.. _getting_started:

Getting Started
===============


SNL-SWAN is a modification of the open source spectral wave mode, SWAN. Use of the baseline features of the SNL code in SNL-SWAN is the same. For more information on the SWAN code, and how to setup and run baseline SWAN models, please refer to the SWAN website and online documentation: http://swanmodel.sourceforge.net/


Downloading SNL-SWAN
------------------------
SNL-SWAN is distributed through the `SNL-SWAN GitHub site <https://github.com/SNL-WaterPower/SNL-SWAN>`_. There are three ways of obtaining the SNL-SWAN code, each of which are described in this section.
 
Option 1: Clone with GitHub (Recommended for Users)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SNL-SWAN can be obtained by cloning the repository with Git::

	git clone https://github.com/SNL-WaterPower/SNL-SWAN

This method is recommended for most users because it makes it easy to update your local version of SNL-SWAN to the latest version using Git's pull command::

	git pull

Option 2: Fork with Git (Recommended for Developers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are planning to contribute to the SNL-SWAN code, please follow the `forking instructions <https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/>`_  provided by GitHub. Should you make improvements to the code that you would like included in the SNL-SWAN master code, please make a `pull request <https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/>`_ so that your improvement can be merged into `SNL-SWAN master <https://github.com/SNL-WaterPower/SNL-SWAN>`_, and included in future releases.

Option 3: Static Code Download 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The easiest way to obtain a copy of SNL-SWAN is to download the latest tagged release of the SNL-SWAN code available on Github, `SNL-SWAN Release <https://github.com/SNL-WaterPower/SNL-SWAN/releases>`_.

.. Note::
	This is a static download of the SNL-SWAN code. If you chose this method, you will have to re-download the code in order to receive code updates.