1. GSAS-II Requirements and Options

1.1. Supported Platforms

It should be possible to run GSAS-II on any computer where Python 3.7+ and the appropriate required packages are available, as discussed below, but GSAS-II also requires that some code must be compiled. For the following platforms, binary images for this compiled code are provided:

  • Windows-10: 64-bit Intel-compatible processors
  • MacOS: Intel processors
  • MacOS: ARM processors, aka Apple Silicon (M1, etc)
  • Linux: 64-bit Intel-compatible processors
  • Linux: ARM processors (64-bit and 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS only)

Details for GSAS-II use on these specific platforms follows below:

  • Windows: Installation kits are provided for 64-bit Windows-10. An installation kit with older Python versions is provided for 32-bit Windows-10; this installer cannot be updated to provide newer Python versions than the supplied versions but GSAS-II will be updated if installed on a computer with internet access. Running GSAS-II on older versions of Windows is likely possible, but to do so one must locate compatible versions of Python and packages. This is getting increasingly tough. We have not tried Windows-11, but expect the Windows-10 distribution to run fine there.

  • MacOS: GSAS-II can run natively on Intel or ARM (“M1” or “Apple Silicon”) processors. With the native code, Mac ARM machines offer the highest performance seen on any platform.

    For Intel processor Macs, we provide an installer. This can also be used on ARM-equipped Macs but native M1 code runs way faster. Native ARM code installation is a bit more complex; but detailed instructions are provided (https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/MacM1Notes) that require use of either the miniforge package or the homebrew package installer. Macs older than Catalina (10.15) will likely require older distributions of Python.

  • Linux (Intel-compatible): Note that GSAS-II does not get a lot of testing in Linux by us, but is used fairly widely on this platform nonetheless. One can use the installer that we provide, but compatibility with older and very new versions of Linux may require compatibility library installation, not always easy to do. It may be better to use your Linux distribution’s versions of Python and packages (typically done with a software tool such as apt or yum.) You may possibly need to use pip as well. Adapt from the detailed example for how to do for the 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS: https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/InstallPiLinux.

  • Raspberry Pi (ARM) Linux: GSAS-II has been installed on both 32-bit and the 64-bit version of the Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian) and compiled binaries are provided. It may be possible to use these binaries with Ubuntu Linux for this platform, but this has not been tried. The performance of GSAS-II on a Raspberry Pi is not blindingly fast, but one can indeed run GSAS-II on a motherboard that costs only $15 (perhaps even one that costs $5) and uses <5 Watts!

    Note that the 64-bit OS is preferred on the models where it can be run (currently including models 3A+, 3B, 3B+, 4, 400, CM3, CM3+, CM4, and Zero 2 W) . With the 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS, which does run on all Raspberry Pi models, it is necessary to use the OS distribution’s versions of Python and its packages. Instructions are provided here: https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/InstallPiLinux.

1.2. Python Requirements

GSAS-II requires a standard Python interpreter to be installed, as well as several separately-developed packages that are not supplied with Python, as are described below. While for some packages, we have not seen much dependence on versions, for others we do find significant differences; this is also discussed further below. The GSAS-II GUI will warn about Python and packages versions that are believed to be problematic, as defined in variable GSASIIdataGUI.versionDict, but for new installations we are currently recommending the following interpreter/package versions:

  • Python 3.10 is recommended, but 3.7 or later is fine.
  • wxPython 4.2 or later is recommended, but with Python <=3.9 any wx4.x version should be OK. However, expect problems with Py>=3.10 and anything older than wx4.2.0.
  • NumPy 1.23 recommended, but anything from 1.17 on is likely fine
  • matplotlib 3.6 is recommended, but 3.4 or later is preferred.
  • pyOpenGL: no version-related problems have been seen.
  • SciPy: no version-related problems have been seen, but in at least one case multiple imports are tried to account for where function names have changed.

For more details on problems noted with specific versions of Python and Python packages, see comments below and details here: GSASIIdataGUI.versionDict,

Note that GSAS-II is being developed using Python 3.7, 3.9 and 3.10. No testing has yet been done with Python 3.11. We are no longer supporting Python 2.7 and <=3.6, and strongly encourage that systems running GSAS-II under these older Python versions reinstall Python typically via a new GSAS-II installation.

There are a number of ways to install Python plus the packages needed by GSAS-II. We had been creating installers utilizing the Anaconda Python (https://www.anaconda.com/) distribution, but no longer provides modern versions that include wxPython or subversion, so we are transitioning to the community-supported conda-forge library of packages and the miniforge distribution in order to continue using the conda package manager and installation process. This approach is available for nearly all supported platforms (see below.)

Alternately, on MacOS, homebrew can be used for Python and most needed packages, while on Linux, the native package installers (apt-get or yum, etc.) offer the same. Any packages not provided in that fashion can be installed with Python’s pip mechanism. Other alternative Python packaging methods include Enthought Inc.’s Canopy and Python(x,y), see here: https://www.python.org/download/alternatives/. We are no longer using any of them and are unsure of how well they will function, but in theory any mechanism that supplies an internally compatible Python with the packages required by GSAS-II should work fine.

