The primary development of the software is Linux/Intel (RedHat, Ubuntu). It also has generally worked in the past on Linux/Alpha (RedHat 6.0), DU/Alpha (DU 4.0), and Irix/MIPS (5.3). For nonLinux systems, only the propreitary compilers have been tested. For Linux systems, the standard flags work only with gcc and g77, though with a bit of work (particularly in the linker stage) you might be able to get it to work with f77. I have also gotten it work under gfortran but it generates a lot of errors and the linker has to be gfortran. Even though it has been tested only on the Intel and Alpha architectures, it should work on any machine using gcc and g77 (though the performance might not be the greatest). Some programs may require f2c and its control program, fort77. If g77/gfortran/fort77 are present, programs that do not need them will compile fine.
Generally at least 128 MB of RAM is required, though if you're
willing to live with small sized problems, you can edit
ramp/src/common/defines.h (see below) and change the
parametres accordingly. The suite of programs has been known to work
on systems with only 8 MB of RAM, but not all programs will work.
The shell scripts in RAMP rely on tcsh. If you don't
have tcsh, you should either install it, or change the
scripts to call csh instead. An easier solution would be to
link tcsh to csh.
The entire distribution is available as a single tar and gzipped file.
Uncompress (gunzip) and unpack (tar -xvf) the
distribution, preferably under /usr/local/packages. It will
create a directory called ramp. All code is in the
respective directories under ramp/src. Documentation is in
ramp/doc, and library stuff (see the directory) is in
ramp/lib.
The executables are in ramp/bin_architecture and
the platform independent shell scripts are in
ramp/bin/scripts. The primary platform supported corresponds
to the directory name linux_ix86; Other directory names for
platforms that this software should work on are also provided:
linux_alpha, osf1_alpha and irix_mips. By
executing the appropriate script at startup (see below), the path will
be set to point to the directory containing the corresponding
executables for a given platform. This system differs from the one in
traditional Unix systems where a single bin directory
contains all the executables for a given platform (and the
distributions themselves are tailored individually for each platform).
The reason to do it differently here is because in the "heavy numbers"
world, people tend to use all the available CPU they can get,
generally mixing various platforms. Therefore it makes more sense to
combine executables for different platforms in one central location
(as users will generally have only one central home directory for many
different platforms).
The executables are compiled statically with default parametres.
This may result in the files being bigger, but I think it's worth it
given the uncertainty associated with using shared libraries (it will
also run faster and in this field, every second counts!). Linux on
the Alpha boxes can run executables statically compiled using Digital
Unix compilers, so by default, the path setting for the executable
directory on a Linux/Alpha machine is ramp/bin/osf1_alpha.
If, for some reason, you want to compile on a Linux/Alpha machine, or
want to use gcc/g77 compiled executables on a Linux/Alpha box, you
just have to edit ramp/bin/scripts/setup_environment and
recompile.
If you've installed the set of programs in
/usr/local/packages/ramp, and you're happy with the defaults (see
ramp/src/common/defines.h), then there's little you need to
do. Simply add the following two lines to your ~/.tcshrc
after your path has been defined:
source /usr/local/packages/ramp/bin/scripts/setup_environment
source /usr/local/packages/ramp/bin/scripts/onramp
Then type in:
source ~/.tcshrc
You should then be able to access all the programs in the suite after
typing rehash. Note that the scripts rely on certain
programs being part of your path, so make sure your path is
appropriately defined (which should include the current directory
also). The executables are compiled using flags that I think are
fairly optimal. If, for whatever reasons, the precompiled executables
are not present (this may be the case for nondefault distributions or
development distributions), or if you just want to be on the safe side
and recompile in your environment, then follow the instructions
below.
If you're not happy with the defaults (including the file
locations), then you need to edit ramp/src/common/defines.h,
ramp/bin/scripts/setup_environment, and
ramp/bin/scripts/onramp. The files are fairly
self-explanatory and it shouldn't be too hard to edit them. You may
also need to edit the mkall file in the individual source
directories, which exists to handle special situations.
Once you've edited the necessary files, type:
source /usr/local/packages/ramp/bin/scripts/setup_environment
source /usr/local/packages/ramp/bin/scripts/onramp
in tcsh. Then cd to ramp/bin/scripts and
type:
install_ramp
This will recompile and reinstall all the programs with the new set
of parametres. install_ramp is clever enough to actually
modify the path names in the ramp/src/common/defines.h file
and the mkall scripts based on what you set the value of
RAMP_ROOT in ramp/bin/scripts/onramp. If all you do
is change the default path in the onrambin script, then the
above command is all you should need to execute for a complete
recompilation.
Once the compilation is finished, add the above two
source commands to your ~/.tcshrc. You should then
be able to access all the programs in the suite after typing
rehash.
To recompile specific programs in the suite, goto the appropriate
directory and see if there is an entry in the file mkall for
that program. If there is, then the command to use is mkall
program-name. Otherwise, make program-name
should work.
If you've installed the RAMBIN suite of programs, then you just
need to source the setup_environment script only once (in
either distribution).
tcsh
If you're using a login shell other than tcsh (such as
ksh, bash, or sh), you will need to use the
ramp/bin/scripts/onramp.sh script in a similar manner
described above to set up the environment and the paths (i.e., it
should be called during the startup of your login, usually with a "."
in front of it). This script has not been tested and cannot be used
to recompile the executables in the RAMP suite. To recompile, you
must enter tcsh and compile using the process described
above. Once the executables are created, setting up the path to point
to them is trivial.