Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version r12.4-426

Chapter 51. Typesetting

asymptote-3.05

Introduction to asymptote

Asymptote is a powerful descriptive vector graphics language that provides a natural coordinate-based framework for technical drawing. Labels and equations can be typeset with LaTeX. As well as EPS, PDF, and PNG output, it can produce WebGL 3D HTML rendering and (using dvisvgm) SVG output.

[Note]

Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

Package Information

  • Download (HTTP): https://downloads.sourceforge.net/asymptote/asymptote-3.05.src.tgz

  • Download MD5 sum: 740eb38f419c870c6532dc1fbad074e1

  • Download size: 30 MB

  • Estimated disk space required: 339 MB (56 MB installed after overwriting files in $TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/, with all the dependencies which are in BLFS)

  • Estimated build time: 0.8 SBU (using parallelism=4)

asymptote Dependencies

Required

ghostscript-10.06.0 and texlive-20250308

Recommended

cURL-8.16.0, Freeglut-3.6.0, GC-8.2.10, GLEW-2.2.0, GLM-1.0.2 and libtirpc-1.3.7

Recommended at runtime

dvisvgm-3.5 to allow svg output

Optional

fftw-3.3.10, gsl-2.8, libsigsegv-2.15, both Boost-1.89.0 and rapidjson to use LSP which can be used with emacs, click, and eigen

Optional (at runtime)

ImageMagick-7.1.2-1 to convert output to other formats such as JPEG or to create animated GIFs, PyQt5 (not tested, has a build dependency of Qt5) to use xasy

Editor Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/asymptote

Installation of asymptote

[Note]

Note

Certain 3D PDF scripts may not work when invoked from pdflatex on some zen+ amdgpu APU machines.

Install asymptote by running the following commands: 

export TEXARCH=$(uname -m | sed -e 's/i.86/i386/' -e 's/$/-linux/') &&

./configure --prefix=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX                          \
            --bindir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/bin/$TEXARCH             \
            --datarootdir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist          \
            --infodir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/doc/info     \
            --libdir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist               \
            --mandir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/doc/man       \
            --disable-lsp                                     \
            --enable-gc=system                                \
            --with-latex=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/tex/latex \
            --with-context=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/tex/context/third &&

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

Command Explanations

--prefix=, --bindir=, --datarootdir=, and other “dir” switches: these switches ensure that the files installed from source will overwrite any corresponding files previously installed by install-tl-unx so that the alternative methods of installing texlive are consistent.

--libdir=$TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist: This parameter ensures that the asymptote directory will similarly overwrite any files installed by install-tl-unx.

--disable-lsp: The Language Server Protocol is enabled by default, with several third-party sources included, but it does not build unless boost and rapidjson have been installed.

--enable-gc=system: this ensures that the system version of libgc.so will be used instead of the version shipped with this package.

--with-latex= --with-context=: These switches ensure that style files and a tex file will be installed into the texlive directories instead of creating a texmf-local directory for them.

Contents

Installed Programs: asy and xasy
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directory: $TEXLIVE_PREFIX/texmf-dist/asymptote, $TEXLIVE_PREFIX/doc/asymptote, and $TEXLIVE_PREFIX/info/asymptote

Short Descriptions

asy

is a vector graphics program

xasy

is a Python3 script providing a Qt5 GUI for asy