Ngspice installation instructions ================================= Table of contents 1 Ngspice installation 1.1 Prerequisites 1.2 Install from CVS 1.3 Basic Install 1.4 Advanced Install 1.4.1 Options Specific to Using Ngspice 1.4.2 Options Useful for Debugging Ngspice 1.5 Compilation using an user defined directory tree for object files 2 Compilers and Options 3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures 4 Installation Names 5 Optional Features 6 Specifying the System Type 7 Sharing Defaults 8 Operation Controls 9 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER WINDOWS OS 9.1 How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS 9.2 make ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2008 9.3 make ngspice with pure CYGWIN 9.4 make ngspice with CYGWIN and external MINGW32 9.5 make ngspice with CYGWIN and internal MINGW32 (use config.h made above) This file describes the procedures to install ngspice from sources. 1 Ngspice Installation ==================== 1.1 Prerequisites Ngspice is written in C and thus a complete C compilation environment is needed. Almost any UNIX comes with a complete C development environment. Ngspice is developed on GNU/Linux with gcc and GNU make. The following software must be installed in your system to compile ngspice: bison, flex and X11. If you want to compile the CVS source you need additional software: autoconf, automake, libtool, texinfo. The following software may be needed when enabling additional features: editline, tcl/tk 1.2 Install from CVS This section describes how to install from source code taken direct from CVS. It is intended more for developers than for users as the code in CVS may be unstable. For user install instructions using source from released distributions, please see the sections titled 'Basic Install' and 'Advanced Install'. Download source from CVS as described on the sourceforge project page (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/ngspice/ and click on the CVS link) Now change directories in to the top-level source directory (where this INSTALL file can be found). The project uses the GNU build process. This is still very crude and needs work, but basically you should be able to do the following: $ ./autogen.sh $ ./configure --enable-maintainer-mode $ make $ sudo make install At present it is normal for there to be some warning generated during this process. See the section titled 'Advanced Install' for instructions about arguments that can be passed to ./configure to customise the build and installation. If a problem is found with the build proccess, please submit a report to the Ngspice development team. Please provide information about your system and any ./configure arguments you are using, together with any error messages. Ideally you would have tried to fix the problem yourself first. If you have fixed the problem then the development team will love to hear from you. 1.3 Basic Install This covers installation from a tarball (for example ngspice-rework-18.tgz). After downloading the tar ball to a local directory unpack it using: $ tar -zxvf ngspice-rework-18.tgz Now change directories in to the top-level source directory (where this INSTALL file can be found). You should be able to do: $ ./autogen.sh $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install The default install dir is /usr/local/bin See the section titled 'Advanced Install' for instructions about arguments that can be passed to ./configure to customise the build and installation. 1.4 Advanced Install Some extra options can be provided to './configure'. To get all available options do: $ ./configure --help Some of these options are generic to the GNU build process that is used by Ngspice, other are specific to Ngspice. The following sections provide some guidance and descriptions for many, but not all, of these options. 1.4.1 Options Specific to Using Ngspice --enable-adms ADMS is an experimental model compiler that translates Verilog-A compact models into C code that can be compiled into ngspice. This is (as of rework.18 )still experimental and not completely working. If you want to use it, please refer to the ADMS section on ngspice web site. --enable-capbypass Bypass calculation of cbd/cbs in the mosfets if the vbs/vbd voltages are unchanged. --enable-capzerobypass Bypass all the cbd/cbs calculations if Czero is zero. This is enabled by default since rework-18. --enable-cider Cider is a mixed-level simulator that couples Spice3 and DSIM to simulate devices from their technological parameters. This part of the simulator is not compiled by default. --enable-cluster Clustering code for distributed simulation. This is a contribution never tested. This code comes from TCLspice implementation and is implemented for transient analysis only. --enable-expdevices Enable experimental devices. This option is used by developers to mask devices under development. Almost useless for users. --enable-experimental This