Install and compile FreeLing 3.1 source code in Ubuntu 14.04.2 Desktop LTS (32 bits) to use it with Java

[FreeLing] (http://nlp.lsi.upc.edu/freeling) is an open source language analysis tool suite. These installation guide is based both on the official FreeLing [source installation manual] (http://nlp.lsi.upc.edu/freeling/doc/userman/html/node12.html) and on my personal experience.

Run "Software Updater"

First of all, update your system using the "Software Updater", and then type:

$ sudo apt-get update

Install development tools and required libraries

The main difference with the official installation guide is including zlib1g-dev.

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential automake autoconf
$ sudo apt-get install libboost-regex-dev libicu-dev zlib1g-dev
$ sudo apt-get install libboost-system-dev libboost-program-options-dev

Download and Install FreeLing source code

You can download the latest FreeLing version from here. We shall use in this guide version 3.1.

$ tar xzvf freeling-3.1.tar.gz
$ cd freeling-3.1

Configuring

Within the FreeLing directory, type:

$ ./configure

In case you get the following error:

checking for zlib.h... no

   zlib.h not found.
   Make sure zlib headers (package zlib-dev or the like)
   are installed and can be found in a standard path.
   You may need to set CPPFLAGS to specify search path.

you can type:

$ sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev

In case you get the following message:

checking for main in -lboost_thread-gcc-mt... no

   boost_thread library not found.
   Make sure libboost_thread is
   installed and can be found in a standard path.
   You may need to set LDFLAGS to specify search path.

the solution is typing:

$ sudo apt-get install libboost-thread-dev

Building the binaries

Inside the FreeLing folder, just type:

$ make

Should you get the following error:

corrector/dicc2phon-dicc2phon.o: In function `_GLOBAL__sub_I_main':
dicc2phon.cc:(.text.startup+0x2c): undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
dicc2phon.cc:(.text.startup+0x36): undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
dicc2phon.cc:(.text.startup+0x40): undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

the solution is running again the ./configure script with the following variables set:

CXXFLAGS=-lboost_system CPPFLAGS=-lboost_system LIBS=-lboost_system ./configure

and re-run the make command:

$ make

For more information on this topic, please refer to the following threads in the FreeLing Forum:

• -lboost_system option is missing
• Freeling 3.1 -- Ubuntu 14.04

Installing

Once the source is compiled, you can install it using:

$ sudo make install

FreeLing library is entirely contained in the file libfreeling.so which is located in /usr/local/lib by default. Sample program analyze is installed in /usr/local/bin.

Testing FreeLing

You may check FreeLing by typing the following lines:

$ analyze -f es.cfg
Hola FreeLing, este es mi primer mensaje.
Hola hola I 1
FreeLing freeling NP00000 1
, , Fc 1
este este PD0MS000 0.0314658
es ser VSIP3S0 1
mi mi DP1CSS 0.999101
primer 1 AO0MS0 1
mensaje mensaje NCMS000 1
. . Fp 1
^C

Installing Java JDK

First, move to freeling-3.1/APIs/java and read the file README. Then, type:

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk

Installl SWIG

In order to call the FreeLing library from Java, first we must install SWIG:

$ sudo apt-get install swig

Edit freeling-3.1/APIs/java/Makefile

Now, you have to set the following variables to the right values of your system:

# directory prefix where you installed FreeLing (by default in /usr/local)
FREELINGDIR = /usr/local

# directory where swig share files are installed in your system
SWIGDIR = /usr/share/swig2.0

# directory where the JVM is installed
JAVADIR = /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386

Also, we had to add -lboost_system to the following line to avoid compiling errors:

$(GCC) -shared -o libfreeling_javaAPI.so freeling_javaAPI.cxx -lfreeling -lboost_system -L$(FREELINGDIR)/lib -I$(FREELINGDIR)/include -I$(JAVADIR)/include -I$(JAVADIR)/include/linux -fPIC

Compile

Just type:

$ make

Set the env variables

You have to set the following environment variables to the right values of your installation:

# directory where you have put the FreeLing folder (in my case, I moved it to /opt/freeling-3.1)
$ export FREELINGDIR=/opt/freeling-3.1

# add to LD_LIBRARY_PATH the following directories which contain libfreeling.so and libfreeling_javaAPI.so
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$FREELINGDIR/APIs/java

# path to the package freeling.jar
$ export CLASSPATH=$FREELINGDIR/APIs/java

REMEMBER: to put these lines in your starting shell scripts: .bashrc, .cshrc, etc.

Compile and run a Java example

Compile the Analyzer.java file:

$ javac Analyzer.java

Finally, just test the new libraries by typing:

$ java Analyzer
Hola, este es un mensaje para el ejemplo de Java.
...

DO NOT FORGET to finish your line with a full stop '.' to avoid empty results.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Now you can work with FreeLing using Java!