## Collective variables module (Colvars)

A software module for molecular simulation and analysis that provides a
high-performance implementation of sampling algorithms defined on a reduced
space of continuously differentiable functions (aka collective variables).

The module itself implements a variety of functions and algorithms, including
free-energy estimators based on thermodynamic forces, non-equilibrium work and
probability distributions.


## Documentation

For a brief description see:
  https://colvars.github.io/
  https://github.com/Colvars/colvars/

For the reference manual see:
  http://colvars.github.io/colvars-refman-lammps

A PDF copy is also at:
  doc/PDF/colvars-refman-lammps.pdf

Also available is a Doxygen-based developer documentation:
  http://colvars.github.io/doxygen/html/

The reference article is:
  G. Fiorin, M. L. Klein, and J. Hénin,
  Molecular Physics 111, 3345 (2013).
  https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2013.813594


## Requirements

The Colvars library can be built for the most part with all major versions of
the C++ language.

A few of the most recent features require C++11 support, which is also required
by LAMMPS, so no additional notes are needed.

## How to build (CMake)

This is the recommended build recipe: no additional settings are normally
needed besides "-D PKG_COLVARS=yes".

Linking to the Lepton library, which is also used by the LEPTON LAMMPS package,
is enabled automatically.  Optionally, support for Lepton within Colvars may
be manually controlled with the￼CMake setting "-D COLVARS_LEPTON=yes|no".

## How to build (traditional make)

Colvars no longer supports the traditional make build. Please use CMake.
