[Radiance-general] Newbie Install Question

[Thomas Bleicher]

On 5 Aug 2007, at 21:17, Sean Smallman wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Sorry but I have a basic install question.
>
> I am trying to install radiance on my Apple Powerbook running  
> 10.4.10 and everything I read talks about a directory "/usr/local/ 
> lib" however there is no local directory in my usr directory.  
> Should I simply make one?

Yes. Just go on and create '/usr/local/' and all the directories that  
might be
required below that (although I think they will be created  
automatically by the
installer if necessary). These are '/usr/local/lib', '/usr/local/bin'  
and
'/usr/local/man'.

'/usr/local' was traditionally the place were software was installed  
by the
administrator. OS X doesn't need it and Apple doesn't expect their  
type of
customer to fiddle with the file system; so they don't provide it out  
of the
box. But it won't hurt your system.

> I have been working mainly from the instructions I found here:
> http://www.designcommunity.com/forum/8756.html
> they were the best/simplest directions I  could quickly find online.

Simple indeed but not particularly admin-friendly. You will end up  
with a
system that mixes the system binaries with the Radiance specific files.

And as I just realised the current download from http:// 
radsite.lbl.gov/radiance
does not include all the files, only the binaries. Following the  
above instructions
would result in an error message after the first 'cd ...' command.

If you are familiar with Linux or another Unix system and think you can
compile the whole think yourself I would recommend you to do that. Read
the README file in the source distribution, run the 'makeall' command
and everything will be installed for you. You have to install the  
developer
tools for OS X first, though (2nd CD iirc or download the updated  
version
from the web).

If you want to go with the binaries you still have to download the  
source
to get the various other files the installation instructions mention.
I would copy the binaries to /usr/local/bin and set the $PATH variable
to include that in your search path. I have modified the instructions  
from
the web page for that:

STEP 2:

sudo mkdir /usr/local
sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin
cd rad3R8_macosx
sudo cp * /usr/local/bin

Whenever you use the sudo command (superuser do) you will NOT be  
asked for the password
you just set for root. You will be asked for YOUR password (once for  
a certain period of
time - a few minutes, usually) and you will be allowed to continue  
with proper rights
only if you have set up yourself as an administrative user
("System Panel -> Accounts -> Allow user to administer this  
computer"). If you are
root there is no point in using 'sudo'.
Use the sudo command with care. There is no limit to the damage you  
can cause with this omnipotent command.

You will get an error about dev being a directory, so it wasn't  
copied. This is fine.

Step 3 Install standard libraries
---------------------------------

Now do the following:

-> Download and unpack source distribution from the above website. I  
will assume the directory created is called 'ray' and it's in your  
home directory

cd ~/ray

mkdir /usr/local/lib
sudo mv lib /usr/local/lib/ray

cd ~/ray/src/rt
sudo cp rayinit.cal /usr/local/lib/ray

cd ~/ray/src/gen
sudo cp *cal /usr/local/lib/ray

At this point you have a functional standard Radiance installation.

The last to steps

sudo mkdir /usr/tmp
sudo chmod 777 /usr/tmp

are not necessary any more. You can install the manual pages, too:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/man

cd ~/ray/doc/man

sudo cp * /usr/local/man

I'm not sure /usr/local/man is included in the search path of the man  
command, though.

After installing into '/usr/local/' you have to change the '$PATH'  
setting
of your shell to include that directory structure into the search  
path - in
particular the '/usr/local/bin' directory. You should find a line  
that starts
with $PATH in the '/etc/profile' file. Make a copy of that file  
before you
change it so you can go back to the original version. Change the line to

PATH="/usr/local/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin"
export PATH

Finally you can set the RAYPATH environment variable (in the same file):

RAYPATH=".:/usr/local/lib/ray"
export RAYPATH

(I can't find this set on my system and yet all that I do with Radiance
works fine.)

This sets the environment for commands typed in the terminal  
application.
It's only active after you start a new terminal session or type
'bash -login' in your current terminal. This is a good way to find out
if everything is right.

Now you really should have a functional Radiance installation.


Cheers,
Thomas