1 {project} Installation Instructions for Version {fullver}
2 =========================================================
3 Michael Wild <themiwi@users.sourceforge.net>
5 v{fullver}, {localdate}
8 :apidoc: {homepage}/doc/Doxygen/html
9 :asciidoc: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc[Asciidoc]
10 :bash: http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/[BASH]
11 :cd-adapco: http://www.cd-adapco.com[CD-adapco]
12 :debian: http://debian.org[Debian]
13 :emacs: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs[Emacs]
14 :libccmio: https://wci.llnl.gov/codes/visit/3rd_party/libccmio-2.6.1.tar.gz
15 :linuxcommand: http://linuxcommand.org
16 :metis: http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/fetch/sw/metis/metis-5.0pre2.tar.gz
17 :mgridgen: http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~moulitsa/download/ParMGridGen-1.0.tar.gz
18 :parmetis: http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/fetch/sw/parmetis/ParMetis-3.1.tar.gz
19 :scotch: http://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/freefoam/ThirdParty/scotch/scotch_5.1.7.dfsg.orig.tar.gz
20 :tarball: http://master.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/freefoam/freefoam-{fullver}.tar.bz2
21 :zlib: http://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/freefoam/ThirdParty/zlib/zlib-1.2.5.tar.gz
22 :zsh: http://www.zsh.org/[ZSH]
24 Obtaining the Prerequisites
25 ---------------------------
26 Some of the libraries {project} requires (or optionally can use) are often not
27 readily available as an installable package and are quite tricky to install
28 manually. {project} can automatically download and build these libraries for
29 you, refer to below instructions. However, if you are behinde a firewall or
30 CMake is unable to download a source package, you can do so manually and place
31 the files in the 'ThirdParty' directory in the {project} source tree. When you
32 run CMake, it will detect the presence of the files and not try to download
35 You can obtain the source packages from the following URLs:
52 - Install the prerequisites documented in the link:README.html[README] file. If
53 your distribution does not have 'METIS', 'ParMetis', 'MGRIDGEN' or 'libccmio'
54 be not worried, {project} can handle those for you.
55 - Download the {project} source and unpack it somewhere convenient. For the
56 further instructions we will use +$HOME/Source/+.
58 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
59 $ mkdir -p $HOME/Source
62 $ tar xjf freefoam-{fullver}.tar.bz2
63 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
64 - Create a build tree and _cd_ into it:
67 $ mkdir $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build
68 $ cd $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build
70 - Start CMake-configuration:
73 $ ccmake $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}
75 - Press the +c+ key. Use the arrow keys to navigate up and down and press
76 +enter+ to edit a field. To commit the change, press +enter+ again, or +ESC+
77 to abandon the change. ON/OFF fields are toggled by pressing +enter+.
78 Advanced options can be displayed by hitting the +t+ key.
79 * Set +CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE+ to 'Release' for an optimized build.
80 * If CMake complains that it can't find MPI, and you don't want to install
81 it, disable +FOAM_USE_MPI+.
82 * Select the default Pstream implementation by setting +FOAM_DEFAULT_PSTREAM+
83 to one of 'dummy' or 'mpi'. This setting will only influence the contents
84 of the <<globalconfig,global 'controlDict' file>>.
85 * If you want to use the 'metis' and 'parmetis' decomposition methods, make
86 sure that +FOAM_ENABLE_METIS+ and +FOAM_ENABLE_PARMETIS+ are enabled,
87 respectively. If you do not have 'METIS' or 'ParMetis' installed, enable
88 +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_METIS+ or +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_PARMETIS+, respectively.
89 CMake will then try to download and build the selected libraries for you.
90 Conversely, if one of the libraries is provided by your system, you can
91 turn the respective setting to 'OFF'. Please note that if your system
92 provides only 'ParMetis', you do not have to install 'METIS', as the former
93 also contains 'METIS' in an older version.
