the type of system they will produce code for and the `--build=TYPE' option to select the type of system on which you are compiling the package. Sharing Defaults ================ If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share, you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'. `configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then `PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists. Or, you can set the `CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script. A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script. Operation Controls ================== `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it operates. `--cache-file=FILE' Use and save the results of the tests in FILE instead of `./config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for debugging `configure'. `--help' Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit. `--quiet' `--silent' `-q' Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. `--srcdir=DIR' Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually `configure' can determine that directory automatically. `--version' Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure' script, and exit. `configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options. Binary Distributions ==================== If you are installing a binary distribution, then there are only a few things that need to be done. To install it, `cd' to the top-level directory and do the following: 1. Run Algae's self-tests by typing `make check'. This is described in the "Basic Installation" section above. 2. Edit the top-level Makefile. Hopefully, you won't need to change anything. If you don't want Algae installed under /usr/local (maybe you don't have permission), then you'll need to change the definition of "prefix". 3. Type `make algae.A'. 4. Edit the file "algae.A". Each of the members of "$programs" (like "xhtml", etc.) should be set to appropriate strings. 5. Type `make install' to install the program and its data files and documentation. 6. If you changed the value of `prefix' in Makefile, then every Algae user will need the environment variable ALGAE_RC0 set to the full path and file name of the "algae.A" file. By default, Algae looks for something like "/usr/local/lib/algae/3.0.7/algae.A" (but with the current version number). 7. You can remove the files from the distribution. First, though, you should check to see if there's anything you want from the `etc' and `examples' directories.