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Compiling source code

The source code must be compiled and then added to the execution path, in order to be used. The tool for the job is wmake

wmake

wmake is a wrapper for make, to improve the compilation experience. The binary is located at $WM_PROJECT_DIR/wmake.

Compiling the source code - x86 architecture (64 bit)

The source code is usually retrieved using git as follows:

git clone https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/openfoam.git /opt/OpenFOAM
git clone https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/ThirdParty-common.git /opt/OpenFOAM

The previous commands will install the source code and the buils scripts for third party software in the declared installation directory (/otp/OpenFOAM). Binaries, libraries, and configuration will be in the same directory. They will not be separated into different locations as a traditional UNIX like system would have them. To check if your system has an adequate environment to start the compilation run:

echo "source /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2212/etc/bashrc" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
foamSystemCheck

If the system check did not produced error messages, then OpenFOAM® can be compiled. This is done by executing the shell script Allwmake that wrap the make utilities for automating the compilation.

./Allwmake

The installation script takes care of all required operations. Compiling OpenFOAM® can be done by using more than one processor to save time. In order to do this, an environment variable needs to be set before running the script to make the programme

export WM\_NCOMPPROCS = 4   ## This export an environment variable to run the compilation in 4 processors
./Allwmake > installation.log

Or you can directly use all the avilable cores (using the -j flag) to proceed with the compilation:

./Allwmake -j -s -q -l > installation.log

After the source code has been compiled, it makes the usage of the software more practical adding the common usage binaries to the user space, appending the follwing to ~/.bashrc with:

echo "source ${WM\_PROJECT\_DIR:?}/bin/tools/RunFunctions" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

OpenFoam® commands should now be recognized by the terminal.

Compiling the source code - ARM architecture

If the architecture of your machine differ from x86, you need to take few more steps. At first create a file etc/prefs.sh in the software root directory as shown:

cd /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2212
echo "WM\_COMPILER=Gcc" > etc/prefs.sh

Then you have to change two files:

  • ./wmake/rules/linuxARM7Gcc/cOpt
  • ./wmake/rules/linuxARM7Gcc/c++Opt

Substituting the option -mfloat-abi from softfp into hard on the following file using piping:

ls ./wmake/rules/linuxARM7Gcc/cOpt ./wmake/rules/linuxARM7Gcc/c++Opt | xargs sed s/softfp/hard/g

Then set the binaries/environment variables on the user workspace and start the compilation:

echo "source /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2212/etc/bashrc" >> ~/.bashrc
./Allwmake -j -s -l

Scheduling compilation (HPC environment)

In case of an HPC installation you can schedule the installation with a shell script similar to the following one:

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name=OpenFOAM-compilation
#SBATCH --ntasks=36
#SBATCH --output=%x_%j.out
#SBATCH --partition=compute
#SBATCH --constraint=c5n.18xlarge

## -- Loading the env. variables, for putting in scope the mpi utilities  -- #
module load openmpi

source /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2212/etc/bashrc
export WM_NCOMPPROCS=36
cd /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2212
./Allwmake > installation.log

This script uses 36 cores, correspondent to a 1 nodes of the HPC on study (“c5n.18xlarge”) made by 36 cores each. The job should compile in few minutes. The location of the source code is different (than the advised location) because the software is installed on a shared file system for distribution purpose.

Usual problems

Several distribution may need some libraries, and correct callings to make the system working. To compile OpenFOAM, the shared library of an MPI implementation must be set in the exectution path:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib64/openmpi/bin
source /usr/lib/openfoam/openfoam2312/etc/bashrc