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If you are compiling on windows the new recommended way of compiling the AerOpt GUI is to use Docker to create a Docker container based of the included DockerFile "DockerFile.mxe". This has been setup to create a single executable with all the QT libraires built into it. Docker is a tool to run lightweight virtual machines (docker call these containers) to perform specific tasks. In our case this has been configured to run a minimal install of ubuntu linux which has been setup with a static build of QT and the tools nessacary to crosscompile AerOpt GUI for windows.
This may seem quite a roundabout way of achiving this, since is it is possible to build QT staically for windows. However, this process is far from easy as it fraught with errors. The interested reader can a find decent set of instructions here. However, I will warn you now this is not for the faint hearted.
If you don't wish to (or can't) use Docker you can follow the instructions under Compiling in QT Creator to compile a dynamically linked executable with QT creator. You will then however, need to perform some extra steps to distribute the executable. See Deploying for details.
First you will need to install git, if you don't already have it. Go to the [git for Windows home page] (https://gitforwindows.org/) and click download.
Next download docker desktop for windows and install it with the default settings.
Windows will ask you to reboot after which docker will automatcally start running once you log back in. If you don't want this behaviour you can change this in the settings however, you need to remember to start docker whenever you want to re-compile the code.
Note: docker may throw an error saying WSL2 Instaltion is incomplete. If this occurs you need to download the WSL2 kernal from here and install it.
At this point there is a tutorial, which you can go through if you wish (or you can press the skip button in the bottom left corner) after which you can close docker.
Next, we need to download the AerOpt GUI repo. Since you have git we can use microsoft powershell to clone the project.
Open the start menu and search for Powershell this will open a blue textbox with white writing, This is called a comand prompt.
If you are familiar with it, use cd to navigate to where you want to download the repo. If not, you probably want to place it
in your home folder (generally this is 'C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME'), which is where you start.
Copy the following commands in to the command prompt and press Enter
git clone https://github.com/DrBenEvans/AerOptGUI
cd AerOptGUI
The next step is to build the docker image. We can think of this as a template (created using the commands defined by Dockerfile.mxe) that will be used to create a linux virtual machine (docker calls this a container).
The image is setup to create a basic linux instalation along with QT and and all the tools we need to compile the code. We can create the image with with the following command.
docker build -f Dockerfile.mxe -t qt/mxe:win64 .
Warning this command can take several hours to complete depending on your computer and network connection as it has to fetch and compile a of lot diferent of tools (fortunatley it is only required to be run once).
Once this is complete we now have a docker image we can use to create a container with the following command.
docker run -it -v ${pwd}:/AerOptGUI --name QT-build qt/mxe:win64
This command should place us on a command prompt inside the container we just created. You can tell because the prompt should say: "root@xyz123/:#" where xyz123 will be a series of random letters and numbers.
From here we simply need to run the following to compile the code.
cd /AerOptGUI/
unzip docker_libssh.zip
cd docker_libssh
cp libssh.a /opt/mxe/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32.static/lib/libssh.a
cp -r libssh /opt/mxe/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32.static/include/libssh
cd ..
qmake GeneticGui-docker.pro
make
Once finished we can stop the container with the command
exit
You should now have a static executable AerOptGUI.exe in the release directory. At this pont If you ever need to re-compile the code you can simply run the following in powershell to restart the container.
docker start -i QT-build
Then inside the container simply run:
cd /AerOptGUI
qmake GeneticGui-docker.pro
make clean
make
Finally, if you want to delete the container simply run the following in Powershell:
docker rm -f QT-build
Or if you want to remove the image you can run:
docker image rm -f qt/mxe:win64
Note: you will need to re-run the docker build command if you do this and then want to re-build again at a later date. Since this, as discussed earlier this can take several hours we advice caution when doing this.
At this point you have everything you need. What follows are the old instructions to compile dynamically with QT creator should you wish to use it.
