Install EGSnrc on macOS - nrc-cnrc/EGSnrc GitHub Wiki

Installing EGSnrc on macOS involves 3 steps:

1. Install prerequisite software
2. Download EGSnrc
3. Configure EGSnrc

A convenient way to install software on macOS is via the Homebrew package manager. Install it by running the following command in the macOS Terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)

Before installing EGSnrc on macOS, ensure the software listed below is available on your system. By default, Fortran, C and C++ Compilers are not installed on macOS. The following instructions are valid for a pristine copy of macOS. To use EGSnrc you need:

1. a Fortran compiler (preferably gfortran)
2. a C compiler (preferably gcc)
3. a C++ compiler (preferably g++)
4. the GNU make utility
5. optional: the Tcl/Tk interpreter and widget toolkit, version 8.0 or later
6. optional: the Grace plotting tool (providing the xmgrace command), version 5.0 or later
7. optional: Open Motif development package, to compile dosxyz_show
8. optional: the Qt5 development tools (to compile the Qt graphical user interfaces)

You may use any working Fortran, C and C++ compilers on your system. We develop and use EGSnrc with the GNU compiler collection which includes gfortran, gcc and g++, so these tools are recommended. If you use other compilers, you might have to adjust compilation options in the configuration stage in order for EGSnrc to work as expected. EGSnrc also relies on a make tool, which controls and automates the software building process: most EGSnrc applications are built by issuing the make command in the appropriate directory. There are various implementations of make, but EGSnrc relies on features of the GNU implementation.

Open the Terminal application in OS X and issue the following command to install gcc, g++, gfortran and the GNU make utility:

brew install gcc

To check that you have working Fortran, C, C++ compilers and the GNU make tool, issue the following commands (or equivalent ones if you are using other compilers) in the Terminal application:

gfortran --version          # should report your Fortran compiler version
gcc --version               # should report your C compiler version
g++ --version               # should report your C++ compiler version
make --version              # should report "GNU Make" on first line

Note that by default, some parts of EGSnrc require a compiler that supports standard C++11 (g++ option -std=c++11), and will soon require C++14 (g++ option -std=c++14). If you have an older compiler that does not recognize this option, please adjust or remove it from the list of proposed flags during the EGSnrc configuration.

While Tcl/Tk is not essential to run EGSnrc simulations, it proves useful if you want to use EGSnrc graphical user interfaces. Conveniently, Tcl/Tk is included in macOS, which you can confirm with the following command in the Terminal application:

echo 'puts [info patchlevel]; exit 0' | wish    # should report version 8.0 or newer

Note that recent macOS releases (starting with version 11, Big Sur) warn that The system version of Tk is deprecated and may be removed in a future release. Please don't rely on it. If the system version is indeed removed from macOS in a future release or update, simply install Tcl/Tk with Homebrew using the following command in the Terminal:

brew install tcl-tk

Grace proves useful if you want to display data plots generated by EGSnrc applications. The easiest way to get the Grace plotting tool on macOS is to install QtGrace, which is a port of the original Grace software to the Qt toolkit and which can run under Linux, macOS and Windows. You can download QtGrace from http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtgrace/.

If you prefer to use the native X11 implementation of Grace (the same that is available on Linux), you can install it via Homebrew with the following commands in the Terminal:

brew install xquartz
brew install grace

The Terminal command to launch the native X11 version of Grace is xmgrace.

You don't need Open Motif to run EGSnrc simulations. However, to compile the dosxyz_show application (for visualizing voxelized phantoms and dose distributions), you need the Open Motif library development files. To install it via Homebrew, run the following command in the macOS Terminal:

brew install openmotif

Compiling the EGSnrc graphical user interfaces is necessary on macOS, since no pre-compiled version is provided. The EGSnrc GUIs require Qt version 5, which can be installed via Homebrew with the following command in the macOS Terminal:

brew install qt5

Given the previous instructions, it should be possible to install all EGSnrc pre-requisite software with the following sequence of commands in the macOS Terminal in :

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)
brew install gcc
brew install tcl-tk
brew install xquartz
brew install grace
brew install openmotif
brew install qt5

To use the EGSnrc toolkit you must copy the entire EGSnrc directory tree to your computer. All the project files are grouped in a single top-level EGSnrc directory which you can put just about anywhere on your system (preferably under your home directory for a single-user installation) as long as the path contains no blank space or '@' character. We recommend that you use git to clone the EGSnrc repository, but alternatively you may download a compressed image of the EGSnrc directory.

1. Open the Terminal application
2. Check that git is available on your system: git --version
3. Change directory to the desired install location: cd path/to/your/install/location
4. Clone the EGSnrc repository: git clone https://github.com/nrc-cnrc/EGSnrc.git

Consider the Upgrading instructions which propose a few additional steps in the installation procedure to manage upgrades more easily with the git version control software, and to facilitate citing your local code modifications unequivocally.

1. Download the compressed image EGSnrc-master.zip
2. Move the EGSnrc-master.zip file to the desired install location
3. Uncompress the archive using the unzip command-line tool, or your favorite utility
4. If you want, you can rename the inflated EGSnrc-master directory to EGSnrc

Once you have the EGSnrc source code on your computer, you must configure EGSnrc for your particular operating system and software environment, using a configuration shell script that prompts you for configuration options on the command-line.

1. Open the Terminal application
2. For a fresh install, clear existing EGSnrc environment variables with the command:
   export HEN_HOUSE="" EGS_HOME="" EGS_CONFIG=""
3. Go to your EGSnrc directory: cd path/to/EGSnrc/directory
4. Launch the configuration script: ./HEN_HOUSE/scripts/configure
5. Answer prompts and follow instructions rigorously
6. In your ~/.profile file, insert commands to define $EGS_HOME, $EGS_CONFIG and source EGSnrc additions, as prescribed at the end of the user configuration script
7. Build the Qt graphical user interfaces on macOS