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# 2 Installing and Loading the Example Package

### Sections

1. Installing the Example Package
2. Loading the Example Package

## 2.1 Installing the Example Package

To install the Example package, unpack the archive file, which should have a name of form `example-`XXX`.zoo` for some version number XXX, by typing

`unzoo -x example-`XXX``

in the `pkg` directory of your version of GAP 4, or in a directory named `pkg` (e.g. in your home directory). (The only essential difference with installing Example in a `pkg` directory different to the GAP 4 home directory is that one must start GAP with the `-l` switch, e.g. if your private `pkg` directory is a subdirectory of `mygap` in your home directory you might type:

`gap -l ";`myhomedir`/mygap"`

where myhomedir is the path to your home directory, which (since GAP 4.3) may be replaced by a tilde. The empty path before the semicolon is filled in by the default path of the GAP 4 home directory.)

After unpacking the archive, go to the newly created `example` directory and call `./configure` path`` where path is the path to the GAP home directory. So for example if you install the package in the main `pkg` directory call

    ./configure ../..

This will fetch the architecture type for which GAP has been compiled last and create a `Makefile`. Now simply call

    make

to compile the binary and to install it in the appropriate place.

## 2.2 Loading the Example Package

To use the Example Package you have to request it explicitly. This is done by calling

    gap> LoadPackage("example");
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Loading  Example 2.0
    by Werner Nickel (http://www.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/~nickel)
       Greg Gamble (http://www.math.rwth-aachen.de/~Greg.Gamble)
    For help, type: ?Example package
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    true

The `LoadPackage` command is described in Section LoadPackage in the GAP Reference Manual.

If GAP cannot find a working binary, the call to `LoadPackage` will still succeed but a warning is issued informing that the `HelloWorld()` function will be unavailable.

If you want to load the Example package by default, you can put the `LoadPackage` command into your `.gaprc` file (see Section The .gaprc file in the GAP Reference Manual).

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