94 * If you want to use the 'MGridGen' agglomeration method for the GAMG solver,
95 you need to enable +FOAM_ENABLE_MGRIDGEN+ and if the library is not
96 installed on your system ensure that +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_MGRIDGEN+ is
97 enabled. See <<enable-mgridgen,above>> regarding the unknown license status
99 * In order to build 'ccm26ToFoam', a conversion utility for grids generated
100 with 'ProStar/ccm' (C) version 2.6, enable the setting
101 +FOAM_ENABLE_CCMIO+ and if 'libccmio' is not installed on your system,
102 also +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_CCMIO+. Refer to the <<enable-ccmio,above>>
103 description of the 'libccmio' package for the license restrictions which
104 apply to this package. If you decide to build a private version, please
105 read the description of <<private-ccmio,+FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_CCMIO>>
107 * If you plan on installing {project}, set +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+ to the base
108 directory under which {project} should reside.
109 * For more fine-grained control over what gets installed where, adjust
110 +FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH+, +FOAM_INSTALL_HEADER_PATH+,
111 +FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH+, +FOAM_INSTALL_FRAMEWORK_PATH+,
112 +FOAM_INSTALL_PVFOAMREADER_PATH+ and +FOAM_INSTALL_USERDFOAM_PATH+. Paths
113 not starting with a slash ('/') will be relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'.
114 If you include a leading slash, the paths are absolute.
115 * If you want {project} to use 'float' as the floating point type instead of
116 'double', change +FOAM_DOUBLE_PRECISION+ to 'OFF'.
117 - Hit +c+ again. You shouldn't get any errors anymore now. Keep pressing +c+
118 until ccmake displays "++Press [g] to generate and exit++" in the legend at
119 the bottom of the interface.
120 - Press +g+ to generate the Makefiles and exit the ccmake interface.
121 - Start the native build tool. If you used the 'Makefile' generator
122 (which is the default for Unix-platforms), type
127 - If you have a multi-core/processor machine, you can speed things up
128 significantly by telling Make to run independent jobs in parallel.
129 A good choice for the number of parallel jobs to run is the
130 number of CPU's/cores you have in your machine plus 1 (to compensate
131 for disk-latency). For a typical dual-core machine, run
139 If you want to, you can now install {project}. Depending on the
140 +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+ and the individual +FOAM_INSTALL_*_PATH+ it is possible
141 that you have to do this as root, i.e. use +su+ or +sudo+.
148 If you didn't change +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+ and +FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH+ chances
149 are that you can start using {project} right after you installed it without any
150 further steps being necessary.
153 Global Configuration Files
154 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
155 Unfortunately the OpenFOAM library (on which {project} builds) and some
156 applications require some files to be present for start-up. It finds those
157 in the following places (in the specified order, picking the first hit):
159 1. Under the directory specified in the +$FREEFOAM_CONFIG_DIR+ environment
161 2. In '$HOME/.{project}/{shortver}'
162 3. In '$HOME/.{project}'
163 4. In the installation directory of the configuration files. There are
164 two possible places for this:
166 '<CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/<FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH>':: if you specified
167 +<FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH>+ as a relative path.
168 '<FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH>':: if you specified +<FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH>+
171 The default location is '/usr/local/etc/{project}-{ver}'.
173 Selecting the Parallel Communications Library
174 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
175 Both, {project} and OpenFOAM abstract the parallel operations into the
176 'Pstream' library, making it rather simple to firstly switch between parallel
177 implementations and secondly port the software to a new communications library.
178 However, {project} uses a much more flexible mechanism of determining which
179 'Pstream' implementation library to use than OpenFOAM. The latter does this by
180 adjusting the +LD_LIBRARY_PATH+ environment variable. As {project} wants to be
181 a well behaved Linux citizen, this is not an option. Instead, {project}
182 dynamically loads the desired 'Pstream' library at startup (i.e. as a plug-in).
183 The following list details how {project} determines what library to load (if at
186 1. If the environment variable +FREEFOAM_PSTREAM_LIBRARY+ is set,
187 {project} will try to load the library specified by it.
188 2. If the sub-dictionary +PstreamImplementation+ exists in the global
189 'controlDict' file (see <<globalconfig,'Global Configuration Files'>>), it
190 reads the value of the entry +configName+ therein. It then expects that a
191 sub-dictionary of +PstreamImplementation+ with the name specified in
192 +configName+ exists. If that sub-dictionary contains the entry +library+, it
193 will try to load a library specified by the value of that entry.
