Installation Instructions

Download FreeFEM-cs from http://www.ljll.fr/~lehyaric/ffcs/install.htm

The FreeFEM-cs package contains the following programs :

• ffcs : main user interface (including editor and 3D graphics)
• ffcscli : command-line interface (no editor)
• ffcsserver : standalone server, used only when the client and the server do not run on the same machine
• prettyedp : FreeFEM-cs color-coded syntax for HTML and Latex

Untar the package to any location (e.g. the desktop). Then double-click on "ffcs" in the package directory.

Compiling from Source

Prerequisites

Install the following packages :

• apt-get-based distributions (eg Ubuntu or Debian) : sudo apt install bison curl flex rsync wget g++ gfortran libx11-dev libice-dev libsm-dev libxau-dev libxdmcp-dev libxrender-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev libxpm-dev libxt-dev make mesa-common-dev libglu1-mesa-dev mpi-default-bin mpi-default-dev libvtk9-dev libopenblas-dev libfftw3-dev patch libfltk1.3-dev libsuitesparse-dev lsb-release libtet1.5-dev bzip2
• yum-based distributions (eg Fedora) : sudo yum install bison curl flex rsync wget gcc-c++ gcc-gfortran libXft-devel libXext-devel libXpm-devel libXt-devel gmake mesa-common-dev mesa-libglu1-dev openmpi-devel vtk-devel mesa-libGLU-devel bzip2
• pacman-based distributions (eg MSYS2) : pacman -S bison curl flex rsync wget mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain perl-Encode-Locale rsync openssh mingw-w64-x86_64-vtk m4 mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc-fortran make bzip2

Compiling

• cd ffcs
• ./configure (add "--help" for a list of options)
• make or make -j
• bin/ffcs to run FreeFEM-cs without installing it
• make install (to install locally) or make package (to build a package to install elsewhere) if required

The compilation process produces a compressed .tgz archive in the pack subdirectory.

Using a remote server

FreeFEM-cs is able to contact a remote server (e.g. on a dedicated computational server) to run FreeFEM scripts :

• Install FreeFEM-cs on the client computer (the one where graphics will be displayed).
• Also install FreeFEM-cs (or at least the server part) on the computer where FreeFEM computations will run.
• Start ffcsserver on the server. If necessary, the command-line option "-ServerPort" makes the server listen to another TCP port than the default. Please be careful that the server should always be protected against unauthorized use. Because of the very high flexibility of the FreeFEM language, internet access to this server should always be controlled and restricted to identified users (a passwd file is provided if no other access control is available).
• In the FreeFEM-cs client, check "Options/Remote Server" and specify the name of the server in "Options/Other Options/Server Name". You may also have to specify a TCP port number in "Options/Other Options/Server Port" if "-ServerPort" was used on the server. Also update "Options/Other Options/Server User" and "Options/Other Options/Server Password" according to the contents of the FreeFEM-cs/passwd file on the server.