Install Dynare on Linux

This repository contains a small, but verbose, Bash script that downloads, unpacks, configures and compiles an installation of Dynare on a Debian-based Linux machine with MATLAB installed.

Requirements

• A working installation of MATLAB.
• A Debian-based machine.

  Should work on	Tested?
  Ubuntu 20.04	✔️
  Ubuntu 18.04	❓
  Debian 10	❓

Description

The script will ask the following information:

• Dynare version: Can be verified by going to https://www.dynare.org/release/source/. For example, 4.5.7.
• Path to MATLAB: Can be verified by executing matlabroot in the MATLAB prompt. For example, /usr/local/MATLAB/R2020b.
• MATLAB version: Can be verified by executing version in the MATLAB prompt. For example, 9.9.

The script performs the following actions:

• It ensures that the Debian-based machine on which this runs provides all the necessary dependencies.
• It downloads a .tar.xz from https://www.dynare.org/release/source/, depending on the Dynare version requested.
• It unpacks the downloaded tarball into $HOME/.dynare/x.y.z, where x.y.z is the Dynare version requested.
• It runs the ./configure command with appropriate flags. In particular, it suppresses debugging information from being displayed, it specifies not to use Octave and it provides the relevant MATLAB information.
• It runs the make command, which in turn compiles the source code into the relevant executables.
• Reminds the user to run addpath('~/.dynare/x.y.z/matlab') in the MATLAB prompt in order to use Dynare in MATLAB.

The script does NOT perform the following:

• Compile an Octave-compatible version of Dynare.
• Compile a local version of the documentation.
• Run the test suite to verify that everything is in order after compilation.
• Provide any insurance or warranty about the product that is eventually installed on your machine.

Removal, if necessary

This script only leaves traces in $HOME/.dynare/. To remove any trace left from this script, simply run

rm -rf ~/.dynare/x.y.z

where x.y.z is the Dynare version you have installed.

Potential improvements to implement

• There is a one-to-one mapping between the MATLAB Release number and its version. For example [source]:

  Release	Version
  R2021a	9.10
  R2020b	9.9
  R2020a	9.8
  R2019b	9.7
  R2019a	9.6
  R2018b	9.5

  First, one could be asked the release number and not the version, as it is more straightforward to know the release. Second, there could be a default option to read the release information from the path of the MATLAB installation, as the default paths usually end with the release number. Addressing this requires hard-coding the map release-version into the script, which I am too lazy for.

• Idk, Pull Requests welcome!

Disclaimer

As per the License, no warranty is provided about the reliability of the software in this repository. In particular, users of such software should not trust that the resulting Dynare installation is a working one.

Dynare is free software, see the related license file.

MATLAB is a trademark of The Mathworks, Inc. Lawful use of MATLAB requires a license, which can be bought at https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html.