page build code

Linux, Unix-like systems

Older versions use a general build guide webpage, which will be replaced by alternative content in the future.

Packaging systems

Package structure (RPM)

To allow smooth installation and use of multiple OpenFOAM versions on the same system, we use the following structure:

The version-specific packages (eg, openfoam1906, openfoam1812) install into distinct directories so that it is possible to have multiple versions available on your systems. The top-level openfoam package registers which of the version-specific packages corresponds to the current release.

Finally, the openfoam-selector package is used to register which openfoam packages are installed on the system and allows the use to select one of them. To display which versions are installed:

$ openfoam-selector --list

openfoam
openfoam1806
openfoam1812
openfoam1906

To set a particular version

$ openfoam-selector --set openfoam1906

To query the current selection:

$ openfoam-selector --query

Most people will find the openfoam-selector-menu more convenient to use.

WARNING: Changes made to the openfoam-selector defaults
will not be visible until you start a new shell!

NOTE Similar to the behaviour of the mpi-selector, the values registered via the openfoam-selector will not be activated until the next full login. This is to avoid a possible clash of environments when a parallel job still being launched. Of course, you can still simply source the corresponding bashrc file directly. For example,

$ source /opt/openfoam1906/etc/bashrc

OpenFOAM session

Depending on how your packaging system has done things, an openfoam session command may be available as an alternative to the openfoam-selector mechanism. On the openSUSE installation, for example:

/usr/bin/openfoam -> openfoam-1906
/usr/bin/openfoam-1812
/usr/bin/openfoam-1906
/usr/bin/openfoam-selector
/usr/bin/openfoam-selector-menu

Using openfoam -help displays some useful information.

Calling it without any arguments opens an interactive bash session with an OpenFOAM environment and your usual ~/.bashrc environment.

$ openfoam

Using: OpenFOAM-1906 (patch=191103) - see www.OpenFOAM.com
Arch:  linux64GccDPInt32Opt (mpi=openmpi-system)
OpenFOAM shell session - use exit to quit

OpenFOAM-1906:~/
mark$

If called with arguments, it will setup an OpenFOAM environment before executing a single command. For example,

$ blockMesh -help
blockMesh: Command not found.

$ openfoam blockMesh -help

Usage: blockMesh [OPTIONS]
Options:
   ...

Although the OpenFOAM environment is sourced after your home ~/.bashrc, it is advisable to ensure that there are no circular references from within your ~/.bashrc file.

openSUSE

For openSUSE users, OpenCFD Ltd. is a maintainer on the community Science Portal and provides RPM binary packages for the most recent openfoam versions. The quick access is via the download page: https://software.opensuse.org//download.html?project=science&package=openfoam and follow the instructions there.

If you already have the Science repository registered on your system, you should be able to install it directly with zypper:

sudo zypper install openfoam

Or with a graphical tool such as YaST2:

Fedora/CentOS/RedHat

For RedHat-based system, OpenCFD Ltd. is currently using the copr infrastructure to provide RPM packages. Enable copr for openfoam as per the documentation shown on https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/how_to_enable_repo.html

For newer systems:

$ dnf copr enable openfoam/openfoam

Older systems:

$ yum install yum-plugin-copr
$ yum copr enable openfoam/openfoam

Debian/Ubuntu

Support for Debian is expected to further improve in the near future with better use of the openfoam-selector and the openfoam-session mechanisms.

• https://packages.debian.org/source/unstable/openfoam (unstable meaning newer)
• https://packages.debian.org/source/stable/openfoam (stable meaning newer)

Note that the Debian packages may have been created with applications in /usr/bin and configuration files under /usr/share/openfoam/etc. In this case, you may need to manually define the location of the OpenFOAM directory as follows:

    export WM_PROJECT_DIR=/usr/share/openfoam

spack

The installation of openfoam with spack will generally require the latest (development version) of spack. If this is available, you can install openfoam in various configurations and dependencies, but typically can simply install directly:

$ spack install openfoam

Resources

To help with RPM-based systems, the following content is provided for reference purposes, and to help when scripting:

Darwin (Mac-OS)

The support for Darwin is complete, but is less well tested than Linux.

• The Darwin build (and operation) requires a case-sensitive file system, which is often created as a disk image and mounted (for older systems).
• Compilation uses the system clang compiler.

Known issues

CGAL

• ThirdParty CGAL will normally need to be compiled without mpfr/gmp. This should be done manually prior to building OpenFOAM or other ThirdParty. Eg,

  cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
  ./makeCGAL gmp-none mpfr-none

  The wmake/rules/darwin64Clang/CGAL file has been adjusted to eliminate references to gmp/mpfr libraries.

Windows

Starting with v1906, Windows source compilation is supported via cross-compilation using the mingw compiler on 64bit Linux to generate a Win64 target. See the version-relevant build information.

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