So say you clone the deal.II repository (in your case you decompress it). You will have a folder structure like this: /base_path/dealii_folder
What I would do is create a folder called build that lives on the same level. Now my folders look like this: /base_path/dealii_folder /base_path/build Now I can go into my build folder from the terminal and call something like this: cmake ../dealii_folder/ -G Ninja (with my other cmake argument if I want them) Now cmake will run and will configure what will be your installation. It has not compiled anything, but just prepared the things for the compilation. Once cmake has finished, you can now compile using ninja within the same folder you still are (which would be /base_path/build/): ninja -j4 If you want to install (and if you have set an install path using -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/install/) you can also runL: ninja -j4 install 4 here is the number of cores you are using during your installation. If you machine has more than 32 gig of ram you can use a lot more than 4. Hope that helps. If I may give you a word of advice, I think at this stage it would be important for you to learn how to use a terminal if you wish to use software that needs to be compiled. There are many tutorials online on how to use bash and how to use compiled programming languages. It would greatly help you along the way. Cheers Bruno On Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 8:21:36 p.m. UTC+2 [email protected] wrote: > Thank you very much. Let me clarify my situation a bit better: > > When I decompress the archive, it creates the folder dealii-9.7.0. > Inside this folder there are several subfolders (including > \include\deal.II) and various files such as LICENSE.md, README.md, and > SUPPORT.md. > > However, those files (LICENSE.md, README.md, SUPPORT.md) are only in the > top-level dealii-9.7.0 directory, not inside \include\deal.II. > > My question is: > Where exactly should I create the build directory from which to run "cmake > -G Ninja -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\Users\bin\deal.II ../deal.II" and how > should I adjust ../deal.II, considering that the deal.II directory itself > does not contain the LICENSE.md, README.md, and SUPPORT.md files? > > Thanks again for your help > paolo > > Il giorno mar 2 set 2025 alle ore 16:41 Matthias Maier <[email protected]> > ha scritto: > >> You very likely did not configure with the correct base directory. You >> will need to make sure that you configure with the source directory >> containing LICENSE.md/README.md/SUPPORT.md and not another directory. >> >> That way the warning goes away and you will have an install target. >> >> MM >> >> >> >> On Tue, Sep 2, 2025, at 09:10 CDT, Paolo Tesini <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> > Thanks for your help so far. >> > >> > Inside my build folder (which contains now the generated files: base >> > (folder), CMakeFiles (folder), build.ninja, cmake_install, CMakeCache), >> > when I run: >> > >> > ninja -j4 install >> > >> > I get the error: ninja: error: unknown target 'install' >> > >> > Do you know why this happens, and how I should proceed? >> > >> > Thank you very much >> > Best regards, >> > paolo >> > >> > Il giorno mar 2 set 2025 alle ore 10:37 [email protected] < >> > [email protected]> ha scritto: >> > >> >> The warning you are referring to concerns the cmake version >> declaration. >> >> In the present case, it would appear that the cmake version you are >> using >> >> is a lot more recent than what deal.II requires. Newer cmake version >> tend >> >> to require you to have very high version number of >> cmake_minimum_required() >> >> for compatibility reason I suppose. In all cases, if your cmake >> >> configuration ran, everything should be fine. >> >> >> >> >> >> regarding: >> >> make --jobs=4 install >> >> >> >> If you configured deal.II with ninja instead of make, then you would >> use >> >> the following command: >> >> ninja -j4 install >> >> ninja test >> >> >> >> Whether you use ninja or make to compile deal.II won't have any >> >> significant consequences on the outcome (although ninja is faster). >> >> >> >> Cheers >> >> Bruno >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Monday, September 1, 2025 at 5:31:22 p.m. UTC+2 [email protected] >> >> wrote: >> >> >> >>> Hi all, >> >>> >> >>> I built the program on Windows using CMake with Ninja instead of GNU >> Make: >> >>> >> >>> cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=... >> >>> >> >>> Configuration completed with only one warning: >> >>> "No cmake_minimum_required command is present. A line of code such as >> >>> cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.29) should be added at the top of the >> >>> file." >> >>> >> >>> It seems to have worked, but I’m not sure if that warning affects this >> >>> step. >> >>> >> >>> Furthermore, normally the followong instructions say to run: >> >>> >> >>> make --jobs=4 install >> >>> make test >> >>> >> >>> Could you please tell me how I should adapt these commands when using >> >>> Ninja, and whether I need to add any additional instructions? >> >>> >> >>> Best regards >> >>> paolo >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> -- >> >> The deal.II project is located at http://www.dealii.org/ >> >> For mailing list/forum options, see >> >> https://groups.google.com/d/forum/dealii?hl=en >> >> --- >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups >> >> "deal.II User Group" group. >> >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >> an >> >> email to [email protected]. >> >> To view this discussion visit >> >> >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dealii/14871cdb-84ea-4acd-901b-8899f6cb6ee5n%40googlegroups.com >> >> < >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dealii/14871cdb-84ea-4acd-901b-8899f6cb6ee5n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer >> > >> >> . >> >> >> >> -- >> The deal.II project is located at http://www.dealii.org/ >> For mailing list/forum options, see >> https://groups.google.com/d/forum/dealii?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "deal.II User Group" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dealii/87tt1krk6c.fsf%4043-1.org. >> > -- The deal.II project is located at http://www.dealii.org/ For mailing list/forum options, see https://groups.google.com/d/forum/dealii?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "deal.II User Group" group. 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