This README wants to help you installing the

  BoA Library

on your computer. The BoA Library contains programs and libraries
necessary to run BoA, in versions that have been verfied to work properly
together with BoA's scripts (contained in Boa-<DATE>.tgz). Also included are
startup scripts for bash and csh that set up the correct shell environment for
BoA to use the BoA Library.

The installation process will install the software in its own dirctory
tree. The root of this directory tree is referred to as BOA_LIB_HOME in
this README. If not specified otherwise during the installation process,
BOA_LIB_HOME is ${HOME}/boalib, where ${HOME} is your home directory. 

You do not need root privileges to install the BoA Library, as long
as you install it to a location where you have write permission.

To install the BoA Library, proceed as follows:

1. If you have not done already, unpack the software with

     tar zxf BoaLib-<DATE>.tgz

   This unpacks the archive to the dirctory BoaLib-<DATE>-install. This dirctory
   may safely be deleted after the BoA Library has been installed.


2. If you have not done already, go to this directory:

     cd BoaLib-<DATE>-install


3. Run the configure script to create the install script:
  
     ./configure

   -----------------------------
     Remark for Fedora Core 6:
   
     For an unknown reason, the configure script fails to locate the X libraries
     and X header files properly for Fedora Core 6. Specify the locations
     explicitely by
      
     ./configure --libraries=/usr/lib --x-includes=/usr/include
   -----------------------------

   The configure script tests for each software package that is part of the
   BoA Library whether this particular software package is already
   installed on your computer. If the configure script finds the particular
   software package on the computer, it tries to find out the version. Only if
   the configure script finds out that the particular software package is
   installed in exactly the version that comes with the BoA Library,
   this particular software package will be skipped in the following
   installation step. In most other cases (configure cannot locate the
   software, the versions do not match, configure cannot find out the
   versions, etc.) configure registers the software package for installation.
   (The execptions from this rules are the packages Numeric and
   scipy_distutils: To avoid conflicts from different Python versions, these
   packages are registered for installation whenever Python is registered.)

   You can override this default behaviour with options of the configure
   script. E.g. 

     ./configure --with-python

   will register Python for installation, even if the correct Python version
   is already installed on your computer, while

     ./configure --without-python

   will prevent Python to be installed. Typing

     ./configure --with-all

   will mark all packages for installation without checking. You can combine
   these options to finetune the installation:

     ./configure --with-python --without-slalib

   will work as expected as will

     ./configure --with-all --without-python
   
   For a list of all possible options --with-package and --without-package,
   type

     ./configure --help

   The configure script will also specify BOA_LIB_HOME, the root of the
   directory tree where the Boa Library will be installed. By default
   this is ${HOME}/boalib where ${HOME} is your home directory. You can
   specify a different root by using the --prefix option as in

     ./configure --prefix=${HOME}/myOwnBoaLibrary

   When running, the configure script will print to the screen a report
   including the path to which the software will be installed, and for
   each package the versions involved and whether the package will or will not
   be installed.

   -----------------------------
      Remark for SuSE 10.0:

      If you want to use a preinstalled Python, make sure that the package
      python-devel is installed on your system. Use SuSE's package manager
      YaST to install it if necessary.
   -----------------------------


4. Run the install script:

     ./install 

   This will install the software packages that where registered for
   installation by the configure script. If the root of the dirctory tree
   BOA_LIB_HOME (either ${HOME}/boalib or the directory specified
   explicitely with configure --prefix) already exists, the install script
   will warn you and query you whether you really want to proceed. If unsure,
   answer "N"; this will abort the installation. You can rerun the configure
   script specifiying a different prefix and then run install again.

   The rest of the installation happens without any input from you. Note that
   the install process can take ~30 min to complete.

   After running this script, the BoA Library is inStalled and ready to
   be used. You may proceed with the installation of BoA itself.

5. Troubleshooting:

   In case of errors during the installation, the install script prints out
   error messages and aborts. Consult the log files that are specified in the
   error message to find out possible reasons for the failure. Quite often the
   cause for a failure to install the BoA Library are special setting
   of shell variables (e.g. PYTHONPATH) in shell startup scripts. If the
   reason for the failure is unclear, delete the directory tree with the
   incomplete installation of BoA Library, run

     ./configure --with-all

   and run the install script again.

   If errors still occur, the most probable causes are problems with the
   environment defined by the set of path settings, shell variables etc. which
   are set both in system-wide and user-specific startup scripts. (For a
   complete list of the startup scripts consult the documentation of your
   system; most important are the startup scripts of the shell in use. See
   man bash and man csh.)

   During the installation of the BoA Library, the installation script
   tries to set up an environment that allows a smooth installation. However,
   there may be situations when this is not successfull. If this is the case,
   careful inspection of the environment must be performed.


To uninstall the BoA Library, delete the directory tree to which
the BoA Library has been installed. 




