Getting APBS

Note

Before you begin! APBS funding is dependent on your help for continued development and support. Please register before using the software so we can accurately report the number of users to our funding agencies.

Web servers

Most functionality is available through our online web servers.

The web server offers a simple way to use both APBS and PDB2PQR without the need to download and install additional programs.

After registering, please visit http://server.poissonboltzmann.org/ to access the web server.

Installing from pre-compiled binaries

The best way to install APBS is via download of a pre-compiled binary from GitHub releases (after registering, of course).

Requirements

The pre-compiled binaries include nearly all dependencies. There are a few items to be aware of:

• Windows * Python 3.9

• Linux * Ubuntu or compatible flavor of Linux * Compatible glibc

  • Binaries were built with Ubuntu 22.04 with glibc version 2.35
  • Binaries have been tested successfully under Ubuntu 20.04, 21.10, and 22.04
  • Binaries have been tested unsuccessfully under Ubuntu 18.04

Caution

On Linux you may need to set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and PATH environment variables: For example, in bash with APBS installed in $HOME/apbs, you would set the environment variables in your .bashrc like: .. code-block:: bash

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/apbs/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} export PATH=$HOME/apbs/bin:${PATH}

What’s in the box?

The binary distributions typically provide the following contents:

bin

contains the main APBS executable

include

header files for building software that calls APBS

lib

libraries for building software that calls APBS

share/apbs/docs

the APBS documentation

share/apbs/examples

APBS examples

share/apbs/tests

the APBS test suite

share/apbs/tools

useful programs to help process APBS input and output

Installing from source code

Those who enjoy an adventure can download the source code from GitHub releases and install from source code following the directions at the link below:

• How to build APBS from source
  • Get source directly from Github
  • Shortcut to build
  • Import submodules
  • Set up CMake
  • Building the code - minimal
  • Building the code - advanced
  • Testing APBS
  • Installing APBS

Current platform support

OS	PYTHON VERSION	GEOFLOW	BEM, NanoShaper	FETK	PBSAM	PBAM	PYTHON SUPPORT	SHARED_LIBS
Ubuntu	3.9	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
MacOSX	3.9	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Windows 10	3.9	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No