[Facets-devel] PETSC ERROR

[Barry Smith]

    Matt,

      The problem is more general than what FACETS want.

      Say Joe would like to write an application that uses an optional  
options file if it is there but runs fine without the optional file.   
As Satish points out this is exactly what .petscrc is.

      If that optional file contains PETSc startup options like - 
malloc_debug etc etc  then this is cumbersome in PETSc.  The  
application code would have to
see if the file exists (in parallel) and then call PetscInitialize()  
with or without that filename depending on when it exists.

      One solution is to have PETSc always treat the file you list as  
optional; I decided NOT this many years ago because if __I__ call a  
function with a file argument I want it to generate an error if it  
does not exist. Much later we changed PetscOptionsInsertFile() to take  
an additional argument indicating the file existence is optional. This  
solves the optional file sometimes but not if the file is going to  
contain PETSc startup options.  I also debated allowing a filename  
like "optional:myfilename" but that is just a cheap trick to avoid  
changing the calling sequence and not worthy of PETSc.

    The "correct" solution is adding an additional require argument,  
yucky though it is.

     Barry

We could go the GNU route and have them use the environmental variable  
PETSC_OPTIONS to pass in their arguments :-)


On Jun 4, 2009, at 4:38 PM, Matthew Knepley wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov>  
> wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Jun 2009, Matthew Knepley wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 3:37 PM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov>  
> wrote:
> >
> > > Barry/Matt,
> > >
> > > Should we make optfile in PetscIntialize(optfile) optional?
> >
> >
> > Why would the user give an argument for optfile, but not intend it  
> to be
> > found?
>
> Normally command line options is the way to pass in optional flags to
> a petsc binary. In this application - command line options are not
> possible [due to python/other packages that control main] - hence an
> PetscIntialize("petscopt") is used to pass in equivalent optional
> flags.
>
>
> Also In this code - PETSc [solver] usage is optional. I guess there
> are 2 ways of implementing this.
>
> The first is to always call PetscInitialize()/Finalize() - but
> optionally use PETSc solvers. [in this case optfile should be
> optional]
>
> I have no idea what you mean here. Why does optfile have to be an  
> optional argument?
> That makes no sense at all. You provide an argument, but only want  
> it used sometimes?
> DONT PROVIDE IT if it should not be used.
>
>   Matt
>
>
> The other mode is to avoid PetscIntialize()/Finalize() - when
> non-petsc solvers are selected.  [but this means more complicated
> options check - before PetscIntialize()/MPI_Init() is called. The code
> currently tries to do this - ocassionaly errors such as this pop-up]
>
>
> I guess Ideally - the optional_flag should be exposed all the way to
> PetscInitialize() - so the user can make the choice if this opt-file
> is optional or required..
>
> 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