Installing IDL Astronomy Library

Summary

Install and configure the IDL Astronomy User's Library so that users can use it with IDL. IDL must be installed first!

The source code is stored on GitHub.

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Directions

1. Install IDL.
2. Navigate to the directory where idl is located: cd /usr/local/harris
3. Download the library source code: git clone https://github.com/wlandsman/IDLAstro.git
4. Add the path to the "pro" folder to the environment variable $IDL_PATH. As root, create the file /etc/profile.d/IDLAstro.sh with contents:

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   if [ "x$IDL_PATH" = "x" ]; then
     export IDL_PATH=/usr/local/harris/IDLAstro/pro
   else
     export IDL_PATH=$IDL_PATH:/usr/local/harris/IDLAstro/pro
   fi
   

5. As root, create the file /etc/profile.d/IDLAstro.csh with contents:

   #!/usr/bin/env tcsh
   if ( ${?IDL_PATH} ) then
     setenv IDL_PATH ${IDL_PATH}:/usr/local/harris/IDLAstro/pro
   else
     setenv IDL_PATH /usr/local/harris/IDLAstro/pro
   endif