#1648: MPI thorn should auto configure ------------------------------------+--------------------------------------- Reporter: sbrandt | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: minor | Milestone: Cactus_4.3.0 Component: EinsteinToolkit thorn | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: ------------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Comment (by hinder):
The auto-configuration is a nice idea.
I think the MPI thorn should behave like all the other external library thorns, and continue to install in configs by default if you set MPI_DIR to BUILD, without having to set any new variables. The fact that this is possibly not the best long-term solution is outweighed by the fact that this is how it works now (and everyone should not have to update their optionlists for this), and is consistent with the other thorns.
For reference, I believe that logic behind having the libraries in configs is that they are built using the Cactus build environment (compilers, flags, libs etc) and this is different for each configuration. They may not work with other configurations. I think Erik has a clearer picture of the issues relating to this than I do, though. Erik's proposal is that libraries are built outside of Cactus, e.g. using simfactory. I'm not sure whether that mechanism uses the same compilers as Cactus or not.