# Setup¶

## Package managers¶

The easiest way to install Arb including all dependencies is via ready-made packages available for various distributions. Note that some packages may not be up to date.

Alternatively, you can simply install Arb from a git checkout of https://github.com/fredrik-johansson/arb/. The master branch is generally safe to use (the test suite should pass at all times), and recommended for keeping up with the latest improvements and bug fixes.

## Dependencies¶

Arb has the following dependencies:

## Standalone installation¶

To compile, test and install Arb from source as a standalone library, first install FLINT. Then go to the Arb source directory and run:

./configure <options>
make
make check       (optional)
make install


If GMP/MPIR, MPFR or FLINT is installed in some other location than the default path /usr/local, pass --with-gmp=..., --with-mpfr=... or --with-flint=... with the correct path to configure (type ./configure --help to show more options).

After the installation, you may have to run ldconfig to make sure that the system’s dynamic linker finds the library.

On a multicore system, make can be run with the -j flag to build in parallel. For example, use make -j4 on a quad-core machine.

## Running tests¶

After running make, it is recommended to also run make check to verify that all unit tests pass.

By default, the unit tests run a large number of iterations to improve the chances of detecting subtle problems. The whole test suite might take around 20 minutes on a single core (make -jN check if you have more cores to spare). If you are in a hurry, you can adjust the number of test iterations via the ARB_TEST_MULTIPLIER environment variable. For example, the following will only run 10% of the default iterations:

export ARB_TEST_MULTIPLIER=0.1
make check


It is also possible to run the unit tests for a single module, for instance:

make check MOD=arb_poly


## Installation as part of FLINT (deprecated)¶

WARNING: this feature is being deprecated. Please install Arb as a separate library, as detailed above.

With some versions of FLINT, Arb can be compiled as a FLINT extension package.

Simply put the Arb source directory somewhere, say /path/to/arb. Then go to the FLINT source directory and build FLINT using:

./configure --extensions=/path/to/arb <other options>
make
make check       (optional)
make install


This is convenient, as Arb does not need to be configured or linked separately. Arb becomes part of the compiled FLINT library, and the Arb header files will be installed along with the other FLINT header files.

## Building with MSVC¶

To compile arb with MSVC, compile MPIR, MPFR, pthreads-win32 and FLINT using MSVC. Install CMake >=2.8.12 and make sure it is in the path. Then go to the Arb source directory and run:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..                                            # configure
cmake --build . --config Release                    # build
cmake --build . --config Release --target install   # install


To build a Debug build, create a new build directory and pass -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug to cmake. To create a dll library, pass -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=yes to cmake. Note that creating a dll library requires CMake >= 3.5.0

If the dependencies are not found, pass -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/deps to cmake to find the dependencies.

To build tests add, pass -DBUILD_TESTS=yes to cmake and run $$ctest$$ to run the tests.

## Running code¶

Here is an example program to get started using Arb:

#include "arb.h"

int main()
{
arb_t x;
arb_init(x);
arb_const_pi(x, 50 * 3.33);
arb_printn(x, 50, 0); flint_printf("\n");
flint_printf("Computed with arb-%s\n", arb_version);
arb_clear(x);
}


Compile it with:

gcc test.c -larb


Depending on the environment, you may also have to pass the flags -lflint, -lmpfr, -lgmp to the compiler.

If the Arb/FLINT header and library files are not in a standard location (/usr/local on most systems), you may also have to provide flags such as:

-I/path/to/arb -I/path/to/flint -L/path/to/flint -L/path/to/arb


Finally, to run the program, make sure that the linker can find the FLINT (and Arb) libraries. If they are installed in a nonstandard location, you can for example add this path to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

The output of the example program should be something like the following:

[3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751 +/- 6.28e-50]
Computed with arb-2.4.0