Docker container for the full installation of the latest GAP release

DockerHub entry: https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/gapsystem/gap-docker/

We maintain a Docker container for the full installation of the latest GAP release, aimed at having as many GAP packages as possible working. It is usually updated shortly after the release announcement (so slight delays are possible). You can try it on mybinder.org via the "launch binder" badge above.

If you have installed Docker, to use this container first you need to download it using

docker pull gapsystem/gap-docker

(the same command is needed if you need to update the GAP container to get a new GAP release). After that, you can start it as follows:

docker run --rm -i -t gapsystem/gap-docker

Note that you may have to run docker with sudo, particularly if you are on Ubuntu.

Once the GAP container is started, you can call gap inside it to start a new GAP session:

gap@11d9377db2bd:~$ gap
 *********   GAP 4.10.0 of 01-Nov-2018
 *  GAP  *   https://www.gap-system.org
 *********   Architecture: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-default64
 Configuration:  gmp 6.1.2, readline
 Loading the library and packages ...
 Packages:   AClib 1.3.1, Alnuth 3.1.0, AtlasRep 1.5.1, AutoDoc 2018.09.20, 
             AutPGrp 1.10, Browse 1.8.8, Carat 2.2.2, CRISP 1.4.4, Cryst 4.1.18, 
             CrystCat 1.1.8, CTblLib 1.2.2, FactInt 1.6.2, FGA 1.4.0, GAPDoc 1.6.2, 
             IO 4.5.4, IRREDSOL 1.4, LAGUNA 3.9.0, Polenta 1.3.8, Polycyclic 2.14, 
             PrimGrp 3.3.2, RadiRoot 2.8, ResClasses 4.7.1, SmallGrp 1.3, 
             Sophus 1.24, SpinSym 1.5, TomLib 1.2.7, TransGrp 2.0.4, utils 0.59
 Try '??help' for help. See also '?copyright', '?cite' and '?authors'
gap> 

When you leave GAP, you will still be logged in to the container and will need to type exit to close it.

Alternatively, you can just type

docker run --rm -i -t gapsystem/gap-docker gap

to start GAP immediately (and return to the host filesystem after the end of the GAP session). You can put this command in a shell script and make it a default or optional way to start GAP on your system. GAP command line options can be appended after gap, for example

docker run --rm -i -t gapsystem/gap-docker gap -A

However, note that you will not be able to read a file from your local directory into GAP just by supplying the filename in the command line. Instead, this requires using the option -v to mount a local directory. For example, if the current directory contains the subdirectory examples with the file examples/useful.g, then the option -v $PWD/examples:/data will mount examples as /data on the Docker container. That is, to start GAP and read the file examples/useful.g into it, type:

docker run -v $PWD/examples:/data -t -i gapsystem/gap-docker gap /data/useful.g

Note that the path to useful.g is the path in the container, and not in the GAP system.

If you need network access (for example, for packages downloading external data like AtlasRep), call docker with the option --net="host", e.g.:

docker run --rm -i -t --net="host" gapsystem/gap-docker

Combining these options, the following command mounts the directory pkg/scscp/example from the GAP distribution as a directory /scscp on the container and starts the GAP SCSCP server using the configuration file gap-4.X.Y/pkg/scscp/example/myserver.g:

docker run --rm -i -t --net="host" -v ~/gap-4.X.Y/pkg/scscp/example:/scscp gapsystem/gap-docker gap /scscp/myserver.g

It is also possible to access GAP running in this Docker container from a Jupyter notebook in your browser. Use the following command to start a Docker container with a running notebook server:

docker run -p 8888:8888 -i -t gapsystem/gap-docker jupyter notebook --no-browser --ip=0.0.0.0

and then copy and paste the displayed URL into your browser to connect to it.

At the moment, almost all packages are in working order. The only packages which are not usable in this container are:

• PolymakeInterface
• ITC
• XGAP

External software needed by some packages at the moment includes some Ubuntu packages and libraries, and also 4ti2, polymake, Singular and PARI/GP. You can check their exact list in the Dockerfile for the "base" container which is maintained at https://github.com/gap-system/gap-docker-base.