Dependencies

Setting up the build environment

• ecFlow consists of two tar files i.e.:  
  

  • boost_1_53_0.tar.gz

  • ecFlow-4.17.0-Source.tar.gz

    Create a directory for the build:

    mkdir /tmp/ecflow_build

• Copy the two tar file into this directory, then change directory to /tmp/ecflow_build

• Un-zip then un-tar the two file files:

  tar -zxf boost_1_53_0.tar.gz
  tar -zxf ecFlow-4.17.0-Source.tar.gz

• You should have two directories created:

  boost_1_53_0
  ecFlow-4.17.0-Source
  

• Create two environment variables. These are used by some of the scripts:

  export WK=/tmp/ecflow_build/ecFlow-4.17.0-Source
  export BOOST_ROOT=/tmp/ecflow_build/boost_1_53_0

Build boost

• Boost uses bjam for building the boost libs.

  bjam source is available in boost, hence we first need to build bjam itself:

  
  

  cd $BOOST_ROOT
  ./bootstrap.sh

• For python3

  ./bootstrap.sh --with-python=/path/to/python3
  

  You may need to update $BOOST_ROOT/project-config.jam, with path to executable and path to include files. 

  # using python
  #     :  # version
  #     :  # cmd-or-prefix
  #     :  # includes
  #     :  # libraries
  #     :  # condition
  #     ;
  using python : 3.6 : /usr/local/apps/python3/3.6.8-01/bin/python3 : /usr/local/apps/python3/3.6.8-01/include/python3.6m ;  #  remember to preserve the spaces, as they are significant

• IF you do not require the ecFlow python API, you can avoid building boost python libs by setting.

 export ECF_NO_PYTHON=1

Build

cmake

As configure, CMake will run some tests on the customer's system to find out if required third-party software libraries are available and note their locations (paths). Based on this information it will produce the Makefiles needed to compile and install ecFlow

CMake is a cross-platform free software program for managing the build process of software using a compiler-independent method.

Generating the Makefiles with CMake

After changing into the build ecflow directory, the user has to run CMake with his/her own options. The command gives feedback on what requirements are fulfilled and what software is still required. The table below gives an overview of the different options of configure.  The default (without any options) will install in /usr/local/.

The  C++  compilers are chosen by CMake. (This can be overwritten by setting the environment variables CXX on the command line before you call cmake, to the preferred compiler).

Further, the variable CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS can be used to set compiler flags for optimisation or debugging. 

cd $WK
mkdir build; cd build;

# Go with defaults, will build with CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release and install to /usr/local
cmake .. 

# build release with debug info  
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo

# Override install prefix 
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local/apps/ecflow/4.14.0 

# do NOT build the gui.
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local/apps/ecflow -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_GUI=OFF

# ignore Wdeprecated-declarations compiler warning messages and do NOT build python api
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Wno-deprecated-declarations"  -DENABLE_PYTHON=OFF

# Use -j option to speed up compilation. Determine number of cpu's
CPUS=$(lscpu -p | grep -v '#' | wc -l)
make -j${CPUS}
make check
make install

cd $WK
rm -rf build
mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..      # or use whatever cmake configuration you used before

To use the ecFlow Python Api , you need to add/change PYTHONPATH . 

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:<prefix>/4.17.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ecflow
# If you used the default's then <prefix>=/usr/local
# otherwise you should use whatever you entered for -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX, hence in the examples above we would have:
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/apps/ecflow/4.17.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ecflow 

cd $WK/build  # change to the build directory
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/tmp/avi/custom/ecflow/4.17.0 -DCOMPONENT=python -P cmake_install.cmake -- make install  # install python module under /tmp/avi/custom/ecflow/4.17.0

ecflow_ui: Make a list servers accessible to all users

The GUI used by ecFlow is called ecflow_ui.  This is used to interact and visualize the ecFlow servers.

You can make the list of servers available for your users by:

• creating a file called servers

• The format of the server's file is very easy:

  server file format

  <server_name> <machine_name> <port>

  An example might be:

  servers file

  server      machineX   3141
  projectX    machineabc 4141
  exp1        machineabc 4141
  mars        bigmac     11031

• Copy this file to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/share/ecflow/.   This makes the list of servers accessible to all users of ecflow_ui

  cp servers /tmp/avi/custom/ecflow/4.17.0/share/ecflow/.