Installation/Mac OS/OpenFOAM 2.2.2

From OpenFOAMWiki

1 Known Guides For Building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X

The known guides for building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X are as follows:

2 Introduction and Notes

This guide is derived from OpenFOAM 2.1.x Installation with some modifications, thanks to the help provided on this thread at CFD-Online's Forums.


These compiling instructions have only been tested on the following system:

Macbook (version 6,2)
Intel Core i7 2.66Ghz
Mac OS X Mavericks (version 10.9)

These instructions may need to be tailored to fit your specific system if they deviate from the above; you should be able to ask support on this thread if you needed it.

Many thanks go to Bernhard Gschaider (a.k.a. gschaider at CFD-Online's Forums) for maintaining the latest OpenFOAM Mac OS X patches and for the big help he provided me.

3 Prepare your Mac OS X Environment

3.1 Macports

To install Macports you need to install xCode, you can find it on the App Store. After xCode you need to install the Command Line Tools. Installing Command Line Tools for Mavericks is different from what you would do with previous OSX versions, as explained in the following subsections:

3.1.1 Command Line Tools for OSX 10.9 "Mavericks"

To install CLT on OSX 10.9 open a terminal application (for example Terminal.app) and run:

xcode-select --install

a window will be prompted where you can confirm installation.

3.1.2 Command Line Tools for OSX version < 10.9

In previous versions of OSX (and of xCode) you can download CLT directly from xCode Preferences > Downloads > Components.

3.1.3 xCode License

Now you should accept the xCode License so run, always in the Terminal (this could be needed only on OSX 10.9):

sudo xcodebuild -license

and when asked type "agree" to accept the license. Now xCode "things" should work correctly.

3.1.4 MacPorts Installation

Now to install Macports you can download the pre-compiled package from the Official Macports Website.

3.2 Build and Install the necessary software

To install all the tools we'll need run in Terminal:

sudo port selfupdate

Wait for the end of all operations then do:

sudo port install gcc46 openmpi boost cgal ccache flex bison

Now wait (a bit...)

4 OpenFOAM Building

4.1 Creation of Case Sensitive .sparseimage

Note: Images here shown are taken from Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x, you could change the name of the sparse-image from OpenFOAM-v2.1 to OpenFOAM-v2.2.2 (and this will be assumed from here on).


First, we create a disk image with the Apple Disk Utility. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Click New Image:

Howto install OpenFOAM v21 Mac-images-010.ppm.png

It is important to set as Format: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive,Journaled). The sparse image will grow with the place used inside the image. Create a sparse image with the following settings (examples, you could change the values):

Howto install OpenFOAM v21 Mac-images-012.ppm.png


4.2 OpenFOAM sources and patches

Note: Remember that when you're inside the terminal you can auto-complete your commands pressing the TAB button.


Download OpenFOAM 2.2.2 sources from here and the 3 necessary patch files from one of the following places:

  1. From the original forum posts, download the patch files OpenFOAM-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch and ThirdParty-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch from post #108 (SurfaceCGALFix.patch from post #54 should not be longer needed with last updated patches).
  2. More updated patches could be possibly found on this CFD Online Thread.


Put everything inside the .sparseimage (you probably saved in ~/Documents).

  1. Open a Terminal, create a symlink to the OF image:
    ln -s /Volumes/OpenFOAM-v2.2.2 OpenFOAM
  2. Now we can go to OF directory just doing (from home directory):
    cd OpenFOAM
  3. Let's extract the two archives:
    tar -xvf OpenFOAM-2.2.2.tgz
    tar -xvf ThirdParty-2.2.2.tgz
  4. Now your OF directory should look like this:
    ****@mbp-di-ruben: ~/OpenFOAM$ ls -al
    total 182688
    drwxr-xr-x   8 ****  staff       612 13 Nov 02:49 .
    drwxrwxrwt@  5 root             admin       170 15 Nov 15:40 ..
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff     12292 13 Nov 03:13 .DS_Store
    d--x--x--x   6 ****  staff       238 15 Nov 15:40 .DocumentRevisions-V100
    drwxrwxrwt@  3 ****  staff       102 12 Nov 23:29 .TemporaryItems
    d-wx-wx-wt   2 ****  staff        68 12 Nov 14:43 .Trashes
    drwx------   2 ****  staff      2822 15 Nov 12:03 .fseventsd
    drwxr-xr-x@ 10 ****  staff       680 13 Nov 02:55 OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff  32536146 12 Nov 21:09 OpenFOAM-2.2.2.tgz
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff     41620 13 Nov 02:49 OpenFOAM-2.2.x_Mac-20130309.patch
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff       691 13 Nov 02:49 SurfaceCGALFix.patch
    drwxr-x---@  7 ****  staff       782 13 Nov 02:54 ThirdParty-2.2.2
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff  58193818 12 Nov 21:09 ThirdParty-2.2.2.tgz
    -rw-r--r--@  1 ****  staff      2686 12 Nov 21:12 ThirdParty-2.2_patch
  5. Let's move the patches inside the right folders:
    # Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM$ 
    mv OpenFOAM-2.2.x_Mac-20130309.patch OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    mv SurfaceCGALFix.patch OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    mv ThirdParty-2.2_Mac-20130309.patch Thirdparty-2.2.2
  6. Let's apply them:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM
    cd OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    patch -p1<OpenFOAM-2.2.x_Mac-20130309.patch
    patch -p1<SurfaCGALFix.patch
    cd ..
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/
    cd ThirdParty-2.2.2
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.2.2
    patch -p1<ThirdParty-2.2_patch
    cd ..
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/ 
     
