- With argList::noFunctionObjects() we use the logic added in
4b93333292 (issue #352)
By removing the '-noFunctionObjects' option, we automatically
suppress the creation of function-objects via Time (with argList
as a parameter).
There is generally no need in these cases for an additional
runTime.functionObjects().off() statement
Use the argList::noFunctionObjects() for more direct configuration
and reduce unnecessary clutter in the -help information.
In previous versions, the -noFunctionObjects would have been redundant
anyhow, so we can also just ignore it now instead.
- centralizes IOobject handling and treatment of alternative locations.
If an alternative file location is specified, it will be used instead.
- provide decompositionMethod::canonicalName instead of using
"decomposeParDict" in various 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
- simplifies usage.
Support syncPar check on names() to detect inconsistencies.
- simplify readFields, ReadFields and other routines by using these
new methods.
- what was previously termed 'setLargeCellSubset()' is now simply
'setCellSubset()' and supports memory efficient interfaces.
The new parameter ordering avoids ambiguities caused by default
parameters.
Old parameter order:
setLargeCellSubset
(
const labelList& region,
const label currentRegion,
const label patchID = -1,
const bool syncCouples = true
);
New parameter order:
setCellSubset
(
const label regioni,
const labelUList& regions,
const label patchID = -1,
const bool syncCouples = true
);
And without ambiguity:
setCellSubset
(
const labelUList& selectedCells,
const label patchID = -1,
const bool syncCouples = true
);
- support bitSet directly for specifying the selectedCells for
memory efficiency and ease of use.
- Additional constructors to perform setCellSubset() immediately,
which simplifies coding.
For example,
meshParts.set
(
zonei,
new fvMeshSubset(mesh, selectedCells)
);
Or even
return autoPtr<fvMeshSubset>::New(mesh, selectedCells);
- 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.
- relocate some standard functionality to TimePaths to allow a lighter
means of managing time directories without using the entire Time
mechanism.
- optional enableLibs for Time construction (default is on)
and a corresponding argList::noLibs() and "-no-libs" option
STYLE:
- mark Time::outputTime() as deprecated MAY-2016
- use pre-increment for runTime, although there is no difference in
behaviour or performance.
- 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());
}
- both autoPtr and tmp are defined with an implicit construct from
nullptr (but with explicit construct from a pointer to null).
Thus is it safe to use 'nullptr' when returning an empty autoPtr or tmp.
- when constructing dimensioned fields that are to be zero-initialized,
it is preferrable to use a form such as
dimensionedScalar(dims, Zero)
dimensionedVector(dims, Zero)
rather than
dimensionedScalar("0", dims, 0)
dimensionedVector("zero", dims, vector::zero)
This reduces clutter and also avoids any suggestion that the name of
the dimensioned quantity has any influence on the field's name.
An even shorter version is possible. Eg,
dimensionedScalar(dims)
but reduces the clarity of meaning.
- NB: UniformDimensionedField is an exception to these style changes
since it does use the name of the dimensioned type (instead of the
regIOobject).
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.
Improve alignment of its behaviour with std::unique_ptr
- element_type typedef
- release() method - identical to ptr() method
- get() method to get the pointer without checking and without releasing it.
- operator*() for dereferencing
Method name changes
- renamed rawPtr() to get()
- renamed rawRef() to ref(), removed unused const version.
Removed methods/operators
- assignment from a raw pointer was deleted (was rarely used).
Can be convenient, but uncontrolled and potentially unsafe.
Do allow assignment from a literal nullptr though, since this
can never leak (and also corresponds to the unique_ptr API).
Additional methods
- clone() method: forwards to the clone() method of the underlying
data object with argument forwarding.
- reset(autoPtr&&) as an alternative to operator=(autoPtr&&)
STYLE: avoid implicit conversion from autoPtr to object type in many places
- existing implementation has the following:
operator const T&() const { return operator*(); }
which means that the following code works:
autoPtr<mapPolyMesh> map = ...;
updateMesh(*map); // OK: explicit dereferencing
updateMesh(map()); // OK: explicit dereferencing
updateMesh(map); // OK: implicit dereferencing
for clarity it may preferable to avoid the implicit dereferencing
- prefer operator* to operator() when deferenced a return value
so it is clearer that a pointer is involve and not a function call
etc Eg, return *meshPtr_; vs. return meshPtr_();
- relocated ListAppendEqOp and ListUniqueEqOp to ListOps::appendEqOp
and ListOps::UniqueEqOp, respectively for better code isolation and
documentation of purpose.
