Downloading and Installing GAP 4

If you installed GAP 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.

Supported Operating Systems

We test GAP on various versions of Linux and on some recent versions of Windows and macOS 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, there some alternative installation methods for Linux, macOS 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 pkg subdirectory 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--2022) 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 which achieve this for you automatically. Otherwise, to install GAP using the source distribution, perform the following steps:

Verify that all required tools are installed.
Choose your preferred archive format and download the corresponding archive.
Unpack the archive.
On UNIX, Linux or macOS: compile the GAP core system by running ./configure; make in the unpacked directory.
On UNIX, Linux or macOS: change to the pkg subdirectory and call ../bin/BuildPackages.sh to run the script which will build most of the packages that require compilation (provided sufficiently many libraries, headers and tools are available). If something doesn't work on your system, please refer to the README file provided with the corresponding package.
On Windows: no compilation is needed, since compiled executables for GAP and some packages are already provided by the .exe installer.
Adjust some links/scripts/icons etc., depending on your system, to make the new version of GAP available to the users of your machine.
Optional: run a few tests.

Download Archives

Links to the latest archives in various formats and an .exe Windows installer can be found on the Downloads page. If you use Unix or macOS, you can use the .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 or .zip archives. If you use Windows, then we recommend to use the .exe installer.

Unpacking and Installing the Archives

The installation procedure depends on the operating system you are using. Full instructions for installation on Windows, Linux and macOS are available in the INSTALL.md file, which may be found in the GAP root directory after unpacking the archive with the GAP distribution.

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 4.11.0 of 29-Feb-2020
 │  GAP  │   https://www.gap-system.org
 └───────┘   Architecture: x86_64-apple-darwin18.7.0-default64-kv7
 Configuration:  gmp 6.2.0, GASMAN, readline
 Loading the library and packages ...
 Packages:   AClib 1.3.2, Alnuth 3.1.2, AtlasRep 2.1.0, AutoDoc 2019.09.04, 
             AutPGrp 1.10.2, Browse 1.8.8, CaratInterface 2.3.3, CRISP 1.4.5, 
             Cryst 4.1.23, CrystCat 1.1.9, CTblLib 1.2.2, FactInt 1.6.3, 
             FGA 1.4.0, Forms 1.2.5, GAPDoc 1.6.3, genss 1.6.6, IO 4.7.0, 
             IRREDSOL 1.4, LAGUNA 3.9.3, orb 4.8.3, Polenta 1.3.9, 
             Polycyclic 2.15.1, PrimGrp 3.4.0, RadiRoot 2.8, recog 1.3.2, 
             ResClasses 4.7.2, SmallGrp 1.4.1, Sophus 1.24, SpinSym 1.5.2, 
             TomLib 1.2.9, TransGrp 2.0.5, utils 0.69
 Try '??help' for help. See also '?copyright', '?cite' 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 1g -K 2g'.

Architecture: x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0-default64

testing: /Users/alexk/gap/tst/testinstall/DirectProductElement.tst
     113 ms (100 ms GC) and 151KB allocated for DirectProductElement.tst
testing: /Users/alexk/gap/tst/testinstall/ElmsBlist.tst
     213 ms (96 ms GC) and 4.32MB allocated for ElmsBlist.tst
testing: /Users/alexk/gap/tst/testinstall/alghom.tst
     269 ms (89 ms GC) and 3.13MB allocated for alghom.tst

[...  more lines deleted]

testing: /Users/alexk/gap/tst/testinstall/zmodnz.tst
     544 ms (174 ms GC) and 7.52MB allocated for zmodnz.tst
testing: /Users/alexk/gap/tst/testinstall/zmodnze.tst
     235 ms (188 ms GC) and 1.42MB allocated for zmodnze.tst
-----------------------------------
total    201147 ms (27195 ms GC) and 5.78GB allocated

#I  No errors detected while testing

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 the GAP 4.12.2 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.