.. include:: replace.txt Getting Started --------------- Downloading ns-3 **************** The |ns3| system as a whole is a fairly complex system and has a number of dependencies on other components. Along with the systems you will most likely deal with every day (the GNU toolchain, Mercurial, a text editor) you will need to ensure that a number of additional libraries are present on your system before proceeding. |ns3| provides a wiki for your reading pleasure that includes pages with many useful hints and tips. One such page is the "Installation" page, http://www.nsnam.org/wiki/index.php/Installation. The "Prerequisites" section of this wiki page explains which packages are required to support common |ns3| options, and also provides the commands used to install them for common Linux variants. Cygwin users will have to use the Cygwin installer (if you are a Cygwin user, you used it to install Cygwin). You may want to take this opportunity to explore the |ns3| wiki a bit since there really is a wealth of information there. From this point forward, we are going to assume that the reader is working in Linux or a Linux emulation environment (Linux, Cygwin, etc.) and has the GNU toolchain installed and verified along with the prerequisites mentioned above. We are also going to assume that you have Mercurial and Waf installed and running on the target system. The |ns3| code is available in Mercurial repositories on the server http://code.nsnam.org. You can also download a tarball release at http://www.nsnam.org/releases/, or you can work with repositories using Mercurial. We recommend using Mercurial unless there's a good reason not to. See the end of this section for instructions on how to get a tarball release. The simplest way to get started using Mercurial repositories is to use the ``ns-3-allinone`` environment. This is a set of scripts that manages the downloading and building of various subsystems of |ns3| for you. We recommend that you begin your |ns3| adventures in this environment as it can really simplify your life at this point. Downloading ns-3 Using Mercurial ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One practice is to create a directory called ``repos`` in one's home directory under which one can keep local Mercurial repositories. *Hint: we will assume you do this later in the tutorial.* If you adopt that approach, you can get a copy of ``ns-3-allinone`` by typing the following into your Linux shell (assuming you have installed Mercurial): :: cd mkdir repos cd repos hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone As the hg (Mercurial) command executes, you should see something like the following displayed, :: destination directory: ns-3-allinone requesting all changes adding changesets adding manifests adding file changes added 47 changesets with 67 changes to 7 files updating to branch default 7 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved After the clone command completes, you should have a directory called ``ns-3-allinone``, the contents of which should look something like the following: :: build.py* constants.py dist.py* download.py* README util.py Notice that you really just downloaded some Python scripts. The next step will be to use those scripts to download and build the |ns3| distribution of your choice. If you go to the following link: http://code.nsnam.org/, you will see a number of repositories. Many are the private repositories of the |ns3| development team. The repositories of interest to you will be prefixed with "ns-3". Official releases of |ns3| will be numbered as ``ns-3..``. For example, a second hotfix to a still hypothetical release forty two of |ns3| would be numbered as ``ns-3.42.2``. The current development snapshot (unreleased) of |ns3| may be found at http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-dev/. The developers attempt to keep these repository in consistent, working states but they are in a development area with unreleased code present, so you may want to consider staying with an official release if you do not need newly- introduced features. Since the release numbers are going to be changing, I will stick with the more constant ns-3-dev here in the tutorial, but you can replace the string "ns-3-dev" with your choice of release (e.g., ns-3.10) in the text below. You can find the latest version of the code either by inspection of the repository list or by going to the `"ns-3 Releases" `_ web page and clicking on the latest release link. Go ahead and change into the ``ns-3-allinone`` directory you created when you cloned that repository. We are now going to use the ``download.py`` script to pull down the various pieces of |ns3| you will be using. Go ahead and type the following into your shell (remember you can substitute the name of your chosen release number instead of ``ns-3-dev`` -- like ``"ns-3.10"`` if you want to work with a stable release). :: ./download.py -n ns-3-dev Note that the default for the ``-n`` option is ``ns-3-dev`` and