This file contains instructions for the installation of HDF5 on Unix-like systems. First, one must obtain a tarball of the HDF5 release from the ftp://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/dist/HDF5 repository. The files are available in uncompressed tar, gzip, bzip2, and compress formats. For those that like to live dangerously and don't like to read ;-) you can do the following: $ tar xf hdf5-1.0.0a.tar $ cd hdf5-1.0.0a $ make test $ make install # Optional Note: For the users of the Intel TFLOPS machine, a special sequence of steps for the install may be found in the file: INSTALL.ascired. ======= Step 0: Install optional third-party packages. * GNU zlib compression library, version 1.0.2 or later is used for the `deflate' compression method. If libz.a cannot be found then this form of compression is not compiled into the library. Step 1. Unpack the source tree. * The tarball will unpack into an hdf5-1.0.0a directory with one of the following commands: $ tar xf hdf5-1.0.0a.tar OR $ gunzip .o step. AR Name of the `ar' program. RANLIB Name of the `ranlib' program or `:' if none. MAKE Name of the `make' program (GNU make is preferred) * This version of HDF5 is normally built with various debugging code enabled. To turn it off add the `--disable-debug' switch to the configure command. Even if debugging support is compiled into the library one must still enable the code at runtime with the HDF5_DEBUG environment variable (see Debugging.html). * This version of HDF5 is normally built with support for symbolic debugging with dbx or gdb and without compiler optimization switches. To disable symbolic debugging and enable optimizations add `--enable-production' to the configure command. * This version of HDF5 is normally built with the ability to print the names, arguments, and return values of all API functions when they're called. For more information refer to the Debugging.html file. To disable tracing support add `--disable-trace' to the configure command. * Old versions of gcc (<2.8.0) may experience register allocation problems on some architectures. If this happens then the `--disable-hsizet' can be given but the resulting library will be unable to handle datasets larger than 4GB. * By default libraries, include files, programs, and documentation are installed (when one says `make install') under /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include, /usr/local/bin, and /usr/local/man. However, if you want them in some other location you can specify a prefix to use instead of /usr/local. For instance, to install in /usr/lib, /usr/include, /usr/bin, and /usr/man one would say $ ./configure --prefix=/usr The library can be used directly from the source tree without installing it. Step 3. Compile library, tests, and programs. * Build library targets by saying $ make Note: If you supplied some other make command through the MAKE environment variable in the previous step then use that command instead. The same applies below. Note: When using GNU make you can add `-j -l6' to the make command to compile in parallel on SMP machines. Do not give a number after the `-j' since GNU make will turn it off for recursive invocations of make. Step 4. Run confidence tests. * All confidence tests should be run by saying $ make test The command will fail if any test fails, and one will see the word "*FAIL*" in the output. Note: some old versions of make will report that `test is up to date'. If this happens then run `make _test' instead or run `make test' from within the test directory. Temporary files will be deleted by each test when it completes, but may continue to exist in an incomplete state if the test fails. To prevent deletion of the files define the HDF5_NOCLEANUP environment variable. Step 5. Install public files. * Install the library, header files, and programs by saying: $ make install This step will fail unless you have permission to write to the installation directories. Of course, you can use the header files, library, and programs directly out of the source tree if you like, skipping this step. The directory specified for the --prefix switch (or "/usr/local") must exist, but the directories under it are created automatically by make. Step 6. Subscribe to mailing lists. * Subscribe to the mailing lists described in the README file.