Compilation

Ready-compiled binaries exist for a few platforms. If these work with your system there may be no reason to compile Elmer from the source codes. Even most of the code development may be done without compiling the main program as new solvers may be dynamically linked. However, local compilation usually gives the best performance and is often needed for non-standard systems.

Obtaining the source code

The source code of Elmer project is available at
https://github.com/elmercsc/elmerfem

 # clone the git repository.
 git clone git://www.github.com/ElmerCSC/elmerfem 

Building the executable

This gives only the basic instructions for compiling Elmer under cmake. You may find more detailed instructions for particular platforms, for example, on the discussion forum.

 # create build directory
 $ mkdir build
 $ cd build 
 # let the cmake generate makefiles
 $ cmake -DWITH_ELMERGUI:BOOL=FALSE -DWITH_MPI:BOOL=FALSE -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install ../elmerfem 

 # Cmake configures things, if it does not find something (e.g., lapack), you can help it by 
 $ cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path_to_lapack_installation> ../elmerfem

 # Alternatively, you can tune the compilation parameters graphically with
 $ ccmake .
 # or
 $ cmake-gui .