Overview

This page summarizes the procedure for obtaining and installing the LKB software. The LKB is available as either a precompiled binary (for select platforms) or as Common Lisp source code.

We recommend you start out with a binary installation unless you do not have access to one of the hard- and software configurations for which ready-to-run binaries are provided, or if you need to compile the sources because you have code of their own that needs to be integrated with the LKB. The complete LKB software is open source; see the LkbCopyright page for details. Users running a precompiled binary may choose to install the source code too, of course, for example when trying to decide how to customize LKB behavior, or simply as a somewhat low-level form of reference documentation.

Should you have any problems with installation, please email the support address for the LKB (and other LinGO resources): lingo@delph-in.net.

Table of Contents

Supported Hard- and Software Platforms

Our recommended platform is Linux; however, there are options for running the LKB on Windows and macOS.

Windows users can run recent versions of the LKB using Ubuntu+LKB. The latest ‘native’ binary of the LKB for Microsoft Windows is available at http://lingo.delph-in.net/builds/2004-09-17/. There are no newer binary versions due to unresolved licensing issues.

For macOS there are two main alternatives, outlined on the LkbMacintosh page. One is to run the new, fully open source version of the LKB (‘LKB-FOS’); see the LkbFos page for details. Another is to run a Linux version of the LKB in a virtual machine.

Automated Installation

For Linux (x86) and Solaris (sparc), there is experimental support to perform a semi-automated installation. In a nutshell, users designate a top-level directory for DELPH-IN resources (which we will refer to as DELPHINHOME), download the installer, and then have everything downloaded and installed for them. This procedure will also work in Windows environments when the free CygWin environment is installed, but note that the wget utility must be requested explicity when installing CygWin. For macOS users, and Windows users without CygWin (or ones who cannot work out how to re-run the CygWin installer in order to add wget), please see the instructions for manual installation below.

Assuming you want all DELPH-IN tools and resources in a sub-directory delphin/ to your own home directory, try the following:

  wget http://lingo.delph-in.net/etc/install
  bash install --home ~/delphin

The installer should successively retrieve archive files from the LKB download site and generate reassuring messages like:

  install: `lkb_data.tgz' ... done.
  install: `lkb_linux.x86.32.tgz' ... done.
  install: `lkb_source.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_libraries.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_tsdb.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_capi.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_linux.x86.32.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_data.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_documentation.tgz' ... done.
  install: `itsdb_source.tgz' ... done.
  install: `eli.tgz' ... done.
  install: `erg.tgz' ... done.

Towards the end of the procedure, the installer will instruct you to add a few lines to your shell initialization file (called .bashrc or .cshrc, typically) and emacs start-up file, respectively. To record the choice of the DELPH-IN top-level directory for future sessions, add a line like:

  export DELPHINHOME=~/delphin

to the file ~/.bashrc in your home directory, in case your Unix login shell is bash (the default in Linux), or use:

  setenv DELPHINHOME ~/delphin

in the file ~/.cshrc (or sometimes ~/.tcshrc) if you were using tcsh or another csh derivative. Should you not know the type of your Unix login shell, try:

  echo $SHELL

In case you are installing on Windows using CygWin, the DELPHINHOME environment variable will need to be set in the global environment, i.e. somewhere in the Properties dialogue that you get from left-clicking on My Computer on the Windows desktop. Note that the DELPHINHOME path must not include a trailing slash (or back slash depending on your OS), i.e. it should be something like ~/delphin and not ~/delphin/.

This much should suffice to run the LKB, but the installer also suggests that you set up emacs, the standard editor, for use with the LKB. Integration of the LKB and emacs will simplify starting the LKB and makes available some improved editing functionality for LKB grammars. Following the instructions provided by the installer, use an editor to open the file ~/.emacs from your home directory and paste the block of lines suggested by the installer into this file, e.g.

  (let ((root (or (getenv "DELPHINHOME")
                  "/home/oe/delphin")))
    (if (file-exists-p (format "%s/lkb/etc/dot.emacs" root))
      (load (format "%s/lkb/etc/dot.emacs" root) nil t t)))

Save the file, then exit the editor and start a fresh emacs for the changes to take effect. Assuming there were no further error messages, the following command in emacs will start the LKB:

  M-x lkb RET

where M-x means pressing the Alt and x keys simultaneously, and RET means pressing the Enter key (Return on some keyboards). A new window named LKB Top should pop up. Hooray!

Those who prefer running the LKB without emacs, the LKB can be started from a Unix command shell by executing the file lkb in a platform-specific sub-directory of the DELPHINHOME tree, e.g. (for 32-bit Linux on x86):

  $DELPHINHOME/bin/lkb

In Windows, you can launch the LKB by locating the file lkb.exe (which resides in $DELPHINHOME/lkb/windows) and double-clicking on it.

