On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:59 PM, Barry Smith wrote: > > On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:51 PM, Boyana Norris wrote: > >> Why not recognize both? It's fairly trivial to check for PETSC_CONF >> if PETSC_ARCH is undefined and internally define PETSC_ARCH using >> PETSC_CONF. > > This is a make variable. I am not sure that it is trivial to check > if a variable is set and use something else otherwise in a tidy way > in make. Plus I had the idea of having two variables that mean the > same thing.
There are a couple of different ways, e.g., one is ifndef PETSC_ARCH ifdef PETSC_CONF PETSC_ARCH=$(PETSC_CONF) else $(error "Make sure the PETSC_CONF environment variable is defined before running make.") endif endif This is for GNU make, which is pretty widely available, and may have to be adjusted for ancient systems. Boyana > > Barry > > >> >> Boyana >> >> -- >> Boyana Norris, Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory >> norris at mcs.anl.gov, +1.630.252.7908, http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~norris/ >> >> On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Matthew Knepley wrote: >> >>> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 3:38 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> >>> wrote: >>> >>> I guess the argument is that on occasion in the future a certain >>> number of people will misinterpret the meaning of PETSC_ARCH >>> frustrating them and us; the number misinterpreting PETSC_CONF >>> will be much smaller or zero saving people's time and energy. >>> >>> This will be far outweighed by the number of people complaining >>> about such a change. I agree with them. >>> >>> Matt >>> >>> Barry >>> >>> >>> On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:25 PM, Matthew Knepley wrote: >>> >>> I see the point, but this is one of the oldest parts of PETSc, and >>> I am hesitant to change one >>> arbitrary name to another without a more convincing reason. >>> >>> Matt >>> >>> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Lisandro has pointed out to me several times that the variable >>> name PETSC_ARCH can be confusing; some people may think it is >>> related to the architecture of the machine and don't understand >>> that it is an arbitrary name that the user can make up. He >>> suggested changing it to PETSC_CONF to be clearer. >>> >>> Should we change it? Use something else? >>> >>> Barry >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their >>> experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to >>> which their experiments lead. >>> -- Norbert Wiener >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their >>> experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to >>> which their experiments lead. >>> -- Norbert Wiener >> >