How to install PLUTO on Windows

[Michal Fishkin]

Hi!
I'm a first-year engineering student. I'm working on a project and was having trouble getting some of the software. I was hoping someone in this forum knew what I was dealing with and could help me out. I would really appreciate it. :)

The code is called PLUTO. It's found here: http://plutocode.ph.unito.it/
And the download link: http://plutocode.ph.unito.it/download.html
And the user manual!: http://plutocode.ph.unito.it/files/userguide.pdf

So this should be easy as pie, just follow the instructions and you're home free, right?
The thing is, I have Windows. And for some reason, the code isn't really working.
The authors assure me this can run on Windows, but I'm struggling. I can download, unzip, and run setup.py without too much of a problem, but after that, it gets confused with file directories. What should I do?
I would also like to download pyPLUTO but that's a future bridge to cross.

 

[jedishrfu]

It looks Linux based according to the manual and relies on Linux tools being there too.

Perhaps there’s a docker image you could install and run on Windows after you install docker of course.

 

[Mark44]

The thing is, I have Windows. And for some reason, the code isn't really working.

The documentation says this in the Introduction (Ch. 1):

PLUTO has been successfully ported to several parallel platforms including Linux, Windows/Cygwin, Mac OS X, Beowulf clusters, IBM power4 / power5 / power6, SGI Irix, IBM BluGene/P and several others.

So Windows alone is not enough. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin for more information. You also need at least Python, a C compiler, and GNU Make for the static grid, single processor runs.

 

[mathman]

Guess: It might be a problem with which version of Windows you have. I have experienced problems where a program runs fine on Windows 7 but not on Windows 10.

 

[jedishrfu]

I couldn’t find a docker image with this software already loaded on it but it’s not too difficult to build an image from a full base image like Ubuntu.

I like the docker approach because it places you in a strictly Linux environment that runs on windows or macOS or Linux with only requirement that you install docker for your platform.

 

[hagopbul]

Try vm ware