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lammps/doc/src/Build_link.rst

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Link LAMMPS as a library to another code
========================================
LAMMPS is designed as a library of C++ objects that can be integrated
into other applications, including Python scripts. The files
``src/library.cpp`` and ``src/library.h`` define a C-style API for using
LAMMPS as a library. See the :doc:`Howto_library` page for a
description of the interface and how to use it for your needs.
The :doc:`Build_basics` page explains how to build LAMMPS as either a
shared or static library. This results in a file in the compilation
folder called ``liblammps.a`` or ``liblammps_<name>.a`` in case of
building a static library. In case of a shared library, the name is the
same only that the suffix is going to be either ``.so`` or ``.dylib`` or
``.dll`` instead of ``.a`` depending on the OS. In some cases, the
``.so`` file may be a symbolic link to a file with the suffix ``.so.0``
(or some other number).
.. note::
Care should be taken to use the same MPI library for the calling code
and the LAMMPS library, unless LAMMPS is to be compiled without (real)
MPI support using the included STUBS MPI library.
Link with LAMMPS as a static library
------------------------------------
The calling application can link to LAMMPS as a static library with
compilation and link commands, as in the examples shown below. These
are examples for a code written in C in the file ``caller.c``.
The benefit of linking to a static library is, that the resulting
executable is independent of that library since all required
executable code from the library is copied into the calling executable.
.. tabs::
.. tab:: CMake build
This assumes that LAMMPS has been configured without setting a
``LAMMPS_MACHINE`` name, installed with "make install", and the
``PKG_CONFIG_PATH`` environment variable has been updated to
include the ``liblammps.pc`` file installed into the configured
destination folder. The commands to compile and link a coupled
executable are then:
.. code-block:: bash
mpicc -c -O $(pkg-config --cflags liblammps) caller.c
mpicxx -o caller caller.o -$(pkg-config --libs liblammps)
.. tab:: Traditional make
This assumes that LAMMPS has been compiled in the folder
``${HOME}/lammps/src`` with "make mpi". The commands to compile
and link a coupled executable are then:
.. code-block:: bash
mpicc -c -O -I${HOME}/lammps/src caller.c
mpicxx -o caller caller.o -L${HOME}/lammps/src -llammps_mpi
The *-I* argument is the path to the location of the ``library.h``
header file containing the interface to the LAMMPS C-style library
interface. The *-L* argument is the path to where the
``liblammps_mpi.a`` file is located. The *-llammps_mpi* argument
is shorthand for telling the compiler to link the file
``liblammps_mpi.a``. If LAMMPS has been built as a shared
library, then the linker will use ``liblammps_mpi.so`` instead.
If both files are available, the linker will usually prefer the
shared library. In case of a shared library, you may need to
update the ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable or running the
``caller`` executable will fail since it cannot find the shared
library at runtime.
However, it is only as simple as shown above for the case of a plain
LAMMPS library without any optional packages that depend on libraries
(bundled or external) or when using a shared library. Otherwise, you
need to include all flags, libraries, and paths for the coupled
executable, that are also required to link the LAMMPS executable.
.. tabs::
.. tab:: CMake build
When using CMake, additional libraries with sources in the lib
folder are built, but not included in ``liblammps.a`` and
(currently) not installed with ``make install`` and not included
in the ``pkgconfig`` configuration file. They can be found in the
top level build folder, but you have to determine the necessary
link flags manually. It is therefore recommended to either use
the traditional make procedure to build and link with a static
library or build and link with a shared library instead.
.. tab:: Traditional make
After you have compiled a static LAMMPS library using the
conventional build system for example with "make mode=static
serial". And you also have installed the ``POEMS`` package after
building its bundled library in ``lib/poems``. Then the commands
to build and link the coupled executable change to:
.. code-block:: bash
gcc -c -O -I${HOME}/lammps/src -caller.c
g++ -o caller caller.o -L${HOME}/lammps/lib/poems \
-L${HOME}/lammps/src/STUBS -L${HOME}/lammps/src \
-llammps_serial -lpoems -lmpi_stubs
Note, that you need to link with ``g++`` instead of ``gcc`` even
if you have written your code in C, since LAMMPS itself is C++
code. You can display the currently applied settings for building
LAMMPS for the "serial" machine target by using the command:
.. code-block:: bash
make mode=print serial
Which should output something like:
.. code-block:: bash
# Compiler:
CXX=g++
# Linker:
LD=g++
# Compilation:
CXXFLAGS=-g -O3 -DLAMMPS_GZIP -DLAMMPS_MEMALIGN=64 -I${HOME}/compile/lammps/lib/poems -I${HOME}/compile/lammps/src/STUBS
# Linking:
LDFLAGS=-g -O
# Libraries:
LDLIBS=-L${HOME}/compile/lammps/src -llammps_serial -L${HOME}/compile/lammps/lib/poems -L${HOME}/compile/lammps/src/STUBS -lpoems -lmpi_stubs
From this you can gather the necessary paths and flags. With
makefiles for other *machine* configurations you need to do the
equivalent and replace "serial" with the corresponding "machine"
name of the makefile.
Link with LAMMPS as a shared library
------------------------------------
When linking to LAMMPS built as a shared library, the situation becomes
much simpler, as all dependent libraries and objects are either included
in the shared library or registered as a dependent library in the shared
library file. Thus, those libraries need not be specified when linking
the calling executable. Only the *-I* flags are needed. So the example
case from above of the serial version static LAMMPS library with the
POEMS package installed becomes:
.. tabs::
.. tab:: CMake build
The commands with a shared LAMMPS library compiled with the CMake
build process are the same as for the static library.
.. code-block:: bash
mpicc -c -O $(pkg-config --cflags liblammps) caller.c
mpicxx -o caller caller.o -$(pkg-config --libs liblammps)
.. tab:: Traditional make
The commands with a shared LAMMPS library compiled with the
traditional make build using ``make mode=shared serial`` becomes:
.. code-block:: bash
gcc -c -O -I${HOME}/lammps/src -caller.c
g++ -o caller caller.o -L${HOME}/lammps/src -llammps_serial
Locating liblammps.so at runtime
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Unlike with a static link, now the ``liblammps.so`` file is required at
runtime and needs to be in a folder, where the shared linker program of
the operating system can find it. This would be either a folder like
``/usr/local/lib64`` or ``${HOME}/.local/lib64`` or a folder pointed to
by the ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable. You can type
.. code-block:: bash
printenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH
to see what directories are in that list.
Or you can add the LAMMPS src directory or the directory you performed a
CMake style build in to your ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable,
so that the current version of the shared library is always available to
programs that use it.
For the Bourne or Korn shells (/bin/sh, /bin/ksh, /bin/bash etc.), you
would add something like this to your ``${HOME}/.profile`` file:
.. code-block:: bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH-/usr/lib64}:${HOME}/lammps/src
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
For the csh or tcsh shells, you would equivalently add something like this
to your ``${HOME}/.cshrc`` file:
.. code-block:: csh
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${HOME}/lammps/src
You can verify whether all required shared libraries are found with the
``ldd`` tool. Example:
.. code-block:: bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/user/lammps/src ldd caller
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffe729e0000)
liblammps.so => /home/user/lammps/src/liblammps.so (0x00007fc91bb9e000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fc91b984000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007fc91b83e000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fc91b824000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fc91b65b000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fc91c094000)
If a required library is missing, you would get a 'not found' entry:
.. code-block:: bash
ldd caller
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd672fe000)
liblammps.so => not found
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fb7c7e86000)
libm.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007fb7c7d40000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fb7c7d26000)
libc.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fb7c7b5d000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fb7c80a2000)