Package requirements depend on how GSAS-II is run. More packages are required for GUI use and and stil others may optionally be used, as described in the following section. A server that will only run GSAS-II via the scripting interface, will need far fewer packages, as is discussed in the section immediately following that.

1.3. GUI Requirements

When using the GSAS-II graphical user interface (GUI), the following Python extension packages are required:

GSAS-II will not start if the above packages are not available. In addition, several Python packages are referenced in sections of the GUI code, but are not required. If these packages are not present, warning messages may be generated if they would be needed, or menu items may be omitted, but the vast bulk of GSAS-II will function normally. These optional packages are:

  • Pillow (https://pillow.readthedocs.org) or PIL (http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/). This is used to read and save certain types of images.
  • h5py is the HDF5 interface and hdf5 is the support package. These packages are (not surprisingly) required to import images from HDF5 files. If these libraries are not present, the HDF5 importer(s) will not appear in the import menu and a warning message appears on GSAS-II startup.
  • imageio is used to make movies. This is optional and is offered for plotting superspace (modulated) structures.
  • requests: this package simplifies http access (https://requests.readthedocs.io/). It is used for access to webpages such as ISODISTORT and for some internal software downloads.
  • win32com (windows only): this module is used to install GSAS-II on windows machines. GSAS-II can be used on Windows without this, but the installation will offer less integration into Windows. Conda provides this under the name pywin32.
  • conda: the conda package allows access to package installation, etc. features from inside Python. It is not required but is helpful to have, as it allows GSAS-II to install some packages that are not supplied initially. The conda package is included by default in the base miniconda and anaconda installations, but if you create an environment for GSAS-II (conda create -n <env> package-list…), it will not be added to that environment unless you request it specifically.

The following conda package is used where possible in GSAS-II but it provides a command-line tool rather than a Python package.

  • svn: the GSAS-II code utilizes the subversion program for software installation and updates. GSAS-II can be manually installed without it, but updates will also need to be done manually. Thus, GSAS-II works much better when subversion is available. The Anaconda distribution had provided subversion in a package named svn, but this is so no longer being updated. With the conda-forge repository we now use, it is only available for Linux (where it really is not needed since it is easy to install there) and the package is named subversion. (For the Mac the supplied subversion package lacks the ability to reach the GSAS-II repository via the internet and is thus not used.) For MacOS and Windows, the GSAS-II gsas2full self-installer now provides binaries for the svn program.
Conda command:

Should you wish to install Python and the desired packages yourself, this is certainly possible. For Linux, apt or yum is an option, as is homebrew. Homebrew is a good option on MacOS. However, we recommend use of the miniconda or mambaconda self installers from conda-forge. Here is a typical conda command used to install a GSAS-II compatible Python interpreter on Linux after miniconda/miniforge/mambaforge/anaconda has been installed:

conda install python=3.10 wxpython numpy scipy matplotlib pyopengl pillow h5py imageio subversion requests -c conda-forge

or to put a Python configured for GSAS-II into a separate conda environment (below named g2python, but any name can be used), use command:

conda create -n g2python python=3.10 wxpython numpy scipy matplotlib pyopengl  pillow h5py imageio conda subversion requests -c conda-forge

For Windows/Mac/Raspberry Pi, omit subversion from the previous commands are:

conda install python=3.10 wxpython numpy scipy matplotlib pyopengl pillow h5py imageio requests -c conda-forge

and:

conda create -n g2python python=3.10 wxpython numpy scipy matplotlib pyopengl  pillow h5py imageio conda requests -c conda-forge

Before starting GSAS-II under conda remember to activate using: <path>\Scripts\activate (windows); source <path>/bin/activate (Mac/Linux), or when an environment is used, add that name, (such as g2python), such as <path>\Scripts\activate g2python (windows); source <path>/bin/activate g2python (Mac/Linux),

Note that at present we are not suppling binaries for Python 3.11, but we are not aware of any reason why GSAS-II will not run fine with this.

1.4. Scripting Requirements

When using the GSAS-II scripting interface (GSASIIscriptable), only the two commonly-used Python extension packages are required:

Note that a few sections of the code optionally require matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/contents.html), Pillow (https://pillow.readthedocs.org) (or PIL, http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/), or h5py + hdf5, but none of these are required to run scripts and the vast majority of scripts will not need these packages.

1.5. Optional Python Packages

  • Sphinx (https://www.sphinx-doc.org) is used to generate the documentation you are currently reading. Generation of this documentation is not generally something needed by users or even most code developers since the prepared documentation on https://gsas-ii.readthedocs.io is usually reasonably up to date.
  • SCons (https://scons.org/) is used to compile the relatively small amount of Fortran code that is included with GSAS-II. Use of this is discussed in the next section of this chapter.

