IGL

Isotope Geochemistry Language, a text format for isotopic process models



Describes IGL 0.5. Page revision 1.0, 2026-07-31.

Download

Two installers on the model of PHREEQC: the command line tool and the editor, installed and updated apart but into the same directory, so the editor finds the engine beside itself without either being told where the other went.

Windows installers are signed. The signature identifies the distributor, not an owner of the language; a binary you compile yourself is no less valid.

Latest release

Version 0.1.0.

PlatformWhatFileSizeSHA-256
Windows Command line tool igl-0.1.0-windows-x64.exe 2.5 MiB 83965afc4795485b…
Windows IGLi editor IGLi-0.1.0-windows-x64.exe 5.8 MiB 19a81362d69c9182…

Digests are published so a download can be checked before it is run:

certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256      (Windows)
sha256sum <file>                      (Linux)

Installing on Windows

Both installers place their files in %ProgramFiles%\IGL\. Run the command line installer first if you intend to use both: the editor looks for the engine in its own directory before anything else, and it will say so if it finds none.

The command line installer also places the fractionation databases in %ProgramFiles%\IGL\databases\. A model naming a database without a path is answered from there, which is what lets file "cr_53cr_52cr.igdb" run on another machine. A model naming a path keeps its own file, and one beside the model always wins.

Installing on Linux

The archive contains the binaries and the databases. There is no installer: place them where you keep local software and put the directory on your PATH.

tar xzf igl-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo cp -r igl-<version>-linux-x86_64 /opt/igl
export PATH="/opt/igl:$PATH"
export IGL_DATABASES=/opt/igl/databases

IGL_DATABASES is what answers a database named without a path. Without it, only a path relative to the model is searched.

Building from source

The reference engine and the command line tool build with a Rust toolchain and nothing else, on the three platforms. That is deliberate: an engine whose value rests on being readable end to end cannot also require a numerical stack.

git clone https://github.com/ColinFerrari/igl
cd igl
cargo build --release

The editor is the one part with a system dependency, and only on Linux, where a windowing stack is not something a Rust toolchain brings with it:

sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev \
  libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev

Earlier releases

None yet.