GDL datalanguage build

GDL (GNU Data Language) is a free/libre open-source program that runs most IDL code. GDL is actively developed and easily installed by:

  • Linux: apt install gnudatalanguage
  • macOS Homebrew: brew install gnudatalanguage
  • Windows: get the latest release

Building GDL source uses the GDL build script “scripts/build_gdl.sh” to get the prerequisites. If Anaconda Python is present, conda deactivate first to avoid library problems when building GDL.

cmake -B build --install-prefix=$HOME/gdl

cmake --build build --parallel

(optional) Check the install. You will see several plots appearing and disappearing automatically during this test, which takes a few minutes.

cmake --test-dir build -V

Install (do not use sudo):

cmake --install build

Do not build on an ExFAT / FAT32 drive, as the build will fail since symbolic links are not allowed on ExFAT / FAT32. If cmake reports libeigen being too old, install LibEigen3 or:

cmake -Bbuild -DEIGEN3=OFF

To use the Linux distro’s older version of GDL, just use /usr/local/bin/gdl or similar, or rename ~/.local/bin/gdl to ~/.local/bin/gdl0.98 or similar.

Troubleshooting build:

  • Runtime search path conflicts: temporarily comment out those paths in ~/.profile (typically from Anaconda Python, libreadline, libhistory, libz, libjpeg.so)
  • Problems with LZMA, try disabling HDF5: cmake -DHDF5=OFF