You can get started with Nektar++ using our pre-compiled binaries for some operating systems or by directly cloning our git repository.

Binary packages are the easiest way to get started with using Nektar++ as you do not need to compile the code and the packages ensure the required dependencies are also installed. It is also easy to update to newer versions of Nektar++ using your standard package manager for your operating system.

You can also get started quickly with Nektar++ using our docker image.

If you would like to develop or extend the code, we would encourage you to clone our git repository as this allows you to easily receive updates and contribute back to the project.

If you use our software for your research, we would be grateful if you could cite one or more of the following papers.

C. D. Cantwell, D. Moxey, A. Comerford, A. Bolis, G. Rocco, G. Mengaldo, D. De Grazia, S. Yakovlev, J-E. Lombard, D. Ekelschot, B. Jordi, H. Xu, Y. Mohamied, C. Eskilsson, B. Nelson, P. Vos, C. Biotto, R. M. Kirby, and S. J. Sherwin, “Nektar++: An open-source spectral/hp element framework,” Computer physics communications, vol. 192, pp. 205-219, 2015.

D. Moxey, C. D. Cantwell, Y. Bao, A. Cassinelli, G. Castiglioni, S. Chun, E. Juda, E. Kazemi, K. Lackhove, J. Marcon, G. Mengaldo, D. Serson, M. Turner, H. Xu, J. Peiró, R. M. Kirby, S. J. Sherwin, “Nektar++: enhancing the capability and application of high-fidelity spectral/hp element methods”, Computer physics communications, vol. 249, 107110, 2020

This helps demonstrate impact to funding agencies and supports further development of the code.

Pre-compiled Linux packages

Binary packages are available for a number of Linux distributions.

Debian/Ubuntu

Install our apt key to allow packages to be verified:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wget gpg wget http://www.nektar.info/nektar-apt.gpg -O - | sudo apt-key add -
Create a file nektar.list in /etc/apt/sources.list.d with the appropriate URL from the Table 1 below.
Ensure the non-free component is available for your main Debian repository in
/etc/apt/sources.list.
For example,
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main non-free
Finally, install the code:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nektar++

OS	Version	URL
Debian	Bookworm (12.x)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/debian-bookworm bookworm contrib`
Debian	Bullseye (11.x)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/debian-bullseye bullseye contrib`
Debian	Buster (10.x)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/debian-buster buster contrib`
Ubuntu	Noble (24.x)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/ubuntu-noble noble contrib`
Ubuntu	Jammy (22.x)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/ubuntu-jammy jammy contrib`
Ubuntu	Focal (20.04)	`deb http://www.nektar.info/ubuntu-focal focal contrib`

Table 1: APT source lines for Deb-based package repositories

Fedora

Fedora 39 and Fedora 40 are currently supported.

Add a file nektar.repo to the directory /etc/yum.repos.d/ with the following contents
[Nektar] name=nektar baseurl=<baseurl>
substituting <baseurl> for the appropriate line from the table below.
Download and install the GPG key used to sign the packages:
wget https://www.nektar.info/nektar-yum.gpg sudo rpm --import nektar-yum.gpg
Now install the Nektar++ packages as required. For example,
yum install nektar++-openmpi-incnavierstokes-solver

Distribution	`<baseurl>`
Fedora	`http://www.nektar.info/fedora/$releasever/$basearch`

Base URLs for RPM-based package repositories. Note that $releasever and $basearch are automatically substituted by yum.

Docker image

Nektar++ is available as a Docker image:

docker pull nektarpp/nektar

Compile the Source Code

Git Repository

Anyone can clone a read-only copy of the repository as follows:

git clone http://gitlab.nektar.info/nektar/nektar.git nektar++

For more details on obtaining our source code see here.