
                        Installing UNIPOT


This Document describes the procedure of installing the share package

Installing `unipot' should be easy once you have installed GAP itself.
We assume here that you want to install `unipot' in its standard
location, which is in the ``pkg'' subdirectory of the main GAP4
installation.


 Overview
 --------

You have to perform the following steps to install `unipot':

  -- Get the sources.
  -- Unpack the sources with the <unzoo> utility.
  -- Optionally edit the ALLPKG file so that the `unipot'
     documentation will be available when GAP starts up.


 What you need to install unipot
 -------------------------------

Being a share package for GAP4 and implemented in the GAP4
language, `unipot' of course needs at least GAP version 4.2.
(See Preface.1 of the `unipot'-Manual why you can't use it with GAP4.1.)
`Unipot' runs on any system supporting GAP4. It is tested with GAP4.2,
but should work with any non-beta version of GAP4 (with exceptions
stated in Preface.1 for GAP4.1).


 Getting and unpacking the sources
 ---------------------------------

You can download the sources from the same places as GAP. So the main
FTP servers are:

ftp://ftp-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/pub/gap/gap4/
ftp://ftp.math.rwth-aachen.de/pub/gap4/
ftp://ftp.ccs.neu.edu/pub/mirrors/ftp-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/pub/gap/gap4/
ftp://pell.anu.edu.au/pub/algebra/gap4/

You need only one file with the name ``unipot1r1.zoo'' which is in the
subdirectory for the share packages. When you installed GAP you used
the utility <unzoo> to unpack the distribution. You will need this here
again. See the GAP Reference Manual, chapter ``Installing GAP'' for 
instructions on how to get and compile this. You now change your current 
directory to the ``pkg'' subdirectory of the location where you installed
GAP (you typed an <unzoo>-command, then a new directory called ``gap4''
or something like that was created, this directory contains the ``pkg''
subdirectory). The standard location would be:
(do not type the prompt character `\#')

# cd /usr/local/lib/gap4/pkg


Now you extract the sources for the `unipot' share package:

# unzoo -x unipot1r1.zoo
unipot/README     -- extracted as text
...
/bin/mkdir: cannot make directory `unipot': File exists
...


Note that the warning is *not* serious.

The <unzoo> utility unpacks the files and stores them into the apropriate
subdirectories. `unipot' resides completely in the following subdirectory
(assuming standard location):


/usr/local/lib/gap4/pkg/unipot



 Installing in a different than the standard location
 ----------------------------------------------------

It could happen that you do not want to install `unipot' in its
standard location, perhaps because you do not want to bother your
system administrator and have no access to the GAP directory. In
this case you can unpack `unipot' in any other location within a
``pkg'' directory with the <unzoo> command as described above. Let us
call this directory ``pkg'' for the moment. You get an ``unipot''
subdirectory with all the files of `unipot' in it. Then you follow the
standard procedure with following exceptions:

Say, the directory containing the ``pkg'' directory is
``/home/user/mygap''.
Note that you have either to edit the startup script ``gap.sh'':
 Add ``/home/user/mygap'' separating it with semicolon `;' from previous
 directories for the variable ``GAP_DIR''.
Or you have to start GAP with following command line option:


# gap4 -l "/usr/local/lib/gap4;/home/user/mygap"


 Loading unipot in GAP
 ---------------------

Add a line to the ``ALLPKG'' file in the ``pkg'' directory

# cd /name-of-gap-directory/pkg
# echo unipot >> ALLPKG


This makes the documentation of the package available in any GAP4
session, even if the package is not loaded.
Like any other share package, `unipot' is loaded in GAP with


gap> RequirePackage("unipot");


within the GAP4 session.

If you have problems with this package, wish to make comments
or suggestions, or if you find bugs, please send e-mail to me.

Sergei Haller, mailto:`Sergei.Haller@math.uni-giessen.de'

Also, I would like to hear about applications of this package.
(See Preface.3 of the `unipot'-Manual)


