Configuring PHOEBE

PHOEBE may be installed in two ways: system-wide, meaning all users may use it, or user-oriented, designated only for an individual user. These two differ only in the location on the hard disk: the system-wide installation usually resides in /usr/local/share/phoebe directory and the user-oriented installation in /home/username/phoebe.

We shall presume that your PHOEBE installation was successful; if not, please turn to installation instructions found in the top-level PHOEBE directory. For troubleshooting please refer to the appendices.

As most computer programs, PHOEBE must be set up before the first use. When you first start it, the following warning will appear:

Figure 1: PHOEBE configuration warning.

This warning lets you know that PHOEBE was unable to find its configuration directory; this is a hidden directory in your personal HOME directory¹ (usually /home/username/.phoebe). By clicking on OK button this directory will be created and PHOEBE will take you to the configuration window (Fig. 2). If you decide not to create this directory, you may click on Cancel button, which will terminate PHOEBE.

Figure 2: PHOEBE configuration window.

Configuration window is composed of two tabs: Files and Options. The first tab contains system-dependent file locations and the other contains options that reflect on the overall PHOEBE performance.

The default settings in the Files tab of the configuration window are appropriate for the system-wide installation; let us analyse the contents of these directories in turn:

The Base directory is the directory of your current distribution; it contains generic distribution files such as the README file, ChangeLog file etc. It doesn't contain any execution-specific files.

The Source directory is a Base subdirectory and it contains PHOEBE sources (.c files and header files). This directory is optional, the generic make install script won't install it for you. Sources are needed if you want to build a binary package for your Linux distribution or if you want to change the code.

The Defaults directory contains a single PHOEBE defaults file. This file, called default.phoebe, governs PHOEBE's startup values: values of parameters with which PHOEBE starts. Changing this file (either by hand or overwriting it with any other keyword file) will change the default values permanently.

The Working directory is a temporary directory where PHOEBE stores all its I/O files. These files are intermediate WD files, logs, images etc. This directory obviously must have write permissions set, otherwise PHOEBE will issue a warning.

The Data directory is where PHOEBE expects to find user data (PHOEBE keyword files and LC/RV data files). For this directory also write permissions must be set.

The WD LC and WD DC directories set the location of Wilson-Devinney executables lc and dc. These are core files for PHOEBE and thus must be present.

The WD Flux Files directory is meant for future implementation. Since 2003, WD algorithm changed the model from effective wavelength treatment to integrated flux treatment, so to each experimental LC/RV curve there will be a flux file assigned. This directory will contain these flux files.

Other options include the choice of the plotting package², limb darkening tables etc. We will talk about them later on, when we discuss their application.

To change a specific directory, you may enter new pathnames either by typing in the new values directly to the entry box, or by clicking on the Browse button and then selecting the right directory through a file selector. The latter is preferable, since it is easy to make typing errors otherwise.

The directory you will most probably want to change is the Data directory; it is advisable to create a dedicated directory somewhere in your home directory and supply it to PHOEBE, e.g. /home/username/data.

When finished, click on the Save button. The settings will be saved, so you need to set it up only this one time. If you want to review or modify your settings later, you may find them in Settings->Configuration menu. If you click on the OK button instead, the configuration will be kept for that PHOEBE session only. Clicking on Cancel will leave PHOEBE unconfigured. Strange things might happen...

When you are finished setting up, it's time to get some real work done!