[petsc-maint #38919] Re: stupid, stupid, stupid MPI.py

[Barry Smith]

     This is the help message that has always been there

     help.addArgument('MPI', '-with-mpi- 
shared=<bool>',                           nargs.ArgBool(None, None,  
'Try to use shared MPI libraries'))

    Note the word   TRY! How can you TRY to use shared MPI libraries  
if you don't build the shared MPI libraries. TRY means make some  
effort, if you don't make the MPI libraries with shared then your are  
not trying!

    Feel free to add a new option --with-mpi-shared-test if you want,  
for your weird case; where you want to use shared libraries but don't  
want to build them.


    Barry

On Dec 13, 2009, at 10:19 PM, Matthew Knepley wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov>  
> wrote:
>
>>
>>  So if I pass --with-mpi-shared into MPI.py it TESTS if the MPI  
>> libraries
>> are shared. Fine. But if it is download-mpich IT DOES NOT try to  
>> make shared
>> libraries for MPICH. It only tries to make shared libraries for MPI  
>> if
>> --with-shared is passed. WTF?
>>
>
> --with-mpi-shared is a workaround option. Perhaps it should be  
> renamed. It
> was only put in to avoid the shared library test.
>
>
>>  So I change it so that it tries to make mpi shared libraries if
>> --with-mpi-shared is passed but not also --with-shared. What happens?
>> "Configuring with shared libraries - but the system/compilers do not
>> support this." How the hell does it know the system/compilers do  
>> not support
>> this? So I have to change the code to not reject the --with-mpi- 
>> shared when
>> using static libraries.
>>
>
> Wait, don't make that change. --with-mpi-shared should NOT control  
> anything
> but the test.
>
>
>>  Sometimes I just want to delete the whole stinking repository of  
>> crud
>> piled on crap piled on crud. Maybe we need to start having code  
>> reviews
>> instead of shoving random code into random files and hope that  
>> sometimes
>> things might work.
>>
>>  Ok, well I shoved some random code in and got it to behave  
>> reasonably for
>> me, until tomorrow,
>>
>>  Barry
>>
>> This problem caused my early problem, since it ignored the
>> --with-mpi-shared option it did not think it needed to rebuild mpich.
>>
>
> I do not understand this. Can we rollback this change and discuss it?
>
>  Matt
>
> -- 
> 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
>
> On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov>  
> wrote:
>
>   So if I pass --with-mpi-shared into MPI.py it TESTS if the MPI  
> libraries are shared. Fine. But if it is download-mpich IT DOES NOT  
> try to make shared libraries for MPICH. It only tries to make shared  
> libraries for MPI if --with-shared is passed. WTF?
>
> --with-mpi-shared is a workaround option. Perhaps it should be  
> renamed. It was only put in to avoid the shared library test.
>
>   So I change it so that it tries to make mpi shared libraries if -- 
> with-mpi-shared is passed but not also --with-shared. What happens?
> "Configuring with shared libraries - but the system/compilers do not  
> support this." How the hell does it know the system/compilers do not  
> support this? So I have to change the code to not reject the --with- 
> mpi-shared when using static libraries.
>
> Wait, don't make that change. --with-mpi-shared should NOT control  
> anything but the test.
>
>   Sometimes I just want to delete the whole stinking repository of  
> crud piled on crap piled on crud. Maybe we need to start having code  
> reviews instead of shoving random code into random files and hope  
> that sometimes things might work.
>
>   Ok, well I shoved some random code in and got it to behave  
> reasonably for me, until tomorrow,
>
>   Barry
>
> This problem caused my early problem, since it ignored the --with- 
> mpi-shared option it did not think it needed to rebuild mpich.
>
> I do not understand this. Can we rollback this change and discuss it?
>
>   Matt
>
> -- 
> 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