Last Updated: January 11, 2019
These instructions describe how to install and license IDL on Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh platforms. See the following sections:
.pkg File
For optimal performance, your video card should have a minimum of 1 GB of RAM and should support OpenGL 2.0 or later. Also be sure to install the latest drivers for your video card.
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If you need assistance, visit our website at http://www.harrisgeospatial.com/Company/ContactUs.aspx to find worldwide contact information for technical support.
Supported platforms:
|
Hardware |
Supported Versions |
|
Intel/AMD 64-bit
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7 SP1, 8, 10
|
The 64-bit installers contain 32-bit binaries so that you can launch IDL in 32-bit mode on 64-bit Windows systems. You can find the 32-bit versions in the Windows Start menu under Programs > IDL x.x > 32-bit.
Tip: If you need to install IDL on multiple computers, you can record an .ini file during an installation of IDL, then use that .ini file to silently install IDL on the other computers. See Windows Silent Installation for details.
You must have administrator privileges to install software on Windows. Install IDL from a web download or a DVD as follows:
Start the installer:
idlxx-win.exe file that was downloaded to your computer and run it.autorun.exe. When the splash screen appears, click Install.When installation is complete, license the software.
flexnetserver-windows-install.html) or Linux (flexnetserver-linux-install.html), included with your software download or installation DVD.Note: The activate.exe utility will be installed in INSTALL_DIR\IDLxx\license_utils\bin.x86_64 activate.exe can modify the license availability for that product installation. If the product is installed to a public directory on a computer, product administrators can choose to restrict execute privileges on the activate.exe file to prevent unauthorized use. For information on modifying file privileges, refer to your Windows system documentation, or contact a Windows system expert.
Supported platforms:
|
Platform |
Hardware |
Operating System |
Supported Versions |
|
UNIX
|
Intel/AMD 64-bit
|
Linux
|
Kernel 2.6.32, glibc 2.12
|
|
Macintosh
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Intel 64-bit
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OS X
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10.11, 10.12
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The commands listed here may require root or sudo privileges. An X-Windows manager is required for Macintosh. IDL was tested on Mac OS X using XQuartz 2.7.11. Install IDL from a web download or a DVD as follows:
Unpack and uncompress the files:
Web download: Uncompress the filename.tar.gz archive file that was downloaded to your computer, then unpack the file:
gunzip filename.tar.gz
tar -xf filename.tar
DVD: Insert the DVD. The DVD auto-mounts. Linux systems may auto-mount the installer DVD with incorrect permissions. If this happens, use the following commands:
umount /dev/hdc
mount -o ro -t udf /dev/hdc /media
Note: Be sure to specify the correct directory for your system, for example: /dev/dvd instead of /dev/hdc.
Start the installer with one of these commands:
./install.sh./install-idlxx-unix.shWhen installation is complete, license the software.
flexnetserver-windows-install.html) or Linux (flexnetserver-linux-install.html), included with your software download or installation DVD.From a terminal window, change directories to INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/bin
idl: Start command-line IDL.
idlde: Start the IDL Development Environment.
idlhelp: Start IDL Help.
Supported platforms:
|
Hardware |
Operating System |
Supported Versions |
|
Intel 64-bit
|
OS X
|
10.11, 10.12
|
An X-Windows manager is required for Macintosh. IDL was tested on Mac OS X using XQuartz 2.7.11. Install IDL from a web download or a DVD as follows:
Start the installer:
idlxx-mac.pkg file that was downloaded to your computer and run it.idlxx-mac.pkg.When installation is complete, license the software.
flexnetserver-windows-install.html) or Linux (flexnetserver-linux-install.html), included with your software download or installation DVD.From the Mac Finder, go to INSTALL_DIR/idlxx and double-click IDLx.x to launch IDL.
Activating a license transfers the license rights from the Harris Download and Licensing Center to a node-locked (local) computer or license server. It also creates the features and quantities of licenses that enable the software to run. When you purchase Harris Geospatial products, you will receive an email with an activation code to use to activate your software license. The license is a concurrent process license for each product that was purchased.
You can activate licenses on a local computer (node-locked license), or on a license server that can serve licenses to connected clients. These instructions describe how to activate node-locked licenses. To install and set up a license server, see the the Install and Administer the Flexera License Server Service documentation for Windows (flexnetserver-windows-install.html) or Linux (flexnetserver-linux-install.html), included with your software download or installation DVD.
In this document, you will activate licenses over the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, contact Technical Support to receive separate instructions to activate your licenses offline.
The steps that follow describe how to use the License Administrator Tool to:
To perform these same functions from the command line instead of the License Administrator Tool, see Manage Licenses from the Command Line for details.
