Common build problems and solutions¶

We recommend using ccmake, the text-based CMake interface to adjust PISM’s build parameters. One can also set CMake cache variables using the -D command-line option (cmake -Dvariable=value) or by editing CMakeCache.txt in the build directory.

Here are some issues and workarounds we know about.

The PISM build system uses ncgen from the NetCDF package to generate the configuration file pism_config.nc. This means that a working NetCDF installation is required on both the “host” and the “target” systems when cross-compiling PISM.
Some systems support static libraries only. To build PISM statically and tell CMake not to try to link to shared libraries, set the CMake variable Pism_LINK_STATICALLY to ON.
You can set Pism_LOOK_FOR_LIBRARIES to “OFF” to disable all heuristics and set compiler flags by hand. See PISM builds for examples.
When linking PISM to shared prerequisite libraries it is usually sufficient to link to a library (e.g. NetCDF) and the linker will automatically include its dependencies (for NetCDF: HDF5, libz, libm, MPI) using the NEEDED and RUNPATH headers of its object file. On some systems these headers (especially RUNPATH) may not be set, requiring a build system to explicitly list all of PISM’s dependencies, the dependencies’ dependencies, etc, just as when linking to static libraries.

To work around this issue, set the CMake variable Pism_PKG_CONFIG_STATIC to YES. This tells PISM to use pkg-config’s --static flag when looking for PISM’s dependencies.

If this proves insufficient and you need to add custom linker flags, set CMake variables CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS (flags used to link shared libraries) and CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS (flags used to link executables).