enables some experimental code. Specifically it enables: * support for altering options in interactive mode by adding the interactive keyword 'options'. * The ability to save and load snapshots: adds interactive keywords 'savesnap' and 'loadsnap'. --enable-help Force building nghelp. This is deprecated. --enable-ndev Enable NDEV interface, (experimental) A TCP/IP interface to external device simulator such as GSS. For more information, please visit the homepage of GSS at http://gss-tcad.sourceforge.net --enable-newpred Enable the NEWPRED symbol in the code. --enable-newtrunc Enable the newtrunc option --enable-nodelimiting Experimental damping scheme --enable-nobypass Don't bypass recalculations of slowly changing variables --enable-nosqrt Use always log/exp for non-linear capacitances --enable-predictor Enable a predictor method for convergence --enable-sense2 Use spice2 sensitivity analysis --enable-xgraph Compile the Xgraph plotting program. Xgraph is a plotting package for X11 and was once very popular. --enable-xspice Enable XSpice enhancements, (experimental) A mixed signal simulator built upon spice3 with codemodel dynamic loading support. See src/xspice/README for details. --with-editline=yes Enables the use of the BSD editline library (libedit). See http://www.thrysoee.dk/editline/ This is preferred over GNU readline due to licensing issues. --with-readline=yes Enable GNU readline support for the command line interface. This requires linking against the GNU readline library and is discouraged. --with-tcl=tcldir When configured with this option the tcl module "tclspice" is compiled and installed instead of plain ngspice. 1.4.2 Options Useful for Debugging Ngspice --enable-ansi Configure will try to find an option for your compiler so that it expects ansi-C. --enable-asdebug Debug sensitivity code *ASDEBUG*. --enable-blktmsdebug Debug distortion code *BLOCKTIMES* --enable-checkergcc Option for compilation with checkergcc. --enable-cpdebug Enable ngspice shell code debug. --disable-debug This option will remove the '-g' option passed to the compiler. This speeds up compilation a *lot*, and is recommended for normal use. --enable-ftedebug Enable ngspice frontend debug. --enable-gc Enable the Boehm-Weiser Conservative Garbage Collector. --enable-pzdebug Debug pole/zero code. --enable-sensdebug Debug sensitivity code *SENSDEBUG*. --enable-smltmsdebug Debug distortion code *SMALLTIMES* --enable-smoketest Enable smoketest compile. --enable-stepdebug Turns on debugging of convergence stepping?? 1.5 Compilation using an user defined directory tree for object files The procedures described above will store the *.o files (output of the compilation step) into the directories where the sources (*.c) are located. This may not be the best option if you want for example to have a debug version and in parallel a release version of ngspice (./configure option --disable-debug). So if you intend to create a separate object file tree like ng-spice-rework/ngbuild/release, you may do the following, starting from the default directory ng-spice-rework: mkdir -p ngbuild/release cd ngbuild/release ../../configure make install This will create an object file directory tree, similar to the source file directory tree, the object files are now separated from the source files. For the debug version, you may do the same as described above, replacing 'release' by 'debug', and obtain another separated object file directory tree. If you already have run ./configure in ng-spice-rework, you have to do a maintainer-clean, before the above procedure will work. Unfortunately this procedure will not work with Xspice enabled, so your options should not include --enable-xspice. This bug will be removed in a future version of ngspice. 2 Compilers and Options ===================== Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that the `configure' script does not know about. You can give `configure' initial values for variables by setting them in the environment. Using a Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like this: CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure Or on systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this: env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure 3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures ==================================== You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the same time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'. If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH' variable, you have to compile the package for one architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have installed the package for one architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another architecture. 