- simplifies usage.
Support syncPar check on names() to detect inconsistencies.
- simplify readFields, ReadFields and other routines by using these
new methods.
- can be used to test the behaviour of the decomposion and its
characteristics without writing any decomposition to disk.
Combine with -cellDist to visualize the expected decomposition
result.
- improves backward compatibility and more naming consistency.
Retain setMany(iter1, iter2) to avoid ambiguity with the
PackedList::set(index, value) method.
Improvements to existing functionality
--------------------------------------
- MPI is initialised without thread support if it is not needed e.g. uncollated
- Use native c++11 threading; avoids problem with static destruction order.
- etc/cellModels now only read if needed.
- etc/controlDict can now be read from the environment variable FOAM_CONTROLDICT
- Uniform files (e.g. '0/uniform/time') are now read only once on the master only
(with the masterUncollated or collated file handlers)
- collated format writes to 'processorsNNN' instead of 'processors'. The file
format is unchanged.
- Thread buffer and file buffer size are no longer limited to 2Gb.
The global controlDict file contains parameters for file handling. Under some
circumstances, e.g. running in parallel on a system without NFS, the user may
need to set some parameters, e.g. fileHandler, before the global controlDict
file is read from file. To support this, OpenFOAM now allows the global
controlDict to be read as a string set to the FOAM_CONTROLDICT environment
variable.
The FOAM_CONTROLDICT environment variable can be set to the content the global
controlDict file, e.g. from a sh/bash shell:
export FOAM_CONTROLDICT=$(foamDictionary $FOAM_ETC/controlDict)
FOAM_CONTROLDICT can then be passed to mpirun using the -x option, e.g.:
mpirun -np 2 -x FOAM_CONTROLDICT simpleFoam -parallel
Note that while this avoids the need for NFS to read the OpenFOAM configuration
the executable still needs to load shared libraries which must either be copied
locally or available via NFS or equivalent.
New: Multiple IO ranks
----------------------
The masterUncollated and collated fileHandlers can now use multiple ranks for
writing e.g.:
mpirun -np 6 simpleFoam -parallel -ioRanks '(0 3)'
In this example ranks 0 ('processor0') and 3 ('processor3') now handle all the
I/O. Rank 0 handles 0,1,2 and rank 3 handles 3,4,5. The set of IO ranks should always
include 0 as first element and be sorted in increasing order.
The collated fileHandler uses the directory naming processorsNNN_XXX-YYY where
NNN is the total number of processors and XXX and YYY are first and last
processor in the rank, e.g. in above example the directories would be
processors6_0-2
processors6_3-5
and each of the collated files in these contains data of the local ranks
only. The same naming also applies when e.g. running decomposePar:
decomposePar -fileHandler collated -ioRanks '(0 3)'
New: Distributed data
---------------------
The individual root directories can be placed on different hosts with different
paths if necessary. In the current framework it is necessary to specify the
root per slave process but this has been simplified with the option of specifying
the root per host with the -hostRoots command line option:
mpirun -np 6 simpleFoam -parallel -ioRanks '(0 3)' \
-hostRoots '("machineA" "/tmp/" "machineB" "/tmp")'
The hostRoots option is followed by a list of machine name + root directory, the
machine name can contain regular expressions.
New: hostCollated
-----------------
The new hostCollated fileHandler automatically sets the 'ioRanks' according to
the host name with the lowest rank e.g. to run simpleFoam on 6 processors with
ranks 0-2 on machineA and ranks 3-5 on machineB with the machines specified in
the hostfile:
mpirun -np 6 --hostfile hostfile simpleFoam -parallel -fileHandler hostCollated
This is equivalent to
mpirun -np 6 --hostfile hostfile simpleFoam -parallel -fileHandler collated -ioRanks '(0 3)'
This example will write directories:
processors6_0-2/
processors6_3-5/
A typical example would use distributed data e.g. no two nodes, machineA and
machineB, each with three processes:
decomposePar -fileHandler collated -case cavity
# Copy case (constant/*, system/*, processors6/) to master:
rsync -a cavity machineA:/tmp/
# Create root on slave:
ssh machineB mkdir -p /tmp/cavity
# Run
mpirun --hostfile hostfile icoFoam \
-case /tmp/cavity -parallel -fileHandler hostCollated \
-hostRoots '("machineA" "/tmp" "machineB" "/tmp")'
Contributed by Mattijs Janssens
- The bitSet class replaces the old PackedBoolList class.
