update installation instructions

README.rst

@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@ Use a console; navigate to the ``bfps`` folder, and type:
 If you want to run simulations on the machine where you're installing,
 you will need to call `compile_library` before installing.
 Your machine needs to have an MPI compiler installed, the HDF5 C library
-and FFTW >= 3.4.
+and FFTW >= 3.4 --- a detailed prerequisite installation list is
+included at the end of this document.
 The file `machine_settings_py.py` should be modified
 appropriately for your machine (otherwise the `compile_library` command will most
 likely fail).
@@ -102,7 +103,63 @@ Comments
 * particles: initialization of multistep solvers is done with lower
   order methods, so direct convergence tests will fail.
 
+* Code is only known to work with HDF5 1.8.x.
+
 * Code is used mainly with Python 3.4 and 3.5.
   In principle it should be easy to maintain compatibility with Python
   2.7.x, but as of `bfps 1.8` this is no longer a main concern.
 
+-------------------------------
+Installation with prerequisites
+-------------------------------
+
+These installation steps assume that you have a working MPI compiler,
+properly configured on your system (i.e. the various configure scripts
+are able to find it).
+If this is not the case, please consult the FFTW and HDF5 compilation
+instructions for detailed instructions (`./configure --help` should be
+enough).
+
+1. Make directory PREFIX on local fast partition.
+
+2. Download, compile, install FFTW (latest version 3.x from http://www.fftw.org/).
+   Execute the following commands in order, feel free to customize
+   optimisation flags for your own computer:
+
+.. code:: bash
+    ./configure --prefix=PREFIX --enable-single --enable-sse --enable-mpi --enable-openmp --enable-threads
+    make
+    make install
+    ./configure --prefix=PREFIX --enable-sse --enable-sse2 --enable-mpi --enable-openmp --enable-threads
+    make
+    make install
+
+3. Download, compile, install HDF5 (version 1.8.x, currently available
+   at https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/release/obtainsrc518.html.
+   We are using parallel I/O, therefore we use the plain C interface of HDF5:
+
+.. code:: bash
+    ./configure --prefix=PREFIX --enable-parallel
+    make
+    make install
+
+3. This step may be ommited.
+   I recommend the creation of a virtual python3 environment (also under PREFIX) that will be used for installing bfps and dependencies.
+   Please see https://docs.python-guide.org/dev/virtualenvs/.
+
+4. Clone bfps repository.
+
+.. code:: bash
+    git clone git@gitlab.mpcdf.mpg.de:clalescu/bfps.git
+
+5. Tweak host_information.py and machine_settings.py for your user and your machine and place under ~/.config/bfps.
+
+6. Activate virtual environment.
+
+7. Go into bfps repository, execute
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+    python setup.py compile_library
+    python setup.py install
+