Ngspice installation instructions ================================= Table of contents 1 Ngspice installation (LINUX) 1.1 Prerequisites 1.2 Install from tarball (e.g. ngspice-31.tar.gz) 1.3 Install from git repository 1.4 Advanced Install 1.4.1 Most useful options 1.4.2 Options Specific to Enable Ngspice as a shared library 1.4.3 Options Specific to Using Ngspice 1.4.4 Options Useful for Debugging Ngspice 2 Compilers and Options 3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures 4 Installation Names 5 Optional Features 6 Specifying the System Type 7 Sharing Defaults 8 Operation Controls 9 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER WINDOWS OS 9.1 How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS 9.2 make ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2015/2017 9.3 make ngspice with pure CYGWIN 9.4 ngspice console app with MINGW or CYGWIN 9.5 cross compiling ngspice for Windows from LINUX 10 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER macOS This file describes the procedures to install ngspice from sources. 1 Ngspice Installation (LINUX, maybe others) ==================== 1.1 Prerequisites Ngspice is written in C and thus a complete C compilation environment is needed. Almost any LINUX offers a complete C development environment. Ngspice is developed on GNU/Linux with gcc and GNU make. The following software must be installed in your system to compile ngspice: bison, flex, and X11 headers and libs. If you want to compile the source from the git repository you need additional software: autoconf, automake, libtool, texinfo, readline. The following software may be needed when enabling additional features: editline, tcl/tk, adms Please have a look at the actual ngspice manual, downloadable at http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/docs.html, which gives you much more information on ngspice and its usage. 1.2 Install from tarball (e.g. ngspice-31.tar.gz) This covers installation from a release distribution (for example ngspice-31.tar.gz, the so called tar ball). After downloading the tar ball to a local directory unpack it using: $ tar -zxvf ngspice-31.tar.gz Now change directories in to the top-level source directory (where this INSTALL file can be found). You should be able to do: $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --with-x --with-readline=yes --disable-debug $ make $ sudo make install The default install directory for executables is /usr/local/bin. A simple ../configure might be sufficient for a basic ngspice, but the preferred arguments to ../configure are --with-x --with-readline=yes and --disable-debug providing you with a comfortably working ngspice (see section 1.4 for details). See the section titled 'Advanced Install' for instructions about additional arguments that can be passed to ../configure to customise the build and installation. Do not use the script ./autogen.sh, because it is not required for compiling and installing ngspice from the tarball. A fully featured ngspice on LINUX may be obtained with the following commands: $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --with-x --enable-xspice --disable-debug --enable-cider --with-readline=yes --enable-openmp $ make 2>&1 | tee make.log $ sudo make install To remove the executables and libraries from the install directory, you may call $ sudo make uninstall 1.3 Install from the git repository This section describes how to install from source code taken directly from the git repository. It is intended for those who want to use the most recent enhancements of ngspice and for developers. For user install instructions using source from a released distributions, please see the sections titled 'Install from tarball' and 'Advanced Install'. Download ngspice sources from the git repository as described on the sourceforge project page (see http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/download.html and click on the git link) Now change directories in to the top-level source directory (where this INSTALL file can be found). The project uses the GNU build process. The compile output should go into a separate directory, so to e.g. maintain separate debug and release versions. $ ./autogen.sh $ mkdir debug $ cd debug $ ../configure --with-x --with-readline=yes $ make $ sudo make install See the section titled 'Advanced Install' for instructions about arguments that can be passed to ./configure to customise the build and installation. Preferred arguments to ./configure to obtain a comfortably working ngspice may be --with-readline=yes and --disable-debug (for a smaller and speed optimized executable). A fully featured ngspice on LINUX may be obtained with the following commands: $ ./autogen.sh --adms $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --with-x --enable-xspice --disable-debug --enable-cider --with-readline=yes --enable-openmp --enable-adms $ make 2>&1 | tee make.log $ sudo make install If a problem is found with the build process, please submit a report to the ngspice development team. Please provide information about your system and any ./configure arguments you are using, together with any error messages. Ideally you would have tried to fix the problem yourself first. If you have fixed the problem then the development team will love to hear from you. 1.4 Advanced Install Some extra options can be provided to './configure'. To get all available options do: $ ./configure --help Some of these options are generic to the GNU build process that is used by Ngspice, other are specific to Ngspice. The following sections provide some guidance and descriptions for many, but not all, of these options. 