Requirements
The C library
For using the igraph C library only a fairly recent C
and C++ library is needed. For supporting the GraphML format
you'll need the libxml2
library.
For compiling the igraph C library from source you'll
need a fairly modern C and C++ compiler and some standard UNIX
tools like make, chmod, touch, etc.
Most often we use the GNU Compiler Collection for compiling. Theoretically it is possible to compile igraph using the Microsoft Visual C Compiler as well, but we recommend the Cygwin or MinGW environments for compiling igraph under Windows.
The GNU R package
For using the igraph R package you obviously need
GNU R, a recent version like 2.6.0 is recommended, since earlier
versions contain bugs which affect igraph. If you would like to
compile the R package from source (this is the usual way for Linux
systems), you'll need a C and C++ compiler and optionally the
libxml2 library.
For installing the igraph R package on Windows, you don't need anything else, just GNU R and the binary igraph R package of course
The Python extension module
For installing the Python extension module, you'll
need Python version 2.4 or later. Binary versions of the module
are available for Python 2.4 and Python 2.5 on the Windows platform,
so you don't have to compile anything in this case. OS X Leopard
users can download an installer as well. If you are using
Linux or Mac OS X Tiger, you'll have to compile the extension by yourself.
Compilation requires a recent C compiler (e.g. gcc, which
is usually available as a separate package in Linux and as part of
XCode on Mac
OS X. You'll also need the compiled form of the igraph C
core, as the Python interface will link to that during compilation.
If you have the EasyInstall
Python script installed, you can simply type easy_install igraph
to download, compile and install igraph as a Python Egg. This
method assumes that you installed the C core somewhere in the
default include and library path of your system.
The Ruby extension
For installing the Ruby extension please consult the homepage of this extension.
Compiling the development version
For compiling the development version of igraph, you'll need
quite a large set of tools: autoconf, automake,
GNU bison version 1.35 or newer, GNU make,
maybe more. For compiling the documentation you'll need even more tools:
Python, Docbook schemas and tools, xmlto, makeinfo,
patch, docbook2x, maybe more. We're sure you
know how to get these if you want to compile the development version :)