How do I build MOAB from scratch?

0. Prerequisites: if you'd like to read Exodus files with MOAB, you'll need Netcdf (be sure to build the c++ interface with it). If you want to save/restore data from MOAB, you'll need HDF5. While MOAB can be built without these libraries, we strongly recommend getting at least HDF5.

1. Grab the code straight from the repository using Subversion, by running 'svn co https://svn.mcs.anl.gov/repos/ITAPS/MOAB/trunk MOAB'.

2. Run 'autoreconf -fi' in the main source directory. NOTE: MOAB relies on the autotools (autoconf, libtool, automake) that come with most LINUX/UNIX distributions. If they're not part of your OS, or you're getting mysterious autotools errors, you might want to try downloading/building more recent versions of those packages then trying again. On windows, try running cmake (though this is only indirectly supported, meaning it may not be up to date).

3. In the top-level source directory, run the configure script, with the various options you want. To get a list of options, run ./configure --help.

4. Run make, then make install. This will install the MOAB include files, libraries, and binaries in include/, lib/, and bin/ subdirectories below the prefix directory input to the configure script (which is /usr/local by default - change with the --prefix= flag to configure.).

That's it!