Installing Docker and downloading the ASPECT image

Docker is a lightweight virtualization software that allows to ship applications with all their dependencies in a simple way. It is outside of the scope of this manual to explain all possible applications of Docker, and we refer to the introduction (https://www.docker.com/what-docker) and installation and quickstart guides (https://www.docker.com/products/docker) on the Docker website for more detailed descriptions of how to set up and use the docker engine. More importantly Docker provides a marketplace for exchanging prepared docker images (called Docker Hub). After setting up the docker engine, downloading a precompiled ASPECT image from Docker Hub is as simple as typing in a terminal:

docker pull geodynamics/aspect

The precompiled version of ASPECT downloaded through the command above will be from a recent commit on the main (development) branch of ASPECT.

A list of Docker containers with precompiled versions of ASPECT from earlier releases and download instructions can also be found on Docker Hub ((https://hub.docker.com/r/geodynamics/aspect/tags)).

For example, the command to download the container for ASPECT v.2.5.0 is

docker pull geodynamics/aspect:v2.5.0

Note that the transfer size of the compressed image containing ASPECT and all its dependencies is a few GB. When extracted the image requires less than 10 GB of disk space.

Running the image is as simple as typing

docker run -it geodynamics/aspect

and then executing the ASPECT binary using

./aspect

Note

If you are running Docker under Windows, we strongly recommend running the image by using the command line (open “Command prompt” or “Terminal”) instead of launching through the Docker graphical interface.