[Gallienus]

Installed OpenFoam 6 on an Ubuntu Linux v 18.04 system. OF installation went nicely but need to change the OpenFoam run directory from the default setup to something different.

I imagine this means changing an Environment variable somewhere as well as creating the new directories. I'm aware that OF uses a directory structure to save cases and variables.

There is an old thread from 2011 on this same topic but those solutions don't work.

Thanks very much for any help.

[alexeym]

Hi,

Hope, I got your question right. There is FOAM_RUN environment variable, which by default points to $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/run (and alias run just do 'cd $FOAM_RUN').

So, a) you can set this variable to whatever value you like, b) keep your cases wherever you like, ignoring FOAM_RUN variable.

[Gallienus]

Hi & thanks for your reply.

I know how to find my Openfoam run directory, the issue is to change it.

Apparently the setup configured my OF for multiple users but I'm the only one on this laptop, thus I don't want a very convoluted directory structure.

I was able to find other OpenFOAM environment variables in the file: /opt/openfoam6/etc/bashrc
but these were for the installation directory which I do not want or need to change.

This is the only line that discusses user settings in bashrc

# Location of user files
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
export WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR=$HOME/$WM_PROJECT/$USER-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION

However, this does not change the run location.

[wyldckat]

Quick/simple answer: In your file "~/.bashrc", right after the line:

source  /opt/openfoam6/etc/bashrc

add the following line:

export FOAM_RUN=$HOME/myRunFolder

where you can change the name "myRunFolder" to whatever you want.

This does not need any changes inside the folder "/opt/openfoam6" and will work without problems when you need to rely on the variable "FOAM_RUN".

[time-]

Originally Posted by Gallienus

Hi & thanks for your reply.

I know how to find my Openfoam run directory, the issue is to change it.

Apparently the setup configured my OF for multiple users but I'm the only one on this laptop, thus I don't want a very convoluted directory structure.

I was able to find other OpenFOAM environment variables in the file: /opt/openfoam6/etc/bashrc
but these were for the installation directory which I do not want or need to change.

This is the only line that discusses user settings in bashrc

# Location of user files
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
export WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR=$HOME/$WM_PROJECT/$USER-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION

However, this does not change the run location.

Hi,
if you check OpenFOAM's etc README.md file you'll see:

OpenFOAM Configuration
----------------------

The main OpenFOAM settings are located in the parent `etc/` directory.
Both POSIX (bash, dash,...) and csh shells are supported.
To configure OpenFOAM, source either the `etc/bashrc` or the
`etc/cshrc` file, as appropriate for your shell.

These source the following files in the `config.sh/` or
`config.csh/` directories:

* `setup` : finalize setup of OpenFOAM environment (called by bashrc,cshrc)
* `settings` : core settings
* `aliases` : aliases for interactive shells
* `unset` : sourced to clear as many OpenFOAM environment settings as possible
* `mpi` : MPI communications library settings
* `paraview` : application settings for ParaView
* `scotch` : application settings for compiling against scotch
* `metis` : application settings for compiling against metis

The `config.*/example` directories contain additional example configuration
files for the corresponding shell:

* `compiler` : an example of fine tuning ThirdParty compiler settings
* `openmpi` : an example of fine tuning openmpi settings for OpenFOAM
* `paraview` : an example of chaining to the standard config/paraview
   with a different ParaView_VERSION
* `prefs`: an example of supplying alternative site-defined settings

When you source the rc file, other files are sourced as well. Those files are inside etc/config.sh/ folder and it's usefull to understand them.

For example $FOAM_RUN is defined inside "settings" file.

export FOAM_ETC="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc"
export FOAM_APP="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/applications"
export FOAM_SRC="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/src"
export FOAM_TUTORIALS="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/tutorials"
export FOAM_UTILITIES="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/applications/utilities"
export FOAM_SOLVERS="$WM_PROJECT_DIR/applications/solvers"
export FOAM_RUN="$WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/run"

Anyways wyldckat hint is perfectly correct and I suggest you to keep it simple and not to mess with OF config if you don't know exactly what you are doing.

I posted just to clearify how that works.

Bye

[Wowbagger]

Originally Posted by wyldckat

Quick/simple answer: In your file "~/.bashrc", right after the line:

source  /opt/openfoam6/etc/bashrc

add the following line:

export FOAM_RUN=$HOME/myRunFolder

where you can change the name "myRunFolder" to whatever you want.

This does not need any changes inside the folder "/opt/openfoam6" and will work without problems when you need to rely on the variable "FOAM_RUN".

I want to change my "run" folder to an external HDD and tried this in some various ways but it seems it does not work that easy outside from $HOME.

I tried to do this in Linux Mint but I am just another beginner at Linux.

Is there a similar easy way to change it to "/media/..." as in this description?


Best regards
Michael

[Wowbagger]

...well, seems that all I needed was still here.

I changed the bashrc file as mentioned in the thread:

# Location of user files
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# export WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR=$HOME/$WM_PROJECT/$USER-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION
export WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR=/media/michel/DATEN/CFD/OF9

Created the run folder into that directory:


media/michel/DATEN/CFD/OF9/run


Works.
Thanks to your posts in before. Maybe this helps some other users.

Regards
Michael

[CchcC]

I don’t know if this is the version/system difference or not, but I couldn’t find the line in bashrc under the home folder(found in wyldckat’s reply). Instead I found line in bashrc under the ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-x.x/etc/

[reverseila]

Originally Posted by CchcC

I don’t know if this is the version/system difference or not, but I couldn’t find the line in bashrc under the home folder(found in wyldckat’s reply). Instead I found line in bashrc under the ~/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-x.x/etc/

You can find any variable/setting/pattern with grep. For example, to find the occurrences of “FOAM_RUN” environment variable, you can issue the following (usually settings are in “etc” directory, so run this command in that directory),

grep -R 'FOAM_RUN='

• -R: recursively search in the current directory in all the files
• =: because an environment variable is immediately proceeds with an equal sign

Note that on some very old version of grep, you should supply the directory to search:

grep -R 'FOAM_RUN=' $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc