16.8 Installation for the impatient

We shall explain the basic steps for installing the most recent version of Sage (which is the ``source'' version, not the ``binary'').

  1. Download sage-*.tar (where * denotes the version number) from the website and save into a directory, say SAGEHOME. Type tar zxvf sage-*.tar in HOME.

  2. cd sage-* (we call this SAGEHOME) and type make. Now be patient because this process make take 2 hours or so.

  3. Optional: When the compilation is finished, type on the command line in the Sage home directory:

    ./sage -i database_jones_numfield
    ./sage -i database_gap-4.4.8
    ./sage -i database_cremona_ellcurve-2005.11.03
    ./sage -i gap_packages-4.4.8_1
    

    This last package loads the GAP GPL'd packages braid, ctbllib, DESIGN, FactInt, GAPDoc, GRAPE, LAGUNA, SONATA 2.3, and TORIC . It also compiles (automatically) the C programs in GUAVA and GRAPE.

    Other optional packages to install are at http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/packages/optional/.

    Another way: download packages from http://sage.scipy.org/sage/packages/optional/and save to the directory $SAGE_ROOT. Type

    /sage -i sage-package.spkg
    

    for each sage-package you download (use sage -f if you are reinstalling.) This might be useful if you have a CD of these packages but no (or a very slow) internet connection.

  4. If you want to build the documentation, cd devel/doc and type ./rebuild. This requires having latex and latex2html installed.

See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.