[SciPy-user] optimizing numpy on Linux?

[David Cournapeau]

osman wrote:
>
> I was able to install atlas on 64 bit feisty/gutsy AMD64. Trick is
> building everything yourself. I used gfortran and followed Robin's
> install help page:

If you use Hardy, you do not need to build everything by yourself, even 
if you use gfortran instead of g77 (but again, unless you really need 
gfortran, say for OpenMP, avoid it on ubuntu, since the ABI is still g77 
and not gfortran). The trick is to install libatlas* (which uses 
gfortran compatible ABI) instead of atlas* (g77 ABI).

> http://www.scipy.org/Installing_SciPy/Linux#head-1c4018a51422706809ee96a4db03ca0669f5f6d1
>
> I had find and delete all of the old libs first. That turned out to be
> quite a task and most of troubles as I had put libs
> in /usr/lib /usr/local/lib /usr/home/osman/lib , 32 and 64 ... etc  
> At the end I did have a working scipy with umfpack and sfepy.

One useful tool to avoid this kind of trouble is stow: 
http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/. Stow can be used to install many 
concurrent versions at the same time, by using soft links (it works on 
any UNIX). You cannot use several versions at the same time, though. It 
has the extremely important advantage of being able to uninstall 
anything installed under it. I use it to test many different 
environments to build numpy/scipy (ATLAS, MKL, NETLIB, different 
compilers, versions, etc...). It can also be used to track numpy and 
scipy svn, while having a known, working version which can be re-enabled 
in a second.

You should never install things in /usr (except /usr/local), that's one 
of the best way to break your system, BTW.

cheers,

David