NEURON

Alpha version installers

We occasionally construct alpha version installers, so that users can easily explore the newest features. With an alpha installer, you can set up a complete working installation of NEURON on your computer, without having to download or compile source code. If you want to try this, get the most recent alpha version installer for your particular OS, and use it to install NEURON (follow the same instructions as for your OS's standard distribution installer).

The alpha version directory also contains source code for the alpha versions, which you can download and compile on your own machine. After downloading the nrn-nn.alpha.tar.gz and iv-mm.tar.gz from the alpha version directory, follow the same instructions as for compiling the standard distribution for your operating system

OS X
MSWin (95 and up)
UNIX/Linux

The very latest development code

Users who absolutely must have the very latest features will need to download and compile source code from NEURON's development code repository. You can browse the repository's change log and sources online. The following instructions are for UNIX, Linux, OS X, and MSWin users. However, MSWin users must first install Cygwin with its development environment.

0. Install mercurial, if you don't already have it

Mercurial is a flexible tool for distributed software development. Documentation, source code, and installers for all common operating systems are available from http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/

1. Get a copy of the development code

The following instructions describe how to install NEURON with or without its GUI. The full installation, which includes the GUI, is appropriate for most users because it allows NEURON to be run with or without its graphical interface. A very few users may have a hardware/OS environment that will not compile InterViews, e.g. workstation clusters or supercomputers. In such cases, NEURON can be compiled without its GUI.

To get a local copy of NEURON's development code, open an xterm or rxvt window and execute these commands:

cd $HOME
mkdir neuron
cd neuron
hg clone http://www.neuron.yale.edu/hg/neuron/iv # skip this if you don't want the GUI
hg clone http://www.neuron.yale.edu/hg/neuron/nrn

This will create subdirectories called iv and nrn that contain the source code for InterViews and NEURON.

2. Create the "configure" files

The next step is to create the "configure" files that are necessary to compile these sources. cd into iv (if it exists) and type the command
./build.sh
Do the same in nrn.

Comments about build.sh
build.sh merely creates a "configure" file by running aclocal, libtoolize, autoheader, automake, and autoconf, so a more descriptive name for it would have been "buildconf.sh"

I am using

automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.9.6

autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.59

libtool --version
ltmain.sh (GNU libtool) 1.5.22

but you might be able to get by with older versions. If not, then install the newest versions, e.g. see autoconf, automake, and libtool.
Note: aclocal is part of automake, and autoheader is part of autoconf.

3. Compile the code

Your next action depends on the operating system you're using :

OS X
MSWin (95 and up)
UNIX/Linux