httk Installation Instructions

Installation

There are a few alternative ways to download and install httk. Httk presently consists of a python library and a few programs. If you just want access to use the python library, and do not need the external programs, the install is very easy.

Note: for httk version 2.0 we will go over to a single program (‘python endpoint’) httk, for which the pip install step should be sufficient to get a full install.

(There are also separate instructions below for advanced users that want to do a direct manual install without the Python pip installed.)

Alternative 1: Install via pip to just access the python library

  1. You need Python 2.7 and access to pip in your terminal window. (You can get Python and pip, e.g., by installing the Python 2.7 version of Anaconda, https://www.anaconda.com/download, which should give you all you need on Linux, macOS and Windows.)

  2. Issue in your terminal window:

    pip install httk
    

    If you at a later point want to upgrade your installation, just issue:

    pip install httk --upgrade
    

You should now be able to simply do import httk in your python programs to use the httk python library.

Alternative 2: Install via pip for python library + binaries + ability to develop httk

  1. In addition to Python 2.7 and pip, you also need git. You can get git from here: https://git-scm.com/

  2. Issue in your terminal window:

    git clone https://github.com/rartino/httk
    cd httk
    pip install --editable . --user
    

    If you at a later point want to upgrade your installation, just go back to the httk directory and issue:

    git pull
    pip install . --upgrade --user
    
  3. To setup the paths to the httk programs you also need to run:

    source /path/to/httk/init.shell
    

    where /path/to/httk should be the path to where you downloaded httk in the steps above. To make this permanent, please add this line to your shell initialization script, e.g., ~/.bashrc

You are now ready to use httk.

Notes:

  • The above instructions give you access to the latest stable release of httk. To get the latest developer relase (which may or may not work), issue:

    git checkout devel
    pip install . --upgrade --user
    

    in your httk directory. To switch back to the stable release, do:

    git checkout master
    pip install . --upgrade --user
    
  • An alternative to installing with pip install is to just run httk out of the httk directory. In that case, skip the pip install step above and just append source ~/path/to/httk/init.shell to your shell init files, with ~/path/to/httk replaced by the path of your httk directory.)*

Alternative 3: For experienced users: direct manual install

If you are somewhat familiar with the command line in Linux, Unix, MacOSX or cygwin, and don’t want to mess with python, all you need to do is download the archive (see: http://httk.openmaterialsdb.se/downloads.html ) uncompress it in a directory of your choosing, and configure your environment in your environment init file (.bashrc or .cshrc) either by inserting source /path/to/.../httk/init.shell or by inserting instructions that adds the httk/bin directory to your PATH environment variable, and the httk directory to your PYTHONPATH environment variable.

That is all that is needed. As your first test, you can try to run Examples/0_import_httk/0_import_httk.py. (Please be aware that the first time you run this command it can be rather slow, since python is creating *.pyc files for all httk modules.)

Alternative 4: Step-by-step instructions for installation from source archive

Find the latest relase download at this link: https://github.com/rartino/httk/releases/latest, and get the link to the .tar.gz archive.

Run the following in a terminal:

mkdir -p ~/bin/python
cd ~/bin/python
curl -L <download link> --output httk-<version>.tar.gz
tar -zxf httk-<version>.tar.gz
rm -f httk-<version>.tar.gz

where you have to fill in <download link> and <version> according to the release page.

The archive extaction (tar -zxf) will have created a subdirectory named after the actual version of httk that you downloaded. Check this with the command ls. Lets say you see httk-1.0.0, then do the following:

ln -f -s httk-1.0.0 httk-latest
source ~/bin/python/httk-latest/setup.shell

If you add the very last line to your .bashrc and/or .cshrc, httk will work in all new terminals you open. (Or alternatively, just add ~/bin/python/httk-latest/bin/ to your PATH environment variable, and ~/bin/python/httk-latest to your PYTHONPATH environment varibale.) If you cannot figure out how to do this on your system, you will have to re-run source ~/bin/python/httk-latest/setup.shell every time you want to use httk.

You can now start using httk. There is no further compiling, etc. required.

As your first test, you can try to run:

~/bin/python/httk-latest/Examples/0_import_httk/0_import_httk.py

This program simply loads the httk library and prints out its version, if everything works. Please be aware that the first time you run this command it can be rather slow, since python is creating *.pyc files for all httk modules.

Upgrade manual installation

This assumes you have followed the step-by-step installation instructions above. To upgrade, first check what version you presently have with:

ls ~/bin/python/

(look for the highest numbered httk-* directory)

Then find the latest relase download at this link: https://github.com/rartino/httk/releases/latest, and get the link to the .tar.gz archive.

Then do this:

cd ~/bin/python
rm -f httk-latest.tgz
curl -L <download link> --output httk-<version>.tar.gz
tar -zxf httk-<version>.tgz
rm -f httk-<version>.tar.gz

If the new version is, e.g., v1.0.1):

cp httk-latest/httk.cfg httk-1.0.1/httk.cfg
ln -f -s httk-1.0.1 ../httk-latest

This concludes the upgrade.

Windows

These instructions may be expanded in the future. For now, what you need to do is download cygwin and when aksed what software to install, include

wget, python

After cygwin is installed, start a cygwin terminal and follow the instructions above.

Optional configuration

Edit the httk.cfg file in the httk directory to configure paths to other software that you want to use from httk. For programs (e.g., isotropy) you want the path to point at the executable. For python libraries, you want the path setting to point at the directory you would include in PYTHONPATH, i.e., a directory that typically contains a subdirectory with the name of the package.

Note: if you don’t have certain software, don’t worry, just leave the line blank. If you have some libraries installed in the system (e.g. ‘import ase’ works), then you can also leave the lines blank. If you want to make sure not to use system libraries, set allow_system_libs=no (this is useful if you are forced to work on a machine with too old versions installed in the system)

Now, please check out the various resources mentioned in :doc:`index` and look at the Tutorial/ and/or Examples/ programs.