EXPGUI home

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UNIX Installation notes for EXPGUI

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Note that root access is not required to load GSAS, Tcl/Tk and EXPGUI, unless the files will be put in a central location (such as /usr/local) or you will use the RPM package.

0. A one-step process for Linux

Many Linux releases incorporate a package-loading program called RPM. The RPM package file loads, GSAS and EXPGUI, as well as checks that your Linux system has been configured properly to run these programs (for example, has Tcl/Tk and BLT loaded). The most recent GSAS-EXPGUI-yyyy.mm.dd-x.i386.rpm file (where yyyy, mm & dd are year, month and day) can be found in directory ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas or a CCP14 mirror site. See the RPM instructions for details on how to load this package, rather than the following paragraphs.

1. Prerequisites

I will assume that you already have the Tcl/Tk package loaded on your computer. If this is not true, please see http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/programs/crystallography/software/tclpkgs.html for installation instructions. Please note that EXPGUI seems to run very slowly in Tcl/Tk version 8.1, but OK in 8.0 and 8.2. Also see below on how to test if Tcl/Tk is properly installed.

Likewise, I will assume you have also loaded the appropriate GSAS release, if not see http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/programs/crystallography/software/unixgsas.html for installation instructions. The current versions of EXPGUI must be used with GSAS versions released on or after April, 2001. EXPGUI v. 1.40 and later are not compatible with earlier Unix versions of GSAS -- as the file formats have changed.

More information about EXPGUI, including information on how it can be customized, can be found on web pages expgui.html and expgui_cfg.html, found in the gsas/expgui/doc directory.

2. EXPGUI Downloading

download file ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/expgui.tar.gz (~300 K) by shift-clicking on the previous link.

If you want to try the latest release (which may not have gotten a lot of testing, but probably has new bug fixes and capabilities) shift-click on ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/expgui_ALPHA.tar.gz P> If you have a version of GSAS from September 2001, or earlier and wish to set up dummy histograms from EXPEDT, you will need to update the EXPTOOL program using one of the following files:

• LINUX:
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_linux/exptool.tar.gz (~0.3 Mb)

or

• Silicon Graphics:
  ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/gsas/exe_sgi/exptool.tar.gz (~0.4 Mb)

Transfer the appropriate file by shift-clicking on the appropriate link.

3. EXPGUI Installation

A few short steps are needed to load EXPGUI on your computer.

2.1 Create a directory and restore the files

The EXPGUI scripts are set up to be run from a subdirectory in the main GSAS directory, by convention I assume the directory name expgui, but this is not required. Thus, if you have located the GSAS package in /usr/local/gsas (so that there is a directory /usr/local/gsas/exe, /usr/local/gsas/data, ...) I assume you will put these files in /usr/local/gsas/expgui but any subdirectory, such as /usr/local/gsas/tcl will work fine. Change the subsequent commands if GSAS is located somewhere other than /usr/local/gsas.

            cd    /usr/local/gsas
	    mkdir expgui
	    cd    expgui
	    gunzip <  [/path/]expgui.tar.gz  | tar xvf -

When restoring the GSAS files from the tar file, note that [/path/] in the example above indicates the location where you downloaded the tar file in section 2, above.

2.2 Installing a shortcut to EXPGUI

While it is possible to invoke EXPGUI by typing

                wish /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui

or

                /home/toby/mywish/wish /home/toby/mygsas/expgui/expgui

or whatever, you will likely want to create an easier command to type. Below are three ways to do this. Note that only one is needed. Do not use all three. Also, note that in the commands below, ^D means control-D.

2.2a Installing a shortcut to EXPGUI in .cshrc

To use EXPGUI, you probably need to create an easy way to access it. One way to do this is to add an alias to your ~/.cshrc file:

                cat >> ~/.cshrc
                alias expgui "wish /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui"
                ^D

2.2b Installing EXPGUI in the path

Another way to simplify access to EXPGUI is to create a file which will execute the GUI script from a command in your system's path, for example /usr/bin.

                cat > /usr/bin/expgui
                wish /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui
                ^D
                chmod +x /usr/bin/expgui

Note that this step (2.2b) is incompatible with the one below (2.2c).

2.2c Linking EXPGUI in the path

Another way to simplify access to EXPGUI is to create a link in your system's path to the GUI script. Note that you may need to modify the first line of /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui, if wish is located somewhere other than /usr/local/bin/wish.

                chmod +x /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui
                ln -s /usr/local/gsas/expgui/expgui /usr/bin/expgui

Note that this step (2.2c) is incompatible with the one above (2.2b).

H3> 2.3 Installing EXPTOOL If being upgraded, the EXPTOOL program should be placed in the directory with the GSAS executable files, for example in /usr/local/gsas/exe/.

            cd    /usr/local/gsas/exe
	    gunzip <  [/path/]exptool.tar.gz  | tar xvf -

Is Tcl/Tk installed already?

To test if Tcl/Tk is installed correctly on your system do the following commands. (Commands you type are in this typewriter font, computer responses are this italic font. My comments are provided in this text font and are underlined).

[tammy@beryl tammy]$ wish	(note a window is created)
% set tcl_version
8.0	(8.0 is the Tcl/Tk version number. EXPGUI requires 8.0 or higher)
% package require BLT
2.4	(2.4 is the BLT package version number. EXPGUI requires 2.3 or higher. If you get "can't find package BLT" then BLT is not installed [properly] on your system)
% blt::graph .g
.g	(nothing happens. You should not get an error message here.)
% pack .g	(now a graph is displayed)
% Blt_ZoomStack .g	(if error message: invalid command name "Blt_ZoomStack" appears there is a problem with your BLT installation, see below.)

There is a common problem with the pkg_Index.tcl file in BLT that makes the Blt_ZoomStack command inaccessible, see my updated copy ftp://ftp.ncnr.nist.gov/pub/cryst/tcltk/BLT2.4_pkgIndex.tcl for an example that works. Also see the Compiling Tcl/Tk 8.2.3 & packages for Linux example of how to install.

Acknowledgements

GSAS is written by Allen C. Larson and Robert B. Von Dreele, MS-H805, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545. Problems, questions or kudos concerning GSAS should be sent to Robert B. Von Dreele at vondreele@lanl.gov

EXPGUI is written by Brian H. Toby of the NIST Center for Neutron Research, Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV with help from Jonathan Wasserman.

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GSAS is Copyright, 1984-1997, The Regents of the University of California. The GSAS software was produced under a U.S. Government contract (W-7405-ENG-36) by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government is licensed to use, reproduce, and distribute this software. Permission is granted to the public to copy and use this software without charge, provided that this notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor the University makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this software.

EXPGUI is not subject to copyright. Have fun with it.

Neither the U.S. Government nor any author makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information or the software described here. Brand names cited here are used for identification purposes and do not consitute an endorsement by NIST.

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Comments, corrections or questions: crystal@NIST.gov

$Revision: 576 $ $Date: 2009-12-04 23:08:29 +0000 (Fri, 04 Dec 2009) $