Installing libSBML puts copies of the libSBML native object files in appropriate destinations on your computer. (By "native object files", we mean files such as `libsbml.so`, `libsbml.5.dylib`, `libsbml.dll`, etc.) On Mac OS X, this should be enough; a software application should be able to find the libSBML library file(s) when it runs. On Linux and Windows, that may not be enough to let a software application find the libSBML library files—you may need to take additional steps. This may be the case even if your application can find other libSBML components such as the language-specific interface (e.g., the libSBML JAR file in the Java case, or the `libsbml.py` file in the Python case).

If your run-time environment and the run-time environment for your software applications do not know to look in the directory where libSBML was installed, programs that require libSBML will fail to run and report errors about being unable to find libSBML.

### How to configure most Linux platforms

There are two common approaches to solving the problem under Linux.

1. Using `ldconfig`: Run the program `ldconfig` as user 'root' on your computer. (Please consult the man page for `ldconfig` if this is unfamiliar.) This will configure the system for all users.
2. Setting environment variables: Ensure that each user sets the environment variable `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` in their terminal shells. If you downloaded a ready-to-run libSBML installer, the default where the libSBML library is installed is `/usr/local/lib`. If you built libSBML yourself using CMake, the path consists of `/lib` appended to the value used for the `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` configuration variable. If you built libSBML using GNU make, the path is DIR`/lib`, where DIR is the value used for the configuration option `--prefix=`DIR.

   For example, suppose you used the default installation prefix `/usr/local/`. Then in csh-based command shells under Linux, you may have to set the variable as follows (perhaps in your `.cshrc` file):

       setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib

### How to configure Microsoft Windows platforms:

Set the `PATH` environment variable to include the directory of the libSBML native library. To set an environmental variable in Windows, use the System option in the Windows Control Panel.