Experiences in building the MeqTree software on a Linux box in Leiden
I follow the steps given in this Wiki. This is a Fedora Linux system named mark, running the 2.6.11-1.27 kernel.
Check the required software list
Available packages on the system are: gcc 3.4.3, automake 1.9.2, autoconf 2.59, libtool 1.5.6. From the required software list for Timba, I am missing AIPS++, Blitz++ 0.8, LAPACK3 and BLAS.
Tackle the AIPS++ installation
Easier said than done. I performed the following steps:
1. Download the Fedora RPMs from the NRAO website
2. Follow the install instruction they provide. Installing as normal user gives the error "can't create transaction lock", which seems a typical Fedora Linux bug. This is circumvented by unpacking as root.
I installed AIPS++ both with setting --prefix /home/bemmel/AIPSpp and without setting prefix.
This AIPS++ version seems to do something, but there may be problems with the Tkl/Tk libraries on the machine (8.4 is known to cause problems, 8.3 is stable -->check version)
Tony Willis says: you almost certainly need the Tcl/Tk 8.3 libraries and header files. I tried compiling glish against the 8.4 libraries and got a few million compile errors. Since glish is no longer being actively supported, draw your own conclusions.
Additional software installation
Next I install Blitz++ 0.8, which is straight forward. On recommendation by Oleg I also install ccache 2.4, no problem there either. For the moment I forget about the LAPACK3 and BLAS libraries. First I want to know if MeqTree can link against the AIPS++ distribution from RPMs.
Building MeqTree, going through the steps
1. Created and changed variants.hostname, that was easy
2. Setup LCS: no problems
3. Bootstrap Timba: this runs into the following error when typing ../../lofarconf:
... checking whether casapath environment variable is set... no checking for //code/include... no checking for /usr/lib... yes configure: error: AIPS++ installation not found Error during configure
Whatever AIPS installation I use, in the /usr directory or in /home/bemmel/AIPSpp directory, it requires a higher level directory named code (/code or /home/bemmel/code) which does not exist.
Possible solutions I can think of now: build AIPS++ from source or somehow force configure to use the /usr/include directory if that's the same thing..
Tony Willis says: The internal logic of aips++ always seems to work best if you start from the /aips++ location in the directory structure. So if you have /home/bemmel/AIPSpp as the actual location, then (as root) make /aips++ a soft link to /home/bemmel/AIPSpp. The MeqTree configure is almost certainly looking for /aips++.