4 Installation Names ================== By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for installing programs and libraries. Documentation and other data files will still use the regular prefix. In addition, if you use an unusual directory layout you can give options like `--bindir=PATH' to specify different values for particular kinds of files. Run `configure --help' for a list of the directories you can set and what kinds of files go in them. If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure' the option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'. When installed on MinGW with MSYS alternative paths are not fully supported. See 'How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS' below for details. 5 Optional Features ================= Some packages pay attention to `--enable-FEATURE' options to `configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package. They may also pay attention to `--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE is something like `gnu-as' or `x' (for the X Window System). The `README' should mention any `--enable-' and `--with-' options that the package recognizes. For packages that use the X Window System, `configure' can usually find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't, you can use the `configure' options `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations. 6 Specifying the System Type ========================== There may be some features `configure' can not figure out automatically, but needs to determine by the type of host the package will run on. Usually `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints a message saying it can not guess the host type, give it the `--host=TYPE' option. TYPE can either be a short name for the system type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name with three fields: CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field. If `config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't need to know the host type. If you are building compiler tools for cross-compiling, you can also use the `--target=TYPE' option to select the type of system they will produce code for and the `--build=TYPE' option to select the type of system on which you are compiling the package. 7 Sharing Defaults ================ If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share, you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'. `configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then `PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists. Or, you can set the `CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script. A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script. 8 Operation Controls ================== `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it operates. `--cache-file=FILE' Use and save the results of the tests in FILE instead of `./config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for debugging `configure'. `--help' Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit. `--quiet' `--silent' `-q' Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. To suppress all normal output, redirect it to `/dev/null' (any error messages will still be shown). `--srcdir=DIR' Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually `configure' can determine that directory automatically. `--version' Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure' script, and exit. `configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options. 9 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER WINDOWS OS ==================================== 9.1 How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS Creating ngspice with MINGW is now a straight forward procedure, if you have MSYS/MINGW installed properly. Unfortunately this is rather tedious because you will need several enhancements to the standard install, especially if you want to include XSpice. Some links are given below which describe the procedures. The default installation location of ngspice is the Windows path C:\spice. The install path can be altered by passing --prefix=NEWPATH as an argument to ./configure during the build process. Put the install path you desire inside "", e.g. "D:/NewSpice". Be careful to use forward slashes "/", not backward slashes "\" (something still to be fixed). Then add --prefix="D:/NewSpice" as an argument to ./configure in the normal way. The procedure of compiling a distribution (for example, a tarball from the ngspice website), is as follows: $ cd ng-spice-rework-18 $ ./configure --with-windows ...and other options $ make $ make install The useful options are: --enable-xspice (this requires FLEX and BISON available in MSYS, see below). --enable-cider --disable-debug (-O2 optimization, no debug information) However, to compile code extracted from the CVS repository the procedure is a little different, thus: $ cd ng-spice-rework-18 $ ./autogen.sh $ ./configure --enable-maintainer-mode --with-windows ...and other options $ make $ make install MINGW and MSYS can be downloaded from http://www.mingw.org/. The making of the code models *.cm for XSpice requires installation of BISON and FLEX to MSYS. A typical installation was tested with: bison-2.0-MSYS.tar.gz flex-2.5.4a-1-bin.zip libiconv-1.9.2-1-bin.zip libintl-0.14.4-bin.zip Bison 2.0 is now superseeded by newer releases (Bison 2.3, see http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2435&package_id=67879) The last three are from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23617. You may also look at http://www.mingw.org/wiki/HOWTO_Install_the_MinGW_GCC_Compiler_Suite http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSYS http://www.mingw.org/wiki/HOWTO_Create_an_MSYS_Build_Environment. 