Information
Documentation
Installation instructions
Before you start, is CrystFEL already available at your facility? CrystFEL is pre-installed at many facilities. Please check the separate page about facility installations..
Installation using Apptainer (Singularity)
The easiest way to get started is to download our container image and run it using a virtualization tool of your choice (e.g. Docker, Podman, Singularity/Apptainer).
$ apptainer run -B /path/to/data crystfel_latest.sif
After the second command, you are working inside the container and should be able to run all the CrystFEL commands. Start with crystfel to run the GUI.
By default, only a few directories will be accessible inside the container, including your home directory. The --bind /path/to/data argument tells Apptainer to additionally make the given path available. You will probably need to use this to access your data.
"Singularity" changed name to "Apptainer" in 2021. If you're using a slightly older version, simply replace apptainer with singularity in the commands above. Don't worry, it's the same software! Further documentation is available on their website.
Note that, due to the way Slurm works, it's usually not possible to submit Slurm jobs from within the CrystFEL GUI, when the GUI is running inside a container. The next section describes a workaround for this.
ExPaNDS containerized application utility
As part of the ExPaNDS project, a utility has been developed to help with running containerise applications. This utility automatically downloads the container image and adds wrapper scripts to allow Slurm job submission to work from within the container, as well as automating a few other workflow points. To use this:
$ source install_script.sh
Installation from source code
Since version 0.10.0, the installation instructions are included with the CrystFEL download, in the file INSTALL.md. Direct links are provided here for your convenience.