Which Version to Use: Stable vs. Latest

The LKB system is constantly evolving. On-going development adds new features and makes bug fixes as problems are discovered. Aiming to (i) make both the latest functionality and fixes available to all users and (ii) guarantee a functional baseline system at all times, the LKB developers team maintains the system in two versions, stable and latest. The stable version, usually, has been more thoroughly tested than later code snapshots but may lack newer functionality or support for recent versions of some operating systems (notably Linux). The current LKB stable release was frozen in November 2002 and will likely not work on recent Linux distributions; this version of the LKB is available for download from http://lingo.delph-in.net/stable/. Also available from the download site are regular code snapshots of the current head revision in the LKB source code repository (versioned according to build dates); the most recent snapshot of these (from October 2014 or later) can be retrieved from http://lingo.delph-in.net/latest/. While the LKB team is preparing an updated stable release, right now, we recommend that all new users consider using the latest version. The automated installer by default picks the latest snapshot, thus can be run repeatedly to obtain updates.

Note that there will not always be a Windows or macOS binary for the latest release, and that you may have to work backwards to find it.

Manual Installation

For users who cannot use the automated installer for some reason, the following is a step-by-step account of what needs to be done for a full LKB installation.

Check the supported platforms and decide on which version to install;
Check system requirements and third-party software (e.g. OpenMotif on Linux);
Create a top-level directory to hold the DELPH-IN software and resources;
Create a directory for the LKB to create temporary files;
Download the appropriate selection of archive files and unpack each;
Add LKB-specific settings to your shell and emacs start-up files.

For the following, we will refer to the top-level directory as DELPHINHOME. Good choices for this directory could be c:\delphin\ in Windows, ~/delphin/ on Unix systems, or ~/Documents/delphin/ on macOS. Decide on where you want your DELPH-IN files and make sure the target directory exists (and is writable to you). Also, for successful operation, the LKB will need a writable directory to store its temporary files. In Windows, make sure that the environment variable TEMP (or TMP) points to a valid and writable directory, or create a new directory c:\tmp. For Unix, make sure a directory called ~/tmp/ exists in your home directory (or ~/Documents/tmp/ on the macOS).

Next, download the archive lkb_data.tgz plus either (i) a binary archive for your hardware (e.g. lkb_windows.zip or lkb_linux.x86.32.tgz) or (ii) the LKB source code as lkb_source.tgz. Getting all three is fine too, of course. Unpack all archives into the DELPHINHOME, e.g. using a tool like PowerArchiver or WinZip on Windows, or the Unix gzip and tar shell commands (which are also included in the free CygWin package for Windows), e.g.

  gunzip -c lkb_data.tgz | tar xvf -

If doing a binary install, at this point, you should be able to locate the LKB precompiled binary (lkb.exe in Windows and lkb.darwin_x86_64 on macOS; also see the automated install section above) and just execute it. Confirm that the LKB Top window pops up and is functional and then proceed to adding settings to your .emacs and .bashrc (or .tcshrc) files; see above. Should you need or want to compile the LKB source code, please consult the instructions on the LkbCompilation page.

First-Time Use

Once you can run the LKB and get the LKB Top window (or alternatively a version of the LKB source code loaded into Lisp in tty mode), proceed to make sure the system is really functional.

In the LKB Top window, select Load | Complete grammar and select one of the example grammars that come with the installation (viz. in the lkb_data.tgz archive). These grammars are located in the sub-directory lkb/src/data/, relative to DELPHINHOME. Within the grammar directory, itfs/ contains the examples from the Implementing Typed Feature Structure Grammars (Copestake, 2002); in the file selection dialogue that should have popped up, select the file script from within the directory lkb/src/data/itfs/g7sem/.
Once you have selected the script file to load the grammar, click OK to request that the grammar be loaded (compiled, in a sense) by the LKB. Watch the status messages that scroll by in the LKB Top window and make sure there are no error or warning messages. Also, check the Lisp console (the buffer called *common-lisp* when running the LKB from emacs) for unexpected messages.
Use the Parse | Parse input command to analyze a first sentence and confirm the default input (which should be the dog barks for the grammar in g7sem/ grammar) by clicking OK. A new window should pop up showing a parse tree. Click on the tree, selecting Show Enlarged Tree to get a detailed view of the same tree with clickable nodes. Confirm the functionality of pop-up menus available on individual nodes, for example inspecting the feature structure of the top node.

A more detailed account of a first-time tour is available as an excerpt from Copestake (2002).

Directory for LKB Temporary Files

These details can be ignored by most non-Windows users.

The LKB requires some temporary files be created for lexicon handling (unless you use the LkbLexDb, which is recommended for moderate to large lexicons but not for new users with small lexicons). Unfortunately, there is no way of ensuring that the temporary files will be created in a sensible place for every user on every system. For Unix and Linux, the default location for the files is in a directory tmp in the user’s home directory. For Windows, the default location is whereever the environment variable TEMP or TMP points or if that is not a valid directory C:\tmp. For macOS, the default location is ~/Documents/tmp. If it is possible to use these locations, then simply create the requisite directory before loading the first grammar. If it is not convenient to have these directories, and you are using a binary, then you need to add a function lkb-tmp-dir() to the user-fns.lsp file for every grammar you use. For instance, you can add something like the following to user-fns.lsp (or replace the function lkb-tmp-dir() if it exists already):

  (defun lkb-tmp-dir ()
    (make-pathname :device "D" :directory "tmp"))

If you are compiling the LKB yourself from the source files, you can edit the file $DELPHINHOME/lkb/src/main/user-fns.lsp so that the function lkb-tmp-dir() identifies a more suitable directory, rather than change it in every grammar. Or you may want to add the function definition to a file that you use to load the LKB.

