5.3. Build from source (for developers)

5.3.1. Obtaining MFiX source

This section describes how developers build MFiX packages for distribution. Most users will not need to do this.

Building from source requires the MFiX source tarball, which can be obtained on the MFiX download page. Extract the tarball and go into the top level source directory:

(bash)$ tar xf mfix-24.2.tar.gz
(bash)$ cd mfix-24.2
(bash)$ pwd
/home/user/mfix-24.2

5.3.2. Content of the MFiX source tarball

Folder

Description

model

Source code for the MFiX solver

postmfix

Source code for the post-processing tool postmfix

queue_templates

Templates to submit jobs on HPC systems

tutorials

Examples of simulations ready to run from the GUI

tests

Simple simulations used for regression tests

legacy_tutorials

Old examples of simulations, meant to be run from command line

legacy_tests

Old tets cases meant to be run from command line

Note

  1. The source code is also available from the GUI, from the “Editor” tab. Files are located in the “MFiX source” file explorer. Selecting a file will open it in the editor. Users wishing to modify the source code should copy a file to the project directory. This is accomplished automatically by clicking “Copy” when prompted “Copy to project directory for editing?”

  2. It is recommended to study the simulations files in the “tutorials” folder. These simulations can be loaded in the GUI from Main menu>New project. Interested users can study files located in the legacy_tutorials and legacy_tests folders. However, these are provided as examples that are compatible with older versions of MFiX (2016-1 and prior). They should be run from the command line.

5.3.3. Building solver from source

You can build the Batch solver from source, without the MFiX Conda package installed. This is how MFiX was built in version 2016 and earlier.

You will need a Fortran compiler, GNU Make and CMake version 3.24 or newer. Note that the MFiX Conda package provides all of these, so if you do not use Conda, you have to use your system package manager to install these prerequisites. The MFiX team does not provide support for this option.

Run cmake to configure MFiX and generate a Makefile, then run make to build the MFiX solver.

Running cmake will generate a CMakeCache.txt file in the directory it is invoked from. Please include CMakeCache.txt when posting a question about build issues to the forum.

5.3.3.1. Configuring

The default configuration for MFiX is serial with optimizations and debug symbols (standard optimization; for GFortran use flags -g -O2):

Note

Using an “out of source” build is recommended. Create a new directory, cd to that directory, and run cmake <path> where <path> is the top-level MFiX source directory (containing CMakeLists.txt). Out of source builds are convenient for having different solvers built with different configurations. The build directory can be whatever you want; release-build and debug-build used here are just examples.

To configure the MFiX solver in serial with debug mode (no optimization; for GFortran use flags -g -O0):

$ mkdir debug-build
$ cd debug-build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

If mpifort is your MPI compiler wrapper command, then to configure the MFiX solver with DMP with optimizations and debug symbols:

$ mkdir release-build
$ cd release-build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DENABLE_MPI=1
$ cmake .. # same thing (RelWithDebInfo is the default CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)

If mpifort is your MPI compiler wrapper command, then to configure the MFiX solver with DMP with debug mode:

$ mkdir debug-build
$ cd debug-build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DENABLE_MPI=1

To specify the Fortran compiler, define CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER:

$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=ifort  # for example

To add specific Fortran compiler flags, define CMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS:

$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -fcheck=all"  # for example

To configure with SMP support:

$ cmake .. -ENABLE_OpenMP=ON

Options can be combined in a single command:

$ cmake .. -ENABLE_OpenMP=ON -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=ifort -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -fcheck=all"

Example with gfortran, serial optimized solver configuration:

$ cmake .. -DENABLE_MPI=0 -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=gfortran -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O2 -g"

Example with gfortran, serial optimized solver for current CPU configuration :

$ cmake .. -DENABLE_MPI=0 -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=gfortran -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-march=native -O3"

Example with gfortran, DMP optimized solver configuration:

$ cmake .. -DENABLE_MPI=1 -DMPI_Fortran_COMPILER=mpifort -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O2 -g"

Example with gfortran, serial debug mode solver configuration:

$ cmake .. -DENABLE_MPI=0 -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=gfortran -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O0 -fcheck=all -g"

Example with gfortran, DMP debug mode solver configuration:

$ cmake .. -DENABLE_MPI=1 -DMPI_Fortran_COMPILER=mpifort -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-O0 -fcheck=all -g"

Note

For DMP support, defining -DENABLE_MPI=1 is required. Defining CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER as your MPI wrapper (mpifort) is recommended, but not strictly required. CMake should automatically detect MPI include files and libraries for your default compiler, but specifying CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER is better to ensure you are using the exact compiler you intend to use.

Note

CMake uses configurations values from both CMakeCache.txt and from command line arguments. Command line arguments take precedence over CMakeCache.txt, but CMakeCache.txt is used if nothing is specified on the command line. For instance, if you run cmake .. -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS="-fcheck=all", and then run cmake .. again (in the same build directory), -fcheck=all will still be used (because it is still in CMakeCache.txt). If this is not what you want, either edit CMakeCache.txt, or just delete CMakeCache.txt and run cmake again with different options. The build_mfixsolver script removes CMakeCache.txt each time it runs so old options are not reapplied.

5.3.3.2. Building

After configuring, build with make. For further details about the make utility, type man make at the prompt.

$ make
$ make -j        # for parallel build jobs
$ make VERBOSE=1 # to view the full command lines used for compiling and linking

At the end of a successful build, the MFiX solver will be located in the current directory. The solver is called mfixsolver on Linux.