This tutorial demonstrates how to download and compile SPARSKIT, a basic tool-kit for sparse matrix computations by Yousef Saad. It assumes you are in a Linux or Unix environment. If you are using a different operating system, please adjust the following instructions as appropriate. If you do not have linux or unix on your computer, or if you are not familiar with this operating system, you may wish to visit our Tutorials page. You will also need the GNU g77 fortran compiler, so you may need to upgrade your linux, unix, or Cygwin installation. For that, again check our Tutorials page.
Create a Modules Directory
If you do not already have a modules directory, create one. An appropriate location might be ~/modules, so type
cd ~
This gets you to your home directory. Now type
mkdir modules
This command creates a modules directory under your home directory.
Download the Tarball
Download the gzipped tarball for SPARSKIT version 2. The appropriate link is the "Compressed tar file of the whole package". Place the tarball in your ~/modules directory.
Extract the Distribution
You now need to unzip the tarball. To do so, type
gunzip SPARSKIT2.tar.gz
Now extract the distribution by typing
tar xvf SPARSKIT2.tar
You may wish to clean up your ~/modules directory. To do so, type
rm SPARSKIT2.tar
Compile the Distribution
You now need to compile SPARSKIT. Go into the SPARSKIT2 directory:
cd SPARSKIT2
Now compile by typing:
make
This should produce the appropriate library. To check, type:
ls
You should see the file libskit.a.
