Downloading and Installing GAP 4

If you already have GAP 4.6.4 installed with the rsync binary installer then all you need to do to upgrade is to call the gapsync script which was created during installation. This script will update both the core system and packages to their latest versions.

If you installed GAP 4.6.4 from the standard distribution and have not manually installed additional or updated packages in your GAP distribution (which is no longer necessary -- instead we recommend that you install them in the user specific GAP root directory) then you can always upgrade to the latest version of GAP by moving the old version aside and downloading and installing the current archives, and this is the approach we recommend for most users. Make sure that you update any scripts or links to refer to the new version.

If you have limited bandwidth, or have customised your installation, you may be able to upgrade your GAP 4.6.4 installation in place with a smaller download.

Supported Operating Systems

We test GAP on various versions of Linux and on some recent versions of Windows and Mac OS X in both 32- and 64-bit modes. You can install it on any of these systems using the standard distribution archives, although details of the process may vary. In addition, we offer special installers for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. To build GAP from source you will need some tools installed. GAP may compile and work for you on other systems, and if so we would be interested to know about it.

License and Copyright

The main archives contain the current release of GAP. They also contain a number of contributed packages, found in the subdirectories pkg and small of the main distribution directory. The core part of the GAP system is distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License (details are given on a separate page), packages may have other licenses. The copyright (C) (1987--2013) for the core part of the GAP distribution is by the GAP Group. The copyright of redistributed packages remains with their authors.

The Basic Steps of a GAP Installation

Note that to obtain a fully functional GAP installation you need not only to compile the core system, but also some of its packages. You might want to consider one of the alternative installation methods below which achieve this for you automatically.

Choose your preferred archive format and download the corresponding archive.
Unpack the archive.
On UNIX, Linux or Mac OS X: compile the GAP core system.
On UNIX, Linux or Mac OS X: some packages need further installation for full functionality (you may find some useful scripts here).
On Windows: no compilation is needed, compiled executables for GAP and some packages are already in the win.zip-archive.
Adjust some links/scripts/icons ..., depending on your system, to make the new version of GAP available to the users of your machine.
Optional: run a few tests.

Alternative Installation Methods.

The following alternative installation methods offer simpler installation for many users by supplying precompiled binaries and support for the installation process.

Frank Lübeck offers a Linux binary distribution via remote syncronization with a reference installation which includes all packages and some optimisations.
Max Neunhöffer offers BOB - a tool to download and build GAP and its packages from source for Linux and Mac OS X. You only download BOB who does all the rest for you. You need a C-compiler and some libraries installed on your system but BOB will tell you exactly what is missing.
Alexander Konovalov offers an GAP Installer for Windows with the same content as the win.zip archive above. It provides a standard installation procedure that will guide you through all steps of the installation process.

Download Archives

Links to the latest archives in four formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .zip and -win.zip) can be found on the Downloads page. If you use Unix or Mac OS X, you can use the .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 or .zip archives. If you use Windows, then use the -win.zip archive.

You can also download directly via ftp.

Unpacking and Installing the Archives

The installation procedure depends on the operating system you are using. Full instructions for installation on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are available in a separate document.

Testing the Installation

For a quick test of your installation you may start GAP. Normally, you will see a GAP 4 banner and the information about loaded components and packages. This information may vary depending on your installation. For example, for the complete installation of latest versions of all packages you will have something like:

 *********   GAP, Version 4.6.4 of 04-May-2013 (free software, GPL)
 *  GAP  *   http://www.gap-system.org
 *********   Architecture: x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-default64
 Libs used:  gmp, readline
 Loading the library and packages ...
 Components: trans 1.0, prim 2.1, small* 1.0, id* 1.0
 Packages:   AClib 1.2, Alnuth 3.0.0, AutPGrp 1.5, CRISP 1.3.6, Cryst 4.1.11, 
             CrystCat 1.1.6, CTblLib 1.2.2, FactInt 1.5.3, FGA 1.2.0, 
             GAPDoc 1.5.1, IO 4.2, IRREDSOL 1.2.1, LAGUNA 3.6.3, 
             Polenta 1.3.1, Polycyclic 2.11, RadiRoot 2.6, ResClasses 3.3.0, 
             Sophus 1.23, SpinSym 1.5, TomLib 1.2.2
 Try '?help' for help. See also  '?copyright' and  '?authors'
gap>

Now you may type a few commands at the prompt and run a short test suite (which will run for up to a few minutes, depending on the speed of your computer). If you observe any discrepancies, see the next section.

gap> 3^80;
147808829414345923316083210206383297601
gap> tst := Filename( DirectoriesLibrary("tst"), "testinstall.g" );;
gap> Read(tst);
You should start GAP4 using `gap -A -x 80 -r -m 100m -o 512m'.
The more GAP4stones you get, the faster your system is.
The runtime of the following tests (in general) increases.
You should expect the test to take about one minute and show about
100000 GAP4stones on an Intel Core 2 Duo / 2.53 GHz machine.
The `next' time is an approximation of the running time for the next file.

Architecture: x86_64-apple-darwin11.4.2-gcc-default64

test file         GAP4stones     time(msec)
-------------------------------------------
testing:        .../gap4r5/tst/zlattice.tst
zlattice.tst               0              1

[...  about 80 lines deleted]

grpmat.tst            412918           3778
-------------------------------------------
total                 332448          47853

gap> quit;

If Things Go Wrong

If you encounter problems with the above steps, please try the following - in this order:

Look at the "If Things Go Wrong" section of GAP 4.6 Installation Instructions, it contains some additional remarks and troubleshooting advices.
Tell us about your problem by writing an email to support@gap-system.org.

Getting Started

If you are new to GAP you may try to start reading and trying the examples in the first chapters of the Tutorial [PDF version]. In particular, it is explained how to use the extensive documentation from inside GAP.

Feedback

If you use GAP in your research we ask you to cite it as you would cite an article or book (see recommended citation).

All GAP users are invited to join the GAP Forum mailing list on mathematical and programming questions concerning GAP. Announcements of bugfixes, new versions and new packages are also sent to that list.