195 After {project} (possibly) loaded the library, it will try to instantiate
196 concrete implementations of the abstract base classes +PstreamImpl+,
197 +IPstreamImpl+ and +OPstreamImpl+. Which classes are to be instantiated
198 is determined as follows:
200 1. {project} queries the environment variables +FREEFOAM_PSTREAM_CLASS+,
201 +FREEFOAM_IPSTREAM_CLASS+ and +FREEFOAM_OPSTREAM_CLASS+ for the class
202 names to be instantiated.
203 2. For any of the variables not set, it requires the sub-dictionary
204 +PstreamImplementation+ to be present in the global 'controlDict', reads the
205 value of +configName+ and similarly to the library loading, loads the
206 sub-dictionary specified by that value. It then expects to find the entries
207 +Pstream+, +IPstream+ and +OPstream+ which specify the names of the classes
210 This means that one can create a global 'controlDict' file containing
211 (among other things) something like the following:
214 PstreamImplementation
221 library libdummyPstream.so;
222 Pstream dummyPstreamImpl;
223 OPstream dummyOPstreamImpl;
224 IPstream dummyIPstreamImpl;
229 library libmpiPstream.so;
230 Pstream mpiPstreamImpl;
231 OPstream mpiOPstreamImpl;
232 IPstream mpiIPstreamImpl;
238 This way the administrator can provide a global 'controlDict' in the {project}
239 installation. Every user can then override that 'controlDict' by supplying her
240 own file in her home directory as detailed in <<globalconfig,'Global
241 Configuration Files'>>. In order to select a particular 'Pstream'
242 implementation for a specific communications library, the user can then either
243 adjust the +PstreamImplementation::configName+ entry in the global
244 'controlDict' file, set the +FREEFOAM_PSTREAM_CONFIG+ variable or for full
245 control, set the variables +FREEFOAM_PSTREAM_LIBRARY+,
246 +FREEFOAM_PSTREAM_CLASS+, +FREEFOAM_IPSTREAM_CLASS+ and
247 +FREEFOAM_OPSTREAM_CLASS+.
249 Running {project} From the Build Tree
250 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
251 You can use {project} without installing it first, directly from the build
252 tree. However, this might take a little bit more effort to set up because most
253 likely you will have to adjust the following environment variables:
256 Must contain '$HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/bin'
258 Must contain '$HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/lib/{project}-{ver}'
259 `FREEFOAM_CONFIG_DIR`::
260 Should point to '$HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/etc'
262 Where it is assumed that you followed the <<installation,installation
263 instructions>>. If you used different paths for downloading and compiling
264 {project}, you will have to adjust these names. Refer to
265 <<environment,'Extending Search Paths And Setting Environment Variables
266 Permanently'>> if you need help setting these variables.
268 Running the tutorials
269 ---------------------
270 Now you should be able to run the tutorial cases. For this copy the +tutorials+
271 directory to some convenient place:
273 $ mkdir -p $HOME/{project}/$LOGNAME-{shortver}/run
274 $ cp -r $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/tutorials \
275 $HOME/{project}/$LOGNAME-{shortver}/run/
276 $ cd $HOME/{project}/$LOGNAME-{shortver}/run/tutorials
278 And try to run e.g. the 'cavity' tutorial case:
281 $ freefoam blockMesh -case cavity
282 $ freefoam checkMesh -case cavity
283 $ freefoam ico -case cavity
285 Things should run smoothly and finish without an error.
287 All the tutorials contain a script for automatic execution since some of the
288 cases are quite intricate and it is not obvious how to run them. Also, these
289 scripts are used for automated testing. The scripts are called 'Allrun', where
290 the one located in the 'tutorials' directory is a driver script to run all the
293 Obtaining the Source Code from the GIT repository
294 -------------------------------------------------
295 - Clone the {project} repository (here the clone is placed in
296 +$HOME/Source/{project}+):
298 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
299 $ mkdir -p $HOME/Source
300 $ git clone git://repo.or.cz/freefoam.git $HOME/Source/{project}
301 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
302 - Proceed in the same way (replacing the path names apropriately) as in the
303 above build instructions.