so the above is actually redundant. We provide this example to illustrate how to specify alternate repositories. In order to download ``ns-3-dev`` you can actually use the defaults and simply type, :: ./download.py As the hg (Mercurial) command executes, you should see something like the following, :: # # Get NS-3 # Cloning ns-3 branch => hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-dev ns-3-dev requesting all changes adding changesets adding manifests adding file changes added 4634 changesets with 16500 changes to 1762 files 870 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved This is output by the download script as it fetches the actual ``ns-3`` code from the repository. The download script is smart enough to know that on some platforms various pieces of ns-3 are not supported. On your platform you may not see some of these pieces come down. However, on most platforms, the process should continue with something like, :: # # Get PyBindGen # Required pybindgen version: 0.10.0.640 Trying to fetch pybindgen; this will fail if no network connection is available. Hit Ctrl-C to skip. => bzr checkout -rrevno:640 https://launchpad.net/pybindgen pybindgen Fetch was successful. This was the download script getting the Python bindings generator for you. Note that you will need bazaar (bzr), a version control system, to download PyBindGen. Next you should see (modulo platform variations) something along the lines of, :: # # Get NSC # Required NSC version: nsc-0.5.0 Retrieving nsc from https://secure.wand.net.nz/mercurial/nsc => hg clone https://secure.wand.net.nz/mercurial/nsc nsc requesting all changes adding changesets adding manifests adding file changes added 273 changesets with 17565 changes to 15175 files 10622 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved This part of the process is the script downloading the Network Simulation Cradle for you. Note that NSC is not supported on OSX or Cygwin and works best with gcc-3.4 or gcc-4.2 or greater series. After the download.py script completes, you should have several new directories under ``~/repos/ns-3-allinone``: :: build.py* constants.pyc download.py* nsc/ README util.pyc constants.py dist.py* ns-3-dev/ pybindgen/ util.py Go ahead and change into ``ns-3-dev`` under your ``~/repos/ns-3-allinone`` directory. You should see something like the following there: :: AUTHORS doc ns3 scratch testpy.supp VERSION waf-tools bindings examples README src utils waf* wscript CHANGES.html LICENSE RELEASE_NOTES test.py* utils.py waf.bat* wutils.py You are now ready to build the |ns3| distribution. Downloading ns-3 Using a Tarball ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The process for downloading |ns3| via tarball is simpler than the Mercurial process since all of the pieces are pre-packaged for you. You just have to pick a release, download it and decompress it. As mentioned above, one practice is to create a directory called ``repos`` in one's home directory under which one can keep local Mercurial repositories. One could also keep a ``tarballs`` directory. *Hint: the tutorial will assume you downloaded into a ``repos`` directory, so remember the placekeeper.* If you adopt the ``tarballs`` directory approach, you can get a copy of a release by typing the following into your Linux shell (substitute the appropriate version numbers, of course): :: cd mkdir tarballs cd tarballs wget http://www.nsnam.org/releases/ns-allinone-3.13.tar.bz2 tar xjf ns-allinone-3.13.tar.bz2 If you change into the directory ``ns-allinone-3.13`` you should see a number of files: :: build.py ns-3.13/ pybindgen-0.15.0.795/ util.py constants.py nsc-0.5.2/ README You are now ready to build the |ns3| distribution. Building ns-3 ************* Building with build.py ++++++++++++++++++++++ The first time you build the |ns3| project you can build using a convenience program found in the ``allinone`` directory. This program is called ``build.py``. This program will get the project configured for you in the most commonly useful way. However, please note that more advanced configuration and work with |ns3| will typically involve using the native |ns3| build system, Waf, to be introduced later in this tutorial. Change into the directory you created in the download section above. If you downloaded using Mercurial you should have a directory called ``ns-3-allinone`` under your ``~/repos`` directory. If you downloaded using a tarball you should have a directory called something like ``ns-allinone-3.13`` under your ``~/tarballs`` directory. Type the following: :: ./build.py --enable-examples --enable-tests Because we are working with examples and tests in this tutorial, and because they are not built by default in |ns3|, the arguments for build.py tells it to build them for us. The program also defaults to building all available modules. Later, you can build |ns3| without examples and tests, or eliminate the modules that are not necessary for your work, if you wish. You will see lots of typical