Xnetlib requires release 4 (or later) of X11 and the Athena widget libraries as supplied by MIT. The executable for the xnetlib client requires approximately 800 kilobytes on a Sun SPARCstation2. The locally cached indexes can occupy up to 1 megabyte. One common customization at multi-user sites is to have a single cache of index files so indexing information can be shared by all local users.
The first step in installing xnetlib is to obtain the source code for the xnetlib client. The software for the xnetlib client is itself available from netlib, so a simple way to obtain the source is to send the message send xnetlib.shar from xnetlib to netlib@ornl.gov. Netlib will respond by sending a shar file containing all necessary source code and documentation. Xnetlib is also available by anonymous ftp from netlib2.cs.utk.edu in the xnetlib directory. The xnetlib distribution includes an Imakefile so installation is normally trivial if the X Window System has been configured properly on the client machine.