error in handling download external packages

[Matthew Knepley]

I have a problem with hiding the package includes. If I tell PETSc to install
ParMetis, I think I should be able to use ParMetis however I want. I do not
just want to use it through the PETSc interface. I have done this numerous
times. I think most users think this way as well. What is the motivation for
hiding the includes?

  Thanks,

    Matt

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 11:18 AM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Oct 2008, Barry Smith wrote:
>
>>   I wasn't saying we had to solve this problem, but I do think it
>> is a problem.  A users code could easily pick up the wrong include
>> for something since we now have hundreds in our arch/include location.
>
> I guess part of the problem is namespace issue [This would be the
> primary reason for picking up the wrong include]. In that sense
> include/packagename/pkginc.h might be a valid thing. But the package
> has to support this internally [as in 'make install' provides
> include/pkgname/pkginclude'. And the recommended usage from user code
> would be:
>
> #inlcude "package/pkginc.h"
>
> [this model is not in sync with curent PETSc model of supporing both
> install in PETSC_DIR-src and 'make install with prefix']. It might be
> better to identify the namespace conflicts and ask the packages to fix
> the names..
>
> The other kind of conflict is: user installs superlu separately - and
> then tries to use PETSc installed with --download-superlu. These 2
> versions of superlu will conflict with each other.. The fix in this
> case is to not use the duplicate install of superlu anyway...
>
> Satish
>
>



-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which
their experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener