I decided that the easyest way to distribute Cantera_AVBP was by automating the install process using Homebrew.

What is in the formula?

Several things were needed to make it work:

  • Using the patch system of homebrew, where a git diff can be added to change a file, several SConscript files are modified so gfortran can be found.
  • An issue with the detection of numpy version is resolved in site_scons/buildutils.py. It was based on string lexicographic order, which is broken since numpy version 1.10. Now based on integer order.

  • An argument pointing to the gfortran library directory is passed to scons when building to find the gfortran library. It writes:

    gfortran_lib_dir=#{Formula.factory('gcc').lib}/gcc/5

    This is a strange way to define the library path, but the directory architecture of the gcc libraries are odd. I’m surprised by the 5, which indicates that this might break if one day gcc switches to a version 6.

Initial status (Nov 4th, 2015)

As of november 2015, Cantera_AVBP could be installed with:

brew install --without-check clapeyre/cantera-avbp/cantera-avbp

The issues remaining were:

  • that the checks could not be performed, hence the --without-check option
  • that the MD5 checksum had to be disabled, because CERFACS has a script which recreates the tarball every day, thus changing the timestamp and the sum even if no changes were made to the version

Update (Nov 20th, 2015)

Nov 20th, 2015 : The --without-check thing is resolved. This formula can now be installed simply via:

brew install clapeyre/cantera-avbp/cantera-avbp