KineticGas is available on PyPi as the pykingas package, for python versions 3.8-3.11, compiled for MacOS running on Apple Silicon, Linux and Windows.

In addition, wheels versions of KineticGas > 2.0.0 for macOS, Linux and Windows, as well as wheels for the latest version on GitHub can be downloaded here. Instructions for installing with pip directly from a downloaded wheel are provided at the linked page.

For MacOS running on Intel, or other operating systems, KineticGas must currently be built from source or installed from one of the distributed wheels linked above.

Dependencies

The Python package dependencies are listed in the pyproject.toml file in the root directory of the package.

To compile the binary that is called from the python wrapper, pybind11 is required. pybind11 is included in cpp/external as a git submodule, so cloning the KineticGas repository should provide you with the files you need.

A standalone C++ module, that works without the python wrapper is currently under development. See the branch pure_cpp/ for the most up-to-date version there.

Building from source

Python wheels for the latest version of KineticGas on main are built for macOS and Windows using cibuildwheels, and distributed here.

A build system using cmake and make is set up to support Mac, Linux and Windows.

First Try

If all goes well, running

git clone https://github.com/thermotools/KineticGas.git
cd KineticGas
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install
pip install ..

make sure to activate a virtual environment first if you want to avoid doing system-level installs.

Short explanation

The bash script cpp/build_kingas.sh uses cmake and make to compile the binary that is called from the python module. Then it moves the binary to the pykingas directory.

When something goes wrong

Note: The build system has been changed relatively recently, and is less tested than the build system that was used in the 2.0.0 release. If you encounter issues, please don’t hesitate to post an issue on github so that we can improve robustness. Also, the old build system should still work fine. So if you are having trouble, a workaround may be to download the build files in the v2.0.0 tagged version on github and use those.

• Error when importing pykingas: If you get an error of the type

  ImportError: dlopen(/.../venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pykingas/libpykingas.cpython-311-darwin.so, 0x0002): tried: '/.../venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pykingas/libpykingas.cpython-311-darwin.so' (mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have (x86_64), need (arm64e)))
  

• set the environment variables CC and CXX with

  export CC=/opt/homebrew/bin/gcc-13
  export CXX=/opt/homebrew/bin/g++-13
  

• This can help force compilation for arm64
• If you get an error message when the file bindings.cpp is compiling, that originates from the pybind11 headers:
  • You are likely getting an error of the type

     error: address of overloaded function '<some_func>' does not match required type 'pybind11::overload_cast<some stuff>'
    

    and

    error: static_assert failed due to requirement 'detail::integral_constant<bool, false>::value' "pybind11::overload_cast<...> requires compiling in C++14 mode"
    

  • and you are likely using clang compiled for the C++-11 standard. (The compiler located in /usr/... on Mac is likely clang, even though it is called gcc)
  • To fix the issue:
    • Install gcc with homebrew.
    • Locate the compilers you’ve installed (which gcc-13 and which g++-13 should work if you installed gcc version 13.x.x)
    • Set the environment variables CC and CXX in cpp/build.sh to the path to these compilers by modifying the export statements. For example

      export CC=/opt/homebrew/bin/gcc-13
      export CXX=/opt/homebrew/bin/g++-13
      

  • NOTE: You may need to delete the file cpp/release/CMakeCache.txt for changes to take effect.
  • See also: This stackoverflow question for info
• If none of the above works, please feel free to leave an issue.