305 Shell completion scripts
306 ------------------------
307 {project} comes with completions scripts for the
308 {bash} and {zsh} shells.
309 The former is quite simplistic and only offers very basic completion of the
310 available application names. The ZSH completion, however, is quite complete and
311 also completes options and arguments for all applications. These completion
312 functions are not installed by +make install+, because no two systems have the
313 same locations for these kinds of scripts. You find them for manual
314 installation in the {project} sources in the directory
315 'data/shellFunctions/bashCompletion' and 'data/shellFunctions/zshCompletion'
316 respectively. Please refer to the documentation of your system/shell on where
321 {project} includes a rudimentary major mode for the
322 {emacs} programming editor. If you want to use
323 this mode, place the file 'data/editor-modes/foamdict-mode.el' in a directory
324 where your Emacs installation finds it. Please refer to the Emacs documentation
325 for further instructions.
327 Build Configuration Reference
328 -----------------------------
331 One of '<empty>', 'Debug', 'Release', 'RelWithDebInfo' and 'MinSizeRel'.
332 Refer to the CMake documentation for more detail.
333 +FOAM_DOUBLE_PRECISION+::
334 If set to 'ON' {project} will be compiled using 'double' as the
335 floating point type. If set to 'OFF' it will use 'float'.
336 +FOAM_BUILD_FRAMEWORKS+::
337 If this is enabled, the libraries are built as frameworks. Only available on
340 Prefix used to mangle application names. Normally this shouldn't be changed.
341 +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+::
342 Installation prefix under which to install {project}.
343 +FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH+::
344 Installation path of the binaries. If not absolute, it is relative to
345 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'.
346 +FOAM_INSTALL_LIBEXEC_PATH+::
347 Installation path of the binaries which should not be on the +PATH+. If not
348 absolute, it is relative to +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+.
349 +FOAM_INSTALL_CONFIG_PATH+::
350 Installation path of the configuration files. If not absolute, it is
351 relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'.
352 +FOAM_INSTALL_HEADER_PATH+::
353 Installation path of the header files. If not absolute, it is
354 relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'. On Mac OS X, and if
355 'FOAM_BUILD_FRAMEWORKS' is enabled, this setting is ignored.
356 +FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH+::
357 Installation path of the libraries. If not absolute, it is
358 relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'.
359 +FOAM_INSTALL_FRAMEWORK_PATH+::
360 Installation path of the Mac OS X frameworks. If not absolute, it is
361 relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'. This is only available and takes
362 effect if {project} is compiled on Mac OS X, and if
363 'FOAM_BUILD_FRAMEWORKS' is enabled.
364 +FOAM_INSTALL_USERDFOAM_PATH+::
365 Installation path of the Ensight plug-in. If not absolute, it is
366 relative to 'CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX'.
368 If enabled, {project} will use the MPI parallel communications library.
369 This is required in order to build some of the libraries and utilities.
370 +FOAM_DEFAULT_PSTREAM+::
371 The default Pstream selection in the global 'controlDict' file.
373 +FOAM_ENABLE_CCMIO+::
374 Enable the use of 'libccmio'. This is required to build the grid conversion
375 utility 'ccm26ToFoam'.
378 The license of 'libccmio' (C) is proprietary and requires the consent of the
379 copyright holders ({cd-adapco}) to download and use the
380 library. Further it is not allowed to redistribute it in any form. The request
381 for permission of inclusion with {debian} was answered as
382 follows by mailto:geoffrey.prewett@us.cd-adapco.com[Geoffrey Prewett]:
384 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
387 Sorry for the delay in response. I checked back with our development director,
388 and he felt that it would be best to not include libccmio with Debian.
389 Instead, we would prefer to continue our current policy and keep it on our
390 web/FTP and have people ask for it. There are three reasons for this:
392 1) We don't support STAR on Debian, and don't want to give the impression that
394 2) We would like to keep a list of people that we give the library to.
395 3) This is not a general purpose library; its sole purpose is to communicate
396 between our products. Accepting outside changes risks committing a change that
397 would break our own software in possibly subtle ways.
