-Prerequisites
+PREREQUISITES
=============
-GiNaC requires the CLN library by Bruno Haible, available at
-<ftp://ftp.santafe.eu/pub/gnu/> or <ftp://ftp.ilog.fr/pub/Users/haible/gnu/>.
-You will also need a good C++ compiler adhering to the ANSI standard (we
-used gcc for development so if you have a different compiler you are on
-your own).
+GiNaC requires the CLN library by Bruno Haible installed on your system.
+It is available from <ftp://ftpthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/>.
+You will also need a decent ANSI-compliant C++-compiler. We recommend the
+C++ compiler from the GNU compiler collection, GCC >= 3.0. If you have a
+different or older compiler you are on your own. Note that you may have to
+use the same compiler you compiled CLN with because of differing
+name-mangling schemes.
-Installation
+Known to work with:
+ - Linux on x86, Alpha and Sparc using GCC 3.0.x, 3.1 and 3.2.
+
+Known not to work with:
+ - GCC 2.96 or earlier because proper exception and standard library support
+ is missing there.
+
+
+INSTALLATION
============
-As with any autoconfiguring GNU software, installation is as easy as this:
+To install from a source .tar.bz2 distribution:
$ ./configure
$ make
- $ make check
-[become root if necessary]
- $ make install
+ [become root if necessary]
+ # make install
-Known to work with:
- - Linux/x86, EGCS-1.1.2 or GCC 2-95.1/2-95.2
+To install from CVS:
+
+ $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvsthep.physik.uni-mainz.de:/home/cvs login
+ [enter "anoncvs" as the password]
+ $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvsthep.physik.uni-mainz.de:/home/cvs co GiNaC
+ $ cd GiNaC
+ $ ./autogen.sh
+ $ make
+ [become root if necessary]
+ # make install
+
+To build the GiNaC tutorial and reference manual in HTML, DVI, PostScript,
+or PDF formats, use one of
-The "configure" script can be given a number of options to enable and
-disable various features. For a complete list, type:
+ $ make html
+ $ make dvi
+ $ make ps
+ $ make pdf
+
+To compile and run GiNaC's test and benchmark suite and check whether the
+library works correctly you can use
+
+ $ make check
+
+The "configure" script (and "autogen.sh", which invokes "configure") can be
+given a number of options to enable and disable various features. For a
+complete list, type:
$ ./configure --help
--exec-prefix=EPREFIX install architecture-dependent files in EPREFIX
[defaults to the value given to --prefix]
--disable-shared suppress the creation of a shared version of libginac
+ --disable-static suppress the creation of a static version of libginac
More detailed installation instructions can be found in the documentation,
in the doc/ directory.
-The time the "make" step takes depends heavily on optimization levels.
-Large amounts of memory (>128MB) will be required by the compiler,
-also depending on optimization. To give you a rough idea of what you
-have to expect the following table may be helpful. It was measured on
-a P-III/500MHz with "enough" memory:
+The time the "make" step takes depends heavily on optimization levels. Large
+amounts of memory (>128MB) will be required by the compiler, also depending
+on optimization. To give you a rough idea of what you have to expect the
+following table may be helpful. It was measured on an Athlon/800MHz with
+"enough" memory:
+
+step | GCC optimization | comment
+ | -O1 | -O2 |
+--------------+---------+---------+----------------------------------------
+make | ~6m | ~8m | shared and static library
+make check | ~8m | ~12m | largely due to compilation
-step: | value of $CXXFLAGS: | comment:
- | -O0 | -O1 | -O2 |
---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------------------------------
-make | ~4m | ~6m | ~10m | building shared and static lib
-make check | ~2m | ~2m | ~7m | mostly due to compilation
+COMMON PROBLEMS
+===============
Problems with CLN
-=================
+-----------------
+
+You should use at least CLN-1.1, since during the development of GiNaC
+various bugs have been discovered and fixed in earlier versions. Please
+install CLN properly on your system before continuing with GiNaC.
+
+Problems building ginsh
+-----------------------
+
+The most common reason why this doesn't succeed is the absence of
+libreadline and/or the corresponding header files. Depending on what your
+system/distribution is, you will have to install a package called
+libreadline and maybe libreadline-dev. If your system's vendor doesn't
+supply such packages, go to <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/> and compile
+it yourself.
+
+Problems with missing standard header files
+-------------------------------------------
-You should use at least CLN V1.0.2, since all earlier ones are
-somewhat buggy. Even V1.0.1 has a few problems and GiNaC will not
-support older versions. Please install it properly on your system
-before continuing with GiNaC.
+Building GiNaC requires many standard header files. If you get a configure
+error complaining about such missing files your compiler and library are
+probably not up to date enough and it's no worth continuing.