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authorMohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>2022-07-06 13:07:22 +0200
committerMohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>2022-07-06 13:07:22 +0200
commitbb8f6162f29c8ed9b67048e2dba3fd856afb4200 (patch)
tree5109b0c338eb30b7da734208eba22547c44e23f9
parente91a46777007abde80a85698eff95875b6480373 (diff)
downloadgnuastro-bb8f6162f2.tar.gz
Book: the quick start section now focuses on Lzip
Until now, in the quick start section we were talking extensively about both the Gzip and Lzip formats. But this could be confusing for some readers. Although the Gzip'd tarball is available for official releases, its not available for the alpha releases and generally due to its larger volume and weaker archival standards, it is not recommended. With this commit, the description focuses on Lzip, but just briefly notes that Gzip is available for official releases. This issue was raised by Peter Teuben.
-rw-r--r--doc/announce-acknowledge.txt1
-rw-r--r--doc/gnuastro.texi38
2 files changed, 22 insertions, 17 deletions
diff --git a/doc/announce-acknowledge.txt b/doc/announce-acknowledge.txt
index fc2e42b..72e38fe 100644
--- a/doc/announce-acknowledge.txt
+++ b/doc/announce-acknowledge.txt
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Irene Pintos Castro
Ignacio Ruiz Cejudo
Manuel Sánchez-Benavente
Elham Saremi
+Peter Teuben
diff --git a/doc/gnuastro.texi b/doc/gnuastro.texi
index 5330d8a..43e3ba9 100644
--- a/doc/gnuastro.texi
+++ b/doc/gnuastro.texi
@@ -903,26 +903,30 @@ As discussed in @ref{Science and its tools} this is a founding principle of the
@cindex GNU Tar
@cindex Uncompress source
@cindex Source, uncompress
-The latest official release tarball is always available as @url{http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.gz, @file{gnuastro-latest.tar.gz}}.
-For better compression (faster download), and robust archival features, an @url{http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzip.html, Lzip} compressed tarball is also available at @url{http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.lz, @file{gnuastro-latest.tar.lz}}, see @ref{Release tarball} for more details on the tarball release@footnote{The Gzip library and program are commonly available on most systems.
-However, Gnuastro recommends Lzip as described above and the beta-releases are also only distributed in @file{tar.lz}.
-You can download and install Lzip's source (in @file{.tar.gz} format) from its web page and follow the same process as below: Lzip has no dependencies, so simply decompress, then run @command{./configure}, @command{make}, @command{sudo make install}.}.
+The latest official release tarball is always available as @url{http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.lz, @file{gnuastro-latest.tar.lz}}.
+The @url{http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzip.html, Lzip} format is used for better compression (smaller output size, thus faster download), and robust archival features and standards.
+For historical reasons (those users that don't yet have Lzip), the Gzip'd tarball@footnote{The Gzip library and program are commonly available on most systems.
+However, Gnuastro recommends Lzip as described above and the beta-releases are also only distributed in @file{tar.lz}.} is available at the same URL (just change the @file{.lz} suffix above to @file{.gz}; however, the Lzip'd file is recommended).
+See @ref{Release tarball} for more details on the tarball release.
Let's assume the downloaded tarball is in the @file{TOPGNUASTRO} directory.
-The first two commands below can be used to decompress the source.
-If you download @file{tar.lz} and your Tar implementation doesn't recognize Lzip (the second command fails), run the third and fourth lines@footnote{In case Tar doesn't directly uncompress your @file{.tar.lz} tarball, you can merge the separate calls to Lzip and Tar (shown in the main body of text) into one command by directly piping the output of Lzip into Tar with a command like this: @command{$ lzip -cd gnuastro-0.5.tar.lz | tar -xf -}}.
-Note that lines starting with @code{##} don't need to be typed.
+You can follow the commands below to download and un-compress the Gnuastro source.
+You need to have the @command{lzip} program for the decompression (see @ref{Dependencies from package managers})
+If your Tar implementation doesn't recognize Lzip (the third command fails), run the fourth command.
+Note that lines starting with @code{##} don't need to be typed (they are only a description of the following command):
@example
## Go into the download directory.
$ cd TOPGNUASTRO
-## Also works on `tar.gz'. GNU Tar recognizes both formats.
-$ tar xf gnuastro-latest.tar.lz
+## If you don't already have the tarball, you can download it:
+$ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.lz
+
+## If this fails, run the next command.
+$ tar -xf gnuastro-latest.tar.lz
## Only when the previous command fails.
-$ lzip -d gnuastro-latest.tar.lz
-$ tar xf gnuastro-latest.tar
+$ lzip -cd gnuastro-latest.tar.lz | tar -xf -
@end example
Gnuastro has three mandatory dependencies and some optional dependencies for extra functionality, see @ref{Dependencies} for the full list.
@@ -936,18 +940,18 @@ $ ./configure
$ make -j8 # Replace 8 with no. CPU threads.
$ make check -j8 # Replace 8 with no. CPU threads.
$ sudo make install
-$ echo "source /usr/local/share/gnuastro/completion.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
+@c $ echo "source /usr/local/share/gnuastro/completion.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
@end example
-@noindent
-The last command is to enable Gnuastro's custom TAB completion in Bash.
-For more on this useful feature, see @ref{Shell TAB completion}).
+@c @noindent
+@c The last command is to enable Gnuastro's custom TAB completion in Bash.
+@c For more on this useful feature, see @ref{Shell TAB completion}).
For each program there is an `Invoke ProgramName' sub-section in this book which explains how the programs should be run on the command-line (for example @ref{Invoking asttable}).
-Some complete Tutorials are also available in this book with common Gnuastro usage scenarios in astronomical research.
+In @ref{Tutorials}, we have prepared some complete tutorials with common Gnuastro usage scenarios in astronomical research.
They even contain links to download the necessary data, and thoroughly describe every step of the process (the science, statistics and optimal usage of the command-line).
-We therefore strongly recommend to follow the tutorials before starting to use Gnuastro, see @ref{Tutorials}.
+We therefore recommend to read (an run the commands in) the tutorials before starting to use Gnuastro.