9.2 make ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2008 ngspice may now be compiled with MS Visual Studio 2008. CIDER and XSPICE are included, but the code models for XSPICE (*.cm) are not (yet) made. You may however use the code models created with MINGW (which in fact are dlls), as e.g. found in the ngspice binary distribution. There is currently no installation procedure provided, you may however install the executable manually as described in the installation tree below. The directory (visualc) with its files vngspice.sln (project starter) and vngspice.vcproj (project contents) allows to compile and link ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2008. The project is probably not compatible with Visual Studio 2005. /visualc/include contains a dedicated config.h file. It contains the preprocessor definitions required to properly compile the code. strings.h has been necessary during setting up the project. Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 C++ . The MS VS 2008 C++ Express Edition (which is available at no cost from http://www.microsoft.com/express/product/default.aspx) is adequate. Goto /ng-spice-rework/visualc. Start MS Visual Studio 2008 by double click onto vngspice.sln. After MS Visual Studio has opened up, select debug or release version by checking 'Erstellen' , 'Konfigurations-Manager' 'Debug' or 'Release'. Start making ngspice (called vngspice.exe) by selecting 'Erstellen' and 'vngspice neu erstellen'. Object files will be created and stored in visualc/debug or visualc/release. The executable will be stored to visualc/debug/bin or visualc/release/bin. An installation tree (as provided with MINGW make install) and also used by vngspice is (maybe created manually): C:\Spice\ bin\ ngspice.exe nghelp.exe ngmakeidx.exe ngnutmeg.exe cmpp.exe lib\ spice\ analog.cm digital.cm spice2poly.cm extradev.cm extravt.cm share\ info\ dir ngspice.info ngspice.info-1 .. ngspice.info-10 man\ man1\ ngmultidec.1 ngnutmeg.1 ngsconvert.1 ngspice.1 ng-spice-rework\ helpdir\ ngspice.idx ngspice.txt scripts\ ciderinit devaxis devload setplot spectrum spinit If you intend to install vngspice into another directory, e.g. D:\MySpice, you have to edit /visualc/include/config.h and alter the entries: #define NGSPICEBINDIR "C:/Spice/bin" #define NGSPICEDATADIR "C:/Spice/share/ng-spice-rework" to #define NGSPICEBINDIR "D:/MySpice/bin" #define NGSPICEDATADIR "D:/MySpice/share/ng-spice-rework" nghelp.exe is deprecated and no longer offered, but still available in the binary distribution. If the code model files *.cm are not available, you will get warning messages, but you may use ngspice in the normal way (of course without XSPICE extensions). ToDo: Some commands in how-to-ngspice-vstudio.txt and mentioned above have to be translated to English. 9.3 make ngspice with pure CYGWIN If you don't have libdl.a you may need to link libcygwin.a to libdl.a symbolically. for example: $ cd /lib $ ln -s libcygwin.a libdl.a. The procedure of compiling is the same as Linux. The next two compilation options (9.4, and 9.5) are deprecated and not tested. 9.4 make ngspice with CYGWIN and external MINGW32 according to http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/SourceForge/6013/0/7321042/ $ cd ng-spice-rework-18 $ export PATH="/cygdrive/g/gcc_mingw/bin:$PATH" $ autoconf $ rm config.cache $ ./configure --with-windows --prefix="/cygdrive/g/gcc_mingw/bin" $ make clean $ make 2> make.err $ cp config.h config_ming.h ngspice.exe is o.k.,but make tests does not work (cannot direct console output into file). Needs to add .save "what" "where.test" to every input (*.cir) file. Also all given output files have to be adapted to WINDOWS (CR/LF instead of only LF at each line ending) for allowing proper comparison. 9.5 make ngspice with CYGWIN and internal MINGW32 (use config.h made above) $ cd ng-spice-rework-18 $ rm config.cache $ export CFLAGS="-mno-cygwin -g -O2" $ export LDFLAGS="-L/lib/mingw" $ export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include/mingw" $ ./configure --with-windows $ cp config_ming.h config.h $ make clean $ make 2> make.err ./configure does not work correctly: It finds headers and libs which are not really available in the -mno-cygwin port of MINGW32. Therefore config.h is not o.k. ToDo: find appropriate presets for variables ? rewrite tests for headers and libs (search exclusively in mingw directories)