Installation¶

This guide summarises how to install FEniCS. The most reliable way to get started is using the Docker containers (Linux, macOS and Windows).

For installation in high performance computing clusters we recommend always building from source.

From source¶

FEniCS consists of Python components FIAT, dijitso, UFL, FFC, and C++/Python components DOLFIN and optional mshr. DOLFIN is the main user interface of FEniCS, both for C++ and Python.

FEniCS needs Python 3. For building CMake is needed and pip is recommended.

For building optional Python interface of DOLFIN and mshr, pybind11 is needed since version 2018.1.0. To install it:

PYBIND11_VERSION=2.2.3
wget -nc --quiet https://github.com/pybind/pybind11/archive/v${PYBIND11_VERSION}.tar.gz
tar -xf v${PYBIND11_VERSION}.tar.gz && cd pybind11-${PYBIND11_VERSION}
mkdir build && cd build && cmake -DPYBIND11_TEST=off .. && make install

It may be useful to add cmake flag -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<prefix> to install to a user location.

Stable version¶

To install the Python components of FEniCS:

pip3 install fenics-ffc --upgrade

This will install FFC and its dependencies. It may be useful to add flag --user or --prefix=<prefix> to install to a user location. To install DOLFIN, and optionally mshr and/or Python interface of DOLFIN/mshr:

FENICS_VERSION=$(python3 -c"import ffc; print(ffc.__version__)")
git clone --branch=$FENICS_VERSION https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/dolfin
git clone --branch=$FENICS_VERSION https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/mshr
mkdir dolfin/build && cd dolfin/build && cmake .. && make install && cd ../..
mkdir mshr/build   && cd mshr/build   && cmake .. && make install && cd ../..
cd dolfin/python && pip3 install . && cd ../..
cd mshr/python   && pip3 install . && cd ../..

It may be useful to add cmake flag -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<prefix> and pip3 flag --user or --prefix=<prefix> to install to a user location.

See detailed instructions for DOLFIN and mshr.

Todo

Update DOLFIN documentation for latest release, including updates for building Python interface with pybind11, and provide a link to documentation of stable version here.

Consolidate multiple documentation locations: RTD, webserver.

Development version¶

The FEniCS source code can be found on the FEniCS Bitbucket pages and the FEniCS Github pages. To download and build current development version run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/FEniCS/fiat.git
git clone https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/dijitso
git clone https://github.com/FEniCS/ufl.git
git clone https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/ffc
git clone https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/dolfin
git clone https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/mshr
cd fiat    && pip3 install . && cd ..
cd dijitso && pip3 install . && cd ..
cd ufl     && pip3 install . && cd ..
cd ffc     && pip3 install . && cd ..
mkdir dolfin/build && cd dolfin/build && cmake .. && make install && cd ../..
mkdir mshr/build   && cd mshr/build   && cmake .. && make install && cd ../..
cd dolfin/python && pip3 install . && cd ../..
cd mshr/python   && pip3 install . && cd ../..

See detailed instructions for DOLFIN and mshr.

Debian/Ubuntu packages¶

FEniCS is available as a package for Debian and Ubuntu [1] in the official repositories. If you are using Ubuntu, we recommend the Ubuntu PPA.

Ubuntu PPA¶

The Ubuntu Personal Package Archives (PPA) version is the latest release of FEniCS. To install FEniCS from the Ubuntu PPA:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fenics-packages/fenics
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends fenics

Official Debian/Ubuntu repositories¶

The version of FEniCS in the Debian/Ubuntu repositories [1] is not always the most recent FEniCS release. To install FEniCS from the official Debian/Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends fenics

[1]	(1, 2) mshr is not available from official Debian and Ubuntu repositories.

Containers/Docker (Linux, macOS and Windows - 64 bit)¶

A collection of Docker containers for FEniCS are available. To get started, install Docker, and then run

docker run -ti -v $(pwd):/home/fenics/shared -w /home/fenics/shared quay.io/fenicsproject/stable:current

A helper script is also available. To install it automatically to $HOME/.local/bin, run the command:

curl -s https://get.fenicsproject.org | bash

To run the FEniCS Docker image, use the command fenicsproject run. For more options and features, see fenicsproject help.

For detailed instruction on the Docker containers and background, a see http://fenics-containers.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ for how to run FEniCS inside a container.

Conda (Linux and macOS - 64 bit)¶

To install the latest FEniCS release from using conda:

conda install -c conda-forge fenics

To install a development snapshot:

conda install -c conda-forge/label/prerelease -c conda-forge fenics

The packages are part of conda forge (see https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/fenics), and the recipes are maintained at https://github.com/conda-forge/fenics-feedstock/.

Note

Conda support is experimental and subject to changes.