On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 5:46 AM, Aron Ahmadia <[email protected]>wrote:

In order to get a user up-and-running with a MUMPs-enabled PETSc, I followed this frustrating chain:

configure --download-mumps=1

...

Error, no parmetis!

configure --download-mumps=1 --download-parmetis=1

Error, no scalapack!

configure --download-mumps=1 --download-parmetis=1 --download-scalapack=1

It would be convenient if the PETSc BuildSystem did what other package installers like pip, yum, etc..., do, and grab dependencies that I need based on what I have requested.

I don't like this at all. It works in yum because there is only one way to get the package. In PETSc, there are at least 3 since you can built it yourself, use the system version, or have it downloaded. Additionally, it would make it a lot easier to build PETSc on complicated

systems if BuildSystem did a quick dependency/flag check instead off the way it works now (sequential intermixing of really slow and fast configure options).

Yes, I agree it should alert people early that dependent packages are not turned on. Matt

A

-- 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