Merge branch 'master' of ssh://opencfd@repo.or.cz/srv/git/OpenFOAM-1.5.x

[OpenFOAM-1.5.x.git] / README

#                            -*- mode: org; -*-
#
#+TITLE:             *OpenFOAM README for version 1.5*
#+AUTHOR:                      OpenCFD Ltd.
#+DATE:                        14 July 2008
#+LINK:                  http://www.opencfd.co.uk
#+OPTIONS: author:nil

* Copyright
  OpenFOAM is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
  terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
  Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
  version.  See the file COPYING in this directory, for a description of the GNU
  General Public License terms under which you can copy the files.

* System requirements
  OpenFOAM is developed and tested on Linux, but should work with other Unix
  style systems.  To check your system setup, execute the foamSystemCheck script
  in the bin/ directory of the OpenFOAM installation. If no problems are
  reported, proceed to "3. Installation"; otherwise contact your system
  administrator.

  If the user wishes to run OpenFOAM in 32/64-bit mode they should consult the
  section "Running OpenFOAM in 32-bit mode".

*** Qt (from http://trolltech.com/products/qt)
    The ParaView 3.3 visualisation package requires that Qt version 4.3.x MUST
    be installed on the system.  Earlier or more recent versions (4.2.x or
    4.4.x) will NOT work.  To check whether Qt4 is installed, and the version,
    type:
    + qmake --version

    The ParaView binary executables in the ThirdParty distribution will only
    work with PRECISELY the same version of Qt with which it was compiled.  The
    64-bit version of ParaView was compiled with Qt-4.3.1 (with openSuSE-10.3)
    and the 32-bit version of ParaView was compiled with Qt-4.3.2 (with
    ubuntu-7.10).  If the user finds that a ParaView binary fails to run, then
    it is almost certainly due to a conflict in compiled and installed Qt
    versions and they will need to consult the section below on "Compiling
    ParaView and the PV3FoamReader module."

    The default versions of Qt used by some GNU/Linux releases are as follows.
    + ubuntu-7.10:   Version 4.3.2
    + ubuntu-8.04:   Version 4.3.4
    + openSuSE-10.2: Version 4.2.1 - too old
    + openSuSE-10.3: Version 4.3.1
    + openSuSE-11.0: Version 4.4.0 - too new

    Compilation and running of ParaView has been successful using the libraries
    downloaded in the "libqt4-dev" package on ubuntu.

    If you don't have an appropriate version of Qt installed you can download
    the sources from TrollTech e.g.:
    ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/qt-x11-opensource-src-4.3.5.tar.bz2
    and compile and install in /usr/local or some other location that does to
    conflict with the pre-installed version.

* Installation
  Download and unpack the files in the $HOME/OpenFOAM directory as described in:
  http://www.OpenFOAM.org/download.html

  The environment variable settings are contained in files in an etc/ directory
  in the OpenFOAM release. e.g. in

  + $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-<VERSION>/etc/
  + where <VERSION> corresponds to the version 1.4, 1.5, ...

  1) EITHER, if running bash or ksh (if in doubt type 'echo $SHELL'), source the
    etc/bashrc file by adding the following line to the end of your
    $HOME/.bashrc file:

    + . $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-<VERSION>/etc/bashrc

    Then update the environment variables by sourcing the $HOME/.bashrc file by
    typing in the terminal:

    + . $HOME/.bashrc

  2) OR, if running tcsh or csh, source the etc/cshrc file by adding the
    following line to the end of your $HOME/.cshrc file:

    + source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-<VERSION>/etc/cshrc

    Then update the environment variables by sourcing the $HOME/.cshrc file by
    typing in the terminal:

    + source $HOME/.cshrc

*** Installation in alternative locations
    OpenFOAM may also be installed in alternative locations. However, the
    installation directory should be network available (e.g., NFS) if parallel
    calculations are planned.

