compiling_HFS T3

This is a receipt for setting up HFST3, with the backends we need, on MacOSX Snow Leopard. See the HFST3 README file for further details, and how to turn on or off specific backens if needed or wanted.

The info on this page can be outdated, consult the HFST README file to get up-to-date installation instructions and requirements! The same goes for the different backends!

Presently, HFST3 supports three different backends:

• OpenFST - weighted transducers ( default )
• Foma - xfst-compatible lexc and regex compiler, xfst scripts ( optional )
• SFST - unweighted transducers, fast substitute ( optional )

The backends need to be installed separately, with full linking support (libraries and header files) for HFST3 to be able to make use of them. The following sections describe how to do that, with notes on required versions etc.

HFST3 abstracts over the different backends, and will make it easy to add support for new backends in the future, to support even more FST source code and transducer conversion options. The abstraction is becoming quite clean, but necessitates that the wanted backends are installed separately. This also makes it easier to handle backends with incompatible licenses, as each backend is compiled and installed as separate entities.

The bottom line: use the latest version, and follow the receipts below, and you should be fine.

OpenFST is one of the FST backends used in HFST, and enabled by default. By following the receipt below, you will get version 1.2.7 of OpenFST. But you can also check the OpenFST site to see whether there are newer releases.

wget http://openfst.cs.nyu.edu/twiki/pub/FST/FstDownload/openfst-1.2.7.tar.gz
tar -xzvf openfst-1.2.7.tar.gz 
cd openfst-1.2.7/
./configure
make
sudo make install

Note! It is strongly recommended that you use the latest svn source. There are several important bug fixes and enhancements committed lately (as of Oct. 20 2011).

We use the svn checkout below. See the Foma home pagefor the latest package release.

svn co http://foma.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/foma/trunk/foma
cd foma
make
sudo make install

See the SFSThome page for details and possible newer releases.

wget ftp://ftp.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/corpora/SFST/SFST-1.4.6a.tar.gz
tar -xzf SFST-1.4.6a.tar.gz
cd SFST/src
make
sudo make install    # - optional when building for the HFST package
sudo make maninstall # - optional (installs man pages)
sudo make libinstall # - required for sfst support in HFST

Note! Buggy libinstall in SFST!

SFST 1.4.6a has a bug when doing sudo make libinstall on MacOS X, such that it fails in the middle of the process. The dynamic library has been installed upon failure, but not the header files. To also install the header files do sudo make hfiles . That's it! Now HFST v3.2 and newer will compile with the SFST backend just fine also on the Mac.

Please note that HFST3 requires rather new versions of flex and bison. The versions shipping with the latest XCode should be ok. This XCode version is the one coming with Snow Leopard (MacOS X 10.6), with subsequent updates. For older MacOS versions, you probably will have to install updated versions of these tools using MacPortsor Fink. See the HFST3 README file for further details.

I assume installation from svn here:

svn co https://hfst.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/hfst/trunk/hfst3
cd hfst3/
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-foma --enable-proc --enable-lexc # This is the minimum we need
make
sudo make install

To check what other options there are for enabling other backends and functions, do ./configure --help .

Building on Victorio

Victorio lacks a few crucial tools to build from svn. One thus have to first build a distro on another machine, and move it to victorio, or use the prebuilt tarball from the hfst site. To build a tarball on your local machine, do:

cd hfst3/
make dist

When the tarball is on victorio, proceed as follows:

tar -xzf hfst-3.2.0.tar.gz
cd hfst-3.2.0/
./configure --with-foma --enable-proc --enable-lexc # as above
make
sudo make install