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3. The Castor GitHub Directory

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ElizabethKleynhans edited this page Apr 15, 2026 · 7 revisions

The Castor Directory

Castor is not a self-contained piece of software with a sophisticated graphical user interface. Thus, at the outset, it can appear complex to new users. Here we provide an overview of the Castor program 'structure' to simplify navigation of the program code.

The Castor code structure is complex, as it contains a lot of analysis code that are peripheral to running the Castor model. However, to most users, much of this code can be ignored, unless you are interested in understanding some of the more detailed analyses completed to parameterize the Castor model.

Castor Version Control

All of the programming code needed to run Castor is available on GitHub, an internet repository for developing software code. To run the Castor code on a local computer, you will need to clone the repository code to that computer. Once you have downloaded the code (called a pull), you can make changes to it on your local version, track and save these changes using Git version control software (called a commit), and then, if necessary, upload (called a push) the code back to the GitHub repository. The technology is designed to support version control and collaborative programming, and may take some time for new users to get used to. For more details on how to use this technology, see our Quick Start tutorial.

Castor GitHub - Table of Contents

Below we provide a table of contents with links to the GitHub code to help you navigate the Castor program. If you navigate to the Castor GitHub repository, you will see a typical folder directory in the "Code" tab, including the following folders:

  • modules - contains the required modules to run castor
  • documentation - contains R Markdown scripts that describe various aspects of Castor. Much of the documentation has been or currently is being moved to this wiki. However, importantly, it contains a Quick Start Tutorial for new users to get up and running with a Castor model.
  • functions - this folder contains various ancillary scripts. Most of them are required to support and streamline the geoprocessing tasks used within Castor.

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