To open the License Administrator Tool described in this section, use one of the following:
harrislicense command from the INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/binLicenseAdminstrator.app icon located under the INSTALL_DIR/idlxx directory. Administrator privileges are required.To activate licenses:
Licenses remain activated on a computer until you deactivate them. Deactivating a license returns it to the Harris Download and Licensing Center. Deactivated licenses can then be used on another computer, by either the same person or another person. For example, if you receive a new computer and you want to install the software on it, first deactivate the licenses from the old computer. If you do not deactivate the licenses (and the old computer is no longer accessible to you), you will be unable to activate them on the new computer. If that occurs, Technical Support will need to deactivate the licenses for you.
To deactivate licenses:
A client computer can connect to only one license server at a time; however, a client can use a combination of node-locked licenses activated locally on the computer and served licenses from a connected license server.
The steps to install and set up a license server are described in the Install and Administer the Flexera License Server Service documentation for Windows (flexnetserver-windows-install.html) or Linux (flexnetserver-linux-install.html), included with the software download or installation DVD.
To connect a client to a license server:
To disconnect a client computer from a license server:
Client computers can optionally borrow licenses from a license server. Borrowing licenses activates them locally to the client computer for a limited time. One example of borrowing is when you need to work in a remote region for one week and will be unable to connect to the license server to acquire licenses. In this case, you borrow the needed licenses for 7 days; then when the specified time has expired, the licenses will be automatically returned to the license server.
License borrowing is enabled by default. To disable (or re-enable) some or all license borrowing, the license server administrator should contact Technical Support, or their regional sales office or distributor. When borrowing licenses is enabled, only the licenses that are borrowable will be visible to you as you use the steps below.
To borrow licenses from a license server:
Borrowed licenses are automatically returned to the license server at the end of the specified period, but you can return all of the licenses earlier.
To return licenses on a server:
Click View Licenses in the License Administrator Tool to view license details and features for the computer. The license names, activation codes, and maintenance IDs available to the computer will be listed in a table. Licenses that are available from a license server will be marked with an asterisk (*) next to the Name column. To refresh the data in the table, click the refresh icon.
To view feature details for the licenses, select one or more table rows and enable the Show feature details check box. Select all table rows to show all licenses. To filter the details further to show only in-use features, enable the Show in-use Counts check box.
In the feature details Expiration column:
Permanent indicates the license does not have a termination date.You can copy the details of all features to the clipboard, or save them to a .json file.
To view the license activity log for the computer, or to view device information for the computer, click View Log.
The steps that follow describe how to:
These steps have you activate licenses over the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, contact Technical Support for separate instructions to activate your license offline.
For steps in the next sections that refer to using the activate utility, the utility is located in the following directories:
INSTALL_DIR\IDLxx\license_utils\bin.x86_64INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/license_utils/bin.linux.x86_64INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/license_utils/bin.darwin.x86_64You can view parameter help for the activate utility by typing activate.exe -h on Windows, or ./activate -h on Linux and Mac.
To activate node-locked licenses, open a command or terminal window, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:
Windows:
activate.exe -a activation-code [-q quantity]
Example:
activate.exe -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 1
Linux and Mac:
./activate -a activation-code [-q quantity]
Example:
./activate -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 1
Where:
-a specifies the activation ID.-q specifies the quantity of licenses. The default is 1.To view details on activated licenses for the computer, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.
Licenses remain activated on a computer until you deactivate them. Deactivating a license returns it to the Harris Download and Licensing Center. Deactivated licenses can then be used on another computer, by either the same person or another person. For example, if you receive a new computer and you want to install the software on it, first deactivate the licenses from the old computer. If you do not deactivate the licenses (and the old computer is no longer accessible to you), you will be unable to activate them on the new computer. If that occurs, Technical Support will need to deactivate the licenses for you.
To deactivate licenses, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:
Windows:
activate.exe -a activation-code [-q quantity]
Example:
activate.exe -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 0
Linux and Mac:
./activate -a activation-code [-q quantity]
Example:
./activate -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 0
If you originally activated a quantity greater than 1, you can reduce the quantity to a specified number without deactivating all licenses. For example:
Windows:
activate.exe -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 1
Linux:
./activate -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -q 1
Create a plain text file on the client computer to reference the license server. Perform the following steps:
Create a plain text file that contains a reference to the license server URL. Format the text as follows:
http://[license-server-hostname-or-IP-address]:7070/fne/bin/capability
For example:
http://myserver.mycompany.com:7070/fne/bin/capability
o_licenseserverurl.txt.Copy the file to the license subdirectory located under your Harris installation directory. The file should have read privileges for all product users.
