[gerlero]

Originally Posted by bzollars

Gerlero, is cfMesh part of your pre-compiled OpenFOAM package? I have just installed v2406 and it does not seem to be there.

cfMesh is included with v2312 and before. With v2406, cfMesh was removed from the default install, so it's not included anymore (I do not know the reason for its removal).

[Moopie]

Originally Posted by Simbelmynë

Hi,

Did you test v2312? Any improvements with SIP?

I have problems with

The dummy Pstream library cannot be used in parallel mode

which I did not have on Ventura (I think). Not sure if it is a SIP issue though, since adding

source $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/bashrc

to the Allrun script has no effect.

Did you have similar issues and how did you solve it?

Experiencing the same dummy Pstream error on 2312 compiled with gerlero, was there a fix found for this?

[gerlero]

Originally Posted by Moopie

Experiencing the same dummy Pstream error on 2312 compiled with gerlero, was there a fix found for this?

Have you managed to fix/work around your issues? Usually, (1) using the bundled Bash session (i.e., using the 'openfoam' command) and (2) using the tutorial RunFunctions in any run scripts keeps most SIP-related problems at bay...

[Kolan]

I've now built OpenFOAM v2214 on a Mac mini with an M4 Pro (12 core, 48 GB of RAM). Below I will update the text from my original post.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

OpenFOAM v2412 builds on MacOS without the need for a patch.

I will assume a clean install of MacOS. I'm on 15.3 (24D60) on an M4 Pro (12 Core)

First install Xcode and the Xcode command line tools.
You can do this from the app store. Check the command line tools are installed:

$ xcode-select --install

Next install homebrew
https://brew.sh

Install the following with homebrew:

$ brew install --cask paraview
$ brew install open-mpi
$ brew install boost
$ brew install cgal
$ brew install metis
$ brew install libomp
$ brew install scotch
$ brew install mrklein/foam/parmgridgen

This time I elected to use an APFS volume instead of a sparsebundle for performance reasons. Use

$ diskutil ap list

To list your device volumes. For some reason my new Mac mini lists disk3 as the only disk.
I created a case-sensitive volume called OpenFOAM in /Volumes rather than clutter $HOME. (I can add the Volume to the sidebar in Finder for example.)

$ diskutil ap addVolume disk3 'Case-sensitive APFS' OpenFOAM -role D

Now we can download the tarballs of the OpenFOAM v2412 source.

$ curl -L https://dl.openfoam.com/source/v2412/OpenFOAM-v2412.tgz > OpenFOAM-v2412.tgz 
$ curl -L https://dl.openfoam.com/source/v2412/ThirdParty-v2412.tgz > ThirdParty-v2412.tgz

You can download these to your home directory, you can delete them later.

Next extract the tarballs into the new OpenFOAM volume.

$ cd /Volumes/OpenFOAM/
$ tar xzf $HOME/OpenFOAM-v2206.tgz
$ tar xzf $HOME/ThirdParty-v2206.tgz

This creates two directories in ~/OpenFOAM, OpenFOAM-v2412 and ThirdParty-v2412.

Before we go and build OpenFOAM we need to fix how scotch is linked.

Looking at our scotch install info:

brew info scotch

we can see where brew put it:

==> scotch: stable 7.0.6 (bottled), HEAD
Package for graph partitioning, graph clustering, and sparse matrix ordering
https://gitlab.inria.fr/scotch/scotch
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/scotch/7.0.6 (237 files, 11.4MB) *
  Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on 2025-01-29 at 10:26:59
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/s/scotch.rb
License: CECILL-C
==> Dependencies
Build: bison ✘
Required: open-mpi ✔
==> Options
--HEAD
	Install HEAD version
==> Analytics
install: 36 (30 days), 134 (90 days), 508 (365 days)
install-on-request: 36 (30 days), 131 (90 days), 496 (365 days)
build-error: 0 (30 days)

So we need to add this information before building. To do this you need to edit the OpenFOAM-v2412/etc/config.sh/scotch file to include:

export SCOTCH_VERSION=scotch-system
export SCOTCH_ARCH_PATH=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/scotch/7.0.6

Comment out the existing entries and save the file.

Next run these commands to update some necessary preferences which will be stored in a ~/OpenFOAM/prefs.sh:

$ mkdir -p $HOME/.OpenFOAM
$ echo 'WM_COMPILER=Clang' > $HOME/.OpenFOAM/prefs.sh
$ echo 'WM_COMPILE_OPTION=Opt' >> $HOME/.OpenFOAM/prefs.sh
$ echo 'WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI' >> $HOME/.OpenFOAM/prefs.sh
$ echo 'export WM_NCOMPPROCS=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)' >> $HOME/.OpenFOAM/prefs.sh
$ echo 'WM_LABEL_SIZE=32' >> $HOME/.OpenFOAM/prefs.sh
$ source etc/bashrc
$ [ "$(ulimit -n)" -lt "4096" ] && ulimit -n 4096

Now we can build OpenFOAM

$ cd /Volumes/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2412/
$ ./Allwmake > log.Allwmake 2>&1

Give it some time to build. You can monitor the build log by looking at log.Allwmake. For example by using tail in another terminal window with:

$ tail -f /Volumes/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2412/log.Allwmake

After the build is complete we need to add some files and environmental variables so OpenFOAM is available when we open the Terminal.

$ mkdir -p $HOME/.OpenFOAM
$ echo 'v2412' > $HOME/.OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-release

Finally you need to add the following to your $HOME/.zprofile or where you prefer to put this stuff.

$ source "/Volumes/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2412/etc/bashrc"

Finally we can add our run folder

$ mkdir -p /Volumes/OpenFOAM/$USER-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION
$ mkdir -p /Volumes/OpenFOAM/$USER-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION/run

and update the path in /Volumes/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v2412/etc/bashrc

export WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR="/Volumes/OpenFOAM/${USER:-user}-$WM_PROJECT_VERSION"

It's pretty quick using the benchmark:

cores  MeshTime(s)     RunTime(s)     
-----------------------------------
1      407.23          334.47         
2      292.06          196.36         
4      181.5           101.12         
6      135.4           79.75          
8      128.51          62.74          
12     162.66          95.73

[Kolan]

I've now installed v2412 on my 16" M3 Max MBP (4E+12P) which I had benched previously with OpenFOAM running in a sparse bundle.

Now using v2412 with an APFS volume I get:

cores  MeshTime(s)     RunTime(s)     
-----------------------------------
1      433.06          338.44         
2      301.92          193.1          
4      208.73          106.67         
6      158.28          73.87          
8      121.56          62.14          
12     106.8           53.07

[Simbelmynë]

Thank you Kolan for this update. Very nice that ESI have made it possible to easily compile from source on MacOS.

Have you by any chance tested to build cfMesh with apple silicon, as it is no longer bundled with ESI OpenFOAM?

[Kolan]

I haven’t but I can try. I’m a blockMesh masochist.