Checkout Procedure

Cactus is distributed, extended, and maintained using the free CVS software (Concurrent Versions System: http://www.cvshome.org). CVS allows many people to work on a large software project together without getting into a tangle. Since Cactus thorns are distributed from several repositories on the main CVS site, and from a growing number of user sites, we provide a script, described below, on our website for checking out the flesh and thorns. The Cactus website also provides a form interface for direct download.

CVS experts who want to use raw CVS commands are directed to Appendix E6 for full instructions. For CVS novices, we also summarize in the appendix basic CVS commands.

The space required for an installation depends on the arrangements and thorns used. The flesh on its own requires less than 5 MB.

The script for checking out the flesh and distribution thorns, GetCactus, is available from the website at

http://www.cactuscode.org/download/GetCactus.

The script takes as an argument the name of a file containing a ThornList, that is a list of thorns with the syntax

<arrangement name>/<thorn name>

If no filename is given, only the flesh is checked out. Optional directives in the ThornList indicate which CVS repository to fetch thorns from. The default is to take the thorns from the same repository as the flesh. A full description of ThornList syntax is provided in Appendix E8. ThornLists example applications are provided on the Cactus website.

The same script can be used to checkout additional thorns.

Another script, MakeThornList, can be used to produce a minimal ThornList from a given Cactus par file. It needs a master ThornList to be copied into your Cactus directory.

See http://www.cactuscode.org/toolkit/makeThornList/.