Installation

Last Updated: July 2023

Installing CAP is done on the command line via git clone. If you are installing CAP locally, please see the Local Installation instructions below. If you are installing CAP on NASA’s supercomputing environment, NAS, please see the NAS Installation instructions below.

Installation on Local Computer

If you have a pre-existing virtual environment holding CAP, we recommend you first remove the virtual environment folder entirely:

rm -r amescap    # change amescap to the name of your virtual environment

  1. (Re)create a virtual environment in which to install CAP. Use your preferred installation of python when creating your virtual environment. Here, we create a virtual environment called amescap:

/Users/username/path/to/preferred/python3 -m venv --system-site-packages amescap

  1. Activate the virtual environment using the appropriate syntax for your shell:

source amescap/bin/activate         # for bash
source amescap/bin/activate.csh     # for CSH/TCSH

  1. Install cftime and netCDF4, and upgrade pip within the virtual environment:

pip install cftime==1.0.3.4
pip install netCDF4==1.6.1
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

  1. Install CAP from the NASA Planetary Science GitHub using git clone:

pip install git+https://github.com/NASA-Planetary-Science/amescap.git

  1. Test that your installation completed properly by typing within your virtual environment:

MarsPlot.py -h

This should show the “help” documentation for MarsPlot.

  1. Deactivate the virtual environment with:

deactivate

Installation on NAS

These instructions are specific to installing CAP on Pleiades or Lou, NASA’s supercomputers.

If you have a pre-existing virtual environment for CAP, begin by removing the virtual environment directory and all of its subdirectories:

rm -r amescap    # or whatever the name is for you

  1. (Re)create a virtual environment in which to hold CAP. Use your preferred installation of python when creating your virtual environment. Here, we create a virtual environment called amescap:

/Users/username/path/to/preferred/python3 -m venv --system-site-packages amescap

  1. Load the necessary modules:

module purge
module load python3/3.9.12

  1. Activate the virtual environment using the appropriate syntax for your shell:

source AmesCAP/bin/activate.csh     # for CSH/TSCH
source AmesCAP/bin/activate         # for BASH

  1. Install cmake and setuptools, and upgrade pip within the virtual environment:

pip install cmake
pip install setuptools --upgrade
pip install --upgrade pip

  1. Install CAP from the NASA Planetary Science GitHub using git clone:

pip install git+https://github.com/NASA-Planetary-Science/amescap.git

  1. Deactivate the virtual environment with:

deactivate