- when windows portable executables (.exe or .dll) files are loaded,
their dependent libraries not fully loaded. For OpenFOAM this means
that the static constructors which are responsible for populating
run-time selection tables are not triggered, and most of the run-time
selectable models will simply not be available.
Possible Solution
=================
Avoid this problem by defining an additional library symbol such as
the following:
extern "C" void libName_Load() {}
in the respective library, and tag this symbol as 'unresolved' for
the linker so that it will attempt to resolve it at run-time by
loading the known libraries until it finds it. The link line would
resemble the following:
-L/some/path -llibName -ulibName_Load
Pros:
- Allows precise control of forced library loading
Cons:
- Moderately verbose adjustment of some source files (even with macro
wrapping for the declaration).
- Adjustment of numerous Make/options files and somewhat ad hoc
in nature.
- Requires additional care when implementing future libraries and/or
applications.
- This is the solution taken by the symscape patches (Richard Smith)
Possible Solution
=================
Avoid this problem by simply force loading all linked libraries.
This is done by "scraping" the information out of the respective
Make/options file (after pre-processing) and using that to define
the library list that will be passed to Foam::dlOpen() at run-time.
Pros:
- One-time (very) minimal adjustment of the sources and wmake toolchain
- Automatically applies to future applications
Cons:
- Possibly larger memory footprint of application (since all dependent
libraries are loaded).
- Possible impact on startup time (while loading libraries)
- More sensitive to build failures. Since the options files are
read and modified based on the existence of the dependent
libraries as a preprocessor step, if the libraries are initially
unavailable for the first attempt at building the application,
the dependencies will be inaccurate for later (successful) builds.
- This is solution taken by the bluecape patches (Bruno Santos)
Adopted Solution
================
The approach taken by Bruno was adopted in a modified form since
this appears to be the most easily maintained.
Additional Notes
================
It is always possible to solve this problem by defining a corresponding
'libs (...)' entry in the case system/controlDict, which forces a dlOpen
of the listed libraries. This is obviously less than ideal for large-scale
changes, but can work to resolve an individual problem.
The peldd utility (https://github.com/gsauthof/pe-util), which is
also packaged as part of MXE could provide yet another alternative.
Like ldd it can be used to determine the library dependencies of
binaries or libraries. This information could be used to define an
additional load layer for Windows.
- instead of dict.lookup(name) >> val;
can use dict.readEntry(name, val);
for checking of input token sizes.
This helps catch certain types of input errors:
{
key1 ; // <- Missing value
key2 1234 // <- Missing ';' terminator
key3 val;
}
STYLE: readIfPresent() instead of 'if found ...' in a few more places.
General:
* -roots, -hostRoots, -fileHandler
Specific:
* -to <coordinateSystem> -from <coordinateSystem>
- Display -help-compat when compatibility or ignored options are available
STYLE: capitalization of options text
- 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
- Remove the unused enums() method since it delivers wholly unreliable
results. It is not guaranteed to cover the full enumeration range,
but only the listed names.
- Remove the unused strings() method.
Duplicated functionality of the words(), but was never used.
- Change access of words() method from static to object.
Better code isolation. Permits the constructor to take over
as the single point of failure for bad input.
- Add values() method
- do not expose internal (HashTable) lookup since it makes it more
difficult to enforce constness and the implementation detail should
not be exposed. However leave toc() and sortedToc() for the interface.
STYLE: relocated NamedEnum under primitives (was containers)
- internal typedef as 'value_type' for some consistency with STL conventions
- patchFields now get mapped (instead of created)
- with -consistent it now maps all patches except for processor ones (they are
the only ones that are processor-local)
- all constraint patches get evaluated after mapping to bring them up to date.
Patch contributed by Mattijs Janssens
- 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
