Working with mesa/star Make as many copies of this work directory as you'd like, name them anything, and put them wherever you'd like. It is a good idea to keep your work directories outside of the mesa directory tree. That will make your life better when you do a fresh checkout of a new mesa version at some point in the future. Edit the 'inlist' file in work to redirect to read 'inlist_project'. There are 3 places where you need to have the filename of the inlist: extra_star_job_inlist1_name = 'inlist_project' extra_controls_inlist1_name = 'inlist_project' extra_pgstar_inlist1_name = 'inlist_project' You might want to rename 'inlist_project' to something more appropriate, such as 'inlist_co_wd' or 'inlist_hot_jupiter' -- if you do, then change the names in 'inlist' to match. Make your work version of star by executing the 'mk' script. ./mk First, it compiles 3 files, placing output in your make directory: src/run_star_extras.f /star/job/run_star.f src/run.f Then it links a lot of things to make your 'star' program. Start your copy of mesa star by running the 'rn' script. Remove the objects and the star program by running 'clean'. Change parameters for star by editing inlist_project. The full set of parameters and default values can be found in the star/defaults directory -- see controls.defaults history_columns.list pgstar.defaults profile_columns.list star_job.defaults If you'd like to call your program something other than 'star', add a line at the top of your makefile defining the variable STAR. E.g., add a line like this before the "include" line. STAR = star_co_wd Then the make will name the executable 'star_co_wd. You'll need to edit your 'rn' and 're' scripts to match the new name.