This repository contains the FastMath library. It provides numerical approximations for math functions (especially for the Gauss Hypergeometric function) numerical integration wrappers, compact data structures (such as the FastBitset), and other useful utility functions. This package is intended to be copmpiled and installed on the platform on which it will ultimately be used. It is not portable once installed. NOTE: This package is officially maintained for Linux only, though some users have had success using it on MacOS as well.
There are several environment variables one should export in the $HOME/.bashrc file before installation:
FASTMATH_HOME is the directory where the package is installed, and where other programs may find it later. Some typical options are
$ export FASTMATH_HOME=/usr/local
$ export FASTMATH_HOME=/opt
$ export FASTMATH_HOME=$HOME/release
FBALIGN is the alignment of the FastBitset. If your CPU supports AVX2 (AVX-512) it will be set automatically to 256 (512). If not set, the installation script will determine this for you. Options are
$ export FBALIGN=64
$ export FBALIGN=256
$ export FBALIGN=512
PLATFORM is the name of the system on which you are installing the package. If you are using a workstation, try
$ export PLATFORM=$HOSTNAME
whereas if you are on a cluster, you should set it to the name of the partition/queue you are using, e.g.
$ export PLATFORM=general
supposing that general is the name of the default partition.
BOOST_ROOT is the installation directory of Boost. See below for more information on dependencies. If you installed Boost using a package manager, or you installed it from source without specifying the installation directory, you do not need to set this variable.
CPATH tells the compiler where to search for header files. If other packages cannot find the FastMath headers, try the following:
$ export CPATH=$FASTMATH_HOME/include:$CPATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH tells the compiler where to look for compiled libraries. If FastMath is installed into a non-standard directory, you may need to add the following for other packages to find the FastMath library:
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$FASTMATH_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
The following packages should be installed prior to installation of this package:
There is not guaranteed support for the newest releases. It can be installed via the Linux package managers in the following way:
Ubuntu/Debian:
$ sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev
Fedora/RedHat/CentOS:
$ sudo yum install boost boost-devel
Arch:
$ sudo pacman -S boost boost-libs
Gentoo:
$ sudo emerge boost
If you wish to install a particular version from source, visit the Boost webpage and follow their instructions.
This can be installed via the Linux package managers in the following way:
Ubuntu/Debian:
$ sudo apt-get install libgsl-dev
Fedora/RedHat/CentOS:
$ sudo yum install gsl gsl-devel
Arch:
$ sudo pacman -S gsl
Gentoo:
$ sudo emerge gsl
The version of Boost you choose will determine which compiler version you need, e.g., it is unwise to use a very old or very new compiler with the newest release of Boost. To determine your compiler version, run
$ gcc --version
This is needed so AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions are recognized by your assembler, supposing they are supported by the hardware. To determine your assembler version, run
$ as -v
This is the Linux utility used to generate the configure and Makefile scripts. It may be installed via the package managers in the following way:
Ubuntu/Debian:
$ sudo apt-get install autoconf automake
Fedora/RedHat/CentOS:
$ sudo yum install autoconf automake
Arch:
$ sudo pacman -S autoconf automake
Gentoo:
$ sudo emerge autoconf automake
To determine the version currently installed, run
$ autoconf --version
Do not attempt to compile and install this package until the dependencies are installed and the environment is properly configured. Once you are ready, run the installation script:
$ ./install
Once it has been executed, if there are no errors you may run
$ sudo make install
to install it system-wide. To clean up the directory, you can reverse the above with
$ make distclean
If you wish to uninstall it system-wide, you should first run
$ make uninstall
before cleaning up.
There are several test scripts which are used to verify the assembly code used in inc/fastbitset.h is working. You can try this with
$ (cd test && sh ./test.sh)
If you intend to use this with another package, and that package is compiled using autotools, you can use the M4 file m4/ax_fastmath.m4. Alternatively, you can link directly against the library with
$ -L $FASTMATH_HOME/lib -lfastmath$_PLATFORM
and include the headers with
$ -I $FASTMATH_HOME/include
Release notes are available in the Changelog.
Please use the following citation in any publications:
W. J. Cunningham. FastMath. Zenodo, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6432268
FastMath is licensed under the GNU GPL 3.0 License. See the LICENSE file for more details.