linuxcnc

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DISCLAIMER

THE AUTHORS OF THIS LIBRARY ACCEPT ABSOLUTELY NO LIABILITY FOR ANY HARM OR LOSS RESULTING FROM ITS USE. IT IS EXTREMELY UNWISE TO RELY ON SOFTWARE ALONE FOR SAFETY. Any machinery capable of harming persons must have provisions for completely removing power from all motors, etc, before persons enter any danger area. All machinery must be designed to comply with local and national safety codes, and the authors of this software can not, and do not, take any responsibility for such compliance.

Mission Statement

LinuxCNC is an offshoot of the original NIST Enhanced Machine Controller. The new version is (primarily) a GPL'd project. The major goals are:

1. Make the project more friendly to new developers. This means a simpler build process, as well as other changes listed below. (DONE)

2. Reduce complexity by eliminating support for platforms other than Linux on x86, with either RTAI or RTLinux for realtime. (DONE)

3. Incorporate a Hardware Abstraction Layer that makes the realtime code more modular and allows pins and I/O devices to be reconfigured easily. (DONE)

4. Add some of the features that were discussed at the 2003 NAMES show on EMC Monday - these include rigid tapping and single point threading, improved contouring, a built- in PLC using ClassicLadder, and others. (mostly DONE, yet new features will constantly be added)

The Build Process

Refer to the file 'docs/INSTALL' for information about building and running the software.

Directory Layout

The directory tree for LinuxCNC is documented in 'directory.map' in the top level directory.

COPYING - this software is released under the GPL, 
          with some parts under the LGPL

Please also see the files in docs/

README  - general information
INSTALL - information about compiling and installing the software
AUTHORS - information about authors
NEWS    - latest news

Quickstart:

From the top level directory, switch to the source directory:

cd src

In the source directory, build LinuxCNC:

./configure [or, if you do not have a realtime kernel:] ./configure --enable-simulator

make clean make sudo make setuid

to run the software go back to the top level directory, and issue:

. scripts/rip-environment linuxcnc