3.3 Running applications

Each application is designed to be executed from a terminal command line, typically reading and writing a set of data files associated with a particular case. The data files for a case are stored in a directory named after the case as described in section 4.1; the directory name with full path is here given the generic name <caseDir>.

For any application, the form of the command line entry for any can be found by simply entering the application name at the command line with the -help option, e.g. typing

returns the usage The arguments in square brackets, [ ], are optional flags. If the application is executed from within a case directory, it will operate on that case. Alternatively, the -case <caseDir> option allows the case to be specified directly so that the application can be executed from anywhere in the filing system.

Like any UNIX/Linux executable, applications can be run as as a background process, i.e. one which does not have to be completed before the user can give the shell additional commands. If the user wished to run the blockMesh example as a background process and output the case progress to a log file, they could enter: