Step 1.
include "addAllRegionOptions.H"
Adds the -allRegions, -regions and -region options to argList.
Step 2.
include "getAllRegionOptions.H"
Processes the options with -allRegions selecting everything
from the regionProperties.
OR use -regions to specify multiple regions (from
regionProperties), and can also contain regular expressions
OR use the -region option
Specifying a single -regions NAME (not a regular expresssion)
is the same as -region NAME and doesn't use regionProperties
Creates a `wordList regionNames`
Step 3.
Do something with the region names.
Either directly, or quite commonly with the following
include "createNamedMeshes.H"
Creates a `PtrList<fvMesh> meshes`
STYLE: add description to some central include files
- Eg, with surface writers now in surfMesh, there are fewer libraries
depending on conversion and sampling.
COMP: regularize linkage ordering and avoid some implicit linkage (#1238)
General:
* -roots, -hostRoots, -fileHandler
Specific:
* -to <coordinateSystem> -from <coordinateSystem>
- Display -help-compat when compatibility or ignored options are available
STYLE: capitalization of options text
- simplifies usage.
Support syncPar check on names() to detect inconsistencies.
- simplify readFields, ReadFields and other routines by using these
new methods.
- 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 central InfoSwitch "writeLagrangianPositions" allows writing an
additional Lagrangian "positions" file, but these were not being
written by reconstructPar. These are now also written in reconstructPar
if the central writeLagrangianPositions InfoSwitch is enabled.
NOTES
- "positions" are reconstructed from the processors "coordinates" file
- decomposePar will not attempt to create or redistribute any
"positions" files
- 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
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.
- consolidate word::validated() into word::validate() and also allow
as short form for string::validate<word>(). Also less confusing than
having similarly named methods that essentially do the same thing.
- more consistent const access when iterating over strings
- add valid(char) for keyType and wordRe
splitMeshRegions: handle flipping of faces for surface fields
subsetMesh: subset dimensionedFields
decomposePar: use run-time selection of decomposition constraints. Used to
keep cells on particular processors. See the decomposeParDict in
$FOAM_UTILITIES/parallel/decomposePar:
- preserveBaffles: keep baffle faces on same processor
- preserveFaceZones: keep faceZones owner and neighbour on same processor
- preservePatches: keep owner and neighbour on same processor. Note: not
suitable for cyclicAMI since these are not coupled on the patch level
- singleProcessorFaceSets: keep complete faceSet on a single processor
- refinementHistory: keep cells originating from a single cell on the
same processor.
decomposePar: clean up decomposition of refinement data from snappyHexMesh
reconstructPar: reconstruct refinement data (refineHexMesh, snappyHexMesh)
reconstructParMesh: reconstruct refinement data (refineHexMesh, snappyHexMesh)
redistributePar:
- corrected mapping surfaceFields
- adding processor patches in order consistent with decomposePar
argList: check that slaves are running same version as master
fvMeshSubset: move to dynamicMesh library
fvMeshDistribute:
- support for mapping dimensionedFields
- corrected mapping of surfaceFields
parallel routines: allow parallel running on single processor
Field: support for
- distributed mapping
- mapping with flipping
mapDistribute: support for flipping
AMIInterpolation: avoid constructing localPoints
- redistributePar to have almost (complete) functionality of decomposePar+reconstructPar
- low-level distributed Field mapping
- support for mapping surfaceFields (including flipping faces)
- support for decomposing/reconstructing refinement data
