PSRCHIVE: common problems

The PSRCHIVE code makes use of a number of third-party packages. The configure script will do its best to detect the location of these packages and configure the software to use them. However, as directory structures vary widely from place to place, the most commonly encountered problems are usually related to third-party dependencies.

As always, if you have any difficulties with compiling the PSRCHIVE software, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Configuration

The configure script can fail for a number of reasons:

A third-party package is not installed in a known location.

In addition to the standard installation directories (e.g. /, /usr, /usr/local) the configure script will also search for third-party packages in $PSRHOME/packages/$LOGIN_ARCH. If your third-party software is located in a different directory, this can be specified using the relevant command line option, e.g. --with-cfitsio-dir=DIR. Type configure --help for the full list of options.

A different C++ compiler was used to compile a third-party package.

Because different C++ compilers (including different versions of g++) mangle names differently, you must ensure that the same C++ compiler is used to compile PSRCHIVE that was used to compile Qt, for example. To specify the C++ compiler, set the CXX environment variable before running configure.

A different Fortran compiler was used to compile a third-party package.

Because different Fortran compilers make use of different libraries during linking, you must ensure that the same Fortran compiler is used to compile PSRCHIVE that was used to compile, for example, SLALIB. To specify the Fortran compiler, set the F77 environment variable before running configure.

SIGPROC find is first in $PATH.

If you have the SIGPROC (Pulsar) Signal Processing Programs installed on your system, then it is possible that the find that searches for files in a directory hierarchy is over-shadowed by SIGPROC find, which searches for pulsars in observed timeseries. Please ensure that your PATH environment variable is set so that the unix find program is found first.

Compilation

make can fail for a number of reasons:

Undefined references to std c++ objects like cerr and endl.

If the version of g77 does not match that of g++ then the flags added in order to link against the Fortran libraries will mess up g++ during the linking stage. Please ensure that g77 and g++ have the same version number.