Installing simx from source

simx is primarily distributed as source code, and requires a C compiler to install. It has been tested on Linux and OS X. After downloading the simx tarball, execute the following commands to compile and install the code:

unix% tar zxf simx-X.Y.Z.tar.gz

unix% cd simx

unix% ./configure --prefix=`pwd`

unix% make

unix% make install

If the code compiled correctly, you should now have a bin/directory with a copy of simx. We have tested this on Macs running 12.6 (Monterey) and 14.2.1 (Sonoma). You must use GNU compiler suite 13 (including gcc-13 and gfortran-13). It should also compile on Linux; we used a machine running Scientific Linux, kernel 3.10.0. If you would like to test your version, you can then run the following command:

unix% cd test

unix% make test

Please report any odd behavior on the part of the code to rsmith@cfa.harvard.edu. Please do not hesitate to look at the code and suggest fixes.

Notes from the Field

1) In some cases, the 'make' command will fail with a message along the lines of "ld: in ../src/libsimx.a, archive has no table of contents" In this case, you may be able to fix the problem by typing "cd src ; ranlib libsimx.a ; cd .." This should be fixed in an upcoming version. (Thanks for Maurice Leutenegger for discovering the problem and the fix.)

2) If run on a 32-bit computer, 'make test' may fail on the Cas A simulation with the Astro-H SXI, reporting differences in the number of events. However, the different numbers are quite close to the canonical values, and the difference is likely due to differences in how the random number function works on 32-bit and 64-bit computers. This can be ignored, as it should not be a problem with running simx. (Thanks to Jelle de Plaa for reporting and diagnosing the issue.)