  7. OpenFoam patch badly writes compilers symlinks so we have to fix:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/
    cd OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    rm wmake/rules/darwinIntel64Gcc4*
    cd wmake/rules
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2/wmake/rules
    ln -s darwinIntel64Gcc/ darwinIntel64Gcc46
    cd ../..
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2 
     

4.3 Final Steps

  1. Let's give write permission to addr2line4Mac.py:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    chmod a+x bin/addr2line4Mac.py
  2. Now we have to edit the bashrc file:
    sudo nano etc/bashrc
  3. Use CTRL+W to find these lines:
    export WM_COMPILER=Gcc
    export WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI

    and change them to:

    export WM_COMPILER=Gcc46
    export WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI
  4. At the end of this file, add:
    export WM_CC='gcc-mp-4.6'
    export WM_CXX='g++-mp-4.6'
    export WM_NCOMPPROCS=4
    ulimit -n 1024

    A few notes about the last two lines[1]:

    • Apparently it's best that you manually write these two lines instead of copy-pasting, because apparently some weird characters will show up on your file (source).
    • The first entry you should set to the number of processes your CPU could manage in parallel, e.g. 4, 8 or 16.
      • If you don't know how many your machine can handle, then run:
        sysctl -n hw.ncpu
    • The second entry is to increase the number of files which one process may open at a time.
  5. Save (CTRL+O and exit CTRL+X)
  6. Now we need a symlink for openmpirun (this can be useful with snappyHexMesh):
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    cd OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2/bin
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2/bin
    ln -s /opt/local/bin/openmpirun mpirun
    cd .. 
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2 
     
  7. There's some hard-coding to do on a file:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    sudo nano src/renumber/SloanRenumber/Make/options
  8. Change this line:
    -L$(BOOST_ARCH_PATH)/lib -lboost_thread \

    into this:

    -L$(BOOST_ARCH_PATH)/lib -lboost_thread-mt \
    save and exit.
  9. Source the bashrc file:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    . etc/bashrc
  10. Now we're ready to compile. Cross your fingers and do:
    #Current Folder: ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2
    ./Allwmake 2>&1 | tee logName.log
    where logName should be replaced by a name for your log :P. Now take your time, call your mum, cook, take a shower and then come back to see if something went wrong.

5 Diagnosis and Problems[2]

You can check if there are any errors by opening the file nameLog.log with a text editor and search for lines have the expression "Error " (including the space after the word "Error").
Keep in mind that if your terminal is returning error messages in another language, then you should search for the respective word for "Error".

If you do find errors, the first one is usually the one to blame for all of the other errors.

If you are still unable to figure out what's wrong, then:

  1. Edit the file nameLog.log with a text editor, search and replace any sensitive information, such as user names and folder paths.
  2. Rename the log file so that it is unique, preferably with data and user-name. For instance: log_20130401_bgschaid.log
  3. Pack the log file. For instance with GNU zip if it is only a single file:
    gzip log_20130401_bgschaid.log

    Only tarball it if there are additional files required to diagnose the problem:

    tar -czf make.log_20130401_bgschaid.tar.gz make_20130401_bgschaid.log wmake/rules/darwinModified
  4. Post the log in this forum, along with your question(s).

6 Paraview Installation

  1. Download the right package from official Paraview website and install it.
  2. Let's create a symlink to paraview executable in OpenFOAM to the one installed:
    #Current Folder ~/
    #NOTE: OpenFOAM {{tt|.sparseimage}} must be mounted and the etc/bashrc file sourced
     
    ln -s /Applications/paraview/Contents/MacOS/paraview $WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/paraview
  3. The following command creates a file .alias where you can store aliases for commands:
    #Current Folder ~/
    sudo nano .alias
  4. Add the following lines to it:
    alias paraFoam="paraFoam -builtin"
  5. To auto-source the .alias at terminal start-up, edit the profile file:
    #Current Folder ~/
    sudo nano .profile 
    #Or .bash_profile can work too 
     
  6. Add the following line at the end of that file:
    source ~/.alias
  7. Then save and exit.

7 Permanent Installation

You can set a terminal command to auto-mount the .sparseimage and auto-source the OF's bashrc this way:

  1. Edit the .alias file:
    #Current Folder ~/
    sudo nano .alias
  2. Add at the end of it:
    alias of222="/usr/bin/open ~/Documents/OpenFOAM-v2.2.2.sparseimage; sleep 1; . ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.2.2/etc/bashrc; . ~/.alias";
  3. Now, if your .sparseimage is not mounted, then simply doing:
    of222

    will mount the OpenFOAM environment.



  1. From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x
  2. From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x