Installation

The library comes with dedicated build scripts that compile and install the library into either a shared or static library. Different installation scripts are provided for different platforms.

All source code is provided within the meshReaderLib folder. In order to test that the library is working correctly, the compilation can be tested with a few tests that are provided in the tests folder. Within that folder, the file mainTest.cpp collects all tests, which in turn are provided in the tests/unit folder (i.e. it contains all unit tests). Running the executable that is generated by the tests/mainTest.cpp file will verify that the compilation has worked correctly.

In order for the library to be compiled correctly, a few libraries need to be compiled beforehand, namely the CGNS, HDF5, and gtest library. Below is a collection of links, together with build scripts that automatically build these libraries on either Windows or UNIX:

• Install CGNS and HDF5

• Install gtest

Once these libraries are installed and available, you can go ahead and use one of the build scripts discussed below to compile the mesh reading library on either Windows or UNIX.

Windows

On Windows, we can either build the mesh reading library all into a single executable (library + tests), or into separate test code and either static or dynamic library. The build scripts to achieve that are given below. All instructions assume that you are using a developer PowerShell, which is automatically installed with Visual Studio.

[!NOTE] In order to execute PowerShell scripts, you will have to allow to run remotely signed scrips first (see the first example). You may also need to unblock the PowerShell files first before using them. You will also need to have Visual Studio with the C++ development kit installed and run this scrupt inside a Developer PowerShell console. You may also need to activate 64-bit compilation, which may cause issues if the compilation tries to mix 32-bit and 64-bit binaries. If this sounds too complicated, simply install WSL and follow the (simplified) instructions for UNIX below.

Single executable (tests + library)

.\buildAndRun.ps1

Tests with separate static mesh reader library

.\buildStaticAndRun.ps1

Tests with separate dynamic mesh reader library

.\buildDynamicAndRun.ps1

UNIX (macOS, Ubuntu, etc.)

Similar to the instruction given on Windows, we can run the build bash script to check that the compilation and execution have worked correctly. These scripts assume that you have the CGNS and HDF5 library compiled and installed within your home directory, i.e. within ~/libs.

Unlike Windows, we can run scripts directly but sometimes permissions may not be granted for the current user, in which case we can use the chmod command to grant permission to run a specific file as chmod +x buildAndRun.sh, for example. We can also grant permissions for all bash scripts using regular expressions with chmod +x *.sh.

To build the tests and library, open a terminal and type in one of the following commands depending on what you want to build

Single executable (tests + library)

./buildAndRun.sh

Tests with separate static mesh reader library

./buildStaticAndRun.sh

Tests with separate dynamic mesh reader library

./buildDynamicAndRun.sh