Source Code Layout

From NEST

[ Software:Documentation ]

The source code of NEST is split in several directories:

doc

The documentation of NEST. This includes design documents and user documentation. The online help is generated during the installation of NEST and installed to the installation directory. We use doxygen comments extensively throughout NEST. make doc will extract them from the source code and install the developer documentation into the doc directory.

examples

Examples for the usage of SLI and NEST. The examples for PyNEST can be found in the pynest directory. All examples are installed to the directory $prefix/share/doc/nest/examples.

extras

This directory contains several helper scripts for running NEST in a distributed setup (nest_serial and nest_indirect), some patches that are used during the installation process on different architectures, and the SLI mode for emacs.

include

Include files generated during the configuration and build process. These files contain information about the architecture and system NEST is compiled for.

lib

The library files for SLI and NEST. This includes the startup-files and SLI-wrappers for built-in functions.

libltdl

libnestutil

General purpose auxilliary library used by SLI and NEST. This library contains the memory allocator and helpers for handling threads, debugging, numerics and reference counted pointers. This directory basically contains all files that do not fit anywhere else.

librandom

Auxilliary library for random number generators.

models

The synapse, device, and neuron models for grid-based simulations with NEST.

nest

This directory contains the code to build the nest executable. Basically main.cpp just collects all necessary modules and links the executable against the necessary libraries.

nestkernel

Classes that make up the bare-bone simulation kernel of NEST without any models.

precise

The synapse, device, and neuron models for precise timing simulations with NEST.

pynest

The C and Python sources for the Python interface to the NEST kernel.

sli

The integrated simulation language interpreter.

testsuite

topology