399 So I regret to tell you that my company has declined to permit libccmio to be
400 distributed as part of Debian.
404 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
407 +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_CCMIO+::
408 Automatically download and build libccmio. Unfortunately this process may
409 fail in the download step if CMake cannot find either 'wget' or 'curl' on
410 your system, since CMake itself currently does not support 'https' URLs. If
411 this happens, the build process will abort. To fix the issue, Download the
412 file {libccmio} manually and place it in +ThirdParty/ccmio/src+ (relative to
413 the build directory). It is important that you re-run CMake *before*
414 restarting the build in order to notify the build system that the file is now
416 +FOAM_ENABLE_METIS+::
417 Enable the use of the 'METIS' graph partitioning library which is required to
418 implement the 'metis' decomposition method.
419 +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_METIS+::
420 Automatically download and build 'METIS'.
421 +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_PARMETIS+::
422 Automatically download and build 'ParMetis'.
424 +FOAM_ENABLE_MGRIDGEN+::
425 Enable the use of 'MGRIDGEN' which is required to build
426 'MGridGenGamgAgglomeration' providing the 'MGridGen' agglomeration method for
430 The license of 'MGRIDGEN' is unknown and the upstream authors so far have not
431 answered any inquiries to resolve the issue. If you enable the use of
432 'MGRIDGEN' you alone are responsible for ensuring that you don't violate any
433 license conditions applying to these libraries. The authors of {project} will
434 and cannot take any responsibility for your actions.
436 +FOAM_BUILD_PRIVATE_MGRIDGEN+::
437 Automatically download and build 'MGRIDGEN'.
438 +FOAM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_DOCS+::
439 Enable building of the 'Doxygen API documentation'. The documentation will
440 only be built once and is not updated automatically. This is because it
441 depends on a huge number of files and would make dependency tracking very
442 slow and difficult to maintain. To force the re-generation of the API
443 documentation execute +make apidoc+.
444 +FOAM_DOXYDOCS_FOR_SF+::
445 This setting is for the maintainers of the {project} and indicates whether
446 the Doxygen documentation should be built for deployment on {homepage}
447 +FOAM_ENABLE_MANPAGE_HELP+::
448 [[foam_enable_manpage_help]]
449 Build (and install) the help-pages in manpage format. This requires a
450 complete {asciidoc} toolchain to be present.
451 +FOAM_ENABLE_XHMTL_HELP+::
452 Build (and install) the help-pages in xhtml format for the display in a web
453 browser. The requirements are the same as for
454 <<foam_enable_manpage_help,+FOAM_ENABLE_MANPAGE_HELP+>>.
455 +FOAM_USE_LOCAL_DOXYGEN_DOCS+::
456 This setting influences the location in which the Doxygen source
457 code documentation is looked for if any of the {project} applications
458 is invoked with the '-doc' or '-srcDoc' options. If it is disabled,
459 the documentation will be loaded over the network from
460 {apidoc}. If you enable it, the
461 documentation will be loaded locally. This requires that you either
462 build and install the documentation by enabling +FOAM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_DOCS+,
463 or provide the required HTML files otherwise.
465 This is the program used to display the Doxygen source code documentation
466 if any of the {project} applications is invoked with the '-doc' or '-srcDoc'
467 options. The special value of 'ECHO' changes the behaviour to just write
468 the location of the HTML file to the output. This is a good setting if
469 you're system doesn't have any kind of HTML browser installed (such
471 +FOAM_HTML_DOC_BROWSER_COMMAND+::
472 This is the command with which to invoke the HTML browser. By default
473 it calls the program named in +HTML_DOC_BROWSER+ and passes it the
474 name/URL of the documentation file to be displayed. You shouldn't
475 have to change this unless your HTML browser requires some unusual
476 options or arguments.