1.4.1 Most useful options: --enable-adms ADMS is an experimental model compiler that translates Verilog-A compact models into C code that can be compiled into ngspice. This is (as of ngspice-27) still experimental, some features (e.g. noise) are missing. If you want to use it, please refer to the ADMS section on ngspice web site. --enable-cider Cider is a mixed-level simulator that couples Spice3 and DSIM to simulate devices from their technological parameters. --enable-xspice Enable XSpice enhancements, A mixed signal simulator built upon spice3 with codemodel dynamic loading support. See the ngspice manual for details. --with-readline=yes Enable GNU readline support for the command line interface. --enable-openmp Compile ngspice for multi-core processors. Parallelization is done by OpenMP, for MOS models in BSIM3.3.0 BSIM4.6.0 and and BSOI4 only. See the ngspice manual for details. --disable-debug This option will remove the '-g' option passed to the compiler and add -O2 optimisation (instead of default O0). This speeds up simulating significantly, and is recommended for normal use. --enable-oldapps The old apllications ngsconvert ngproc2mod ngmultidec and ngmakeidx are made only per user request, by adding this flag. --with-fftw3=no Disable using fftw fast fourier transform library. Use internal fft instead. Default is 'yes'. 1.4.2 Options Specific to Enable Ngspice as a shared library --with-ngshared This option let you compile ngspice as a shared library or dll, allowing an application controlling ngspice. This option excludes using --with-x or --with-wingui. Useful additional options are --enable-xspice --enable-cider --enable-openmp. No graphics inetrface is provided, this has to be handled by the controlling application. --with-tcl=tcldir When configured with this option the tcl module "tclspice" is compiled and installed instead of plain ngspice. 1.4.3 Options Specific to Using Ngspice Most of the options now following are not well maintained, are not tested or even maybe obsolete. --enable-capbypass Bypass calculation of cbd/cbs in the mosfets if the vbs/vbd voltages are unchanged. --enable-cluster Clustering code for distributed simulation. This is a contribution never tested. This code comes from TCLspice implementation and is implemented for transient analysis only. --enable-expdevices Enable experimental devices. This option is used by developers to mask devices under development. Almost useless for users. --enable-experimental define EXPERIMENTAL_CODE to mark experimental parts the code (currently not used) --enable-help Force building nghelp. This is deprecated. --enable-ndev Enable NDEV interface, (experimental, needs updating) A TCP/IP interface to external device simulator such as GSS. For more information, please visit the homepage of GSS at http://gss-tcad.sourceforge.net --enable-newpred Enable the NEWPRED symbol in the code. --enable-newtrunc Enable the newtrunc option --enable-nodelimiting Experimental damping scheme --enable-nobypass Don't bypass recalculations of slowly changing variables --enable-predictor Enable a predictor method for convergence --enable-sense2 Use spice2 sensitivity analysis --enable-xgraph Compile the Xgraph plotting program. Xgraph is a plotting package for X11 and was once very popular. --with-editline=yes Enables the use of the BSD editline library (libedit). See http://www.thrysoee.dk/editline/ 1.4.4 Options Useful for Debugging Ngspice --enable-ansi Configure will try to find an option for your compiler so that it expects ansi-C. --enable-asdebug Debug sensitivity code *ASDEBUG*. --enable-blktmsdebug Debug distortion code *BLOCKTIMES* --enable-checkergcc Option for compilation with checkergcc. --enable-cpdebug Enable ngspice shell code debug. --disable-debug This option will remove the '-g' option passed to the compiler. This speeds up compilation a *lot*, and is recommended for normal use. --enable-ftedebug Enable ngspice frontend debug. --enable-pzdebug Debug pole/zero code. --enable-sensdebug Debug sensitivity code *SENSDEBUG*. --enable-smltmsdebug Debug distortion code *SMALLTIMES* --enable-smoketest Enable smoketest compile. --enable-stepdebug Turns on debugging of convergence stepping?? 2 Compilers and Options ===================== Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that the `configure' script does not know about. You can give `configure' initial values for variables by setting them in the environment. Using a Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like this: CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure Or on systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this: env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure 3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures ==================================== You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the same time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'. If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH' variable, you have to compile the package for one architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have installed the package for one architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another architecture. 4 Installation Names ================== By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for installing programs and libraries. Documentation and other data files will still use the regular prefix. In addition, if you use an unusual directory layout you can give options like `--bindir=PATH' to specify different values for particular kinds of files. Run `configure --help' for a list of the directories you can set and what kinds of files go in them. If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure' the option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'. When installed on MinGW with MSYS alternative paths are not fully supported. See 'How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS' below for details. 