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Installing HEASoft - Ubuntu (or Debian-based) Linux

  • SOURCE CODE INSTALLATION (Recommended):
    • Installations from the source code are recommended over the pre-compiled binaries due to the lack of portability of pre-compiled Perl libraries and other portability issues on Linux with the pre-compiled binaries. Note also that source code builds are required for users who wish to load local models in Xspec or use the Xspec Python interface (PyXspec).

    • Prerequisite packages:

      After installing the Ubuntu (or Debian-based) Linux OS on your machine, you will need to install (using the "apt-get" package manager) a few other packages which are needed in order to build HEASoft from the source code distribution: 
          $ sudo apt-get -y install libreadline6-dev
    $ sudo apt-get -y install libcurl4
    $ sudo apt-get -y install libcurl4-gnutls-dev
    $ sudo apt-get -y install libncurses5-dev
    $ sudo apt-get -y install xorg-dev
    $ sudo apt-get -y install gcc g++ gfortran
    $ sudo apt-get -y install perl-modules
    $ sudo apt-get -y install python-dev [or python3-dev]
    • Building the software:

      After installing the prerequisite packages above, most users should just follow the basic GNU-like build procedure outlined in the HEASoft installation guide, i.e.: 
       First, make sure that the configure script will choose the
 correct set of compatible compilers for the build (and note that
 a python interpreter is only required if you plan to use PyXspec):

 In C-shell variants (tcsh/csh):       In Bourne shell variants (bash/sh):

    $ setenv CC /usr/bin/gcc              $ export CC=/usr/bin/gcc
    $ setenv CXX /usr/bin/g++             $ export CXX=/usr/bin/g++
    $ setenv FC /usr/bin/gfortran         $ export FC=/usr/bin/gfortran
    $ setenv PERL /usr/bin/perl           $ export PERL=/usr/bin/perl
    $ setenv PYTHON /usr/bin/python       $ export PYTHON=/usr/bin/python

 Next:

    $ cd heasoft-6.26/BUILD_DIR/
    $ ./configure
    $ make
    $ make install
      Note that it is a good idea to capture the output from these steps in the manner appropriate for your shell, for example: 
           In C-shell variants (tcsh/csh):      In Bourne Shell variants (bash/sh):
  
       $ ./configure >& config.out &      $ ./configure > config.out 2>&1 &
     and
       $ make >& build.log &              $ make > build.log 2>&1 &
     etc.
      Note that you should let each step finish before proceeding to the next. The installation guide contains descriptions of optional configuration flags that more advanced users may wish to utilize.

    • Initialization:

      To initialize the software, do the following: 
         For users of C Shell variants (csh, tcsh):

    setenv HEADAS /path/to/your/installed/heasoft-6.26/(PLATFORM)
    source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh

   For users of Bourne Shell (sh, ash, ksh, and bash):

    export HEADAS=/path/to/your/installed/heasoft-6.26/(PLATFORM)
    . $HEADAS/headas-init.sh
      In the examples above, (PLATFORM) is a placeholder for the platform- specific string denoting your machine's architecture, for example: 
            x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-libc2.29


  • PRE-COMPILED BINARY INSTALLATION (Not Recommended):
    • Installations of the pre-compiled binaries are not recommended due to the lack of portability of pre-compiled Perl libraries and other Linux portability issues. Note that installations from the source code distribution are required for users who wish to load local models in Xspec or use the Xspec Python interface (PyXspec).

    • Prerequisite packages:

      After installing Ubuntu Linux on your machine, you will need to install (using the "apt-get" package manager) a few other packages are needed in order to build HEASoft from the source code distribution: 
          sudo apt-get -y install libncurses5-dev
    sudo apt-get -y install xorg-dev
    • Configuring the software:

      After installing the above packages, most users should just follow the basic binary installation procedure outlined in the HEASoft installation guide, i.e.: 
          % cd heasoft-6.26/(PLATFORM)/BUILD_DIR/
    % ./configure
      If the configure script yields a message about a "Perl mismatch", you will either need to install HEASoft from the source code distribution, or install a version of Perl which matches that listed for your platform in our Perl reference.

    • Initialization:

      To initialize the software, do the following: 
         For users of C Shell variants (csh, tcsh):

    setenv HEADAS /path/to/your/installed/heasoft-6.26/(PLATFORM)
    source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh

   For users of Bourne Shell (sh, ash, ksh, and bash):

    export HEADAS=/path/to/your/installed/heasoft-6.26/(PLATFORM)
    . $HEADAS/headas-init.sh
      In the examples above, (PLATFORM) is a placeholder for the platform- specific string denoting your machine's architecture, for example: 
            x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-libc2.27


    • FTOOLS HELP DESK

    If FTOOLS has been useful in your research, please reference this site (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools) and use the ASCL reference for HEASoft [ascl:1408.004] or the ASCL reference for the original FTOOLs paper [ascl:9912.002]:

    Blackburn, J. K. 1995, in ASP Conf. Ser., Vol. 77, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV, ed. R. A. Shaw, H. E. Payne, and J. J. E. Hayes (San Francisco: ASP), 367.

    Web page maintained by: Bryan K. Irby

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    Last modified: Tuesday, 21-May-2019 10:59:40 EDT

    HEASARC support for unencrypted FTP access will be ending on September 20, 2019. Please see this notice for details.