[Vanadyel]

Since about a week we now need to install docker in order to get a proper installation of OpenFOAM.

However, while OpenFOAM seems to run pretty smoothly, I have minor problems with docker with which I am very unfamiliar.

First of all, everytime I run it, it unsets the variable $USER, which is pretty bad since OpenFOAM uses it to create folders.
Example: OpenFOAM tutorials create the folder "$USER-$VERSION" and for me the folder created is named "-v3.0+", which is a terrible name since it doesn't begin with a letter.

Also, I don't have any alias anymore. While I understand the need for a unified environment, I would like a convenient and thus automatic sourcing of say a ".alias" file. Is there a way to do that while calling the docker script? Of course, putting "source /home/username/.alias" at the end of the "startOpenFoam+" script doesn't work...

If anybody has idea, thanks in advance.

[pgh]

Hi Vanadyel ,
You need to pass $USER variable inside the container environment.
You can proceed as follow :
1) If you have not changed the source code in installation i.e /Opt/OpenFOAM or does not worry about any change that you made .
Then you can delete the container by typing this command : docker rm -f of_v3.0_plus

2)Then open the installation script and add this variable i.e -e USER=${user} in command line which read as below
docker run -it -d --name ${containerName} --user=${user} -e USER=${user} ...... ................................ ${imageName} /bin/bash --rcfile /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v3.0+/etc/bashrc

3)run installation script again . Go inside the container by launching startContainer.sh and then run "echo $USER " in terminal to see environment variable is coming as desired
It should solve the issue .

Note:
Any changes done in /opt/OpenFOAM/... in container is local to it . I.e suppose if you by mistake delete the OpenFOAM source folder . then this change is only local to this container. You can delete that container and again launch installation script to create a new environment .

[Vanadyel]

Thank you very much pgh, this works.

I also added my .alias file at the end of the /opt/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v3.0+/etc/bashrc file to solve my second minor problem.

[pgh]

Good. Also note that this change is only for container with name of_v3.0_plus I,e when you change bashrc script , it is local to container environment . If you create new container with new name or create new container after deleting old one , this change will not reflect there.