481 The {project} Executables Are Not Found By The Shell
482 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
483 There are three possible reasons for this:
485 1. Your shell (notably 'csh', 'tcsh' and 'zsh') requires you to refresh the
486 cache of available executables. You can do so by entering the command:
492 2. If 'rehashing' didn't solve the problem, the problem most likely is that you
493 installed {project} into a non-standard location by changing the
494 configuration variables +CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX+ or +FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH+ in
495 which case the executables where installed into a directory not searched by
496 the shell. In this case you have to add the installation directory of the
497 executables to the +PATH+ variable. There are two possible locations:
500 '<CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/<FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH>':: if you specified
501 +FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH+ as a relative path
502 '<FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH>':: if you specified +FOAM_INSTALL_BIN_PATH+ as an
506 After extending the +PATH+ variable with the installation directory of the
507 executables, you should be able to run all {project} applications as any other
508 binary available on the system. See <<environment,'Extending Search Paths And
509 Setting Environment Variables Permanently'>> for
510 instructions on how to extend the search path.
512 3. This option is similar to the previous solution and applies if you want to
513 run {project} from the build tree (i.e. without running +make install+). In
514 this case you again have to make sure that your shell finds the executables
515 built by CMake by extending the +PATH+ variable. Further, you have to tell
516 {project} where to find the global configuration files (see
517 <<globalconfig,'Global Configuration Files'>>). Here, you have the option to
518 place the files under your home directory or set an environment variable.
519 The former can be achieved by:
522 $ mkdir -p $HOME/.{project}/{shortver}
523 $ cp $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/etc/controlDict \
524 $HOME/.{project}/{shortver}
525 $ cp $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/etc/cellModels \
526 $HOME/.{project}/{shortver}
527 $ cp -r $HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/etc/thermoData \
528 $HOME/.{project}/{shortver}
531 The latter (and recommended) method is to set the environment variable
532 +FREEFOAM_CONFIG_DIR+ to '$HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/etc'. Adjust
533 paths to the build tree to your actual setup.
535 Starting Any {project} Application Fails Because Some Libraries Cannot Be Found
536 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
537 Although CMake should have taken care of this by using +RPATH+ on Linux and
538 +install_name+ on Mac OS X, it might be necessary on some systems to adjust the
539 library search paths:
541 +LD_LIBRARY_PATH+:: This variable is used by all Unix like systems (e.g. Linux,
543 +DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH+:: This variable is used by Mac OS X.
545 If you installed {project}, there are (as with the executables), two possible
546 installation directories:
548 '<CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/<FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH>':: if you specified
549 +FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH+ as a relative path.
550 '<FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH>':: if you specified +FOAM_INSTALL_LIBRARY_PATH+ as
553 If you are trying to run from the build tree, you have to include
554 '$HOME/Source/freefoam-{fullver}-build/lib/{project}-{ver}' in the above
555 mentioned search paths (where you have to adjust the location of the build tree
556 to your actual setup).
558 A Running {project} Application Aborts Because It Can't 'dlopen' A Library
559 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
560 {project} (and OpenFOAM) often dynamically load libraries at run-time (a.k.a
561 plug-ins) to add features the user requested without requiring that the whole
562 application be recompiled. This makes it very simple to add new boundary
563 conditions, turbulence and combustion models etc. However, it also requires
564 that {project} must be able to find these libraries at run-time. The operating
565 system function which does the loading of the libraries ('dlopen') usually
566 tries to find the library with the given name in several places; namely a
567 default search path and a search path configured by one or multiple environment
568 variables such as +LD_LIBRARY_PATH+ or +DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH+ (on Mac OS X). The
569 details vary from platform to platform, so you best consult the documentation
570 of 'dlopen' for the details.
572 Additionally {project} allows you to configure a custom search path for
573 plug-ins in the <<globalconfig,global 'controlDict'>> file by listing the
574 directories to be searched in the list +LibrarySearchPaths+. By default
575 {project} is configured to search for plug-ins in the location where CMake
578 If you want to add your own plug-in libraries (e.g. you want to add your own
579 boundary conditions class), you most probably will want to extend this search
582 {project} Aborts When Trying To Instantiate a Plugin Class
583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
584 If you get a warning message similar to the following
587 From function dlLibraryTable::open(const dictionary& dict, const word& libsEntry, const TablePtr tablePtr)
588 in file XXX/src/OpenFOAM/db/dlLibraryTable/dlLibraryTableTemplates.C at line 68
589 library "libfieldFunctionObjects.so" did not introduce any new entries
591 (where +XXX+ is the path to the {project} source code and the actual library
592 name can be different), followed by a fatal error stating that {project} does
593 not know a class or type, e.g.
