[petsc-users] Wrapper function to factorize a matrix

[Zhang, Hong]

Shash,
You may do it without using pc. See petsc/src/mat/examples/tests/ex125.c
Hong

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 4:43 PM Shashwat Sharma via petsc-users <petsc-users at mcs.anl.gov<mailto:petsc-users at mcs.anl.gov>> wrote:
Hello,

For some small matrices, I'd like to use Petsc to perform direct LU factorization on a sequential dense or AIJ matrix, and then use the factored matrix later on via MatSolve. This occurs multiple times in my code, and each factored matrix is in turn used multiple times.

I tried to wrap this factorization process in a function, which should return the factored matrix, as follows:

void MatFactorize_Petsc(Mat &mat, Mat &mat_factored)
{
PC pc;
PCCreate(MPI_COMM_SELF, &pc);
PCSetOperators(pc, mat, mat);
PCSetType(pc, PCLU);

PCFactorSetMatSolverType(pc, MATSOLVERPETSC); // Or SuperLU
PCFactorSetUpMatSolverType(pc);

PCFactorGetMatrix(pc, &mat_factored);
PCSetUp(pc);
// PCDestroy(&pc);
return;
}

The command PCDestroy causes a segmentation fault, which I think happens because retrieving the factored matrix does not increase the reference count. Looking at the Petsc source, it basically returns a pointer to pc->data. So if I want to use mat_factored outside the function, I cannot destroy the PC object, which leads to memory leaks (as per Valgrind) even if I later call MatDestroy(&mat_factored).

I tried using a temp matrix to get the factors, and then doing MatDuplicate(temp, MAT_COPY_VALUES, &mat_factored), but MatDuplicate is not allowed on factored matrices; same for MatConvert.

Is there a way I can achieve the desired behaviour, where mat_factored is not "linked" to the pc or ksp object, keeping in mind that I'd like to be able to choose between SuperLU, Petsc and SuperLU_dist solvers?

Thanks,
Shash

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mcs.anl.gov/pipermail/petsc-users/attachments/20191022/feee01fa/attachment-0001.html>