README.COMPILE

This document contains information on how to install MissionLab version 5.0.
It is identical to the information included in the MissionLab Manual
([MissionLab home]/doc/mlab_manual.ps).

Please go through the following steps to compile and install MissionLab on
your system:

  1. Make sure you have an enough disk space (200 MB Minimum).

  2. Ensure you have the required software. We have compiled MissionLab with
     the following operating system and support software. It will probably
     compile with later releases, but minor changes might be necessary.
        o RedHat Linux 6.2 or 7.1
        o GNU gcc 2.95.2 or 2.95.3
        o Open Motif 2.1 [http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif] or LessTif 2.0

     Note: We noticed that LessTif tends to produce various warnings during
     the operation of MissionLab. Thus, we recommend you to use Open Motif.

  3. Obtain the MissionLab distribution (if you haven't yet). You can
     download the latest distribution of MissionLab (mlab-5.0.tar.gz) from
     our web page:

     http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ai/robot-lab/research/MissionLab/

     Note: Supporting Software is included with the MissionLab distribution.
     You are not required to take any special steps regarding this software,
     but we list it here to credit the developers and point out copyright
     restrictions:
        o IPT - A version of IPT is part of the MissionLab source tree. IPT
          is an interprocess communication system developed at CMU. Also see
          the file README.IPT. This release of the MissionLab was developed
          with version 8.4 of IPT. If you wish, you can ftp the package
          from: ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/data/anonftp/user/jayg/
          (get ipt-8-4.tar.gz and IPTManual.ps.gz). Due to copyright
          restrictions, IPT MAY NOT BE USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.
        o CThreads - A version of CThreads is now part of the MissionLab
          source tree. It should compile directly on Linux (or SunOS).
          CThreads is a lightweight process threads package from Georgia
          Tech which operates under Linux, SunOS and many other OSs. If you
          wish, you can ftp the package from: ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu
          pub/software/cthreads/ithreads_distribution.tar.gz
        o sphigs - Sphigs and srgp are used for the 3D display option. They
          are included in the MissionLab source tree. Sphigs can be found at
          ftp://ftp.cs.brown.edu.

  4. Unpack the MissionLab distribution. Uncompress and untar the
     distribution with the following command. Do not mix with the old
     version of MissionLab:

     tar -xvzf mlab-5.0.tar.gz

     You now should see a directory named mission. This directory will be
     referred to as the ``MissionLab home'' directory.

  5. Edit a configuration file. Edit [your MissionLab home]/src/make.include
     to point to the correct places for your system. This is the most
     important step since the most common error during the compilation comes
     from the fact that this file is setup incorrectly. Incorrect setup of
     this file usually produces errors during the compilation of the IPT,
     and may corrupt it permanently. The makefiles in the src directories
     reference these files, so changing this file should fix all the
     makefiles. The following are key places in the make.include to look
     for:

        o Set the MLAB_HOME variable to point to your home directory for
          MissionLab. This should include the full directory path.
        o Set INSTALL_MEXP to true or false. This is a flag to check whether
          the Mission Expert (CBR Mission Planning Wizard) capability should
          be installed or not. This flag should be kept as "false" unless
          you have contacted us and obtaind the version of MissionLab which
          supports this capability.
        o Set XDIR to point to the X directory on your system. This is
          usually /usr/X11R6.
        o If the program will run on ONLY one type of machine and one
          windowing environment, set the MLAB_STATIC flag to be empty. This
          will force MissionLab to use shared libraries. Static linking has
          the advantage of enabling a compiled version of MissionLab to run
          on similar systems with slightly differing runtime libraries (e.g.
          openwindows vs X11R6). Some distributions of linux only include
          shared libraries, so static linking won't work.

  6. Compile: Compile MissionLab with the following commands:

     tcsh (or csh) - Make sure you are using C-shell (important)
     cd src
     make veryclean - To ensure all old stuff is cleaned out.
     ./configure.cthreads - To configure Cthreads, you only need to run this
     once.
     make depend - This may generate numerous warnings that can be safely
     ignored.
     make all - This will begin the compile of the entire system.

  7. Set up your user environment. (Modify your .tcshrc, etc.)
        o Add [your MissionLab home]/bin into your execution path. It is not
          necessary to move the executable files to the bin directory
          because there are symbolic links from the bin directory to the
          executable files.
        o Add ``.'' into your execution path.

  8. Setup the CfgEdit environment. If you are planning to use CfgEdit to
     create your own robot executables, you may want to setup the
     environment for CfgEdit at this point. Edit ``.cfgeditrc'' in
     [your MissionLab home]/src/cfgedit. In the file, replace all
     ``/net/hr1/robot/mission''s with the full path of your
     ``MissionLab home''.

At this point, the installation is completed, and you should be able to run
the MissionLab system.

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