How to install Finesse

• How to install Finesse
  • Conda
    • I don't have Conda on my machine
    • I have Conda installed already
      • I want to install a specific version
      • I want the latest development version of Finesse

There are a variety of ways to install Finesse on your system. We currently recommend using the Conda package manager (https://conda.io/docs/) for installing Finesse, especially if you are wanting to use Pykat. As we also recommend using Finesse with Pykat, using Conda allows you to install Finesse, Pykat, and all their dependencies quickly.

If you don't want to use Conda, fear not, you can still download the Finesse binary files for OSX, Windows, and Linux and install it yourself. Please see http://www.gwoptics.org/finesse/#download and refer to the INSTALL file in the download.

Conda

As of June 2017 we have begun to distribute the Finesse binary files in a Conda package. The Conda package manager is a very useful cross platform tool. You can quickly and painlessly install Finesse on Windows, OSX, and Linux now using this. We highly recommend using Conda as we believe it is the easiest way to manage python packages for scientific computing.

If you haven't used Conda before we strongly recommend reading through this quick set of tutorials: https://conda.io/docs/test-drive.html

Our packages are hosted at: https://anaconda.org/gwoptics/finesse

Check now if you have Conda already installed on your system. If you do, simply activate your conda environment of choice and run the commands below.

Remember that installing Finesse via Conda will not make Finesse accessible system wide. It will only be accessible from the Conda environment you install it in. This typically isn't an issue as you can set your Conda environment to activate when you start your terminal (on OSX and Linux). On Windows, you must run everything from the Anaconda Prompt as this correctly sets up your environment.

I don't have Conda on my machine

You can install Anaconda from https://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/install which contains most of the main scientific packages, this will also include the Conda package manager. If you want to keep things simpler, install Miniconda https://conda.io/miniconda.html, which just installs the bare minimum Conda package manager. From this you can install any packages you like.

Once you have installed conda you need to create an environment if you haven't already, or select one you want to install Finesse into.

I have Conda installed already

Decide whether you want to install Finesse in your root environment or some other one you are using. You should activate this environment and then run the following commands. You will only be able to use Finesse in the environments that you install it in! If you know nothing about

First you need to add the gwoptics channel to your conda package manager (You only need to do this once):

conda config --add channels gwoptics

This should run successfully, if you've done it before it will just say it has already been added. Then type:

conda install finesse

It is recommended that you close and then reopen your terminal and activate Conda environment again as Finesse relies on some environment variables that are only loaded when the terminal is opened. Type kat and the Finesse header should appear.

To remove it:

conda uninstall finesse

I want to install a specific version

This should run successfully. Then type:

conda install finesse=2.1

I want the latest development version of Finesse

If you want access to the latest and greatest features in Finesse you will have to setup up the development environment. This is significantly easier on Linux and OSX, Windows can be troublesome.

Compiling documentation to come...