1.6. Required Binary Files

As noted before, GSAS-II also requires that some code be compiled. For the following platforms, binary images are provided:

  • Windows-10: 64-bit Intel-compatible processors. [Prefix win_64_]
  • MacOS: Intel processors. [Prefix mac_64_]
  • MacOS: ARM processors, aka Apple Silicon (M1, etc). [Prefix mac_arm_]
  • Linux: 64-bit Intel-compatible processors. [Prefix linux_64_]
  • Linux: ARM processors (64-bit and 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS only). [Prefixes linux_arm32_ and linux_arm64_]

Note that these binaries must match the major versions of both Python and numpy; binaries for only a small number of combinations are provided. A full list of what is available can be seen by looking at the contents of the directory at web address https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/browser/Binaries, noting that a subdirectory name will be prefix_pX.X_nY.Y where prefix is noted above and X.X is the Python version and Y.Y is the numpy version. Should one wish to run GSAS-II where binary files are not supplied (such as 32-bit Windows or Linux) or with other combinations of Python/NumPy, compilation will be need to be done by the user. This will require the GNU Fortran (gfortran) compiler (https://gcc.gnu.org/fortran/) as well as the Python SCons package. General instructions are provided for Linux: https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/InstallLinux#CompilingFortranCode; Windows: https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/CompilingWindows and MacOS: https://subversion.xray.aps.anl.gov/trac/pyGSAS/wiki/InstallMacHardWay, but these may be out of date or require adaptation.

1.7. Supported Externally-Developed Software

GSAS-II provides interfaces to use a number of programs developed by others. Some are included with GSAS-II and others must be installed separately. When these programs are accessed, citation information is provided as we hope that users will recognize the contribution made by the authors of these programs and will honor those efforts by citing that work in addition to GSAS-II.

GSAS-II includes copies of the following programs. No additional steps beyond a standard installation are needed to access their functionality.

DIFFaX
Simulate layered structures with faulting. https://www.public.asu.edu/~mtreacy/DIFFaX.html
PyCifRW
A software library that reads and writes files using the IUCr’s Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF). https://bitbucket.org/jamesrhester/pycifrw. GSAS-II uses this to read data and structures from CIF files,
Shapes
Derives the shapes of particles from small angle scattering data.
NIST FPA
Use Fundamental Parameters to determine GSAS-II profile function
NIST*LATTICE
Searches for higher symmetry unit cells and possible relationships between unit cells. An API has been written and this will be integrated into the GSAS-II GUI.

The following web services can also be accessed from computers that have internet access. All software needed for this access is included with GSAS-II.

Bilboa Crystallographic Server (https://www.cryst.ehu.es):
GSAS-II can directly access the Bilboa Crystallographic Server to utilize the k-SUBGROUPSMAG, k-SUBGROUPS and PseudoLattice web utilities for computation of space group subgroups, color (magnetic) subgroups & lattice search.
BYU ISOTROPY Software Suite (https://stokes.byu.edu/iso/isotropy.php):
GSAS-II directly accesses capabilities in the ISOTROPY Software Suite from Brigham Young University for representational analysis and magnetism analysis.

At the request of the program authors, other programs that can be accessed within GSAS-II are not included as part of the GSAS-II distribution and must be installed separately:

Dysnomia
Computes enhanced Fourier maps with Maximum Entropy estimated extension of the reflection sphere. See https://jp-minerals.org/dysnomia/en/.
RMCProfile
Provides large-box PDF & S(Q) fitting. The GSAS-II interface was originally written for use with release 6.7.7 of RMCProfile, but updates have been made for compatible with 6.7.9 as well. RMCProfile must be downloaded by the user from http://rmcprofile.org/Downloads or https://rmcprofile.pages.ornl.gov/nav_pages/download/
fullrmc
A modern software framework for large-box PDF & S(Q) fitting. Note that the GSAS-II implementation is not compatible with the last open-source version of fullrmc, but rather the version 5.0 must be used, which is distributed only as compiled versions and only for 64-bit Intel-compatible processors running Windows, Linux and MacOS. Download this as a single executable from website https://github.com/bachiraoun/fullrmc/tree/master/standalones. GSAS-II will offer to install this software into the binary directory when the fullrmc option is selected on the Phase/RMC tab.
PDFfit2
For small-box fitting of PDFs; see https://github.com/diffpy/diffpy.pdffit2#pdffit2. This code is no longer supported by the authors, but is still quite useful. It can only be run with older Python versions. It is supplied within GSAS-II for Windows with Python 3.7-3.9 and for MacOS only with Python 3.7. When running GSAS-II with later versions of Python, as is strongly encouraged, it is best to install a separate older Python interpreter specifically for PDFfit2. When GSAS-II is run from a Python installation that includes the conda package manager (the usual installation practice), the GUI will offer an option to install PDFfit2 via a separate Python 3.7 environment when the PDFfit2 option is selected on the Phase/RMC tab.