compiler output messages displayed as the build script builds the various pieces you downloaded. Eventually you should see the following magic words: :: Waf: Leaving directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3.13/build' 'build' finished successfully (2m30.586s) Modules built: aodv applications bridge click config-store core csma csma-layout dsdv emu energy flow-monitor internet lte mesh mobility mpi netanim network nix-vector-routing ns3tcp ns3wifi olsr openflow point-to-point point-to-point-layout propagation spectrum stats tap-bridge template test tools topology-read uan virtual-net-device visualizer wifi wimax Once the project has built, you can stop working with the ``ns-3-allinone`` scripts. You got what you needed from them and will now interact directly with Waf and we do it in the |ns3| directory, not in the ``ns-3-allinone`` directory. Go ahead and change into the |ns3| directory (or the directory for the appropriate release or development snapshot that you downloaded; e.g. :: cd ns-3-dev Building with Waf +++++++++++++++++ Most users directly use Waf to configure and build the |ns3| project. It's not strictly required at this point, but it will be valuable to take a slight detour and look at how to make changes to the configuration of the project. Probably the most useful configuration change you can make will be to build the optimized version of the code. By default you have configured your project to build the debug version. Let's tell the project to make an optimized build. To explain to Waf that it should do optimized builds that include the examples and tests, you will need to execute the following commands, :: ./waf clean ./waf -d optimized --enable-examples --enable-tests configure This runs Waf out of the local directory (which is provided as a convenience for you). The first command to clean out the previous build is not typically strictly necessary but is good practice; it will remove the previously built libraries and object files found in directory ``build/``. When the project is reconfigured and the build system checks for various dependencies, you should see output that looks similar to the following, :: Checking for program g++ : ok /usr/bin/g++ Checking for program cpp : ok /usr/bin/cpp Checking for program ar : ok /usr/bin/ar Checking for program ranlib : ok /usr/bin/ranlib Checking for g++ : ok Checking for program pkg-config : ok /usr/bin/pkg-config Checking for -Wno-error=deprecated-declarations support : yes Checking for -Wl,--soname=foo support : yes Checking for header stdlib.h : ok Checking for header signal.h : ok Checking for header pthread.h : ok Checking for high precision time implementation : 128-bit integer Checking for header stdint.h : ok Checking for header inttypes.h : ok Checking for header sys/inttypes.h : not found Checking for library rt : ok Checking for header netpacket/packet.h : ok Checking for pkg-config flags for GSL : ok Checking for header linux/if_tun.h : ok Checking for pkg-config flags for GTK_CONFIG_STORE : ok Checking for pkg-config flags for LIBXML2 : ok Checking for library sqlite3 : ok Checking for NSC location : ok ../nsc (guessed) Checking for library dl : ok Checking for NSC supported architecture x86_64 : ok Checking for program python : ok /usr/bin/python Checking for Python version >= 2.3 : ok 2.5.2 Checking for library python2.5 : ok Checking for program python2.5-config : ok /usr/bin/python2.5-config Checking for header Python.h : ok Checking for -fvisibility=hidden support : yes Checking for pybindgen location : ok ../pybindgen (guessed) Checking for Python module pybindgen : ok Checking for pybindgen version : ok 0.10.0.640 Checking for Python module pygccxml : ok Checking for pygccxml version : ok 0.9.5 Checking for program gccxml : ok /usr/local/bin/gccxml Checking for gccxml version : ok 0.9.0 Checking for program sudo : ok /usr/bin/sudo Checking for program hg : ok /usr/bin/hg Checking for program valgrind : ok /usr/bin/valgrind ---- Summary of optional NS-3 features: Threading Primitives : enabled Real Time Simulator : enabled Emulated Net Device : enabled GNU Scientific Library (GSL) : enabled Tap Bridge : enabled GtkConfigStore : enabled XmlIo : enabled SQlite stats data output : enabled Network Simulation Cradle : enabled Python Bindings : enabled Python API Scanning Support : enabled Use sudo to set suid bit : not enabled (option --enable-sudo not selected) Build tests : enabled Build examples : enabled Static build : not enabled (option --enable-static not selected) 'configure' finished successfully (2.870s) Note the last part of the above output. Some ns-3 options are not enabled by default or require support from the underlying system to work properly. For instance, to enable XmlTo, the library libxml-2.0 must be found on the system. If this library were not found, the corresponding |ns3| feature would not be enabled and a message would be displayed. Note further that there is a feature to use the program ``sudo`` to