[petsc-dev] [Ideas-team] Seeking OLCF users complaining about poor build times

[Bartlett, Roscoe A.]

> > >Also I think such usage at LC centers might be prohibited.  And some
> > >systems are configured in such a way that /tmp is really not useful
> > >for source builds. [For eg - configure tends to do simpile runs - that
> > >get blocked due to security settings on /tmp]
> >
> > Why would it be prohibited?  Especially if you remove the build after it's
> > done?  What's a "simple run" and why do the security settings prohibit it?
> 
> I meant - "when configure creates and runs binaries - as part of configure
> step in /tmp".
> 
> This is very rare -we might have seen 1 or 2 reports in past many
> years [PETSc configure creates binaries in $TMPDIR and runs them] - so
> not a real stumbling block.
> 
> However even if package builds are done in /tmp (a big improvement) -
> most user code builds are not done in /tmp - so they will (repeatedly)
> incur the nfs/pfs etc.. overhead.

Is /tmp/ on these machines large enough to accommodate all of the users who want to build on a fast local disk?  Or is this only working because just a few people have figured this out and therefore can get away with this?

The answer is always to configure and build on a fast local disk.  I have never seen a mounted file system that could complete with local native disk.

-Ross