The first thing to check is that you have downloaded the version of the Infomap software appropriate to your operating system, if there is one. Please check that before proceeding.

If a version of the software is not available for your operating system (and your system is a version of Unix or Linux), you should still be able to make it work. In this case, we recommend starting with the Solaris version of the source and following the instructions below.

The Infomap software should work on most versions of Unix (or "Unix-like" systems such as Linux) with slight modifications, although it has not been widely tested or ported. The adaptation most likely to be necessary is the replacement of references to one header file (in #include lines in the source code) with references to another header file. This can fix problems where the code calls a library function that is available on your system, but is defined in a different header file from that included by the code. (NOTE: XXX XXX Also necessary to change "-l" lines in relevant Makefiles to locate the libraries containing these functions. We should describe how to do that.)

It is also possible that the code makes calls to library functions not available in the libraries on your system. In this case, it is likely that your system provides an equivalent or near-equivalent function under a different name; if so you can replace calls to the missing functions with calls to the equivalent functions available on your system. You should be able to find manpages for the missing functions on Google if you need to understand their functionality. (We also recommend the excellent tutorial/reference work Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment by W. Richard Stevens as a place to look up unknown library functions.)

Finally, if our software uses a function for which there is no equivalent on your system, it can only be made to work by installing the necessary function or by writing code to replace its functionality. In this case we may be able to help you find the appropriate library from a freely downloadable source.

Whether or not you are able to solve your problems on your own (and regardless of how hard you have tried), we would greatly appreciate hearing from you. We would like both to help you solve your problems, if we can, and to make the software more robuste and portable for future users. We particularly exhort you to contact us if you encouter problems that seem not to fall into the categories described in this troubleshooting guide, since they may reflect issues we are not yet aware of.