- relocated setValues to ListOps::setValue() with many more
alternative selectors possible
- relocated createWithValues to ListOps::createWithValue
for better code isolation. The default initialization value is itself
now a default parameter, which allow for less typing.
Negative indices in the locations to set are now silently ignored,
which makes it possible to use an oldToNew mapping that includes
negative indices.
- additional ListOps::createWithValue taking a single position to set,
available both in copy assign and move assign versions.
Since a negative index is ignored, it is possible to combine with
the output of List::find() etc.
STYLE: changes for PackedList
- code simplication in the PackedList iterators, including dropping
the unused operator() on iterators, which is not available in plain
list versions either.
- improved sizing for PackedBoolList creation from a labelUList.
ENH: additional List constructors, for handling single element list.
- can assist in reducing constructor ambiguity, but can also helps
memory optimization when creating a single element list.
For example,
labelListList labels(one(), identity(mesh.nFaces()));
- 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
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
- constructor for empty cell/face/point Zones, with contents to be
transferred in later.
- ZoneMesh::operator(const word&) to return existing zone or a new empty one.
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.
- 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
- allows configuration without an environment variable.
For compatibility still respect FOAM_SIGFPE and FOAM_SETNAN
env-variables
- The env-variables are now treated as true/false switch values.
Previously there was just a check for env exists or not, but this
can be fairly fragile for a user's environment.
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.
- Constructor for bounding box of a single point.
- add(boundBox), add(point) ...
-> Extend box to enclose the second box or point(s).
Eg,
bb.add(pt);
vs.
bb.min() = Foam::min(bb.min(), pt);
bb.max() = Foam::max(bb.max(), pt);
Also works with other bounding boxes.
Eg,
bb.add(bb2);
// OR
bb += bb2;
vs.
bb.min() = Foam::min(bb.min(), bb2.min());
bb.max() = Foam::max(bb.max(), bb2.max());
'+=' operator allows the reduction to be used in parallel
gather/scatter operations.
A global '+' operator is not currently needed.
Note: may be useful in the future to have a 'clear()' method
that resets to a zero-sized (inverted) box.
STYLE: make many bounding box constructors explicit
- 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.
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
These new names are more consistent and logical because:
primitiveField():
primitiveFieldRef():
Provides low-level access to the Field<Type> (primitive field)
without dimension or mesh-consistency checking. This should only be
used in the low-level functions where dimensional consistency is
ensured by careful programming and computational efficiency is
paramount.
internalField():
internalFieldRef():
Provides access to the DimensionedField<Type, GeoMesh> of values on
the internal mesh-type for which the GeometricField is defined and
supports dimension and checking and mesh-consistency checking.
To be used instead of zeroGradientFvPatchField for temporary fields for
which zero-gradient extrapolation is use to evaluate the boundary field
but avoiding fields derived from temporary field using field algebra
inheriting the zeroGradient boundary condition by the reuse of the
temporary field storage.
zeroGradientFvPatchField should not be used as the default patch field
for any temporary fields and should be avoided for non-temporary fields
except where it is clearly appropriate;
extrapolatedCalculatedFvPatchField and calculatedFvPatchField are
generally more suitable defaults depending on the manner in which the
boundary values are specified or evaluated.
The entire OpenFOAM-dev code-base has been updated following the above
recommendations.
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct
Moved file path handling to regIOobject and made it type specific so
now every object can have its own rules. Examples:
- faceZones are now processor local (and don't search up anymore)
- timeStampMaster is now no longer hardcoded inside IOdictionary
(e.g. uniformDimensionedFields support it as well)
- the distributedTriSurfaceMesh is properly processor-local; no need
for fileModificationChecking manipulation.
- 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
