[petsc-users] nondeterministic behavior with ./program -help | head

[Barry Smith]

Is

./ex5 -help -no_signal_handler  | head

good enough?

Normally we won't want to turn off catching of PIPE errors  since it might hide other errors.

Barry



> On Apr 26, 2017, at 3:31 PM, Ed Bueler <elbueler at alaska.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear Petsc --
> 
> Copied at the bottom is the behavior I get for ex5.c in snes examples/tutorials.  When I do
> 
> $./ex5 -help |head
> 
> I get a "Caught signal number 13 Broken Pipe" or just a version string.  Randomly, one or the other.
> 
> I know this has come up on petsc-users before:
>     http://lists.mcs.anl.gov/pipermail/petsc-users/2014-May/021848.html
> The claim was that the SIGPIPE error is standard behavior.
> 
> My real issue (feature request?) is that when writing a petsc application I want a rational help system.  Suppose "program.c" has options with prefix "prg_".  The user doesn't know the prefix yet (I could have used "prog_" as the prefix ...)  The petsc-canonical help system is (I believe)
> 
> ./program -help |grep prg_
> 
> for program.c-specific options.  Works great if you know to look for "prg_".  My plan for my applications is to put the prefix in the first line or two of my help string, the user can discover the prefix by
> 
> ./program -help |head
> 
> and then use "-help |grep -prg_" and etc.
> 
> So my question is:  Can petsc be set up to not generate an error message when the help system is used in a correct way?  (I.e. catching return codes when writing, or handling SIGPIPE differently?)  Or, on the other hand, can someone suggest a better help system that irritates less?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Ed
> 
> ~/petsc/src/snes/examples/tutorials[master*]$ ./ex5 -help |head
> Bratu nonlinear PDE in 2d.
> We solve the  Bratu (SFI - solid fuel ignition) problem in a 2D rectangular
> domain, using distributed arrays (DMDAs) to partition the parallel grid.
> The command line options include:
>   -par <parameter>, where <parameter> indicates the problem's nonlinearity
>      problem SFI:  <parameter> = Bratu parameter (0 <= par <= 6.81)
> 
>   -m_par/n_par <parameter>, where <parameter> indicates an integer
>        that MMS3 will be evaluated with 2^m_par, 2^n_par--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Petsc Development GIT revision: v3.7.6-3453-ge45481d470  GIT Date: 2017-04-26 13:00:15 -0500
> [0]PETSC ERROR: ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Caught signal number 13 Broken Pipe: Likely while reading or writing to a socket
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Try option -start_in_debugger or -on_error_attach_debugger
> [0]PETSC ERROR: or see http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/documentation/faq.html#valgrind
> [0]PETSC ERROR: or try http://valgrind.org on GNU/linux and Apple Mac OS X to find memory corruption errors
> [0]PETSC ERROR: likely location of problem given in stack below
> [0]PETSC ERROR: ---------------------  Stack Frames ------------------------------------
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Note: The EXACT line numbers in the stack are not available,
> [0]PETSC ERROR:       INSTEAD the line number of the start of the function
> [0]PETSC ERROR:       is given.
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] PetscVFPrintfDefault line 240 /home/ed/petsc/src/sys/fileio/mprint.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] PetscHelpPrintfDefault line 622 /home/ed/petsc/src/sys/fileio/mprint.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] PetscOptionsBegin_Private line 29 /home/ed/petsc/src/sys/objects/aoptions.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] PetscObjectOptionsBegin_Private line 61 /home/ed/petsc/src/sys/objects/aoptions.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] PetscDSSetFromOptions line 218 /home/ed/petsc/src/dm/dt/interface/dtds.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: [0] DMSetFromOptions line 747 /home/ed/petsc/src/dm/interface/dm.c
> [0]PETSC ERROR: --------------------- Error Message --------------------------------------------------------------
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Signal received
> [0]PETSC ERROR: See http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/documentation/faq.html for trouble shooting.
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Petsc Development GIT revision: v3.7.6-3453-ge45481d470  GIT Date: 2017-04-26 13:00:15 -0500
> [0]PETSC ERROR: ./ex5 on a linux-c-dbg named bueler-leopard by ed Wed Apr 26 11:22:07 2017
> [0]PETSC ERROR: Configure options --download-mpich --with-debugging=1
> [0]PETSC ERROR: #1 User provided function() line 0 in  unknown file
> application called MPI_Abort(MPI_COMM_WORLD, 59) - process 0
> [unset]: aborting job:
> application called MPI_Abort(MPI_COMM_WORLD, 59) - process 0
> ~/petsc/src/snes/examples/tutorials[master*]$ ./ex5 -help |head
> Bratu nonlinear PDE in 2d.
> We solve the  Bratu (SFI - solid fuel ignition) problem in a 2D rectangular
> domain, using distributed arrays (DMDAs) to partition the parallel grid.
> The command line options include:
>   -par <parameter>, where <parameter> indicates the problem's nonlinearity
>      problem SFI:  <parameter> = Bratu parameter (0 <= par <= 6.81)
> 
>   -m_par/n_par <parameter>, where <parameter> indicates an integer
>        that MMS3 will be evaluated with 2^m_par, 2^n_par--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Petsc Development GIT revision: v3.7.6-3453-ge45481d470  GIT Date: 2017-04-26 13:00:15 -0500
> ~/petsc/src/snes/examples/tutorials[master*]$ 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Ed Bueler
> Dept of Math and Stat and Geophysical Institute
> University of Alaska Fairbanks
> Fairbanks, AK 99775-6660
> 301C Chapman