4C is available pre-built in a docker image

[ppraegla]

With PR #96 we introduced a docker image with a pre-built 4C executable. Anyone can test and use 4C with just a few simple commands without configuring any environment and waiting for the build to complete. You can just pull the image docker pull ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest.

Usage

Run the docker image

docker run --interactive --tty ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest

and, e.g., run the minimal tests

cd /home/user/4C/build
ctest -L minimal

Run your input files

Run the docker image and mount a directory (e.g., the current directory ./)

docker run --interactive --tty --mount type=bind,source=./,target=/workspace ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest

Set the correct owner of the mount (Unfortunately, we need to do that because we are the user user inside the docker image and the mount point is owned by root)

sudo chown user:user -R /workspace/

Run 4C with an input file from the host system and the output is also written to the host system

mpirun -np 2 /home/user/4C/build/4C /workspace/particle_dem_1d_radius_from_input.dat /workspace/out

Visualize the results in Paraview on your PC.

Disclaimer This whole process is still a little awkward to use. But there will certainly be improvements in the future.

Additional information

At the moment, the docker image includes all dependencies required to run and test 4C, as well as the source. We will work on reducing the size of the docker image and only include the essentials to run 4C.

Share your feedback

Please give feedback on how well the docker image works and what can be improved for your workflow.

[gilrrei]

This works quite nicely! What about introducing an alias for 4C within the container?

[gilrrei]

Or alternatively using entry points in docker 🤔

[ppraegla]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into it at some point :)

[mayrmt]

I ran into problems with disk space, indicated by docker output such as

docker: failed to register layer: write /home/user/4C/build/src/red_airways/CMakeFiles/red_airways_objs.dir/4C_red_airways_implicitintegration.cpp.o: no space left on device

Run 'docker run --help' for more information

I could solve it by changing docker settings and increasing the allowed disk space for docker images.

[ischeider]

Maybe it's not a good idea to mount the personal project file to /workspace when running own input files; one should rather mount it to /home/user/project, i.e.

docker run --interactive --tty --mount type=bind,source=./,target=/home/user/project ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest

or, shorter:

docker run -it -v.:/home/user/project ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest

Then it is accessible without any permission issues.

Actually, I don't know why we don't put this stuff to the documentation? In my opinion, all necessary details are included.

[ppraegla]

Is the other mount target working for you? When I run docker run -it -v.:/home/user/project ghcr.io/4c-multiphysics/4c:latest. I still can't create files inside the folder because it is owned by root.

It is quite tricky to get the permissions right. I need to check if there is an easier solution.

[ischeider]

This is strange. I just ran a simulation, and all the result files have been written to my project directory.

user@18824f51c646:~$ ll -tr
total 76
-rw-r--r--  1 user user   807 Aug 30 11:50 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 user user  3771 Aug 30 11:50 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 user user   220 Aug 30 11:50 .bash_logout
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root  4096 Aug 30 11:50 ../
drwxr-xr-x  1 user user  4096 Sep  4 01:59 4C/
drwxr-xr-x  3 user user  4096 Sep  4 01:59 .cache/
drwxr-x---  1 user user  4096 Nov 14 10:44 ./
drwxrwxr-x 47 user user 40960 Nov 14 10:45 project/

Does the listing of the home directory look different for you?

[ppraegla]

Interesting. For me project is owned by root

-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  807 Aug 30 11:50 .profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 3771 Aug 30 11:50 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  220 Aug 30 11:50 .bash_logout
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Aug 30 11:50 ../
drwxr-xr-x 1 user user 4096 Sep  4 01:59 4C/
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 4096 Sep  4 01:59 .cache/
drwxr-x--- 1 user user 4096 Nov 14 10:35 ./
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 14 10:36 project/

[mayrmt]

I agree with @ischeider: docker stuff needs to be documented properly -- in the documentation, not in some closed discussion.

[ischeider]

@mayrmt Could you test, whether a mounted host directory is owned by root or user, when you run the container? I don't see the reason for a difference between @ppraegla and me.