Revision as of 18:38, 4 May 2013

Maintainer

The current maintainer of this page is Wyldckat (talk).

1 Introduction

This page aims to explain how to install OpenFOAM on any Linux Distribution.

In the following chapters and sections is explained how to generally install OpenFOAM 2.1.x and related dependencies, such as ParaView:

2 Dedicated instructions

Currently the following sub-pages exist with complete and/or partial instructions for specific Linux Distributions:

Note: Currently there aren't any dedicated instructions for 2.1.x, because they are usually nearly identical to the ones for 2.1.1. See the next chapter Installing from source code for more information on this similarities.

3 About the bug fix version

In case you're wondering what is the difference between the versions 2.1.0, 2.1.1 and 2.1.x:

• The versions 2.1.0 and 2.1.1 are the stable releases that were launched for the main version 2.1. These releases do not change over time.
• The version 2.1.x is the bug fix version, which is regularly updated overtime, at least until the next major release of OpenFOAM is released.
  • This version is also known as: the git version; the 'repository version.

So in essence, the version bug fix version 2.1.x allows one to stay the most up-to-date possible of OpenFOAM's latest source code. This enables the following capabilities:

• Earlier access to new features, before the next stable release is made.
• Higher probability of having bugs fixed.
• When a bug is fixed, it's just a matter of updating the local code repository.
• When reporting a bug, this is the version that is used as a reference. More specifically, the commit hash is used for keeping track of where in time is your code snapshot (for more, read the chapter Installing from source code).
• Makes it easier to learn how one can keep track of his/her own changes to the OpenFOAM source code.

Nonetheless, there are some downsides of using the bug fix version:

• Early access to new bugs.
  • Yes, some bug fixes can introduce new bugs.
• Some features may be removed, since a bug might have been spotted that would indicate that said feature is incorrect.
  • For example, read: URGENT: Problem with dieselFoam and thermophysical properties
• Not advised for using in a cluster or shared machine environment, since global installations of the bug fix version can get a bit onerous over time!

4 Installing from source code

The official instructions are made available here: Repository Release - version 2.1.x

As already implied on the chapter Dedicated instructions, there are only a few differences in building 2.1.x and 2.1.1. The main difference is how the source code is downloaded and how you can keep up with updates that are made to the changes made on OpenFOAM's git repository.

TODO