Fetching MFC

You can either download MFC's latest release from GitHub or clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MFlowCode/MFC.git

cd MFC

Build Environment

MFC can be built in multiple ways on various operating systems. Please select your desired configuration from the list bellow:

*nix

On supported clusters: Load environment modules

. ./mfc.sh load

Via Aptitude:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install tar wget make cmake gcc g++ \
                   python3 python3-dev         \
                   "openmpi-*" libopenmpi-dev \
                   python3-venv

Via Pacman:

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S base-devel coreutils  \
                 git ninja gcc-fortran \
                 cmake openmpi python3 \
                 python-pip openssh    \
                 python-virtualenv vim \
                 wget tree

If you wish to build MFC using NVidia's NVHPC SDK, first follow the instructions here.

Windows

On Windows, you can either use Intel Compilers with the standard Microsoft toolchain, Docker or the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for a Linux experience.

Windows + Intel (Native)

Install the latest version of:

Then, in order to initialize your development environment, open a terminal window and run:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\setvars.bat"

To follow this guide, please replace ./mfc.sh with mfc.bat when running any commands. ./mfc.sh is intended Unix-like systems. You will also have access to the .sln Microsoft Visual Studio solution files for an IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Windows + WSL

Install the latest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) as well as a distribution such as Ubuntu which can be found here. Acquiring an interactive session is as simple as typing wsl in your command prompt, or alternatively, selecting the distribution from the dropdown menu available in the Microsoft Terminal.

You can now follow the appropriate instructions for your distribution.

MacOS

If you use [ZSH] (Verify with echo $SHELL)

touch ~/.zshrc

open ~/.zshrc

If you use [BASH] (Verify with echo $SHELL)

touch ~/.bash_profile

open ~/.bash_profile

An editor should open. Please paste the following lines into it before saving the file. If you wish to use a version of GNU's GCC other than 13, modify the first assignment. These lines ensure that LLVM's Clang, and Apple's modified version of GCC, won't be used to compile MFC. Further reading on open-mpi incompatibility with clang-based gcc on macOS: here. We do not support clang due to conflicts with the Silo dependency.

export MFC_GCC_VER=13
export CC=gcc-$MFC_GCC_VER
export CXX=g++-$MFC_GCC_VER
export FC=gfortran-$MFC_GCC_VER

Close the open editor and terminal window. Open a new terminal window before executing the commands below.

brew install wget python cmake gcc@$MFC_GCC_VER mpich

They will download the dependencies MFC requires to build itself.

Docker

Docker is a lightweight, cross-platform, and performant alternative to Virtual Machines (VMs). We build a Docker Image that contains the packages required to build and run MFC on your local machine.

First install Docker and Git:

Windows: Docker + Git.
macOS: brew install git docker (requires Homebrew).
Other systems:
sudo apt install git docker # Debian / Ubuntu via Aptitude

sudo pacman -S git docker # Arch Linux via Pacman

Once Docker and Git are installed on your system, clone MFC with

git clone https://github.com/MFlowCode/MFC

cd MFC

To fetch the prebuilt Docker image and enter an interactive bash session with the recommended settings applied, run

./mfc.sh docker # If on \*nix/macOS

.\mfc.bat docker # If on Windows

We automatically mount and configure the proper permissions in order for you to access your local copy of MFC, available at ~/MFC. You will be logged-in as the me user with root permissions.

:warning: The state of your container is entirely transient, except for the MFC mount. Thus, any modification outside of ~/MFC should be considered as permanently lost upon session exit.

Building MFC

MFC can be built with support for various (compile-time) features:

Feature	Enable	Disable	Default	Description
MPI	`--mpi`	`--no-mpi`	On	Lets MFC run on multiple processors (and nodes) simultaneously.
GPU	`--gpu`	`--no-gpu`	Off	Enables GPU acceleration via OpenACC.
Debug	`--debug`	`--no-debug`	Off	Requests the compiler build MFC in debug mode.

⚠️ The --gpu option requires that your compiler supports OpenACC for Fortran for your target GPU architecture.

When these options are given to mfc.sh, they will be remembered when you issue future commands. You can enable and disable features at any time by passing any of the arguments above. For example, if you have previously built MFC with MPI support and no longer wish to run using MPI, you can pass --no-mpi once, for the change to be permanent.

MFC is composed of three codes, each being a separate target. By default, all targets (pre_process, simulation, and post_process) are selected. To only select a subset, use the -t (i.e., --targets) argument. For a detailed list of options, arguments, and features, please refer to ./mfc.sh build --help.

Most first-time users will want to build MFC using 8 threads (or more!) with MPI support:

./mfc.sh build -j 8

Examples:

Build MFC using 8 threads with MPI and GPU acceleration: ./mfc.sh build --gpu -j 8.
Build MFC using a single thread without MPI, GPU, and Debug support: ./mfc.sh build --no-mpi.
Build MFC's simulation code in Debug mode with MPI and GPU support: ./mfc.sh build --debug --gpu -t simulation.

Running the Test Suite

Run MFC's test suite with 8 threads:

./mfc.sh test -j 8

Please refer to the Testing document for more information.

Running an Example Case

MFC has example cases in the examples folder. You can run such a case interactively using 2 tasks by typing:

./mfc.sh run examples/2D_shockbubble/case.py -n 2

Please refer to the Running document for more information on case.py files and how to run them.