Examples using the default locations:
Windows client: C:\Program Files\Harris\license\o_licenseserverurl.txt
Linux client: /usr/local/harris/license/o_licenseserverurl.txt
Mac client: /Applications/harris/license/o_licenseserverurl.txt
To view details on served licenses for the computer, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.
To remove the client computer's connection to the license server, delete the o_licenseserverurl.txt from the license subdirectory located under your Harris installation directory.
Use the activate utility to borrow licenses from a license server for a period of time.
License borrowing is enabled by default. To disable (or re-enable) some or all license borrowing, the license server administrator should contact Technical Support, or their regional sales office or distributor.
To borrow licenses, open a command or terminal window on the client, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:
Windows client:
activate.exe -a activation-code -s serverName:serverPort -t seconds
Example:
activate.exe -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -s LicenseServer:7070 -t 86400
Linux and Mac client:
./activate -a activation-code -s serverName:serverPort -t seconds
Example:
./activate -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -s LicenseServer:7070 -t 86400
Where:
-a specifies the activation ID.-s specifies a license server.-t specifies the borrow interval, in seconds. The default is 86400 seconds (one day). The maximum number of days allowed is 60 (5184000 seconds). When this value expires, the features are automatically returned to the license server for use by another process.The following are also valid command-line arguments for borrowing with activate:
-b specify the name of a buffered license file, to display the features it
contains.-c use this option with -b, to display the C source code for a buffer license.-g groups features by their license source (i.e., License Portal and borrowed from a license server).To view details on borrowed licenses for the computer, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.
Use the activate utility to return borrowed licenses before their expiration date.
To return borrowed licenses, open a command or terminal window, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:
Windows client:
activate -r -s serverName:serverPort
Example:
activate -r -s LicenseServer:7070
Linux and Mac client:
./activate -r -s serverName:serverPort
Example:
./activate -r -s LicenseServer:7070
Where:
-r returns all borrowed licenses to a license server.-s specifies a license server.To view license details and features, open a command or terminal window, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type one of the following at the command line:
Windows:
activate.exe -l
activate.exe -i
Linux and Mac:
/.activate -l
./activate -i
Where:
-l lists feature details.-i lists license-feature concurrent usage.In the license feature output, the "name" value will have the following prefixes:
nl-, to indicate a node-locked license. sv-, to indicate a served license. Examples using IDL:
"name" : "nl-idl",
"name" : "sv-idl",
In the license feature output, the "expiration" value:
permanent indicates the license does not have a termination date.These instructions describe how to record an .ini file you can use to silently install IDL on other Windows systems. This can be useful when you need to install IDL on multiple computers.
To record the .ini file, use the steps below:
Navigate to the location of the IDL installation executable file:
idlxx-win.exesetup-idlxx-win.exeUse the following syntax, where IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE is the applicable IDL installation executable filename from above. This syntax initiates recording the .ini file and starts the IDL installer:
IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE.exe /SAVEINF="INI_FILE_DIR\IDL_only.ini"
.ini file.To use the .ini file to perform a silent install on other Windows systems:
IDL_only.ini to a computer that needs to have IDL installed.Use the following command and flags to start the silent installation. In the example below, IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE_DIR is the directory that contains the IDL installer, IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE is the applicable executable filename from above, and INI_FILE_DIR is the directory that contains the .ini file:
IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE_DIR\IDL_INSTALL_EXECUTABLE.exe /LOADINF="INI_FILE_DIR\IDL_only.ini" /SP /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NOCANCEL /NORESTART /FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS
The following is example syntax for a silent install from the DVD:
D:\setup-idlxx-win.exe /LOADINF="C:\Temp\IDL_only.ini" /SP /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NOCANCEL /NORESTART /FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS
Where:
LOADINF tells the installer to load settings from the specified file after checking the command line. Use the SAVEINF flag to prepare the settings file.SP disables the prompt, "This will install...Do you wish to continue?" that appears at the beginning of the installer.SILENT tells the installer to display only the installation progress window, but not the installation wizard and background window.VERYSILENT prevents the installation progress window, installation wizard, and background window from displaying.SUPPRESSMSGBOXES tells the installer to suppress message windows. This flag only works when combined with SILENT or VERYSILENT.NOCANCEL prevents the user from cancelling the installation. It disables the Cancel button and ignores clicks on the Close button. This flag is also used in combination with SILENT or VERYSILENT.NORESTART prevents the installer from restarting the system following a successful installation or after a "Preparing to Install" failure that requests a restart. This flag is typically used in combination with SILENT or VERYSILENT.FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS tells the installer to force a close when closing applications.