How to Install Network Simulator (NS) on Fedora Core/Ubuntu Linux

It’s most easy task. Just applying couple of commands you can complete the installation and work with NS on Linux.

I recommend to use NS on Linux because I think cygwin isn’t a enough software to resolve all linux features on Windows. Obviously there are some wrong workarounds on cygwin.

Now follow these steps to install ns on Linux

• Download ns-allinone package from nsnam sourceforge project page. Or download directly version 2.34 from here.
  
  
• After downloading extract the packages. To do this open gnome-terminal; press Alt + F2 and type exactly gnome-terminal there and hit enter. Then apply following commands.
  
  

  $ tar xzvf ns-allinone-2.34.tar.gz

  
  
  
• Now change directory and run ns `install` script applying following commands
  
  

  $ cd ns-allinone-2.34 $ ./install

  
  
  It will display a lot of information on the screen configuring, building and installing packages one after one. It might take around 10 minutes depending on your Computer’s speed. After installation is complete the screen will display information about installation paths of different packages.
  
  

  $ ./install ..................................................................... ..................................................................... Ns-allinone package has been installed successfully. Here are the installation places: tcl8.4.18: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/{bin,include,lib} tk8.4.18: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/{bin,include,lib} otcl: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/otcl-1.13 tclcl: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tclcl-1.19 ns: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/ns-2.34/ns nam: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/nam-1.14/nam gt-itm: /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/itm, edriver, sgb2alt, sgb2ns, sgb2comns, sgb2hierns --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please put /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/bin:/home/Saint/Softs/\ ns-allinone-2.34/tcl8.4.18/unix:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tk8.4.18\ /unix into your PATH environment; so that you'll be able to run itm/tclsh/wish/xgraph. IMPORTANT NOTICES: (1) You MUST put /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/otcl-1.13, /home/Saint/\ Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/lib, into your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If it complains about X libraries, add path to your X libraries into LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If you are using csh, you can set it like: setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH <paths> If you are using sh, you can set it like: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<paths> (2) You MUST put /home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tcl8.4.18/library into your TCL_LIBRARY environmental variable. Otherwise ns/nam will complain during startup.

  
  This information is necessary because, you need to include them on your PATH variable.
  
  
• To set your PATH correctly follow this format
  
  

  $ PATH=$PATH:PATH_SUGGESTED_BY_INSTALLED_NS

  
  
  where PATH_SUGGESTED_BY_INSTALLED_NS has to be replaced with the path displayed at the end of installation of NS.
  
  For example in my case it is:
  
  

  PATH=$PATH:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/bin:/home/Saint/Softs/\ ns-allinone-2.34/tcl8.4.18/unix:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tk8.4.18/\ unix

  
  
  
• To make it permanent append following line to .bashrc file (you can open this file using this command: `gedit ~/.bashrc &`)
  
  

  export PATH=$PATH:PATH_SUGGESTED_BY_INSTALLED_NS

  
  In my case it is:
  
  

  export PATH=$PATH:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/bin:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tcl8.4.18/unix:/home/Saint/Softs/ns-allinone-2.34/tk8.4.18/unix

  
  
  
• After PATH is set correctly you can now work with NS. Simply type ns on terminal to run the simulator.
  
  

  $ ./ns % set a 4 4 % puts $a 4 % exit

Some NS Commands

% set a 4
     This command sets value 4 to variable $a

% puts $a
     Prints the value of variable a
     
% puts "[expr $a*$a]"
     prints a*a if variable a is previously defined
     
% exit
     This commands exits the interpreter
     
% # comment
     # is used for commenting

% set fp [open test.txt w]
     opens a file handle to fp
     
% puts $fp "This is a test"
     To print in file handled by fp

% puts -nonewline "test"
     print with no newline