5 Optional Features ================= Some packages pay attention to `--enable-FEATURE' options to `configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package. They may also pay attention to `--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE is something like `gnu-as' or `x' (for the X Window System). The `README' should mention any `--enable-' and `--with-' options that the package recognizes. For packages that use the X Window System, `configure' can usually find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't, you can use the `configure' options `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations. 6 Specifying the System Type ========================== There may be some features `configure' can not figure out automatically, but needs to determine by the type of host the package will run on. Usually `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints a message saying it can not guess the host type, give it the `--host=TYPE' option. TYPE can either be a short name for the system type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name with three fields: CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field. If `config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't need to know the host type. If you are building compiler tools for cross-compiling, you can also use the `--target=TYPE' option to select the type of system they will produce code for and the `--build=TYPE' option to select the type of system on which you are compiling the package. 7 Sharing Defaults ================ If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share, you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'. `configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then `PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists. Or, you can set the `CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script. A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script. 8 Operation Controls ================== `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it operates. `--cache-file=FILE' Use and save the results of the tests in FILE instead of `./config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for debugging `configure'. `--help' Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit. `--quiet' `--silent' `-q' Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. To suppress all normal output, redirect it to `/dev/null' (any error messages will still be shown). `--srcdir=DIR' Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually `configure' can determine that directory automatically. `--version' Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure' script, and exit. `configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options. 9 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER WINDOWS OS ==================================== 9.1 How to make ngspice with MINGW and MSYS Creating ngspice with MINGW is a straight forward procedure, if you have MSYS/MINGW installed properly. You will need some enhancements to the standard install (FLEX and BISON have to be made available in MSYS). Some links are given below which describe the procedures. Installing from the tarball, e.g. ngspice-31.tar.gz, is now simple: After expanding, you may just run ./compile_min.sh from the ngspice-31 directory. The default installation location of ngspice is the Windows path C:\spice. The install path can be altered by passing --prefix=NEWPATH as an argument to ./configure during the build process. Put the install path you desire inside "", e.g. "D:/NewSpice". Be careful to use forward slashes "/", not backward slashes "\" (something still to be fixed). Then add --prefix="D:/NewSpice" as an argument to ./configure in the normal way. The procedure of compiling a distribution (for example, a tarball from the ngspice website), is as follows: $ cd ngspice-31 $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --with-wingui ...and other options $ make $ make install The most useful options are: --enable-xspice --enable-cider --disable-debug (-O2 optimization, no debug information) A fully featured ngspice on Windows may be obtained with the following commands: $ ./autogen.sh --adms $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --with-wingui --enable-cider --disable-debug --enable-openmp --enable-xspice --enable-adms $ make install However, to compile code extracted from the git repository the procedure is a little different. Firstly install git, e.g. from http://git-scm.com/download/win To obtain ngspice, you may do the following: Open the git command window. Go to a directory of your choice, e.g. D:\Spice $ cd /d/Spice Issue the command for downloading ngspice: $ git clone git://ngspice.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/ngspice/ngspice This will create directory /ngspice . Go to directory ngspice $ cd /d/Spice/ngspice Start compiling, e.g. by calling $ ./autogen.sh --adms $ ./compile_min.sh Update the ngspice files: Go to directory ngspice $ cd /d/Spice/ngspice Issue command for update $ git pull Instead of calling ./compile_min.sh, you may choose to issue individual commands like: $ cd ngspice $ ./autogen.sh $ mkdir release $ cd release $ ../configure --enable-maintainer-mode --with-wingui ...and other options $ make $ make install MINGW and MSYS can be downloaded from http://www.mingw.org/. The making of ngspice and the code models *.cm for XSpice requires installation of BISON and FLEX to MSYS. A typical installation was tested with: bison-2.0-MSYS.tar.gz flex-2.5.4a-1-bin.zip libiconv-1.9.2-1-bin.zip libintl-0.14.4-bin.zip Bison 2.0 is now superseeded by newer releases (Bison 2.3, see http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2435&package_id=67879) The