Installation of ESO MIDAS

Some notes regarding the installation:

• The official MIDAS webpage with detailed hardware and software requirements can be found here: http://www.eso.org/sci/software/esomidas/midas-require.html
• The official MIDAS documentation is here: http://www.eso.org/sci/software/esomidas/doc/index.html
• The manual is meant for the installation in Linux (Ubuntu, Debian etc.), while some packages might have different names in SuSe, Fedora etc.
• The installation requires a console and root rights (esp. to install the packages). If needed, the admin has to do that part.

Beyond that it should be possible to install MIDAS without root rights.

The following dev- packages need to be installed

 sudo apt-get install libmotif-dev libncurses5-dev libx11-dev

Create the directory that shall contain the midas installation:

 mkdir midas 

Open a console (or cd to the midas directory) and connect to the FTP server

 ftp ftp.eso.org

The username is ftp and the password <your_email_address_here>.

Remark: The following text uses version 11FEB and version 1.0 of MIDAS (11FEBpl1.0.tar.gz). The latest version at the moment is 13SEP with version 1.4 (13SEPp1.4.tar.gz). The path /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB needs to be adjusted to your installation.

Then get to the MIDAS directory on the server, download the archive and logout:

ftp> cd /midaspub/11FEB/sources
ftp> get README.sources
ftp> binary
ftp> get 11FEBpl1.0.tar.gz
ftp> quit

Then unpack the source files:

tar -zxvf 11FEBpl1.0.tar.gz

It's easier to use a symnolic link with a shorter name, e.g.

ln -s 11FEBpl1.0 11FEB

The config script can be found in this directory:

 cd 11FEB/install/unix/

then execute it

sh config

MIDAS will print the following output to the console

 MIDAS CONFIG MENU:
 ==================
 1 - list of MIDAS packages available
 2 - select only MIDAS core
 3 - select all MIDAS packages
 4 - select MIDAS core and packages of your choice
 5 - preinstall MIDAS
 6 - install MIDAS
 7 - update MIDAS
 8 - setup MIDAS
 9 - clean MIDAS
 10 - help
 q - quit
 Select: 

First select

 5 - preinstall MIDAS 

Mostly the default settings can be used, if they are valid This step copies, if present, pre configured installation files (for your system) to the MIDASa directory.

Now select

6 - install MIDAS

This installs MIDAS (how unexpected ). To follow the progress, open another console and type

tail -f /midas/11FEB/tmp/install.//<some_number>//

8 - setup MIDAS

Use default values if the setup requires input.

Next, copy the executables to a directory that is listed in the $PATH variable, e.g. /usr/local/bin (or add the directory to the $PATH variable?). This can be done for a single user or for all.

cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/inmidas /usr/local/bin
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/gomidas /usr/local/bin
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/helpmidas /usr/local/bin
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/drs /usr/local/bin

Furthermore, the MIDAS man-pages can be made available for all users. So copy them to a directory that is listed in the $MANPATH variable, e.g. /usr/man/man.

cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/manl/inmidas.l /usr/man/manl
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/manl/gomidas.l /usr/man/manl
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/manl/helpmidas.l /usr/man/manl
cp /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/manl/readline.l /usr/man/manl

Alternative, add the path /home/username/opt/midas/11FEB/system/unix/manl to the $MANPATH variable.

Create a tmp directory in midas and start it:

mkdir /midas/tmp
cd /midas/tmp
inmidas

Within the MIDAS environment execute this command

Midas 001> @ compile.all

This prints approximately 40 lines of text and exits MIDAS. The command

gomidas

returns to the MIDAS environment. Then run this command to create the LUT- and ITT files

Midas 002 > @ ascii_bin

Then logout and enjoy.

Midas 003 > bye 

To verify the installation, go into MIDAS

inmidas

and run

Midas 001> @ superverify

which tests some demo files in MIDAS (if they were copied).