FronTier++ is configured and built using autoconf, configure, and make. For most users, it is the easiest to build FronTier++ using the wrapper shell script. For machines already registered, the autoconf is very easy, simply type: "./build -b".

This script sets some environment variables, calls autoconf and configure, and then optionally calls make. The build script has some command options to control the modules to compile, which can be seen by running "./build -h".

The build script recognizes a few systems commonly used by FronTier++ developers and users. For these platforms, the script should work automatically in batch mode without user intervention, assuming the user's environment has set up correctly.

For an unrecognized system, the build script will run in an interactive mode and prompts the user to enter some options for the compilers, PETSc, and HDF (zlib, jpeg and szip). The most basic set of environment variables is the compilers. In general you should specify proper MPI wrappers for C, C++, and FORTRAN compilers. If you specify the plain C or FORTRAN compilers instead of MPI wrappers, then FronTier++ will be compiled with MPI disabled. The most complex part of the configuration process is the specification for PETSc, since it may be platform and version dependent. In general, you should specify the root path for PETSc, the PETSC_ARCH variable, and PETSC_LIB. It is important that the PETSC_ARCH you specified matches with the MPI wrappers you specified; otherwise there may be compilation or runtime errors. After obtaining these options, build prints out the commands it would use to configure and build. You can copy and paste these commands for later use, or use them as a template for modification.

For more advanced users, you may want to configure and build FronTier++ manually, following three steps:

FronTier++ has a "configure.in" file, which will produce the configure file when "autoconf" is run in the FronTier++ directory.

1. Configuring for the FronTier++ Lite library:

2. Configuring for parallel:

3. Building the FronTier++ with PETSc package:

4. Building the FronTier++ with HDF4 package:

Before building FronTier++ with HDF4, you need first to intall SZIP, JPEG and ZLIB. For more detailed information about how to install HDF4, refer to the tutorial.

5. Building the FronTier++ with GD package:

To to compile what you have configured, in the FronTier++/ directory type "make".

After make has finished there will be a new subdirectory in FronTier++ called lib/ which will contain all libraries built in the distribution which were chosen, the FronTier++ version has four libraries: