6. Help: GSAS-II will not start

While I hope this never happens again, there have been occasions where a version of GSAS-II is placed on the web that has an error that prevents the program from starting. Once that version is installed, it is then not possible to access the Help/Update menu command to obtain the different version of GSAS-II. The same thing can also happen if you make changes to the files yourself and introduce an error. Also, if you make changes to the GSAS-II Python (.py) files, you may no longer be able to obtain updates.

A script is provided that can be used to reset any locally made changes and then install the lastest version of GSAS-II. If you have made changes that you wish to retain, you should make a copy of them either using a utility to place a copy elsewhere, or you can use the git stash, branch or commit commands. The commands below will overwrite your changes with the latest GSAS-II version.

6.1. On windows

At present, two windows .BAT files are created in the directory where GSAS-II is installed, one named Reset2FreshGSASII.bat the other start_G2_bootstrap.bat. Thus, if GSAS-II is installed in directory C:Userstobygsas2full the files will be named C:Userstobygsas2fullReset2FreshGSASII.bat and C:Userstobygsas2fullstart_G2_bootstrap.bat. Either will restore the GSAS-II files, but the Reset2FreshGSASII file, will ask you to confirm before acting. The files can run by locating them in the Windows File Explorer and double-clicking on it or by typing the file name into the cmd.exe window.

6.2. On MacOS and Linux

At the time this is being written, an error prevents the script from running, but this can be corrected by editing the reset-gsasII.sh file manually (see below). Note that this file is placed in the bin directory immediately below the GSAS-II installation directory. Thus, if GSAS-II is installed at location /Users/toby/G2/gsas2full then the file will be named /Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/bin/reset-gsasII.sh. (It will appear in the path if conda is initialized.) Depending on the OS, it may be possible to locate and run this file in a system-supplied file browser, or type the file name into a terminal window.

The error in the script is that the second line is incorrect. If the lines appear as:

# Commands to run GSAS-II load/update process
source /bin/activate base
/Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/bin/python /Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/gitstrap.py --reset

The second line should be changed as follows:

# Commands to run GSAS-II load/update process
source /Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/bin/activate base
/Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/bin/python /Users/toby/G2/gsas2full/gitstrap.py --reset