file: INSTALL G. Moody 3 April 2001
Last revised: 25 March 2009
Compiling and installing `plt'
==============================
The most recent version of 'plt' is always freely available from PhysioNet
(http://physionet.org/physiotools/plt/).
Under Unix or GNU/Linux:
------------------------
`plt' has been successfully compiled under many versions of GNU/Linux,
including Fedora 10 and Ubuntu Hardy (both x86 and x86_64), as well as under
many other versions of Unix, including SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX.
* Use 'cd' to navigate to the directory containing this file.
* Make any needed changes to the site-dependent variables in `Makefile'.
* Compile and install `plt' by typing:
make install
You may need root privileges for this step unless you have changed the
installation directories in `Makefile'. If the `make' command fails,
read `Makefile' to see how to proceed.
* To test the installation, start your X server if it is not running already,
then from an X terminal window, type:
make xdemo
If you have `gv' (included in most GNU/Linux distributions, and freely
available from http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/), you can
see the same demonstration in PostScript format by typing:
make psdemo
* (Optional) If you wish to generate PNG images using `lwcat -png', install
ImageMagick (free download from http://www.imagemagick.org/) if you have not
already done so. Most GNU/Linux distributions include ImageMagick already.
* (Optional) If you wish to generate PDF images using `lwcat -pdf', install
epstopdf, available from http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/epstopdf/,
and included in the tetex, TeX Live (http://www.tug.org/texlive/), and MiKTeX
(http://www.miktex.org/) distributions.
Under Mac OS X (Darwin):
------------------------
`plt' has been successfully compiled on x86 Macs running OS X 10.5 (Leopard), as
well as on PPC Macs running Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Darwin 7.9.0) and several earlier
versions. On Leopard, install XCode, change XLIBDIR to /usr/X11/lib (in the
top-level Makefile) and follow the instructions above (use 'sudo make install'
to perform the installation with root privileges; enter your own password
when prompted).
The instructions below were developed several years ago. They have not been
tested recently, but they may still be helpful.
You will need to obtain and install several packages of free software needed by
`plt'. For those not available from Apple, we suggest using Fink
(http://www.finkproject.org/), an easy-to-install collection of free Unix
tools that have been ported to Mac OS X.
Before compiling `plt', download and install:
* X11 for Mac OS X (included in current Mac OS X CD sets, or from
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/x11formacosx.html)
* Apple's XCode developer tools, including the X11 SDK from XCode's Packages
folder (included in current Mac OS X CD sets, or from
http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/).
* gv (from Fink; sources from http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/
and http://www.ghostscript.com/)
* ImageMagick (from Fink; sources from http://www.imagemagick.org/)
Now follow the instructions above for Unix or Linux (use 'sudo make install'
to perform the installation with root privileges; enter your own password
when prompted).
Under MS-Windows (9x/NT/2000/ME/XP):
------------------------------------
`plt' has been successfully compiled under MS-Windows XP and earlier versions,
using Cygwin gcc and other free development tools described below.
IMPORTANT:
Do not attempt to use a commercial C compiler to compile `plt'; it won't
work, because `plt' uses POSIX (Unix) interfaces that are not available
under MS-Windows except when using Cygwin gcc (see below).
There are two suggested methods for installing `plt' if you are using
MS-Windows.
Method A:
* Install Linux, then follow the instructions above. Try it, you'll like it!
Method B:
* Download and install Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/; a tutorial guide is
available at http://physionet.org/physiotools/cygwin/). In the 'Select
Packages' dialog, you will see a collapsed tree view of the numerous
packages available. Click the View button once so that the indicator to its
right changes from 'Category' to 'Full'. You may resize the dialog box as
needed until the package names are visible. To select a package for
installation, click on its rotating selector (in the New column) to cycle
through the available choices until a version number appears. In most
cases, you should choose the highest version number from among those that
are available (this is usually the first alternative offered). Be sure to
choose at least the following packages for installation:
bc
gcc
gv
ImageMagick
libX11-devel
make
X-start-menu-icons
Other packages needed by these will be installed automatically.
* Open a Cygwin terminal emulator window (the Cygwin installation will have
created a desktop icon for this), and perform the remaining steps by typing
into it.
* Use 'cd' to navigate to the directory containing this file.
* Change XINCDIR to /usr/X11R6/include, and XLIBDIR to /usr/X11R6/lib (in the
top-level Makefile, using your favorite text editor).
* Compile and install `plt' by typing:
make install
* To test the installation, start your X server if it is not running already
(e.g., by typing 'startx' in the Cygwin terminal window), then from an X
terminal window, type:
make xdemo
You can see the same demonstration in PostScript format by typing:
make psdemo