README

Debian/Ubuntu repositories for OpenFOAM

Initial setup

To use these repositories, you will need to add the signing key and the repository location(s) to your system. This typically only needs to be done once per distribution.

The most convenient way is to use the installer script. Assuming that you have curl or wget installed:

curl -s https://dl.openfoam.com/add-debian-repo.sh | sudo bash

wget -q -O - https://dl.openfoam.com/add-debian-repo.sh | sudo bash

This adds a signing key for the repository, and repository information for a given distribution (eg, buster, focal, etc.):

deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.openfoam.com/repos/deb DIST main

The installer script also invokes an apt-get update to refresh the repositories.

You should now be able to install your preferred OpenFOAM package. For example,

$ sudo apt-get install openfoam2006-default

OpenFOAM Debian package description

The OpenFOAM packages are currently split as follows:

openfoamVER-default
- Meta package for everything normally needed.
- Includes openfoamVER, openfoamVER-dev, openfoamVER-tutorials.
openfoamVER
- Solvers, utilities and libraries.
openfoamVER-dev
- Source code headers and wmake build chain. Needed for developing with OpenFOAM, but also if dynamic code compilation is required.
openfoamVER-tutorials
- Tutorials.

The following are normally only installed indirectly:

openfoamVER-common
- Version information and share files (including the etc/ directory).
openfoamVER-tools
- Binaries for OpenFOAM-specific build tools.

Installation locations

The main OpenFOAM files are all installed under /usr/lib/openfoam, which permits multiple versions to be installed simultaneously. For example,

/usr/lib/openfoam/openfoam2006
/usr/lib/openfoam/openfoam1912
...

In addition, an OpenFOAM bash session wrapper will be created under /usr/bin. For example,

/usr/bin/openfoam2006
/usr/bin/openfoam1912
...

Using the OpenFOAM environment

The bash session wrapper provide the simplest means of starting OpenFOAM immediately. For example,

$ openfoam2006

This can be used for an interactive bash session, or to run a single OpenFOAM command within the OpenFOAM environment.

For a persistent OpenFOAM environment, the OpenFOAM bashrc file can be sourced from your ~/.bashrc file by adding a line resembling the following to that file:

source /usr/lib/openfoam/openfoam2006/etc/bashrc

The exact path used will change depending on the OpenFOAM version.

Never attempt to embed the shell session wrapper as part of your ~/.bashrc - this may cause an infinite loop!