Next: , Previous: Extracting the archive, Up: NGSPICE Compilation


5.2 Configuring NGSPICE

Now that you have extracted all the files, you need to give values to compile time variables and set the correct paths for libraries and include file. If you have compiled other programs released in source form, you have probably already faced the GNU Autoconf system. If you already know what Autoconf is and how it works, you can safely skip the next paragraph.

GNU Autoconf is a package that automates the task of configuring source code packages. Configuring a source code package means assigning desired values to compile-time variables, something known as "customization", and look at functions, libraries available on the host system to produce the makefiles needed for compilation. As said, this is a very brief introduction to the Autoconf package, if you want to know more, look at its documentation.

NGSPICE uses GNU Autoconf configuration tool. To configure the package type: ./configure --help on the command prompt. The list of available options will be shown. The list comprises "standard" options (the one every Autoconf package has) and options specific to the NGSPICE package. This chapter deals with the latter only, sending back the reader to the GNU Autoconf documentation for the former.

The options specific to NGSPICE are:

Caveat Emptor: NGSPICE, like its father Spice3f5 cannot be considered a "black box", it is a complex numerical software whose stability and correctness depends on many parameters. Be sure to understand well what you enable/disable otherwise your simulations may converge to a wrong value or do not converge at all.

Once chosen the options to enable/disable, you will have to issue the configure command followed by the options you choose, like:

configure --enable-intnoise --enable-nobypass --enable-capzerobypass

If all goes well, all makefiles will be generated and the package is ready to be compiled.