Get Started

Install GCModeller

GCModeller runs as a program distribution inside an Ubuntu Linux Docker container and is driven through R# scripting: R# code imports the GCModeller library modules and wires them into complete workflows. One pull, and the whole environment is on your machine.

01

Pull the container image

terminal — bash
$ docker pull xieguigang/gcmodeller-env

The xieguigang/gcmodeller-env image bundles the Linux toolchain that GCModeller drives, including the MEME suite for motif analysis and Mothur for OTU construction, on top of the GCModeller runtime and its R# script environment. All tagged versions are listed on the Docker Hub tags page.

02

Start a workspace container

terminal — bash
$ mkdir work
$ docker run -it --rm -v "$PWD/work:/workspace" xieguigang/gcmodeller-env

This opens an interactive Ubuntu Linux session with your local work/ folder mounted at /workspace. Files written there persist on the host after the container exits. For long-running analyses, run the container detached (-d) and attach as needed.

03

Script your workflow in R#

workflow.R — R# script (illustrative)
# R# scripting: GCModeller modules are imported as libraries
imports "genomics" from "gcmodeller";

# annotate a genome, then feed the result downstream —
# every stage of the workflow is a scriptable function call
let ORFs  = prodigal("/workspace/genome.fna");
print(ORFs);

The snippet above is illustrative — the exact module and function names, together with their parameters and runnable examples, are documented module by module in the R# vignettes, which serve as the complete API reference for scripting GCModeller.

04

Requirements & notes

◆

Docker 20.10+

Runs on Linux servers natively, and on macOS or Windows through Docker Desktop. No other runtime dependency is required on the host.

◇

Ubuntu Linux container

GCModeller is developed and shipped as an Ubuntu Linux program distribution; the container guarantees a consistent environment on every machine.

◈

Open source · GPL-3.0

Source code is public at GitHub. Some GCModeller features require these Linux tools even when the host runs Windows — the container is the recommended way to run everything.

Star on GitHub ↗ Next: the Documentation →