[CIG-MC] ConMan issues report

Wed Aug 17 16:21:35 PDT 2016

John;

Most if not all of the problems with the CIG version of ConMan are due to the memory management module that we put into the code in the late 1990s before modern Fortran compilers all started using dynamic memory allocation and when both 32 and 64 bit machines were common and the difference posed many problems for codes.   I'm not sure if any 32 bit machines still exist in the wild.

I have a version of the code that removes the memory management routines and uses dynamic memory allocation for all the variables.  There are a host of other changes/improvements and many of the old routines no longer exist and/or have been merged.   I know it works in intel and gfortran on mac and linux.  I was not sure that this was a good idea to update with github or it's predecessor because it is such a major change.  The new version can do both explicit and Picard time stepping and can do Bousinessq, extended Bousinessq, TALA, and ALA.  For about three years it's been on my "to do list" to get this to CIG somehow, but it needs documentation and I just don't have the time or energy to do it.  It was not and is not clear to me if CIG really wants this.  Even with these changes it is rather dated and I'm not sure what kind of demand there is for it.  That said it is about 100.000 times easier to install than Aspect.

I bring it up because it might be a better use of time to get the newer version of ConMan into the repository than fixing up the old version.  I'd help but realistically I have a panel meeting next week, classes start, and it is my summer undergrads last week.  My time is non-existent.  

Best,

Scott

On Aug 17, 2016, at 6:44 PM, John Naliboff <jbnaliboff at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

> Dear Lyra,
> 
>> Yes, we're running on a mac. I can try running on a linux if it's simpler, but what is the testing/debugging that is required? 
> 
> It is just that we have successfully compiled ConMan on linux, but not on a mac recently.  The mac installation may work right away or additional issues may arise.  I would try compiling on your mac first with the 64 bit compiler, but then move to linux if that does not work.
> 
>> Hm, interesting. We are in fact building our own code for specific problems in icy moons, and want to benchmark the code. We can get the isoviscous Blankenbach tests right, but we're running into some problems for variable viscosity (cases 2 and 3). We want to check the output of a code that does these cases right to see where we're doing wrong. 
> 
> I know the isoviscous case has been tested successfully and I believe cases 2 and 3 have as well, but I will need to check on this.
> 
> Either ConMan or ASPECT will of course work for testing the Blankenbach cases.  ASPECT will definitely compile on the mac, though.  
> 
> I should be able to get to the ConMan fix sometime tomorrow and will send an email as soon as it is updated.
> 
> Cheers,
> John
> 
> *************************************************
> Assistant Project Scientist, CIG
> Earth & Planetary Sciences Dept., UC Davis
> 
> 
>> On Aug 17, 2016, at 3:35 PM, Lyra, Wladimir <wladimir.lyra at csun.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear John 
>> 
>> If you are running on a mac, more testing/debugging may be required.
>> 
>> Yes, we're running on a mac. I can try running on a linux if it's simpler, but what is the testing/debugging that is required? 
>> 
>> A bit off topic, but is there a particular reason you choose ConMan?  ASPECT might be a better choice if you would like to run in parallel, do 3D simulations, use adaptive mesh refinement, etc. There is nothing you can do ConMan that cannot be  easily duplicated in ASPECT.  Happy to help you get setup with ASPECT if you would like to try it out.
>> 
>> Hm, interesting. We are in fact building our own code for specific problems in icy moons, and want to benchmark the code. We can get the isoviscous Blankenbach tests right, but we're running into some problems for variable viscosity (cases 2 and 3). We want to check the output of a code that does these cases right to see where we're doing wrong. 
>> 
>> Did you benchmark ASPECT against the Blankenbach problems as well?
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Wlad
>> 
>> ==================================
>> Dr Wladimir Lyra, Assistant Professor
>> California State University, Northridge
>> Dept of Physics and Astronomy
>> 18111 Nordhoff St, Northridge, CA 91330 
>> Phone : +1 818 677 7464
>> web: http://www.wladimirlyra.com
>> 
>> 
>> From: John Naliboff <jbnaliboff at ucdavis.edu>
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 2:38:18 PM
>> To: cig-mc at geodynamics.org
>> Cc: Lyra, Wladimir
>> Subject: Re: [CIG-MC] ConMan issues report
>>  
>> Dear Leondardo,
>> 
>> There is indeed an issue with the GitHub version of ConMan, thank you for the reminder ;)  
>> 
>> We will push a patch to github in the next few days and let you know when it is ready to download and install.
>> 
>> On your end, what operating system are you trying to install ConMan on?  The updated version of ConMan should compile and run successfully on linux if you use the gfortran64 compiler and associated Makefile.  
>> 
>> The code does compile successfully with the 32-bit compiler, but will crash upon execution.  This seems consistent with your error?
>> 
>> If you are running on a mac, more testing/debugging may be required.
>> 
>> A bit off topic, but is there a particular reason you choose ConMan?  ASPECT might be a better choice if you would like to run in parallel, do 3D simulations, use adaptive mesh refinement, etc.  
>> 
>> There is nothing you can do ConMan that cannot be  easily duplicated in ASPECT.  Happy to help you get setup with ASPECT if you would like to try it out.
>> 
>> Anyhow, we will get ConMan updated in the next day or two.
>>  
>> Cheers,
>> John
>> 
>> *************************************************
>> Assistant Project Scientist, CIG
>> Earth & Planetary Sciences Dept., UC Davis
>> 
>> 
>>> On Aug 16, 2016, at 4:34 PM, Leonardo S. Cassará <leonardo10 at astro.ufrj.br> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear ConMan developers and maintainers,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I am writing on mine and Professor Wladimir Lyra’s behalf, currently researching on icy convection.
>>> 
>>> We downloaded and installed ConMan from both the git repository conman.git and via the direct tar linkhttps://geodynamics.org/cig/software/conman/ConMan-2.0.0.tar.gz. However, both ways gave us issues that I would like to address here:
>>> 
>>> 1- When installing via the git repository, the src directory lacks the libs folder, which we had to take from the installation via tar in order to compile.
>>> 
>>> 2- After compiling (using the git repository installation + libs folder from tar), we could not run the code by following the instructions. Here is the output of our trial:
>>> 
>>> :~/ConMan/conman/cookbook1$ ../src/conman.pic < run.bb1a50 
>>> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
>>> 
>>> We are either missing something or there is an installation problem that we alone cannot solve. I hope this report helps the ConMan team to make the code even better. We appreciate any attention given to this case.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>> Leonardo S. Cassara
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CIG-MC mailing list
>>> CIG-MC at geodynamics.org
>>> http://lists.geodynamics.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cig-mc
> 
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