12 Apr 10 Installing and Running jpf source code (on the command line)

In this post we shall investigate how to obtain and install the jpf source code.

Obtaining the Source code

In order to obtain the jpf source code we must follow the steps listed below:-

1. The source code of Java Path Finder is currently maintained as mercurial repositories. As I already mentioned here, for debian-based distributions, all we have to do is

   sudo apt-get install mercurial

   On other operating systems, you have to follow the general installation procedure that is used in your systems after obtaining the software from mercurial’s website.

   In the following steps, you will be using mercurial to obtain and install the jpf source code. You may want to read the tutorial on how to use mercurial, here, before we proceed.

2. The command used to obtain the source code from the jpf web site is

    hg clone

   As the name suggests, we are actually cloning the complete folder as it is on the repository online. You will definitely need the jpf-core component and it is also sufficient to have this module to get started. As suggested on the jpf web site, I created a default folder called ‘projects’ and cloned the jpf-core component inside this folder. Thus the commands that I entered, were as follows,

   $mkdir projects
   $cd projects
   $hg clone http://babelfish.arc.nasa.gov/trac/jpf/wiki/projects/jpf-core jpf-core
   

3. Having obtained the source code, we now verify if the code was obtained correctly by typing in

   $cd jpf-core
   $hg verify
   

   If you get an output similar to what is given below, without any error reported, then the clone was successful, else there was some problem while downloading and you may have to clone the repository again.

   checking changesets
   checking manifests
   crosschecking files in changesets and manifests
   checking files
   1727 files, 157 changesets, 2369 total revisions
   abdullah@abdullah-desktop:~/projects/jpf-core$
   

Upon successful completion of the above three steps, we would have obtained a copy of the jpf-core component. In order to obtain the source code of other components we have to follow the same above procedure but change the site name appropriately while cloning (step 2).

Building the source code

Now, that we have the source code for a particular component, in order to build the source code and create the executables, all we have to do is enter the following command,

$cd ~/projects/jpf-core
$bin/ant test

The above code will create all executables in the appropriate sub folders of the source directory.

Updating the site.properties file

Lastly, in order to configure the jpf-core component we need to create and update a site.properties file. In order to do that, type in the following commands,

$cd $HOME
$mkdir .jpf
$gedit site.properties

The text editor will open up and you have to enter the following

jpf-core=~/projects/jpf-core

The above line indicates the location of the source code for the jpf-core folder in your system. So, make appropriate changes to the location address if needed.

Running jpf

To run jpf on a sample program check the previous post, the only change that has to be made is that, instead of,

$~/binaries/jpf-core/bin/jpf +classpath=.  Rand

we have to type in the following,

$~/projects/jpf-core/bin/jpf +classpath=.  Rand