Develop with Conda on Linux

Install Git

  • Git

    • On Debian based systems (Ubuntu) install using apt with the following command: sudo apt install git

    • On CentOS based systems (RHEL) install using yum with the following command: sudo yum install git

Clone the mantid source code

  • There are 2 common ways developers have been doing this.

    • Using git in the terminal and cloning the codebase by calling git clone git@github.com:mantidproject/mantid.git in the directory you want the code to clone to. This sets you up with accessing the remote repository via SSH so make sure to setup git properly using this startup guide and ensure your ssh key is setup using this guide to Github with SSH.

    • Or by using GitKraken.

Install Mambaforge

  • Choose the latest version of Mambaforge-Linux-x86_64.sh

  • Run your downloaded script from the terminal using bash Mambaforge-Linux-x86_64.sh. If it asks whether or not you want to initialise conda with conda init, choose to do so.

  • Restart your terminal.

(ILL) Setup proxy

  • Open ~/.condarc.

  • Add the following lines :

proxy_servers:
  http: http://proxy.ill.fr:8888
  https: http://proxy.ill.fr:8888

Setup the mantid conda environment

Create a Conda environment and install the mantid-developer Conda metapackage by following the steps below:

  • First create and activate a new conda environment. Here we have named it mantid-developer for consistency with the rest of the developer documentation but you are free to choose any name.

    mamba create -n mantid-developer
mamba activate mantid-developer

  • Install the mantid-developer Conda metapackage from the mantid Conda channel. You will normally want the nightly version.

    mamba install -c mantid/label/nightly mantid-developer

Configure CMake and generate build files

  • Still using the terminal.

  • If not already activated in the previous step, run conda activate mantid-developer to activate your conda environment.

  • Navigate back to your mantid source directory using cd mantid if you used the default name during cloning from git.

  • Inside of your mantid source directory run cmake --preset=linux

    • Alternatively if you don’t want to have your build folder in your mantid source then pass the -B argument, overriding the preset, to cmake: cmake {PATH_TO_SOURCE} --preset=linux -B {BUILD_DIR}

How to build

  • Navigate to the build directory.

  • To build Mantid Workbench use: ninja

  • To build Unit Tests use: ninja AllTests

Building and debugging with CLion

Please follow the Linux related instructions on this page.

CMake Conda variables

The CONDA_BUILD parameter is used to customise our installation, which is required when we are using the conda-build tool to build and package Mantid. This option can be passed to CMake on the command line using -DCONDA_BUILD=True.

Debugging with gdb

If you wish to use gdb to debug Mantid, then you can use:

./build/bin/launch_mantidworkbench.sh --debug

This will start gdb with the appropriate command, you can then use the run command r within gdb to start Mantid. If you wish to launch Workbench more directly then you will need to include the --single-process flag for your python process, otherwise you will not be able to use most breakpoints that you set. For example:

gdb --args python build/bin/workbench --single-process

Some useful commands for using gdb:

  • r - Run command

  • c - Continue (e.g. after stopping at a breakpoint)

  • b my_file.cpp:15 - Insert a breakpoint in my_file.cpp at line 15

  • Ctrl+C - Pause execution (e.g. if you want to insert a breakpoint)

  • l - Shows source code around the point where you’re paused

  • print myVariable - Show value of a local variable