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Please read the files LICENSE.TXT and README.TXT!
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Compiling and installing Genpak should be a fairly easy thing on a normal
Unix systems. I work with gcc and that is my primary compiler, but the AIX
cc seems to work as well. In fact, any ANSI compiler should.

CAVEAT!:
--------

The programs seem quite stable to me, and I did all I could think of to make
them as safe as possible (for example, the programs refuse to write over an
existing file), but whatever you do, DO NOT RUN THEM LOGGED IN AS ROOT. It is
already a bad idea to run anything but administrative tasks as root, and running
software packages written by a biologist is even worse. 

SOURCE:
-------

GenePak homepage is 
http://www.bioinformatics.org/Genpak/
On the homepage, you'll find the latest sources as well as an rpm file.

PLATFORMS:
----------

I know the Genpak programs compile on Linux, AIX and Sun. No idea about
other platforms, mail me if you happen to know. 

REQUIRED:
---------

You need the program "make" (GNU make works great, I don't know about other
versions) and an ANSI C compiler, for example gcc. Any Linux distribution should
have these. If you want to use the CGI scripts (see below), you need bash to run
them. Theoretically, programs are written in ANSI C (many thanks to
comp.languages.c!) and therefore should compile on any platform, including
Windows. Please, let me know if they really do. 

INSTALLATION:
-------------

To compile, ungzip and untar the genpak.tgz tarball:

	gunzip gp-0.20.tgz
	tar -xf gp-0.20.tar

Then change to Genpak directory

	cd gp-0.20

and type

	make 

to compile all programs. Now you can play around with the programs, and see
what they are worth. If you want to install the package, first take a look at
the Makefile and edit it if the default directories don't suit your needs.
Finally, type

	make install

Don't worry! Unless you remove the Makefile (which will be copied to the
documentation directory!), you can always type

	make uninstall

	...to uninstall Genpak completely. And a full list of installed files is kept
	in the FILES.TXT file. 

To install documentation in /usr/doc/gp/ type

	make docs

Per default, the compiler used is gcc, and the installation directory is
/usr/bin for programs, /usr/man/man1 for manual pages, and
/usr/doc/packages/gp/ for documentation.  Please, edit the Makefile to suit your
needs. If you want, for example, to install Genpak as a normal user, you
can change the directories to for example $(HOME)/bin, $(HOME)/doc and
$(HOME)/man/man1. Remember, that in order to execute programs you have to
have them in the $PATH variable, and, similarly, in order to view the
manual pages you have to have the man directory in your $MANPATH.

CGI-SCRIPTS:
------------

I am writing the scripts as you read this from scratch, so there are none in
this release. 

Any questions? Mail me: january@bioinformatics.org -- 30 days free support :-)


