[Rvadrabade]

Hi all,

I would suggest to build Openfoam entirely in debug mode from source code and then custom application/library (WM_COMPILE_OPTION=Debug). It will help to debug into Openfoam code base else you can only debug the custom application/library. However, please note that the building entire Openfoam in debug mode takes lot of time, disk space and memory. So, now it is upto the user to decide to build entire Openfoam to understand it's data structures or custom code in debug to validate only the library implementation.

Thanks

[WUYing]

Originally Posted by Rvadrabade

Hi all,

I would suggest to build Openfoam entirely in debug mode from source code and then custom application/library (WM_COMPILE_OPTION=Debug). It will help to debug into Openfoam code base else you can only debug the custom application/library. However, please note that the building entire Openfoam in debug mode takes lot of time, disk space and memory. So, now it is upto the user to decide to build entire Openfoam to understand it's data structures or custom code in debug to validate only the library implementation.

Thanks

Hi Rvadrabade,

For my case, the main purpose is to debug a small function in one of the Source.C in my new library. So I think it might be unnecessary to recompile the whole OF package in debug mode. Like you said, it is time-consuming and take up large space. Maybe another more appropriate option to interactively debug a small part in OF is to rewrite that part in VS code using C++ language, insert breakpoints, and debugging.

Ang suggestion is welcome! Thank you so much!

[Rvadrabade]

Hi,

It is possible to just build your application library in debug mode with 'wmake -debug' and probably you need to rebuild solver in debug mode in same way. i hope it helps.

[WUYing]

Originally Posted by Rvadrabade

Hi,

It is possible to just build your application library in debug mode with 'wmake -debug' and probably you need to rebuild solver in debug mode in same way. i hope it helps.

Hi Rvadrabade,

Thanks for your reply!

My new library structure looks like below (based on OF5):

newfoam/src
    --- Make folder
         --- files
         --- options
    --- lnInclude folder
         --- various symbolic files for .C and .H  
    --- fvOptions folder
         --- Class_1(Class_1.C, Class_1.H)
         --- Class_2(Class_2.C, Class_2.H)

And I have OF5 (standard version without debug flags) installed in my pc.

I use the following code to compile this library:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Parse arguments for library compilation without documentation by default
. $WM_PROJECT_DIR/wmake/scripts/AllwmakeParseArguments

wmake libso src

Do you mean I need to recompile it into debug mode by

wmake -debug libso src

And I don't need to recompile OF5, am I right?
I apologize if I ask an obvious question, I am a little bit confused here.

[WUYing]

Hi Rvadrabade,

I try to compile with debug flag only my customized library using the command:

wmake -debug libso src

But I receive the following error:

unknown option: '-debug libso src'

Usage: wmake [OPTION] [dir]
       wmake [OPTION] target [dir [MakeDir]]

options:
  -silent   | -s    Quiet mode (does not echo commands)
  -all      | -a    wmake all sub-directories, running Allwmake if present
  -queue    | -q    wmakeCollect all sub-directories, running Allwmake if present
  -non-stop | -k    Compile without stopping when errors occur
  -j                Compile using all local cores/hyperthreads
  -j <N>    | -j<N> Compile using N cores/hyperthreads
  -no-scheduler     Compile without wmakeScheduler
  -update           Update lnInclude directories, dep files, remove deprecated
                    files and directories
  -help     | -h    Print the usage

There is no -debug option for wmake. Do you know how to compile only one library in debug mode in OpenFOAM?

Thanks!

[Rvadrabade]

Hi,

Yes you are correct. I should have checked in Openfoam 5 version, where the flag is not added yet. However, the flag is available with Openfoam 2212 (https://develop.openfoam.com/Develop...er/wmake/wmake). I hope, you can look into the script and find a way. I will tell you if I found any lead.

Further, i suggest to build entire Openfoam in debug mode on other system and start working on your topic. Meanwhile, you can continue exploring possibility of compiling single library/app in debug mode. It will save some time.

[WUYing]

Originally Posted by Rvadrabade

Hi,

Yes you are correct. I should have checked in Openfoam 5 version, where the flag is not added yet. However, the flag is available with Openfoam 2212 (https://develop.openfoam.com/Develop...er/wmake/wmake). I hope, you can look into the script and find a way. I will tell you if I found any lead.

Further, i suggest to build entire Openfoam in debug mode on other system and start working on your topic. Meanwhile, you can continue exploring possibility of compiling single library/app in debug mode. It will save some time.

Hi Rvadrabade,

Thanks for your suggestion!

For OpenFOAM 5.x, I find the way to compile certain application or library into debug mode is to add the entry "-g" or "-ggdb3 -DFULLDEBUG" at the first line in Make/options. Take icoFoam solver as an example, the corresponding Make/option file is

EXE_INC = \
    -g \     # added to debug only icoFoam solver
    -I$(LIB_SRC)/finiteVolume/lnInclude \
    -I$(LIB_SRC)/meshTools/lnInclude

EXE_LIBS = \
    -lfiniteVolume \
    -lmeshTools

I don't understand the added flags ("-g", "-ggdb3 -DFULLDEBUG") and I cannot find relevant information by "wmake -help". But the compiled solver is indeed in debug mode and much larger than opt mode (4.9M vs. 773.2kB). I would appreciate if you could tell me the meaning of these flags.

