Installation

Galacticus is designed to run on Linux, with experimental support for macOS. There are several ways to install it, listed here from easiest to most involved:

  • Pre-compiled binary — the quickest way to get running; no compilation required. Available for Linux and macOS.

  • Container — a ready-to-use Docker image with Galacticus already installed; see Running Galacticus in a Container.

  • From source — needed if you want to modify or extend the code. Step-by-step instructions are provided for Linux and macOS. For an automated source build you can also try the installation script.

Whichever route you choose, Galacticus needs a set of run-time datasets (downloaded separately) and a small number of environment variables to be set. These are covered in the instructions for each route and in Running Galacticus.

Prerequisites

The pre-compiled binary and container routes bundle everything that is needed, so the following are required only when building from source:

Compiler

A recent GCC is required for the Fortran 2003/2008 features that Galacticus uses: gfortran ≥ 16. Earlier versions will not compile Galacticus; later versions may work but are less extensively tested.

Required libraries

GSL, zlib, HDF5, FoX, and BLAS. HDF5 and FoX must be built with the same GCC version used to build Galacticus, to ensure module compatibility.

Optional libraries

FFTW3 (survey-geometry calculations), ANN (analysis of N-body point data, and using MCMC posteriors as priors), and libmatheval (derived-parameter expressions in posterior simulations). These are detected at build time; if they are not found, the code that uses them is simply not compiled.

Python

Python ≥ 3.9, used by the build system to preprocess the source code. Install the bundled galacticus package and its dependencies with a single editable install from the repository root:

pip install -e .

See Installing from Source (Linux) for details and the optional [emulation] and [test] extras.

Installation routes