Add GMT 4 to conda-forge

[mdtanker]

Description of the desired feature
I'm using some software that explicity requires GMT v4. It would be great to be able to install this via conda, as I'm able to do for GMT v5 and v6. Would it be possible to add GMT v4 to the conda-forge feedstock?

• I see there is a release here on GitHub for v4.5.18 which is titled a 'fake' release.
• There is also some info on v4.5.18 on the wiki
• The oldest version on conda right now is 5.3.1

Are you willing to help implement and maintain this feature? Yes/No

If it's trivial, I'm happy to do it, but might need a little guidance. Looking at this commit, which updated the feed-stock from 5.3.1 to 5.3.3 it looks like all that was necessary for udating the hash of the tar.gz file. The tar.gz file is taken from https://ftp.soest.hawaii.edu/gmt/, which also has the file for 4.5.18, so maybe it's as simple as changing the version number and the hash of this file in meta.yaml. Maybe the requirements section would need to change. How do I figure out the requirement versions for v4.5.18?

[github-actions]

👋 Thanks for opening your first issue here! Please make sure you filled out the template with as much detail as possible. We appreciate that you took the time to contribute!

Please make sure you read our Contributing Guide and abide by our Code of Conduct.

[seisman]

maybe it's as simple as changing the version number and the hash of this file in meta.yaml.

Definitely not that simple. GMT 5 and 6 use cmake, while GMT 4 uses make, if I remember it correctly. GMT 4.5.18 was released in 2018, so it may also depend on old versions of netcdf, which may not be available on conda-forge.

[joa-quim]

software that explicity requires GMT v4

Why? I've yet to see a case of this being true. Unless one is using the GMT library directly.

[mdtanker]

It seems like the software is not currently maintained so no one has updated it to use a newer GMT version, but is still used by quite a few groups. The software is LitMod3D, and it has bash scripts that call GMT directly.

[joa-quim]

Found this that says it uses GMT5 https://github.com/javfurchu/LitMod3D_V3.1 Enviado a partir do Outlook para iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

…

________________________________ De: Matt Tankersley ***@***.***> Enviado: Sunday, March 22, 2026 8:39:30 AM Para: GenericMappingTools/gmt ***@***.***> Cc: Joaquim Manuel Freire Luís ***@***.***>; Comment ***@***.***> Assunto: Re: [GenericMappingTools/gmt] Add GMT 4 to conda-forge (Issue #8941) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/81199856?s=20&v=4]mdtanker left a comment (GenericMappingTools/gmt#8941)<#8941 (comment)> It seems like the software is not currently maintained so no one has updated it to use a newer GMT version, but is still used by quite a few groups. The software is LitMod3D, and it has bash scripts that call GMT directly. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#8941?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAEDF2P27YKMJRYL4KXZGNL4R6REFA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJQGU4DCNBUGIYKM4TFMFZW63VHMNXW23LFNZ2KKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-4105814420>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAEDF2MGTMPXW675YUQLLFT4R6REFAVCNFSM6AAAAACW2BH7AKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCMBVHAYTINBSGA>. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mdtanker]

Yeah I noticed that as well but think it's a typo, the actual user manual that comes with the source files explicitily says mandatory GMT v4. I tried with v5 and got lots of errors from GMT. I'll go through them and see if there's anything actually not working, or if they are just deprecation warnings.