Getting started guide

Getting started guide

If you have already installed Bifrost, look below to Creating your first pipeline

Installation

Bifrost requires several dependencies, depending on how you want to use it. If you don't know what you are doing, assume that you want all the dependencies - we will walk you through this process.

Python dependencies

Bifrost is written in Python 2.7. If you would like us to support Python 3.x, please let us know your interest.

pip

pip is a package manager for other Python dependencies. Once you have pip, installing additional python dependencies should be straightforward. pip comes with setuptools, which is required for installing Bifrost. The detailed instructions for pip can be found here, but the basics are as follows:

1. Download get-pip.py
2. Navigate to the download directory, and run python get-pip.py --user, which will install a local copy of pip.
3. Check pip is working with pip list, which will give the versions of pip and setuptools.

NumPy

If you have already installed pip, this step should be as simple as pip install numpy. NumPy is used in the Python front end of Bifrost, and is very helpful for quick testing of pipeline ideas.

PyCLibrary (modified)

PyCLibrary is a Python library that will parse C files and ease the interaction with ctypes. The entire Bifrost front end is built with it. Do not install the pip version, as it is out of date. You need to get the source from GitHub, and install it manually:

1. Download PyCLibrary by running git clone https://github.com/MatthieuDartiailh/pyclibrary
2. Enter the PyCLibrary folder that was just created, and run python setup.py install --user.
3. Check that PyCLibrary installed correctly by running python, and then trying import pyclibrary. If this works, you are ready to go.

C++ dependencies

CUDA

CUDA allows you to program your GPU from C and C++. You will need an NVIDIA GPU to do this. If this is your first time trying out Bifrost, and you don't have CUDA yet, we recommend that you skip this step, and try out a CPU-only version of Bifrost. Then, once you have that first experience, you can come back here for a speedup.

If you are ready to work with a GPU, you will want to get the newest CUDA toolkit. Follow the operating system-specific instructions to install.

OpenMP

Bifrost install

Now you are ready to install Bifrost. Clone the GitHub master branch with

git clone https://github.com/ledatelescope/bifrost.

You will want to edit user.mk to suit your system. For example, if you are not working with GPUs, uncomment the line:

#NOCUDA = 1 # Disable CUDA support.

Now you can call make, and make install to install the C backend of Bifrost to your computer.

After this, navigate to bifrost/python, and run python setup.py install --user, to install the Python interface.

Trying to call import bifrost inside of a Python program will tell you if your install was successful or not.

Create your first pipeline