NEST_installation.md

NEST Installation (Python 2/3)

Instruction for Ubuntu (+PyCharm)

1. Get standard configuration (with NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, iPython and GNU Scientific Library)

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libltdl7-dev libreadline6-dev libncurses5-dev libgsl0-dev python-all-dev python-numpy python-scipy python-matplotlib ipython gsl-bin libgsl0-dev libgsl0-dbg

or you can install them from websites SciPy, Matplotlib, iPython, GSL.

2. NEST-2.12.0| Download

tar -xzvf nest-x.y.z.tar.gz                         #Unpack the tarball
mkdir nest-x.y.z-build                              #Create a build directory
cd nest-x.y.z-build                                 #Change to the build directory
../nest-x.y.z/configure --prefix=$HOME/opt/nest     #Configure NEST

You will see NEST Configuration Summary, where

C compiler          : gcc  
C compiler flags    : -W -Wall -pedantic -Wno-long-long -O2 -g -O2 -fopenmp  
C++ compiler        : g++  
C++ compiler flags  : -W -Wall -pedantic -Wno-long-long -O2 -fopenmp  
Python bindings     : Yes (Python 2.7: /usr/bin/python)
Use threading       : Yes (OpenMP)  
Use GSL             : Yes  
. . . . . .

Pay attention for Python bindings! It must be YES and include your Python version.

Continue installation:

make                # Compile by running
make install        # Install by running
make installcheck   # Check installation

If the test completed without any errors, go to the next steps, else try to fix them.

3. PYTHONPATH

sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

Add all lines from <nest folder>/bin/nest_vars.sh to .bashrc and save.

After this run

source ~/.bashrc

then run python interpreter. Enter "import nest". If you see this message, installation completed, else try fix errors.

              -- N E S T --

  Copyright (C) 2004 The NEST Initiative
  Version 2.12.0 Jul 13 2017 12:43:12

4. If you use PyCharm

Settings -> Project:"title" -> ProjectStructure -> Add Content root -> choose "site-packages" from NEST folder. Mark as "Sources".