Compiling on Linux and Mac OS X

These instructions are to allow users to build Avogadro from the very latest code. Be aware that Avogadro may fail to build or work properly at any given time when built from the instructions below.

Generally, users should first try the pre-made installers or packages available on the download page made from Avogadro releases.

Developers may want to use the instructions found at Building:Development_Version.

Dependencies

Subversion

CMake (>=2.4.5)

Qt4 (>=4.4.0)

Eigen

OpenBabel (see below)

At least Subversion, Git, CMake and Qt4 might be available through your distribution's repositories.

Installing Eigen

cd $HOME/svn
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/kdesupport/eigen2
cd eigen2
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install # must be run as root or with sudo

Building Open Babel

Avogadro makes heavy use of code and features from the Open Babel chemistry toolbox. To ensure you have the latest Open Babel code you should build it from the code repository:

cd $HOME/svn
svn co https://openbabel.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openbabel/openbabel/trunk openbabel
cd openbabel
./configure 
make
make install # must be run as root or with sudo

Building Avogadro

cd $HOME/svn
wget http://github.com/cryos/avogadro/tarball/master/avogadro-latest.tar.gz -O- | tar -xvvzf -
cd cryos-avogadro-* # This doesn't look nice, but since the directory has the git-revision appended, the directory has always a different name
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make install # must be run as root or with sudo

Running

avogadro

On Mac OS X Avogadro should be in your Applications folder.