last three are from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23617. Installing from git needs more packages to MSYS in advance: git, automake, autoconf, libtool You may also look at http://www.mingw.org/wiki/HOWTO_Install_the_MinGW_GCC_Compiler_Suite http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSYS http://www.mingw.org/wiki/HOWTO_Create_an_MSYS_Build_Environment. An alternative compiler setup is available at http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/ A modern environment is offered by MSYS2 (https://www.msys2.org/). The install tree generated during 'make install' is: C:\Spice\ bin\ ngspice.exe nghelp.exe ngmakeidx.exe ngnutmeg.exe cmpp.exe lib\ spice\ analog.cm digital.cm spice2poly.cm extradev.cm extravt.cm share\ info\ dir ngspice.info ngspice.info-1 .. ngspice.info-10 man\ man1\ cmpp.1 ngmakeidx.1 ngmultidec.1 ngnutmeg.1 ngproc2mod.1 ngsconvert.1 ngspice.1 ngspice\ helpdir\ ngspice.idx ngspice.txt scripts\ ciderinit devaxis devload setplot spectrum spinit 9.2 make ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2015/17/19 ngspice may be compiled with MS Visual Studio 2015 or newer. CIDER and XSPICE are included, the code models for XSPICE (*.cm) are made as well. There is currently no installation procedure provided, you may however install the executable manually as described in the installation tree below. The directory (visualc) with its files vngspice.sln (project starter) and vngspice.vcproj (project contents) allows to compile and link ngspice with MS Visual Studio 2015. Newer Visual Studio versions will translate the project files into their compatible format (tested with MS Visual Studio 2017). You may however deny the translation and compile in a VS 2015 compatibility mode. /visualc/include contains a dedicated config.h file. It contains the preprocessor definitions required to properly compile the code. strings.h has been necessary during setting up the project. Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Community with C/C++. For example the German edition is available at no cost from https://www.visualstudio.com/de/vs/community/. Goto /ngspice/visualc. Start MS Visual Studio 2019 by double click onto vngspice.sln. After MS Visual Studio has opened up, select debug or release version by checking 'Erstellen' , 'Konfigurations-Manager' 'Debug' or 'Release'. Start making ngspice (called vngspice.exe) by selecting 'Erstellen' and 'vngspice neu erstellen'. Object files will be created and stored in visualc/debug or visualc/release. The executable will be stored to visualc/debug/bin or visualc/release/bin. An installation tree (as provided with MINGW make install) and also used by vngspice is (maybe created manually): C:\Spice64\ bin\ ngspice.exe lib\ spice\ analog.cm digital.cm spice2poly.cm extradev.cm extravt.cm share\ ngspice\ scripts\ spinit If you intend to install vngspice into another directory, e.g. D:\MySpice, you have to edit /visualc/include/config.h and alter the entries: #define NGSPICEBINDIR "C:/Spice/bin" #define NGSPICEDATADIR "C:/Spice/share/ngspice" to #define NGSPICEBINDIR "D:/MySpice/bin" #define NGSPICEDATADIR "D:/MySpice/share/ngspice" If the code model files *.cm are not available, you will get warning messages, but you may use ngspice in the normal way (of course without XSPICE extensions). 9.3 make ngspice with pure CYGWIN If you don't have libdl.a you may need to link libcygwin.a to libdl.a symbolically. for example: $ cd /lib $ ln -s libcygwin.a libdl.a. The procedure of compiling is the same as Linux. 9.4 ngspice console app with MINGW or CYGWIN Omitting the configure flag --with-wingui will yield a console ngspice. You then will not have any graphics interface. In CYGWIN you may add --with-x for the X11 graphics (not available in mingw). A typical configure command may look like ./configure --enable-adms --enable-xspice --enable-cider --enable-openmp --disable-debug CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-m32 prefix=C:/Spice tested with TDM mingw. 9.5 cross compiling ngspice for Windows from LINUX Two scripts are available in the ngspice directory that allow cross compiling for NMS Windows, if you are running LINUX. ngspice.exe or ngspice.dll may be made. For details please see cross-compile.sh or cross-compile-shared.sh. 10 NGSPICE COMPILATION UNDER macOS ================================== 10.1 Use precompiled binary package 1. Install an X11 interface (like Xquartz) 2. Install the downloaded NGSPICE package 3. Open a terminal window and start using NGSPICE 10.2 Compile NGSPICE manually from a tarball 1. Install an X11 interface (like Xquartz) 2. Install MacPorts from http://www.macports.org 3. Execute this command: sudo port install bison flex ncurses xorg-libXaw 4. Configure NGSPICE invoking "./configure". A complete set of feature is: ./configure --enable-cider --enable-xspice --enable-openmp --enable-pss --enable-debug=no 5. Compile NGSPICE invoking "make" 6. Install NGSPICE invoking "make install" or "sudo make install" 10.3 Compile NGSPICE manually from git 1. Install an X11 interface (like Xquartz) 2. Install MacPorts from http://www.macports.org 3. Execute this command: sudo port install automake autoconf libtool bison flex ncurses xorg-libXaw 4. Execute this command: ./autogen.sh or ./autogen.sh --adms (if you want to enable ADMS) 5. Configure NGSPICE invoking "./configure". A complete set of feature is: ./configure --enable-cider --enable-xspice --enable-openmp --enable-pss --enable-debug=no ./configure --enable-adms --enable-cider --enable-xspice --enable-openmp --enable-pss --enable-debug=no (if you want to enable ADMS) 6. Compile NGSPICE invoking "make" 7. Install NGSPICE invoking "make install" or "sudo make install"