minimal installation method for Benchmarks

The simple installation method is using the scripts palm_simple_build and palm_simple_run for installing and running PALM.

Source Code Download

First step: Create a directory:

  mkdir -p ~/palm/current_version/

You can freely choose the directory name, but if you intend to switch to the advanced method of running PALM later, you should use ~/palm/current_version. This directory will be called working directory from now on.

Second step: Check out a working copy of the recent PALM version from the svn-repository. Replace <your username> by your valid repository username.

  cd ~/palm/current_version
  svn checkout --username <your username> https://palm.muk.uni-hannover.de/svn/palm/trunk trunk

You will be prompted for your password. After completion, a subdirectory trunk will appear in your working directory. It contains a number of further subdirectories, which contain e.g. the PALM source code (SOURCE) and the scripts for running PALM (SCRIPTS).

Please never touch any file in your working copy of PALM, except for the configuration files described later in this installation instruction.

Configuration and compilation

Third step: To use the PALM scripts without specifying their entire path, the PATH-variable has to be extended. For convenience, setting should be done in the respective profile of the users default shell (e.g. in .bashrc, if bash is used):

  export PATH=$HOME/palm/current_version/trunk/SCRIPTS:$PATH

You may have to restart your shell in order to activate the profile settings.

Fourth step: Call the installation script:

  palm_simple_build -b <build-config>

<build-config> has to re replaced by the suffix of any file in INSTALL directory that starts with MAKE.inc. and contains compiler options and library paths appropriate for your system. You can find some tested and verified files with compiler-option sets in the INSTALL directory of the repository. If no one of these sets satisfies your requirements, just choose anyone and modify it in a later step (see below). The script copies the PALM source code as well as the file with this set of compiler options into a new directory BUILD_<build-config> and calls make to compile the code.

Fifth step: Carry out a test run in order to check the installation. The test run (as every PALM run) requires a parameter file for steering PALM, which is in FORTRAN-NAMELIST format. Some test setup files can be found inside the INSTALL directory. The carry the sufix _p3d. PALM is started with script palm_simple_run. Similar to the build configuration files there are also some pre-configured execution configuration files in the INSTALL directory. They start with RUN.cmd. and end with an arbitrary suffix <run-config> and contain the MPI-execution command (mpiexec, mpirun, etc.) which depend on the MPI-library that you are using and the computer you are working on. After having adjusted the MPI-execution command to your needs, start the run with:

  palm_simple_run -b <build-config> -c <run-config> -s <test-case> -p <mpi-ranks> -n <mpi-ranks-per-node> -t <openmp-threads>

Option -s gives the parameter file (test-case) to be used. Additionally, option -p gives the total number of MPI ranks, -n gives the number of MPI ranks per node and -t gives the number of OpenMP threads.

After the run has finished, all OUTPUT files can be found in directory RUN_<build-config>_<run-config>_<test-case>_<mpi-ranks>_<mpi-ranks-per-node>_<openmp-threads>.

Sixth step: To verify the results of this example run, compare it with the default result:

diff  RUN_<build-config>_<run-config>_<test-case>_.../RUN_CONTROL   trunk/INSTALL/<test-case>_rc

You should not find any difference between these two files, except for the run date and time displayed at the top of the file header, and, maybe, the number of cores that have been used. If the file contents are identical, the installation is successfully completed.