So now with icoFoam (debug compiling) and OpenFoam 5.x (opt compiling), I try to use GDB in command line to debug it. And I find some commands of GDB cannot run normally. For example, the "step" command will not step into function but go next line (same as "next" command). I type "info sharedlibrary" to check the information of library, and I obtain:

(gdb) info sharedlibrary
From                To                  Syms Read   Shared Object Library
0x00007ffff7dd3f10  0x00007ffff7df4550  Yes         /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
0x00007ffff65106d0  0x00007ffff6ee3e44  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libfiniteVolume.so
0x00007ffff58860c0  0x00007ffff5b12f36  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libmeshTools.so
0x00007ffff4ea2180  0x00007ffff5388aaa  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libOpenFOAM.so
0x00007ffff49efe50  0x00007ffff49f0bee  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2
0x00007ffff46f2490  0x00007ffff47a19de  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
0x00007ffff42d3a80  0x00007ffff43921d5  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6
0x00007ffff40b2ac0  0x00007ffff40c336d  Yes (*)     /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
0x00007ffff3ce0360  0x00007ffff3e58afc  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
0x00007ffff3ab3ea0  0x00007ffff3abb072  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/openmpi-system/libPstream.so
0x00007ffff382b840  0x00007ffff3883464  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libtriSurface.so
0x00007ffff353b600  0x00007ffff35b3eb2  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libsurfMesh.so
0x00007ffff329bc00  0x00007ffff32e725d  Yes (*)     /home/ying/OpenFOAM5/OpenFOAM-5.x/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libfileFormats.so
0x00007ffff304ff90  0x00007ffff3063640  Yes (*)     /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1
0x00007ffff2d7e410  0x00007ffff2e0cc10  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpi.so.20
0x00007ffff2b42bb0  0x00007ffff2b511f1  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0
0x00007ffff28c8d00  0x00007ffff291f1bf  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libopen-rte.so.20
0x00007ffff2620a50  0x00007ffff2685586  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libopen-pal.so.20
0x00007ffff23fd200  0x00007ffff240070c  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1
0x00007ffff21c3700  0x00007ffff21ecd2a  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libhwloc.so.5
0x00007ffff1fbbe70  0x00007ffff1fbc93a  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1
0x00007ffff1db2e30  0x00007ffff1db7939  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnuma.so.1
---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit---
0x00007ffff1ba7eb0  0x00007ffff1bac272  Yes (*)     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libltdl.so.7
0x00007ffff199d2a0  0x00007ffff19a31ac  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss_compat.so.2
0x00007ffff1792070  0x00007ffff17990d9  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss_nis.so.2
0x00007ffff157a090  0x00007ffff15878a7  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnsl.so.1
0x00007ffff1366350  0x00007ffff136cd8f  Yes         /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss_files.so.2
(*): Shared library is missing debugging information.

It can be seen that many libraries of OpenFOAM are missing debug information (with * under Read) because I only compile icoFoam in debug mode. I guess that's the reason of failure of GDB command like "step" (please let me know if I am wrong).

Considering the partial debugging cannot dive deep into source code of OpenFOAM, I plan to recompile whole OpenFOAM-5.x in debug mode as you suggested. And then I can use VSCode to debug my library. This is really a tough decision, after investigating various possible debugging methods. I have already installed three different versions of OF on my pc (I use VMware-Ubuntu virtual machine)...

Ang suggestion is welcome!

[Rvadrabade]

Hi,

Excellent work and sharing your findings. Yes, your understanding is correct and then entire Openfoam need to be build in debug mode to navigate deep into base code. Further, -g and -ggdb3 are c++ debug flags which creates debug symbols in the compiled objects. -DFULLDEBUG is preprocessor directive which enables additional code compilation i.e if we define FULLDEBUG then extra code is compiles e.g do check https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM...orSpaceI.H#L95.

Resource: https://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/Course...processor.html

Thanks

[WUYing]

Originally Posted by Rvadrabade

Hi,

Excellent work and sharing your findings. Yes, your understanding is correct and then entire Openfoam need to be build in debug mode to navigate deep into base code. Further, -g and -ggdb3 are c++ debug flags which creates debug symbols in the compiled objects. -DFULLDEBUG is preprocessor directive which enables additional code compilation i.e if we define FULLDEBUG then extra code is compiles e.g do check https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM...orSpaceI.H#L95.

Resource: https://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/Course...processor.html

Thanks

Hi Rvadrabade,

Thanks for your information! And thanks again for your VSCode debugging structure for OpenFOAM source code!

[WUYing]

Originally Posted by Rvadrabade

Hi,

Excellent work and sharing your findings. Yes, your understanding is correct and then entire Openfoam need to be build in debug mode to navigate deep into base code. Further, -g and -ggdb3 are c++ debug flags which creates debug symbols in the compiled objects. -DFULLDEBUG is preprocessor directive which enables additional code compilation i.e if we define FULLDEBUG then extra code is compiles e.g do check https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM...orSpaceI.H#L95.

Resource: https://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/Course...processor.html

Thanks

Hi Rvadrabade,

Can I ask a general programming question in OF? I am studying the source code of a library which includes multiple Classes, and I am confused about the order of call and execution of various Classes. Does any part in source code give such information, like the Constructor part? And also each class define many functions (protected member functions, member functions), how can I know the order of call of these functions?

I apologize for asking such a naive question. Thanks!

[Rvadrabade]

It is achieved with callstack. It is available in visual studio code. Add few breakpoints and star debugging. Check the callstack window. Please explore it.