The redesign provides better block-wise access and reduced method
calls. This helps both in cases where the bitSet may be relatively
sparse, and in cases where advantage of contiguous operations can be
made. This makes it easier to work with a bitSet as top-level object.
In addition to the previously available count() method to determine
if a bitSet is being used, now have simpler queries:
- all() - true if all bits in the addressable range are empty
- any() - true if any bits are set at all.
- none() - true if no bits are set.
These are faster than count() and allow early termination.
The new test() method tests the value of a single bit position and
returns a bool without any ambiguity caused by the return type
(like the get() method), nor the const/non-const access (like
operator[] has). The name corresponds to what std::bitset uses.
The new find_first(), find_last(), find_next() methods provide a faster
means of searching for bits that are set.
This can be especially useful when using a bitSet to control an
conditional:
OLD (with macro):
forAll(selected, celli)
{
if (selected[celli])
{
sumVol += mesh_.cellVolumes()[celli];
}
}
NEW (with const_iterator):
for (const label celli : selected)
{
sumVol += mesh_.cellVolumes()[celli];
}
or manually
for
(
label celli = selected.find_first();
celli != -1;
celli = selected.find_next()
)
{
sumVol += mesh_.cellVolumes()[celli];
}
- When marking up contiguous parts of a bitset, an interval can be
represented more efficiently as a labelRange of start/size.
For example,
OLD:
if (isA<processorPolyPatch>(pp))
{
forAll(pp, i)
{
ignoreFaces.set(i);
}
}
NEW:
if (isA<processorPolyPatch>(pp))
{
ignoreFaces.set(pp.range());
}
This class is largely a pre-C++11 holdover. It is now possible to
simply use move construct/assignment directly.
In a few rare cases (eg, polyMesh::resetPrimitives) it has been
replaced by an autoPtr.
- use succincter method names that more closely resemble dictionary
and HashTable method names. This improves method name consistency
between classes and also requires less typing effort:
args.found(optName) vs. args.optionFound(optName)
args.readIfPresent(..) vs. args.optionReadIfPresent(..)
...
args.opt<scalar>(optName) vs. args.optionRead<scalar>(optName)
args.read<scalar>(index) vs. args.argRead<scalar>(index)
- the older method names forms have been retained for code compatibility,
but are now deprecated
- label-size 64 build, compiler warnings, unused template argument,
faMatrix::clone() method
STYLE: faScalarMatrix - moved info message to within a debug scope
Within decomposeParDict, it is now possible to specify a different
decomposition method, methods coefficients or number of subdomains
for each region individually.
The top-level numberOfSubdomains remains mandatory, since this
specifies the number of domains for the entire simulation.
The individual regions may use the same number or fewer domains.
Any optional method coefficients can be specified in a general
"coeffs" entry or a method-specific one, eg "metisCoeffs".
For multiLevel, only the method-specific "multiLevelCoeffs" dictionary
is used, and is also mandatory.
----
ENH: shortcut specification for multiLevel.
In addition to the longer dictionary form, it is also possible to
use a shorter notation for multiLevel decomposition when the same
decomposition method applies to each level.
- only warn about missing cells/points if the mesh is also missing
boundary patches.
- reduce verbosity when decomposing to an empty mesh
- skip face matching when either mesh has no faces
old "positions" file form
The change to barycentric-based tracking changed the contents of the
cloud "positions" file to a new format comprising the barycentric
co-ordinates and other cell position-based info. This broke
backwards compatibility, providing no option to restart old cases
(v1706 and earlier), and caused difficulties for dependent code, e.g.
for post-processing utilities that could only infer the contents only
after reading.
The barycentric position info is now written to a file called
"coordinates" with provision to restart old cases for which only the
"positions" file is available. Related utilities, e.g. for parallel
running and data conversion have been updated to be able to support both
file types.
To write the "positions" file by default, use set the following option
in the InfoSwitches section of the controlDict:
writeLagrangianPositions 1;
Original commit message:
------------------------
Parallel IO: New collated file format
When an OpenFOAM simulation runs in parallel, the data for decomposed fields and
mesh(es) has historically been stored in multiple files within separate
directories for each processor. Processor directories are named 'processorN',
where N is the processor number.
