[kepler-dev] Installation ?
Dan Higgins
higgins at nceas.ucsb.edu
Tue Nov 6 09:26:38 PST 2007
Hi Kenneth,,
You may be right that simply putting the DLLs in the Kepler
directory would be sufficient. However, I think we discovered that
Java's jni calls don't necessarily follow Microsoft's search order (and
libraries called from within the Java JNI code don't necessarily follow
the Java convention!). In any case, putting DLLs in WINDOWS/System32
seems to work well with XP (but you correctly point out that we are
going to have to reconsider in light of Vista).
In general, there is also the issue of supporting multiple
platforms. You may notice that in $KEPLER/lib/ we have *.dll, *.so, and
*.dylib files (libraries for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX). Supporting
multiple platforms with platform specific code is 'painful' since each
has different search paths for library files! (This is where Java is
really nice!). Does everyone at ANL use Windows machines?
BTW, I used to work as a contractor for the Defense Department
studying nuclear weapon effects. Part of that involved a lot of x-ray
transport calculations. So I am interested in seeing that someone is
looking into Kepler for x-ray studies!
Dan Higgins
NCEAS/UCSB
----
Kenneth Evans wrote:
> Dan,
>
> There is a DLL search order (which Microsoft seems to change from time to
> time). It should include the directory from which the program was started,
> the directory where the executable (that uses the DLLs) lives, the AppPaths
> key in the registry, and the PATH. (And nowadays there are assemblies, but
> I won't touch on that.)
>
> Is it not enough to have the DLLs be in the Kepler directory? Using the
> PATH, would, of course, work, but the user should probably have to set that.
>
> I ask this because on Vista they aren't getting installed into
> WINDOWS\system32 anyway. It is also probably not good practice to install
> things into the system areas. It makes uninstall and cleanup harder, if
> nothing else.
>
> This is just a comment. I have not looked into what Kepler is doing in this
> regard, whereas I am sure you have. I only noticed because the Ant build
> fails on Vista.
>
> -Ken
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Higgins [mailto:higgins at nceas.ucsb.edu]
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 5:37 PM
> To: Kenneth Evans
> Cc: 'Kepler Developers'
> Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] Installation ?
>
> Kenneth,
> The files that get transferred to WINDOWS/system32 are some
> libraries used by a few Kepler actors that happen to use a JNI
> connection to C/C++ code. The simple zip file does not put these files
> in the correct location. The other limitation (that I can think of at
> the moment) is the modification to the path done by the installer to
> make sure R is on the path (and can be started up when needed by an
> RExpression actor). A full blown installer can do these additional
> tasks. Or, of course, you could include a one-time script with the zip
> to take care of such details.)
>
> Dan
>
> Kenneth Evans wrote:
>
>> Dan,
>>
>> That was very helpful.
>>
>> 1. I tried the targets 'autobat' and 'autobat_sh'. They made
>> auto_kepler.bat and auto_kepler.sh.
>>
>> 2. I copied my checkout, done on Windows, to a Linux machine.
>>
>> 3. I got it to run without too much trouble. In auto_kepler.sh I had to
>> change:
>>
>> a. Make auto_kepler.sh executable.
>> b. Change the line KEP=${0%kepler.sh} -> KEP=${0%auto_kepler.sh}
>> c. Change the CLASSPATH . -> ./bin
>>
>> It mostly worked -- even a web service. I did have a few problems, which
>> I'll have to look into more before bothering people.
>>
>> If you want double-clickable on Windows, you can make a shortcut with the
>> BAT file as the target. I had already done this with a BAT file I
>>
> modified
>
>> from kepler.bat so I would not have to run from Eclipse. (I probably
>>
> should
>
>> have started with auto_kepler.bat, as that would have the correct
>>
> CLASSPATH,
>
>> had it changed.) I could not find a Kepler .ICO file so I used ptiny.ico
>> for the shortcut.
>>
>> What about the files that get written to WINDOWS\system32 during the
>>
> build?
>
>> They won't have got transferred.
>>
>> Thanks a lot for the guidance.
>>
>> -Ken
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dan Higgins [mailto:higgins at nceas.ucsb.edu]
>> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:38 PM
>> To: Kenneth Evans, Jr.
>> Cc: 'Kepler Developers'
>> Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] Installation ?
>>
>> Hi Kenneth,
>>
>> You are right about the beta3 installer - it is pretty old. It also has
>> a number of bugs that have been fixed in the head of CVS. Hopefully I
>> will be geting a new installer version out by the end of the year. The
>> installer does take some effort to create, but it requires far less
>> effort/knowledge of the user.
>>
>> The next easiest way to get Kepler is the nightly zipped file. A script
>> checks out the latest versions of Ptolemy and Kepler, compiles the code,
>> and runs an ant target that writes a batch file (and a shell file) for
>> launching Kepler. [See the ant targets 'autobat' and 'autobat_sh'] The
>> entire thing is then put into a zip file. The launching script does not
>> require the user to set any environment variables and all file
>> references are relative. The basic limitation of the zip file is that it
>> requires the user to have a working version of the Java JRE and one
>> starts Kepler from the command line rather than as a simple double
>> clickable application.
>>
>> Now you could distribute a version of the nightly zipped Kepler and add
>> on your actors saved as KAR file. These addons could then be loaded from
>> the file menu. Or you could upload any specialized actors to the
>> repository and let the users download them. Or you could simply zip your
>> entire customized system.
>>
>> Dan Higgins
>>
>>
>>
>> Kenneth Evans, Jr. wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I now have a developer's version of Kepler installed in Eclipse and
>>>
> pretty
>
>>> much working (for me). If I want to give this installation to a user,
>>>
> how
>
>>> would I go about doing it?
>>>
>>> We can assume the user would just want to run an executable to make
>>> workflows, not do things like Ant or create actors. That seems to be the
>>> primary intended use of Kepler.
>>>
>>> The beta3 downloadable version is pretty old, so the question is perhaps
>>>
>>>
>> how
>>
>>
>>> would I go about making a replacement of it with the current version and
>>> with our stuff in it. Perhaps there is an Ant target?
>>>
>>> Part of the reason is that if we are going to use Kepler, I need to get
>>> buy-in from the users. This would mean letting them try it (without
>>>
>>>
>> having
>>
>>
>>> the problems I have had ;-).
>>>
>>> I probably should say the anticipated use is for x-ray experiments and
>>>
>>>
>> data
>>
>>
>>> analysis at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. I
>>>
>>>
>> am
>>
>>
>>> in charge of scientific software development there, but not a user
>>>
> myself.
>
>>> This is also for me. I would like to develop it in one place but run and
>>> test it elsewhere, probably on another platform, and without Eclipse.
>>>
>>> Any other advice on how to present and promote Kepler to a set of users
>>> would also be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> -Ken
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Kepler-dev mailing list
>>> Kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
>>> http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/kepler-dev
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
--
*******************************************************************
Dan Higgins higgins at nceas.ucsb.edu
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ Ph: 805-893-5127
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Marine Science Building - Room 3405
Santa Barbara, CA 93195
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