Issues from Alicia

[BarrySmith]

@amklinv

Lois asked me to have a look at the Getting Started guide (http://xsdk-getting-started-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/), and to give the xSDK install script a try. Here are my comments so far:

Documentation

• It's difficult to get back to the main page from Installing the xSDK (http://installxsdk.readthedocs.org/en/latest/README/index.html)
• Only a few of the install options are listed on that page (which makes sense, given how many there are). It would be nice to mention that the options listed are not the only ones that exist and tell folks how to find the other ones. It doesn't look like using --help with the install script produces that list either.
• Some odd words are highlighted on that page; I assume it's because we're still learning to use sphinx.
• Usage on this webpage is listed as "sh ./installxSDK", but for me it was actually "./installxSDK.sh"

Install script

• It looks like the script auto-updates whenever you run it, which I really like.
• I tried to run it on my Sandia machine, but it's really hard to get the proxy set up right on our SRN. That's not an error of the script; it's just unlikely that I'll be able to test the script on my office machine.
• The error message produced when the compilers are not compatible with C++11 is unclear.
• I tried the script at NERSC on edison, and when I run
  ./installxSDK.sh --prefix=/global/homes/a/amklinv/xSDK-temp-install --download-ideas --with-cc=cc --with-cxx=CC --with-fc=ftn --with-boost-dir=/usr/common/usg/boost/1.54.0-20160127/gnu
  it tries to compile HDF5 for about two hours, then crashes with an unclear error message. I have attached the configuration log in a tarball (since it was 31 MB).

Would you mind taking a look at this error message?

[amklinv]

Oops. I'll post here next time instead :-)

[BarrySmith]

It's difficult to get back to the main page from Installing the xSDK (http://installxsdk.readthedocs.org/en/latest/README/index.html)

Lois complained about this too. You just have to use the back key like with any other webpage. Do you have any suggestions on how to make this more natural?

Some odd words are highlighted on that page; I assume it's because we're still learning to use sphinx.

I assume you mean in the page for installingxSDK where for example com is in boldface? That is actually, unfortunately a different technology and uses Markdown and mkdocs to build. It is thinking that the this is a code block and trying to highlight the code block, but doing a terrible job. I found an option to mark the codeblocks so they do not get hightlighted so those weird boldface should be gone.

Usage on this webpage is listed as "sh ./installxSDK", but for me it was actually "./installxSDK.sh"

Yikes I forgot the .sh in the name of the script. Fixed now.

Only a few of the install options are listed on that page (which makes sense, given how many there are). It would be nice to mention that the options listed are not the only ones that exist and tell folks how to find the other ones. It doesn't look like using --help with the install script produces that list either.

I added --help to the list of useful options and fixed the script to list all the options even if --prefix is not given

[BarrySmith]

The error message produced when the compilers are not compatible with C++11 is unclear.

Could you send the configure.log for when this happened so we know where to look to improve the error message?

@amklinv

[amklinv]

Sure thing. configure.log.txt

I was using the default gcc on edison, which is apparently gcc version 4.3.4.

Edit: I removed the message from this comment, because the formatting got all messed up. It's in the log anyway.

[BarrySmith]

Oh yes, it is a little terse. How about

Could not determine compiler flag for with-cxx-dialect=C++11,
If you know the flag for turning on C++11 features set it with the CXXFLAGS variables
for example, --with-cxx-dialect=C++11 CXXFLAGS="-std=c++0x"

On Mar 3, 2016, at 5:19 PM, amklinv notifications@github.com wrote:

Sure thing. configure.log.txt

The message I get is:

     Configuring PETSc to compile on your system

TESTING: checkCxx11 from config.compilers(config/BuildSystem/config/compilers.py:383) *******************************************************************************

UNABLE to CONFIGURE with GIVEN OPTIONS (see configure.log for details):

Could not determine compiler flag for with-cxx-dialect=C++11, use CXXFLAGS

I was using the default gcc on edison, which is apparently gcc version 4.3.4.

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[amklinv]

Could we also add a statement like "Please ensure that your compiler supports C++11 features"?

---

From: Barry Smith notifications@github.com
Sent: Thursday, March 3, 2016 7:13 PM
To: xsdk-project/GettingStarted
Cc: Klinvex, Alicia Marie
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [GettingStarted] Issues from Alicia (#1)

Oh yes, it is a little terse. How about

Could not determine compiler flag for with-cxx-dialect=C++11,
If you know the flag for turning on C++11 features set it with the CXXFLAGS variables
for example, --with-cxx-dialect=C++11 CXXFLAGS="-std=c++0x"

On Mar 3, 2016, at 5:19 PM, amklinv notifications@github.com wrote:

Sure thing. configure.log.txt

The message I get is:

Configuring PETSc to compile on your system

TESTING: checkCxx11 from config.compilers(config/BuildSystem/config/compilers.py:383) *******************************************************************************

UNABLE to CONFIGURE with GIVEN OPTIONS (see configure.log for details):

Could not determine compiler flag for with-cxx-dialect=C++11, use CXXFLAGS

I was using the default gcc on edison, which is apparently gcc version 4.3.4.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/1#issuecomment-192062476.