set the suid bit of certain programs. This is not enabled by default and so this feature is reported as "not enabled." Now go ahead and switch back to the debug build that includes the examples and tests. :: ./waf clean ./waf -d debug --enable-examples --enable-tests configure The build system is now configured and you can build the debug versions of the |ns3| programs by simply typing :: ./waf Okay, sorry, I made you build the |ns3| part of the system twice, but now you know how to change the configuration and build optimized code. Here are a few more introductory tips about Waf. Some waf commands are meaningful during the build phase and some commands are valid in the configuration phase. For example, if you wanted to use the emulation features of |ns3|, you might want to enable setting the suid bit using sudo as described above. This turns out to be a configuration-time command, and so you could reconfigure using the following command that also includes the examples and tests :: ./waf -d debug --enable-sudo --enable-examples --enable-tests configure If you do this, waf will have run sudo to change the socket creator programs of the emulation code to run as root. There are many other configure- and build-time options available in waf. To explore these options, type: :: ./waf --help We'll use some of the testing-related commands in the next section. Finally, as an aside, it is possible to specify that waf builds the project in a directory different than the default ``build/`` directory by passing the ``-o`` option to configure; e.g. :: ./waf -d debug -o build/debug --enable-examples --enable-tests configure This allows users to work with multiple builds rather than always overwriting the last build. Testing ns-3 ************ You can run the unit tests of the |ns3| distribution by running the "./test.py -c core" script, :: ./test.py -c core These tests are run in parallel by waf. You should eventually see a report saying that, :: 92 of 92 tests passed (92 passed, 0 failed, 0 crashed, 0 valgrind errors) This is the important message. You will also see output from the test runner and the output will actually look something like, :: Waf: Entering directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3-dev/build' Waf: Leaving directory `/home/craigdo/repos/ns-3-allinone/ns-3-dev/build' 'build' finished successfully (1.799s) Modules built: aodv applications bridge click config-store core csma csma-layout dsdv emu energy flow-monitor internet lte mesh mobility mpi netanim network nix-vector-routing ns3tcp ns3wifi olsr openflow point-to-point point-to-point-layout propagation spectrum stats tap-bridge template test tools topology-read uan virtual-net-device visualizer wifi wimax PASS: TestSuite ns3-wifi-interference PASS: TestSuite histogram PASS: TestSuite sample PASS: TestSuite ipv4-address-helper PASS: TestSuite devices-wifi PASS: TestSuite propagation-loss-model ... PASS: TestSuite attributes PASS: TestSuite config PASS: TestSuite global-value PASS: TestSuite command-line PASS: TestSuite basic-random-number PASS: TestSuite object PASS: TestSuite random-number-generators 92 of 92 tests passed (92 passed, 0 failed, 0 crashed, 0 valgrind errors) This command is typically run by users to quickly verify that an |ns3| distribution has built correctly. Running a Script **************** We typically run scripts under the control of Waf. This allows the build system to ensure that the shared library paths are set correctly and that the libraries are available at run time. To run a program, simply use the ``--run`` option in Waf. Let's run the |ns3| equivalent of the ubiquitous hello world program by typing the following: :: ./waf --run hello-simulator Waf first checks to make sure that the program is built correctly and executes a build if required. Waf then executes the program, which produces the following output. :: Hello Simulator *Congratulations. You are now an ns-3 user.* *What do I do if I don't see the output?* If you see ``waf`` messages indicating that the build was completed successfully, but do not see the "Hello Simulator" output, chances are that you have switched your build mode to "optimized" in the "Building with Waf" section, but have missed the change back to "debug" mode. All of the console output used in this tutorial uses a special |ns3| logging component that is useful for printing user messages to the console. Output from this component is automatically disabled when you compile optimized code -- it is "optimized out." If you don't see the "Hello Simulator" output, type the following, :: ./waf -d debug --enable-examples --enable-tests configure to tell ``waf`` to build the debug versions of the |ns3| programs that includes the examples and tests. You must still build the actual debug version of the code by typing, :: ./waf Now, if you run the ``hello-simulator`` program, you should see the expected output. If you want to run programs under another tool such as gdb or valgrind, see this `wiki entry `_.