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Installation Instructions

Previously to the installation of SLEPc, the system must have an appropriate version of PETSc installed (see the PETSc installation documentation for details). Check the Changes section for a list of SLEPc versions and their corresponding PETSc versions.

The installation process for SLEPc is very similar to PETSc, with two stages: configuration and compilation. SLEPc configuration is much simpler because most of the configuration information is taken from PETSc, including compiler options and scalar type (real or complex). Several configurations can coexist in the same directory tree, being referred by different values of PETSC_ARCH, so that one can, for instance, have a SLEPc compiled with real scalars and another one with complex scalars.

The main steps for the installation are described next. Note that prior to this steps, optional packages must have been installed (see below). If any of these packages is installed afterwards, reconfiguration and recompilation is necessary.

  1. Unbundle the distribution file slepc.tgz with a usual command such as gunzip -c slepc.tgz | tar xvf -. This will create a directory and unpack the software there.
  2. Refer to the Patches section at the Download page for available patches to the latest SLEPc release.
  3. Set the environment variable SLEPC_DIR to the full path of the SLEPc home directory, for example,
               setenv SLEPC_DIR /home/username/slepc-2.3.x
    In addition to this variable, PETSC_DIR (and optionally PETSC_ARCH) must also be set appropriately.
  4. In the SLEPc directory, execute
             ./config/configure.py
    Note that in order to enable external packages (see below), this command must be run with appropiate options. To see available options use ./config/configure.py --help
  5. In the SLEPc home directory, type
             make
  6. If the installation went smoothly, then try running some test examples with
             make test
    Examine the output for any obvious errors or problems.

 

Optional Software

SLEPc provides an interface to several software packages. These should be installed before installing SLEPc. These packages are not developed, maintained, or supported by the SLEPc team; we merely provide an interface to them. To integrate one of these libraries in SLEPc:

  • First install the external package following its instructions. Make sure you use the same compilers and MPI that you plan to use with PETSc/SLEPc. These libraries should be linked also with the same LAPACK version as PETSc.
  • Enable the utilization of the external software from SLEPc by adding specific command-line parameters when executing config/configure.py. For example, to use ARPACK, specify the following options (with the appropriate paths):

        config/configure.py --with-arpack-dir=/usr/software/ARPACK
                            --with-arpack-flags=-lparpack,-larpack
  • Build the SLEPc libraries.

SLEPc currently interfaces to the following libraries:

  • ARPACK (Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi/Lanczos solver).
  • PRIMME (PReconditioned Iterative MultiMethod Eigensolver).
  • BLZPACK (Block Lanczos with selective and partial reorthogonalization).
  • TRLAN (Dynamic Thick Restart Lanczos solver).
  • BLOPEX (Block Locally Optimal Preconditioned Eigenvalue Xolvers).

Additional information about these packages can be found in the SLEPc Users Manual.