Virtual Machine Image

There is a VirtualBox virtual machine image built by researchers at the University of Washington, which boots you into Linux with the LKB: Ubuntu+LKB; this may be useful for Windows and macOS users (see also LkbMacintosh).

Development and Supported Lisp Environments

The main development environment for the LKB is Franz Allegro CL and CLIM. Most development work has been in Allegro CL on Linux, but the code will likely compile with ease on other platforms for which Allegro CL and CLIM are available. Most current development targets Allegro CL versions 8.0 and 7.0 primarily, but older versions back to, at least, Allegro CL version 5.0 should still work. The current LKB user interface is built atop CLIM (the Common-Lisp Interface Manager), such that graphical interactions and visualization will only be available with Allegro CLIM; there is partial support for LispWorks CLIM.

A fully open source version of the LKB is also available, which is not dependent on any proprietary software; see LkbFos for details. The core of the LKB is ANSI Common Lisp and is known to compile in a variety of free Lisp implementations, including

Steel Bank Common Lisp on Linux (x86 and others) and macOS (x86);
Clozure CL on macOS (x86);
CMUCL on Linux (x86) and Solaris (sparc), possibly others;
CLISP on Linux (x86) and probably others.

The above list is ordered according to recent experience of LKB developers. These free, open source Lisp implementations typically vary in which features are available on which platforms (e.g. native code compilation, Unicode support, multi-threading, or socket support), and users may need to experiment a little. The LKB provides a non-graphical mode of interactions (called tty mode; see the GeFaqLispPromptTips page) that enables basic grammar writing or deployment of an existing grammar. Also, there is experimental support to provide graphical tools without CLIM for select platforms; see the LkbLui pages. For instructions on compiling the LKB source code, please see the LkbCompilation pages.

Further Pointers

In case of problems, please see the LkbFaq page. For additional information on obtaining, installing, and running the LKB, see:

LkbEmacs: Instructions on interfacing the LKB to the emacs(1) editor;
LkbFos: Running the fully open source version of the LKB;
LkbCompilation: Compiling the LKB source code (in various lisps);
LkbFaq: Frequently Asked Questions related to using the LKB;
LkbLexDb: Setting up and using a lexical database (optional);
LkbLui: Linguistic User Interface (LUI) mode (optional); and
other Lkb pages - use the wiki search facilities to find them.

Trouble Shooting

amd64 Version

(2007-02-08) On ubuntu edgy the latest amd64 binaries require you to

install your own libXm.so.3 (sudo apt-get install libmotif3)
- This solves the following error

Warning: Loading clim2:climxm.so failed with error: libXm.so.3: wrong
ELF class: ELFCLASS32.

install the lib32 compatibility libraries (sudo apt-get install lib32stdc++6 lib32gcc1 ia32-libs)
- This allows swish++ and so on to work.

On a redhat based system you need to install something like

openmotif-2.2.3-*.rpm (the exact details depend on your distribution)

For example, vinelinux 4.1 requires

openMotif-2.2.3-0vl6.i386.rpm

libXm.so.4

For recent versions of the lkb you may get this error message

Warning: Loading sys:climxm.so failed with error:
        libXm.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

If your distribution doesn’t have the latest Open Motif, it should be enough to link version three to version 4:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libXm.so.3 /usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so.4
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libXm.so.3 /usr/lib/libXm.so.4

Thanks to Cecilia Seidel for the bug report and work around.

You can also do something like this with recent LKBs (and it doesn’t require sudo privileges):

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/delphin/lkb/lib/linux.x86.64/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Thanks to Xuchen Yao for the solution (2010-04-18).

libXpm.so.4

If you are running a modern (64-bit) Linux distribution, you may need to specify 32-bit architecture when installing libraries. This can be done by appending the string “:i386” to the library name. For instance, for the error:

Warning: Loading sys:climxm.so failed with error:
        libXpm.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

The solution is to install the 32-bit libxpm package:

sudo apt-get install libxpm4:i386

This can be iterated for each missing .so error.

uming font problem

There is a problem with CLIM and the Chinese Unicode TrueType font collection “AR PL UMing”. The font does not return one of its x-properties correctly, and that causes CLIM to crash.

Removing ttf-arphic-uming is the easiest solution.

sudo dpkg --purge ttf-arphic-uming

Michael Goodman has filed a bug with the font in Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ttf-arphic-uming/+bug/296161

We encourage people to file bugs in their own distributions, and/or confirm the bug in Ubuntu so that it gets a higher priority. Alternatively, if you know about fonts then please fix it…

Last update: 2021-06-02 by Alexandre Rademaker [edit]