.. _Installing and Starting VisIt:

Installing and Starting VisIt_
------------------------------

VisIt_ runs on the following platforms:

* Linux (including Ubuntu, RedHat, SUSE, TOSS)
* Mac OSX
* Microsoft Windows

A new version of VisIt_ is usually released every 2-3 months, you can 
find VisIt_ release executables at: 
https://wci.llnl.gov/simulation/computer-codes/visit/executables.

Download a binary release compatible with the machine you want to install
VisIt_ on. If you are installing VisIt_ on Linux, also download the 
``visit-install`` script.

.. _MacOSX Installation Instructions:

Installing on Mac OSX
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VisIt_ releases include an app-bundle for Mac OSX packaged in a DMG image.
Download and open the DMG file and copy the VisIt_ app-bundle to your
applications directory or any other path. To run VisIt_ double click on
the VisIt_ app-bundle. The ``visit-install`` script can also be used to
install tarball packaged OSX binaries. For this case follow the Linux
installation instructions. 

.. _Linux Installation Instructions:

Installing on Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Installing VisIt_ on Linux (and optionally on Mac OSX) is done using the
``visit-install`` script. Make sure that the ``visit-install`` script
is executable by entering the following command at the command line prompt:

.. code:: bash

  chmod +x visit-install

The visit-install script has the following usage:

.. code:: bash

  visit-install version platform directory

The **version** argument is the version of VisIt_ being installed.  The
**platform** argument depends on the type platform VisIt_ is being installed
for. The platform argument can be one of the following: linux, linux-x86_64,
darwin. The **directory** argument specifies the directory to install VisIt_
into. If the specified directory does not exist then VisIt_ will create it.

For example, to install an x86_64 version of VisIt_ 3.0.0, use:

.. code:: bash
  
  visit-install 3.0.0 linux-x86_64 /usr/local/visit
  

This command will install the 3.0.0 version of VisIt_ into the 
``/usr/local/visit`` directory. Note that when you enter the above command,
the file ``visit3_0_0.linux-x86_64.tar.gz`` must be present in the current
working directory.

The ``visit-install`` script will prompt you to choose a network configuration.
A network configuration is a set of VisIt_ preferences that provide
information to enable VisIt_ to identify and connect to remote computers
and run VisIt_ in client/server mode.  VisIt_ includes network configuration
files for several computing centers with VisIt_ users.

After running ``visit-install``, you can launch VisIt_ using ``bin/visit``
. For example, if you installed to ``/usr/local/visit``, you can 
run using:

.. code:: bash
  
  /usr/local/visit/bin/visit

We also recommend adding ``visit`` to your shell's path. For bash users
this can usually be accomplished by modifying the ``PATH`` environment
variable in ``~/.bash_profile``, and for c-shell users accomplished by
modifying the ``path`` environment variable in ``~/.cshrc``. 
 
The exact procedure for this varies with each shell and may be customized
at each computing center, so please refer to your shell and computing
center documentation. 
 
.. _Windows Installation Instructions:

Installing on Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VisIt_ release binaries for Windows are packaged in an executable installer.
To install on Windows run the installer and follow its prompts.

The VisIt_ installation program adds a VisIt_ program group to the Windows 
Start menu and it adds a VisIt_ shortcut to the desktop. You can double-click
on the desktop shortcut or use the Start menu's VisIt_ program group to
launch VisIt_. In addition to creating shortcuts, the VisIt_ installation
program creates file associations for ``.silo``, ``.visit``, and
``.session/.vses`` files so double-clicking on files with those extensions
opens them with VisIt_.

Startup Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VisIt_ has many startup options that affect its behavior (see the
:ref:`Startup Options <StartupOptions>` for complete documentation).

.. spelling::
    app
    linux
    darwin
