[celestial]

Hi everybody

I have a successful foam-extend/4.0 installation since 2019 and I don't want to tamper with it but I would like to modify a source file in its /src/ folder and compile it. So I am first thinking of copying this installation like this

cp -r myorigfe40/ mycopyfe40/

and of course only work with this copy. In other words I would do

source etc/bashrc

from the copy before running my solvers.

I guess everything I say up to now depends on whether or on the installation of openfoam is location independent. So that is the first question.

Secondly, if it is location independent, can I really compile just one source file in the copy of this installation without having to rebuild openfoam from all its source files in the copy folder ?

Thank you so much for your consideration

[celestial]

Well, as far as foam-extend is concerned, running

source etc/bashrc

from the copy

did not change the value of $USER_LIBBIN

So, that answers my first question: It is not location independent. The only kind of copy that would work is an exact mirror from a server to another in any institution that would install the same OS and dependencies on all nodes.

Therefore, the 2nd question does not make sense anymore. Instead, one should ask if one can compile just one source file in the original installation. I will have to experiment this on a mirror site. However, it is certainly advisable to rebuild the whole of openfoam (whatever the proposed change is) when the original installation is old (as in my case - 4 years) because nobody really remembers what were the institution's OS and dependencies versions at the time.

Hopefully, this clarifies the situation for anybody who might consider modifying openfoam for his own use in the future