[petsc-dev] Fwd: [petsc-users] cannot find 'libz.a' when configuring

[Matthew Knepley]

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 9:17 AM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

> On Thu, 11 Apr 2013, Matthew Knepley wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 7:53 PM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> >
> > > How do we handle these packages with complicated dependencies [they
> > > are complicated as petsc dependencies?]
> > >
> > > In this report hdf5 was built with szip-2.1 and zlib-1.2.7. So how
> > > does petsc configure automatically detect this?
> > >
> > > And I've recently used the following for hdf5/necddf5 on fusion [with
> > > the extra implicit depenceny of hdf5 on zlib, and netcdf5 on hdf5 from
> > > within configure]
> > >
> > >     '--with-hdf5-lib=-L/soft/hdf5/1.8.6-parallel/lib -lhdf5_hl -lhdf5
> > > -lgpfs',
> > >
> > >     '--with-netcdf-lib=-L/soft/netcdf/4.1.1-parallel/lib -lnetcdff
> > > -lnetcdf -L/usr/kerberos/lib64 -lcurl -ldl -lgssapi_krb5 -lkrb5
> -lk5crypto
> > > -lcom_err -lidn -lssl -lcrypto -lz',
> > >
> > > Yeah - things work if the user knows the dependencies and the link
> > > command for those dependencies - and specify it to petsc configure as
> > > above. But I'm not sure how to autodetect this.
> > >
> > > Also currently -lz is handled in package.py with
> > > 'self.needsCompression' similar to 'self.needsMath' with the detection
> > > of -lz in libraires.py:checkCompression() - but one can't specify a
> > > --with-zlib-lib option this way. I guess this part can be fixed by
> > > migrating it a standalone package z.py. [And somehow handle the
> > > optional part of this dependency for hdf5]
> >
> >
> > We already have a mechanism for this. Lots of packages depend on
> > other packages. This is just screwed up in the case of libz because
> > someone (maybe me) did not want to write an entire package file for
> > it, and instead copped out with the needsCompression.
>
> Currently we handle 'mandatory' dependencies properly - and optional
> >depencencies for --download-pakcage somewhat - but not for
> --with-package-dir
>
> For hdf5 - handling just zlib.py is not sufficient. Do we add szip.py,
> zlib.py, gpfs.py [and perhaps more] for hdf5? And somehow use these as
> optionaly when testing for user provided --with-hdf5? Which package
> currently implements this usage [to check for this optionaly
> dependency - and give the correct error]?
>
> i.e In this case - when the user specified --with-hdf5-dir option. We
> had to print an error.:
>  * please provide --with-zlib-dir and --with-szip-dir options.
> [For a different user - with the same usage - there would be no error]
>
> For netcdf above one would have kerbros.py, curl.py and perhaps more?


We have had this same discussion a million times, and we always eventually
get to the same answer and forget. Do we need our own error message for
petsc-dev?

We cannot possibly guess everything that can go wrong. What we need is a
system
where the user can specify what he actually wants and we check it. So, zlib
and
everything else are optional dependencies for hdf5. If something is not
specified, it
fails, and the user goes back and specifies the right thing.

   Matt


>
> 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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mcs.anl.gov/pipermail/petsc-dev/attachments/20130411/70648a1f/attachment.html>