Subject: [Dorsal-dev] Instructions seem incorrect

From: Andy Ray Terrel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:07 -0600

Everywhere I look the instructions for running dorsal is ./dorsal.sh.
But when I run this I get:

aterrel@fledermaus-4:/stage/csrg/aterrel/dorsal-0.5.0$ ./dorsal.sh
Error: Platform to build for not specified (and not automatically recognised).
Correct usage: ./dorsal.sh platforms/foo.platform

If this is correct usage, can we change it on the wiki?

Also I thought there was some way to elect to have things like PETSc
and Trilinos not downloaded and installed.  No matter what I do I
can't get dorsal to compile these things correctly on my server (which
is running debian etch).

-- Andy

---

From: Harish Narayanan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:13:27 +0100

> Correct usage: ./dorsal.sh platforms/foo.platform

Dorsal is supposed to be smart enough to figure out that your machine is
Etch. I don't know why it is unable to.

What is the output of

lsb_release -c

on your server?

> If this is correct usage, can we change it on the wiki?

One resorts to this usage only when things go wrong. e.g.

./dorsal.sh platforms/etch.platform

in your case. The correct usage is ./dorsal.sh .

> can't get dorsal to compile these things correctly on my server (which

Yes. Just open platform/etch.platform and comment out whatever packages
you do not need.

(And please sign up for the mailing list otherwise you risk your e-mails
being accidentally bounced/eaten.)

Harish

---

From: Harish Narayanan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:15:16 +0100

> in your case. The correct usage is ./dorsal.sh .

That last dot in the sentence above was an unfortunately placed full stop.

Harish

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From: Andy Ray Terrel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:36:15 -0600

Okay so perhaps better verbage on the error would be to take out the
"Correct Usage" statement.

The server doesn't have lsb_release on it.  I don't manage the machine
so it could not have enough of the debian etch stuff on it to be
detected by dorsal.

-- Andy

---

From: Harish Narayanan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:16:47 +0100

> so it could not have enough of the debian etch stuff on it to be

I'll think about how to word it better. How about?

$ ./dorsal.sh

Error: Unable to automatically determine your platform.

If you know your platform is supported (see README), please specify it
explicitly using the following invocation:

./dorsal.sh platforms/foo.platform

$ ./dorsal.sh platforms/etch.platform

[something happens]

Harish

---

From: Harish Narayanan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:40:39 +0100

> can't get dorsal to compile these things correctly on my server (which

If you got it working on your Etch server, could you point out what (if
anything) you needed to change/remove to get things working?

Harish

---

From: Harish Narayanan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:53:57 +0100

Andy Ray Terrel wrote:
> Sure thing.
> 
> I got everything but mtl, siwginac, and trilinos to build.  I ended up
> building by hand the last time because I didn't want to build
> everything again.  It would be nice to make dorsal aware somehow that
> it already built something.

Add skip: before the package name in the .platform file.

So it will be,

.
.
.
slepc
skip:swiginac
suitesparsewithmetis
skip:mtl
skip:trilinos
.
.
.
dolfin

I tried auto-checking this at some point, but it became slightly hairy
to figure out fringe cases (something built correctly but not exactly
installed properly, etc.).

Harish

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From: Andy Ray Terrel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:11:04 -0600

Sure thing.

-- Andy