Simple Build

SU2 uses the GNU automake tools to configure and build the software from source in Linux and Mac OS X environments (or with a terminal emulator on Windows). In keeping with our philosophy of simplifying the install process, a vanilla version of the code can be quickly installed without any dependencies. To compile the most basic version of SU2 (single-threaded with no optional features), execute the following commands in a terminal after extracting the source code:

$ cd /path/to/your/SU2/
$ ./bootstrap
$ ./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/SU2
$ make
$ make install

First, the bootstrap script is included in the SU2/ directory for quickly customizing the autotools structure on your system.

The --prefix option defines the location that the executables will be installed (in a folder named bin/ within your chosen install location from –prefix). If the --prefix option is not specified, the code will be installed in /usr/local/bin, which may require admin access. You can also use the “-j N” option of the make command in order to compile SU2 in parallel using N cores, i.e., run

make -j 8 install

to compile using 8 cores. This can greatly reduce the compilation time if building on a multicore laptop, workstation, or cluster head node.

Make sure to note the SU2_RUN and SU2_HOME environment variables displayed at the conclusion of configure. It is recommended that you add the SU2_RUN and SU2_HOME variables to your ~/.bashrc file and update your PATH variable to include the install location ($SU2_RUN, specified by --prefix).