595 --> FOAM FATAL ERROR:
596 Unknown function type fieldAverage
598 Table of functionObjects is empty
601 From function functionObject::New(const word& name, const Time&, const dictionary&)
602 in file XXX/src/OpenFOAM/db/functionObjects/functionObject/functionObject.C at line 74.
606 and you are absolutely sure that the named type actually exists in the library
607 mentioned in the preceding warning message, the issue is very likely that
608 {project} is loading the plugin library from a different binary tree than the
609 executable belongs to.
612 Always make sure that you never load plugins from different binary trees (where
613 the build tree and the install tree count as such). If you want to run a binary
614 from the build tree but already have a corresponding installation tree, use the
615 +FREEFOAM_CONFIG_DIR+ environment variable to point {project} to the directory
616 '<path to build tree>/etc/' containing the global 'controlDict' file in the
620 Extending Search Paths And Setting Environment Variables Permanently
621 --------------------------------------------------------------------
622 The way one sets environment variables and extends the executable and library
623 search paths permanently strongly depends on the shell used. Usually one has to
624 create or change an initialization file in the users home directory. In the
625 following this will be discussed very briefly for the popular shells 'BASH' and
626 'tcsh'. However, if you need more help or want information on using the shell,
627 there is an excellent tutorial available at {linuxcommand}.
631 The BASH shell is the default shell for most Linux/Unix distributions. Most
632 systems configure the BASH shell such that it reads the text file
633 '$HOME/.bashrc' when starting up, so this is the place where one appends
634 customizations of the environment variables. On some systems this file is not
635 processed by default (notably Mac OS X). In this case you can use
636 '$HOME/.bash_profile'.
638 Referencing A Variable
639 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
640 To retrieve the value stored in a shell variable or environment variable, one
641 prefixes its name with the dollar (+$+) character.
645 The syntax for setting a variable and making it available to child-processes of
646 the shell is the following:
648 $ export variable_name=variable_value
650 Note that no white-space characters are allowed surrounding the +=+ sign.
652 Extending A Search Path
653 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
654 The shell and other Unix system facilities use environment variables to locate
655 executables and dynamically linked libraries. These search paths consist of
656 strings naming directories in which the executables and libraries should be
657 searched for. The individual paths are separated by a colon (+:+) character. To
658 add the e.g. the directory '$HOME/bin' to the search path for executables, one
659 would do the following:
661 $ export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
663 which appends '$HOME/bin' to the end of the +PATH+ variable.
667 Some users and administrators prefer to use a 'C-Shell', such as the TCSH. Here
668 you can use e.g. the file '$HOME/.tcshrc' to customize the environment.
670 Referencing A Variable
671 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
672 As with the BASH, one retrieves the value stored in a shell variable or
673 environment variable by prefixing its name with the dollar (+$+) character.
674 Sometimes it is also necessary to protect the variable name by surrounding it
675 with curly braces (+{+ and +}+).
679 The syntax for setting a variable and making it available to child-processes of
680 the shell is the following:
682 $ setenv variable_name variable_value
685 Extending A Search Path
686 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
687 The shell and other Unix system facilities use environment variables to locate
688 executables and dynamically linked libraries. These search paths consist of
689 strings naming directories in which the executables and libraries should be
690 searched for. The individual paths are separated by a colon (+:+) character. To
691 add the e.g. the directory '$HOME/bin' to the search path for executables, one
692 would do the following:
695 $ setenv PATH ${PATH}:${HOME}/bin
697 which appends '$HOME/bin' to the end of the +PATH+ variable. Note that
698 'C-shells' usually require the user to type 'rehash' after changing the +PATH+
699 variable to update the cache of available programs.
701 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
702 Process with: asciidoc -a toc -f data/asciidoc/html.conf INSTALL
704 Vim users, this is for you:
705 vim: ft=asciidoc sw=2 expandtab fenc=utf-8
706 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////