To install publCIF, simply place the archive where you wish to install (e.g. your home directory if it is only for your use, or a system directory such as /usr/local/ to enable all users to run publCIF). Then unpack the archive using either an appropriate graphical tool, or the command line (this may require the root password): e.g. change directory to desired location: cd /home/username then type: tar xzvf ./xpublcif.tgz You should now have a folder called xpublcif containing the publcif application files. To launch publCIF, type: ./runpublcif.sh at the command prompt (having changed directory to the xpublcif directory). To make publCIF more readily accessible, you may wish to associate CIF files to open with publCIF (usually by selecting a CIF file in e.g. Konqueror and choosing 'Open with...' from the mouse popup menu, and specifying the location of publcif.sh). You may also wish to set some environmental variables so that publcif can be run by calling publcif itself, rather than using the runpublcif.sh script: In .profile (if your shell is bash, ksh, zsh or sh), add the following lines (changing '/path/to/xpublcif' appropriately): PATH=/path/to/xpublcif:$PATH export PATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/xpublcif:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH export LD_LIBRARY_PATH In .login (if your shell is csh or tcsh), add the following line: setenv PATH /path/to/xpublcif:$PATH setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /path/to/xpublcif:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH If you use a different shell, please modify your environment variables accordingly. Installation troubleshooting ------------------------------------------- publCIF was compiled under a relatively old version of Linux (2.4) in order to make it more portable. As such, it requires the presence of some older versions of standard libraries. For example, publCIF links to the standard library 'libstdc++.so.5', which may not be installed by default on newer Linux distributions. However, Linux distributions usually provide 'compatibility' packages, allowing older libraries to be installed alongside the latest versions (e.g. 'compat-libstdc++'). Methods to install these packages vary depending on the Linux distribution, but are usually straighforward using the system configuration tools accessible from the desktop menus.