View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0000609 | OpenFOAM | Bug | public | 2012-08-01 01:22 | 2015-01-01 14:41 |
| Reporter | Assigned To | henry | |||
| Priority | normal | Severity | minor | Reproducibility | always |
| Status | closed | Resolution | no change required | ||
| Platform | Linux | OS | Ubuntu | OS Version | 10.04 |
| Summary | 0000609: ubuntu installation process could make use of /etc/profile.d instead of ~/.bashrc | ||||
| Description | It is my understanding that the installation process on Ubuntu machines could be streamlined by dropping some files into /etc/profile.d on Ubuntu. I believe this would enable environment variables to be added to the user's environment automatically (for all users), and so would eliminate the need for manual steps after installation has completed. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
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Except that this might not be desirable at all, because OpenFOAM sets so many environment variables and defines a boatload of aliases. What could be installed, though, is a file in /etc/profile.d which defines an alias that does the sourcing, e.g. called "initfoam" or some such. |
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Perhaps it would be easiest to rewrite the wrapper scripts (blockMesh, icoFoam, paraFoam et al) that load the environment variables from ~/.openfoamrc, with a fallback to /etc/openfoamrc, so that the environment variables are only set in the context of the openfoam executables, and not all the time? (It would be even be possible to do this in a way that was backward compatible, by first checking for the environment variables and not loading them if they are already set?) Are the cases where environment variables need to change during the course of a simulation, or in-between the different steps of meshing, solving, viewing? |
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There are over 300 applications and scripts in OpenFOAM, all of which only need the working environment during their execution. Side note: do not forget that some people need to have more than one version of OpenFOAM installed in their machines! |
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Every script (at least every shell script) could easily be prefixed with a single line that would act to load the environment from an rc file iff missing. Even for scripts-called-from-within-scripts, I think this option would be safe. For users with multiple versions of OpenFOAM, two solutions: 1. if using multiple versions, but only one at a time, just make changes to ~/.openfoamrc (copy files in and out, or comment/uncomment lines, perhaps) 2. if using multiple versions simultaneously, revert to the use of environment variables, which would still be allowed; the rc files would only be accessed if the env vars were missing. |
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FYI: this has already been partially discussed here: http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=256 The current "somewhat popular" solution has been to resort to aliases - example: alias of171='source /opt/openfoam171/etc/bashrc' alias of211='source /opt/openfoam211/etc/bashrc' OpenFOAM also provides direct initializations; e.g.: alias of211-32bit='source /opt/openfoam211/etc/bashrc WM_ARCH_OPTION=32' As for the DEB package to create a script, e.g. "/etc/profile.d/openfoam211.sh", it could have the alias for each installed version. The downside is that the user would have to start a new terminal for things to work properly... |
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What I do on my local installations is to use environment modules (http://modules.sourceforge.net) instead of the bashrc and cshrc scripts. OpenCFD could ship the environment modules package directly in the ThirdParty distribution (it would add a dependency on a TCL interpreter, though), and then instead of providing the bashrc and cshrc script, include module files. One big advantage would be that you need only a single environment module which works for all popular shells, not two. The other pro is that you can "remove" the module from your environment, i.e. clean the shell up. Similarly, you can switch between multiple versions of the same module. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-08-01 01:22 |
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New Issue | |
| 2012-08-01 08:30 |
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Note Added: 0001519 | |
| 2012-08-01 09:39 |
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Note Added: 0001521 | |
| 2012-08-01 09:40 |
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Note Edited: 0001521 | |
| 2012-08-01 09:48 | wyldckat | Note Added: 0001523 | |
| 2012-08-01 09:59 |
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Note Added: 0001524 | |
| 2012-08-01 10:55 | wyldckat | Note Added: 0001525 | |
| 2012-08-01 11:29 |
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Note Added: 0001526 | |
| 2012-08-01 11:31 |
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Note Edited: 0001526 | |
| 2015-01-01 14:40 | henry | Status | new => closed |
| 2015-01-01 14:41 | henry | Assigned To | => henry |
| 2015-01-01 14:41 | henry | Resolution | open => no change required |
