OpenFOAM-dev on CentOS 7.9: Segmentation Fault when executing any application
 

Dear all,


I am facing a problem with a self compiled OpenFOAM-dev installation on a cluster running CentOS7.9:
As soon as there is any #include directive within the function list of the controlDict, every OpenFOAM application immediately exits with Segmentation fault (core dumped), as soon as it is called, even e.g. blockMesh -help

Compilation runs without any errror message. I used gcc7.3.1 from SCL devtoolset7, as the system gcc is verison 4.8.5, which does not support the c++14 option. I also tried clang version 7.0.1, with same result.

Does anyone have an idea? Of course I can avoid using includes, but thats not very convenient, and also I would like to understand, what's going on.


Thanks and best regards,
Jan

Hello Jan,

I had the same problem recently.

I tried to compile OpenFOAM-9 on CentOS 7 with GCC 7.3.1 from
devtoolset-7. I also tried with GCC 9 and Clang from the RHEL package
llvm-toolset-7. In all cases I got segmentation faults.

I solved this by compiling GCC 5.5.0 and using this to compile
OpenFOAM-9.

Unfortunately, the OpenFOAM developers don't specify which compilers
they use or have tested. The information on the website is outdated.

Best wishes,
Hendrik

Hi Hendrik,


thanks a lot for your reply! As soon as I find the time, I will compile GCC 5.5.0 and use it for building OF.


Best regards,
Jan

FYI: Solution for this specific problem reported here, in order to be able to use SCL's GCC builds: https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=3898


In a nutshell:

1. Edit the file "src/OpenFOAM/db/dictionary/entry/entryIO.C"
2. Go to line 159:
   
   Code:

   ---

                   && functionName == functionEntries::inputSyntaxEntry::typeName

   ---

3. Change to this:
   
   Code:

   ---

                     && functionName == functionEntries::inputSyntaxEntry::typeName_()

   ---

4. Save and close.
5. Build OpenFOAM, no cleaning required, simply run Allwmake as per installation instructions.

That segmentation fault issue is frustrating, especially when you're trying to include directives in the controlDict. I've seen similar issues before and usually, and it's usually due to compatibility issues between different compilers. Have you tried reaching out to the OpenFOAM community for help? They might have some insights into what's causing the issue.
Also, CentOS 7 is reaching its end of life soon, so it'll stop receiving security updates and bug fixes. You may consider upgrading to a newer version with Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS).

Finally, had spent two days compiling different gcc and mpi versions of OpenFOAM 9 on CentOS7 and this is what fixed everything. Thanks so much!

Thank you very much! It worked!