[petsc-dev] DMMG without libpetscsnes?

[Barry Smith]

   DMMG used to be split up (as you note from the stale comment). I  
ended up merging them because it wasn't worth the effort and  
complication to keep them in two parts.

   I would not like to see them split up again. Rather I would like to  
see the linear part of DMMG put into KSP/PC/DMMG somehow (not exactly  
sure how) so it can be properly nested and composed just like other  
preconditioners. I'm sure you are doing something slightly cumbersome  
now to put your DMMG inside the Schur fieldsplit. For linear DMMG I  
think the design is all wrong as it is now.

    Here is how I see it: DMMG's job is to "fill up" the appropriate  
fields in the KSP, PC, MG objects, then when solving those fields are  
used. I would like (somehow) the KSP, PC, MG objects to have the  
mechanism that you can provide a DM to them and they can then "fill  
up" their fields. But it is important we get this right and  
compossible so I have hesitated to ever try it. The starting point  
might be having an (optional) KSPSetDM() that would propagate the DM  
into the PC and subPCs and subsubPCs etc where they would be used to  
fill the slots if provided.

   Going to the basic design motto of PETSc, "only a single way to do  
each action", it is obvious that DMMG is totally wrong since there is  
a KSPSolve() and a DMMGSolve()! Someday I want this fixed.

    Barry




On Jan 7, 2010, at 7:13 AM, Jed Brown wrote:

> I'm using a DMMG inside of a Schur fieldsplit, but I have to create it
> before PCSetUp because the hierarchy is generated by refinement.  It
> doesn't make sense to call DMMGSetKSP before PCSetUp because that  
> matrix
> would be worthless, but I want to be able to view the DMMG even if  
> only
> to inspect the hierarchy.  While putting in a check for NULL snes in
> DMMGView, I noticed these lines in damg.c
>
>      /* use of PetscObjectView() means we do not have to link with  
> libpetscsnes if SNES is not being used */
>      ierr = PetscObjectView((PetscObject)dmmg[nlevels-1]- 
> >snes,viewer);CHKERRQ(ierr);
>
> This appears to be stale because damg.c *is* part of libpetscsnes.  In
> fact, all of damg.c can be moved to ksp/ksp/utils after
> s.PETSCSNES_DLLEXPORT.PETSCKSP_DLLEXPORT., but DMMGSetUp (in  
> damgsnes.c)
> currently has a real dependency on SNES due to SNESGetKSP's special
> treatment of DMComposite+PCFieldSplit.
>
> Is there value in having DMMG usable in the absence of libpetscsnes
> (i.e. DMMGSetUp's dependency on SNES will be broken)?
>
> Jed