    The environment variable 'FOAM_INST_DIR' can be used to find and source the
    appropriate resource file. Here is a bash/ksh/sh example:

    + export FOAM_INST_DIR=/data/app/OpenFOAM
    + foamDotFile=$FOAM_INST_DIR/OpenFOAM-<VERSION>/etc/bashrc
    + [ -f $foamDotFile ] && . $foamDotFile

    and a csh/tcsh example:

    + setenv FOAM_INST_DIR /data/app/OpenFOAM
    + foamDotFile=$FOAM_INST_DIR/OpenFOAM-<VERSION>/etc/bashrc
    + if ( -f $foamDotFile ) source $foamDotFile

    The value set in '$FOAM_INST_DIR' will be used to locate the remaining parts
    of the OpenFOAM installation.

* Building from Sources (Optional)
  If you cannot find an appropriate binary pack for your platform, you can build
  the complete OpenFOAM from the source-pack.  You will first need to compile or
  obtain a recent version of gcc (we recomend gcc-4.3.?) for your platform,
  which may be obtained from http://gcc.gnu.org/.

  Install the compiler in
  $WM_PROJECT_INST_DIR/ThirdParty/gcc-<GCC_VERSION>/platforms/$WM_ARCH$WM_COMPILER_ARCH/
  and change the gcc version number in $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/settings.sh and
  $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/settings.csh appropriately and finally update the
  environment variables as in section 3.

  Now go to the top-level source directory $WM_PROJECT_DIR and execute the
  top-level build script './Allwmake'.  In principle this will build everything,
  but if problems occur with the build order it may be necessary to update the
  environment variables and re-execute 'Allwmake'. If you experience
  difficulties with building the source-pack, or your platform is not currently
  supported, please contact <enquiries@OpenCFD.co.uk> to negotiate a support
  contract and we will do the port and maintain it for future releases.

* Testing the installation
  To check your installation setup, execute the 'foamInstallationTest' script
  (in the bin/ directory of the OpenFOAM installation). If no problems are
  reported, proceed to getting started with OpenFOAM; otherwise, go back and
  check you have installed the software correctly and/or contact your system
  administrator.

* Getting Started
  Create a project directory within the $HOME/OpenFOAM directory named
  <USER>-<VERSION> (e.g. 'chris-1.5' for user chris and OpenFOAM version 1.5)
  and create a directory named 'run' within it, e.g. by typing:

  + mkdir -p $HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-${WM_PROJECT_VERSION}/run

  Copy the 'tutorial' examples directory in the OpenFOAM distribution to the
  'run' directory.  If the OpenFOAM environment variables are set correctly,
  then the following command will be correct:

  + cp -r $WM_PROJECT_DIR/tutorials
    $HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-${WM_PROJECT_VERSION}/run

  Run the first example case of incompressible laminar flow in a cavity:

  + cd $HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-${WM_PROJECT_VERSION}/run/tutorials/icoFoam/cavity
  + blockMesh
  + icoFoam
  + paraFoam

* Compiling Paraview 3.3 and the PV3FoamReader module
  A version of Qt 4.3.x must be installed to compile ParaView.  The compilation
  is a fairly simple process using the supplied buildParaView3.3-cvs script that
  has worked is our tests with other packages supplied in the ThirdParty
  directory, namely cmake-2.4.6 and gcc-4.3.1.  Execute the following:
  + cd $FOAM_INST_DIR/ThirdParty
  + rm -rf ParaView3.3-cvs/platforms
  + buildParaView3.3-cvs

  The PV3FoamReader module is an OpenFOAM utility that can be compiled in the
  usual manner as follows:
  + cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV3FoamReader
  + ./Allwclean
  + ./Allwmake

* Documentation
  http://www.OpenFOAM.org/doc

* Help
  http://www.OpenFOAM.org http://www.OpenFOAM.org/discussion.html

* Reporting Bugs in OpenFOAM
  http://www.OpenFOAM.org/bugs.html

* Running OpenFOAM in 32-bit mode on 64-bit machines
  Linux users with a 64-bit machine may install either the OpenFOAM 32-bit
  version (linux) or the OpenFOAM 64-bit version (linux64), or both.  The 64-bit
  is the default mode on a 64-bit machine.  To use an installed 32-bit version,
  the user must set the environment variable WM_ARCH_OPTION to 32 before
  sourcing the etc/bashrc (or etc/cshrc) file.