Unpacking and Installation Instructions for Mathematica Add-On Packages (Unix versions)
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Installation of Mathematica Add-On Packages requires a prior installation of Mathematica. The term Mathematica Installation Directory refers to the directory/folder where Mathematica is installed on your computer (or on a network server). Mathematica's $TopDirectory variable gives you this Installation Directory.

The term Installation Directory refers to any suitable temporary directory on your disk with sufficient free space to hold the files for installation. The name of this subdirectory is taken from the name of the package you have downloaded, such as PCT-Install. This directory and its contents can be deleted after successful installation.

The term Application Directory refers to a specific subdirectory inside the Mathematica Installation Directory where add-on packages should be installed. This is typically named AddOns/Applications or AddOns\Applications. If you evaluate Mathematica's $Path variable, you should see a component containing this name. This is your Application Directory.

The term Package Directory refers to a subdirectory of your Application Directory, where the package will be installed. The name of this subdirectory is taken from the name of the package you have downloaded, such as QRStreams or Parallel.

We assume that you downloaded the archive and put it into a temporary location. We will refer to the archive file as archive.zip, archive.tar.gz, or archive.tar.Z, depending on the archiving method you chose.

Installation consists of four steps:

  • 1. Unpack the archive into a temporary location
  • 2. Run the installation script
  • 3. Verify the install
  • 4. Finish up
These steps are explained in detail below.

1. Unpack the archive

The details of unpacking the archive depend on the archive format you chose and the available programs for unpacking such archives. In each case, successfull unpacking will create an Installation Directory.
ZIP or PKZIP archive
Windows
Double click on archive.zip to launch your zip extraction program. Select extract and specify an Installation Directory as the place to extract the files. Please make sure that subfolders are extracted recursively. Many programs allow you to extract everything into one folder instead, which is not what you want.

Unix, using unzip
Extract the files with 
unzip archive.zip

Gzip compressed tar file
This description is for the Unix version of gunzip. Gzip-compressed tar archives can also be unpacked with a number of other programs, available also for the Macintosh and Windows.

Uncompress and extract the files with 

gunzip -c archive.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Compressed tar file
This description is for the Unix version of uncompress.

Uncompress and extract the files with 

uncompress -c archive.tar.Z | tar xvf -
After unpacking, make sure that an Installation Directory has been created.

After successfull unpacking of the archive, you no longer need the compressed archive you downloaded.

2. Run the installation script

Go into the Installers subdirectory of the Installation Directory and choose a subdirectory according the your version of Unix. Run the executable shell script in this directory. It will ask you a number of questions and then perform the installation.

3. Verify the install

Start Mathematica and enter the following input in a notebook 
<<PackageName`Test`
where PackageName is the abbreviated name of your package; this is the name of the Package Directory inside the Application directory that was created when you unpacked the archive, such as QRStreams for the QR Streams package, Parallel for the Parallel Computing Toolkit.
If all is well, you should see the following output from Mathematica: 
Your Application Package is correctly installed in
Package Directory
where Package Directory is the full pathname of the directory where you installed the package.

If Mathematica's output is 

Get::noopen: Cannot open PackageName`Test`
then the directory where you installed to package (if any) was not found by Mathematica. Please compare the full pathname of the installation directory with the value of Mathematica's $Path variable. One of the directories given in the list should contain your Package Directory. Please double check filenames and move the Package Directory to the correct place, if necessary.

4. Finish up

You should now rebuild Mathematica's help index so that the on-line help for the newly installed package will become available in Mathematica's Help Browser. Choose the menu item Help>Rebuild Help Index. Rebuilding the help index may take some time. After it is complete, the help browser should open and you can choose the Add-ons category. Your new package should be listed in the leftmost scrolling list.

The Tutorial is a good starting point for your reading.

Installation Support

Registered customers can obtain installation support through our Web-based support tool.

© 1998 MathConsult Dr. R. Mäder
http://www.mathdirect.com/help/install-unix.html
Last update: 15.03.2000