Managing OOMMF Platform Names

OOMMF software classifies computing platforms into different types using the scripts in the directory config/names relative to the root directory of the OOMMF distribution. Each type of computing platform is assigned a unique name. These names are used as directory names and in index and configuration files so that a single OOMMF installation may contain platform-dependent sections for many different types of computing platforms.

To learn what name OOMMF software uses to refer to your computing platform, run

tclsh oommf.tcl +platform

in the OOMMF root directory.

Changing the name OOMMF assigns to your platform

First, use pimake to build the target distclean to clear away any compiled executables built using the old platform name.

tclsh oommf.tcl pimake distclean

Then, to change the name OOMMF software uses to describe your platform from foo to bar, simply rename the file

config/names/foo.tcl to config/names/bar.tcl

and

config/platforms/foo.tcl to config/platforms/bar.tcl.

After renaming your platform type, you should recompile your executables using the new platform name.

Adding a new platform type

If oommf.tcl +platform reports the platform name unknown, then none of the scripts in config/names/ recognizes your platform type. As an example, to add the platform name foo to OOMMF's vocabulary of platform names, create the file config/names/foo.tcl. The simplest way to proceed is to copy an existing file in the directory config/names and edit it to recognize your platform.

The files in config/names include Tcl code like this:

  Oc_Config New _ \
    [string tolower [file rootname [file tail [info script]]]] {
      # In this block place the body of a Tcl proc which returns 1
      # if the machine on which the proc is executed is of the
      # platform type identified by this file, and which returns 0
      # otherwise.
      #
      # The usual Tcl language mechanism for discovering details
      # about the machine on which the proc is running is to
      # consult the global Tcl variable 'tcl_platform'.  See the
      # existing files for examples, or contact the OOMMF
      # developers for further assistance.
  }

After creating the new platform name file config/names/foo.tcl, you also need to create a new platform file config/platforms/foo.tcl. A reasonable starting point is to copy the file config/platforms/unknown.tcl for editing. Contact the OOMMF developers for assistance.

Please consider contributing your new platform recognition and configuration files to the OOMMF developers for inclusion in future releases of OOMMF software.

Resolving platform name conflicts

If the script oommf.tcl +platform reports “Multiple platform names are compatible with your computer”, then there are multiple files in the directory config/names/ that return 1 when run on your computer. For each compatible platform name reported, edit the corresponding file in config/names/ so that only one of them returns 1. Experimenting using tclsh to probe the Tcl variable tcl_platform should assist you in this task. If that fails, you can explicitly assign a platform type corresponding to your computing platform by matching its hostname. For example, if your machine's host name is foo.bar.net:

  Oc_Config New _ \
    [string tolower [file rootname [file tail [info script]]]] {
      if {[string match foo.bar.net [info hostname]]} {
          return 1
      }
      # Continue with other tests...
  }

Contact the OOMMF developers if you need further assistance.

OOMMF Documentation Team
September 27, 2024