ChainLink Download and Installation

At this time, there are four options for download:

1. Windows executable with 3rd party binaries including MinGW and Qt4

- You do not need to have Qt4 installed to use ChainLink, but you will not be able to write your own C++ code unless you have MinGW and Qt4.

2. Windows executable with 3rd party binaries excluding MinGW and Qt4

- You must have Qt4 and MinGW installed on your Windows machine

3. Platform-independent source code with 3rd party Windows binaries

- You must have Qt4 and MinGW installed on your Windows machine

4. Just the platform-independent source code (this is the only option for Linux and Mac)

- You must have Qt4 (4.2 or later) installed. To use the optional (but highly recommended) 3rd party plugins, you should also install the following libraries (* indicates critical):

- The best way to ensure that ChainLink can see these 3rd party libraries at compile time and at run time is to manually copy the .dll, .so, or .dylib files into the chainlink/3rdparty/lib folder.

Installation

If you have downloaded a windows executable, simply run the installation wizard (taking care to install ChainLink in a folder with no spaces!). Then launch the program from the Start menu and type 'demo' to get started.

If you are compiling from source on Linux, then run:

> ./build

and then

> ./chainlink

from within the main chainlink folder. See above for information on installing 3rd party components. Also be aware that the CHAINLINK_DIR environment variable is set within the "chainlink" shell script, so if you move the installation, you'll need to change that.

If you are compiling from source on Mac OS X, then follow the same instructions as for Linux, except use

>./buildmac

I haven't tested the Mac installation too much, so let me know how it goes.

Finally, if you are compiling from source on Windows, then run:

> build.bat
> chainlink.bat

as above.