Download and installation

Last updated: October 15, 2005  download the program now

These installation instructions are directed primarily towards users operating in a unix/linux environment. Macintosh (system X) users should also be able to install the program. Windows users are on their own; at the very least, they need to install a C++ compiler (say GNU gcc), and GNU make (if that is possible at all) or an equivalent.

The software is provided in the form of a compressed tarfile. Saying "tar xzf name_of_tarfile" will create a directory called "atlas_version-number". You should then descend into that directory and say "make"; this should create an executable named "atlas", in that same directory. Depending on your path configuration, you launch the program by typing "atlas" or "./atlas".

Note on compilers

The makefile calls the g++ compiler by default; if this is not available on your system, you should edit the makefile and replace it by the C++ compiler that you have. I will be interested to hear how the program fares with other compilers---but unfortunately I cannot promise any help with compilation problems (unless they originate from obvious bugs in the program.) The program has successfully compiled and run in the following environments:

g++ (at least 3.0, and up to 3.4.4):

icc (Intel C++ compiler)

The Intel compiler is very fussy, and with the very verbose compilation flags that are set by default (-Wall), it will drown you in "remarks". More seriously, it does not compile the headers for the GNU readline library, at least on my system. Therefore it is recommended to suppress the -Wall flags, and to compile with "make readline=false" (see below).

The program is known to not compile in the following environments:

Note on readline

By default, the program uses the GNU readline library for its command line interaction. If this is not available on your system, or if you have compilation trouble because of it, you may turn it off by saying "make readline=false". This will still give you a fully functional program, but without the creature comforts such as command history, command line editing and tabbed command completion that readline provides for you. See here for more details.

Note on configuration

The program is not currently provided with any sophisticated configuration and installation scripts, although it is intended to do this at some point in the future. The current preliminary versions are intended for personal use. In particular, it is important that the program is executed in the same "atlas..." directory in which it was compiled, or else it will fail to find the files it needs for help messages. If it is desired to install the program for multi-user usage, this problem is easily remedied by changing the MESSAGE_DIR constant in sources/interface/io.h to the absolute pathname of the "messages" directory.

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