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======= The recommended way of compiling the AerOpt GUI is using the QT Creator IDE.
fc85bcc3edf634aa789cbc9675ff561c8f4c36cf You can download the IDE on the QT website. Choose the open source option and download the installer. In the installer, you will need to create a QT account if you don't already have one. When selecting components, check the latest version of QT and 64 bit version of MinGW.
You will also need the ssh and ssl libraries. On Windows, we recommend using vcpkg for this. First you will need to install git, if you don't already have it. Go to the git for Windows home page and click download.
After installing git, you should also have a program called Git Bash.
Run it to open a command line interface. If you are familiar with it, use cd
to navigate where you want to install vcpkg.
If not, you probably want to install it in your home folder, which is where you start.
Copy the following commands in to the command line and press Enter to execute
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.sh
For later convenience, you may want to execute the following line as well. Windows will ask for admin access.
./vcpkg integrate install
Now you can install libraries. You are already in the correct folder, but once you close the window and open a new one, you will need to run
cd vcpkg
to get back.
Now install libssh, openssl and zlib with the following command
./vcpkg install libssh:x64-windows openssl:x64-windows zlib:x64-windows
Next, open System Properties in the start menu, and press enter.
Click Environment Variables, find path in the second panel and double click.
Add the following three lines as separate entries
C:\Users\USERNAME\vcpkg\packages\libssh_x64-windows\bin
C:\Users\USERNAME\vcpkg\packages\openssl-windows_x64-windows\bin
C:\Users\USERNAME\vcpkg\packages\zlib_x64-windows\bin
replacing USERNAME with your actual user name. For this change to take effect, you may need to reboot.
Note that if you installed vcpkg in a custom location, you need to change the paths accordingly.
Next, download the AerOpt GUI. Since you have git, you can use it to clone the project. Open Git Bash and run the command
git clone https://github.com/DrBenEvans/AerOptGUI.git
Open QT Creator, click Open Project and open AerOptGUI\GeneticGui.pro, which should now be in your home directory.
The first time you do this the IDE will ask you about the configuration.
Choose the latest 64 bit MinGW version and click configure.
Next, open GeneticGui.pro in the editor and scroll to the bottom.
You will see several lines including the path
C:\Users\USERNAME\src\vcpkg...
Replace USERNAME with your username on each line. If vcpkg is in a custom location, use that path instead.
The AerOpt GUI depends on a specific version of the AerOpt tool on the cluster. You can use git to get the newest version. Log on to the cluster and run
mv AerOpt AerOpt-old
git clone https://github.com/DrBenEvans/AerOpt.git
Compile the new version of AerOpt
module load mpi
cd AerOpt/source
make all
cp AerOpt_v3.5 ../AerOpt
cd ..
chmod u+x AerOpt
You should now be able to run jobs on the cluster using the GUI.
<<<<<<< HEAD I you followed the docker instructions the compiled executable you created can be distributed without needing any additional libraries or tools. However, if you compiled the code dynamically using QT creator you will need to do some extra work.
There are two deployed releases in Jarno's github page. All you need to do to run this version of AerOpt is to donwload AerOptGui.zip, extract the file and run AerOptGui.exe in the new folder. This is much easier for a user than compiling QT statically.
Deploying is essentially creating a compiled executable you can distribute without needing any additional libraries or tools. There are two deployed releases in Jarno's github page. All you need to do to run this version of AerOpt is to donwload AerOptGui.zip, extract the file and run AerOptGui.exe in the new folder. To be able to run on a cluster, you also need to download AerOpt.tar.gz on the cluster.
mv AerOpt AerOpt_backup
wget https://github.com/rantahar/AerOpt-gui/releases/download/0.2/AerOpt.tar.gz
tar -xvf AerOpt.tar.gz
This is much easier for a user than compiling the whole thing.
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To create a new release compile the program using release setting in QT Creator.
This is above the play symbol on the bottom left in QT Creator 4.9.
When you compile the program, an executable called AerOptGui.exe is created in the same directory the AerOptGui folder is in.
Download the zip archive and extract it.
The folder contains everything AerOptGui needs to run.
Replace AerOptGui.exe with the newly compiled executable and it should work directly.