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Installing Polymake for dummies

Posted: 25 Apr 2015, 03:43
by JQX
I ran polymake on my mac using the "bundle for perl" thingie. That was easy and painless. Now I'm trying to get it to run on ubuntu, and I'm lost on how to even begin to compile it. My computer skills are...lacking, to say the least, compared to what is assumed here http://polymake.org/doku.php/howto/install

Any hints to how to cut down on how much time I need to commit to installing and successfully running polymake? Are there similar bundles to the one for mac for either Windows or any free OS?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Installing Polymake for dummies

Posted: 26 Apr 2015, 00:39
by gawrilow
A package for Ubuntu is expected to be published later this year, but it's not available yet.

The Installation HowTo page might in fact provide a frightening wealth of technical details, but in your case the chances are quite good that you come through with minimal attrition of your nerves. Just follow the "Notes for Ubuntu", which simply means installing the listed packages, then execute the classical triad "configure; make; make install". In the first reading you can safely ignore all possible options for configure and make; just remember to specify the number of CPU cores in the make command, e.g. "make -j 8" . On a decent PC with 8 cores, everything should be built in 15-20 minutes. If you own the PC, you can install into the default location /usr/local; since this directory is usually write-protected for normal users, you'll have to amend the "make install" command with "sudo". If you don't want to (or can't) usurp super-user rights, specify a location where you are allowed to create files in the configure command: "configure --prefix=/somewhere/polymake". That should be it.