This commit introduces an alternative "collated" file format where the data for
each decomposed field (and mesh) is collated into a single file, which is
written and read on the master processor. The files are stored in a single
directory named 'processors'.
The new format produces significantly fewer files - one per field, instead of N
per field. For large parallel cases, this avoids the restriction on the number
of open files imposed by the operating system limits.
The file writing can be threaded allowing the simulation to continue running
while the data is being written to file. NFS (Network File System) is not
needed when using the the collated format and additionally, there is an option
to run without NFS with the original uncollated approach, known as
"masterUncollated".
The controls for the file handling are in the OptimisationSwitches of
etc/controlDict:
OptimisationSwitches
{
...
//- Parallel IO file handler
// uncollated (default), collated or masterUncollated
fileHandler uncollated;
//- collated: thread buffer size for queued file writes.
// If set to 0 or not sufficient for the file size threading is not used.
// Default: 2e9
maxThreadFileBufferSize 2e9;
//- masterUncollated: non-blocking buffer size.
// If the file exceeds this buffer size scheduled transfer is used.
// Default: 2e9
maxMasterFileBufferSize 2e9;
}
When using the collated file handling, memory is allocated for the data in the
thread. maxThreadFileBufferSize sets the maximum size of memory in bytes that
is allocated. If the data exceeds this size, the write does not use threading.
When using the masterUncollated file handling, non-blocking MPI communication
requires a sufficiently large memory buffer on the master node.
maxMasterFileBufferSize sets the maximum size in bytes of the buffer. If the
data exceeds this size, the system uses scheduled communication.
The installation defaults for the fileHandler choice, maxThreadFileBufferSize
and maxMasterFileBufferSize (set in etc/controlDict) can be over-ridden within
the case controlDict file, like other parameters. Additionally the fileHandler
can be set by:
- the "-fileHandler" command line argument;
- a FOAM_FILEHANDLER environment variable.
A foamFormatConvert utility allows users to convert files between the collated
and uncollated formats, e.g.
mpirun -np 2 foamFormatConvert -parallel -fileHandler uncollated
An example case demonstrating the file handling methods is provided in:
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/IO/fileHandling
The work was undertaken by Mattijs Janssens, in collaboration with Henry Weller.
terms of the local barycentric coordinates of the current tetrahedron,
rather than the global coordinate system.
Barycentric tracking works on any mesh, irrespective of mesh quality.
Particles do not get "lost", and tracking does not require ad-hoc
"corrections" or "rescues" to function robustly, because the calculation
of particle-face intersections is unambiguous and reproducible, even at
small angles of incidence.
Each particle position is defined by topology (i.e. the decomposed tet
cell it is in) and geometry (i.e. where it is in the cell). No search
operations are needed on restart or reconstruct, unlike when particle
positions are stored in the global coordinate system.
The particle positions file now contains particles' local coordinates
and topology, rather than the global coordinates and cell. This change
to the output format is not backwards compatible. Existing cases with
Lagrangian data will not restart, but they will still run from time
zero without any modification. This change was necessary in order to
guarantee that the loaded particle is valid, and therefore
fundamentally prevent "loss" and "search-failure" type bugs (e.g.,
2517, 2442, 2286, 1836, 1461, 1341, 1097).
The tracking functions have also been converted to function in terms
of displacement, rather than end position. This helps remove floating
point error issues, particularly towards the end of a tracking step.
Wall bounded streamlines have been removed. The implementation proved
incompatible with the new tracking algorithm. ParaView has a surface
LIC plugin which provides equivalent, or better, functionality.
Additionally, bug report <https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2517>
is resolved by this change.
Using
decomposePar -copyZero
The mesh is decomposed as usual but the '0' directory is recursively copied to
the 'processor.*' directories rather than decomposing the fields. This is a
convenient option to handle cases where the initial field files are generic and
can be used for serial or parallel running. See for example the
incompressible/simpleFoam/motorBike tutorial case.
- there was a slight mix of MUST_READ and MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED
but with no obvious code to handle runtime modified values
of the decomposition, or how this works with alternative
dictionaries.
- Cleanup/centralize handling of -decomposeParDict by relocating
common code into argList. Ensures that all processes receive
identical information about the -decomposeParDict opton.
- Only use alternative decomposeParDict for simpleFoam/motorBike
tutorial so that this will be included in the test loop for snappy.
- Added Mattijs' fix for surfaceRedistributePar.
