Warning

This documentation is for an old version of Cantera. You can find docs for newer versions here.

Configuration Options

This document lists the options available for compiling Cantera with SCons. The default values are operating-system dependent. To see the defaults for your current operating system, run the command:

scons help

from the command prompt.

The following options can be passed to SCons to customize the Cantera build process. They should be given in the form:

scons build option1=value1 option2=value2

Variables set in this way will be stored in the cantera.conf file and reused automatically on subsequent invocations of SCons. Alternatively, the configuration options can be entered directly into cantera.conf before running scons build. The format of this file is:

option1 = 'value1'
option2 = 'value2'

Options List

• msvc_version: [ string ]

  Version of Visual Studio to use. The default is the newest installed version. Specify 12.0 for Visual Studio 2013 or 14.0 for Visual Studio 2015. Windows MSVC only.

  • default: ''

• target_arch: [ string ]

  Target architecture. The default is the same architecture as the installed version of Python. Windows only.

  • default: ''

• toolchain: [ msvc | mingw | intel ]

  The preferred compiler toolchain. Windows only.

  • default: 'msvc'

• CXX: [ string ]

  The C++ compiler to use.

  • default: ''

• CC: [ string ]

  The C compiler to use. This is only used to compile CVODE.

  • default: ''

• prefix: [ /path/to/prefix ]

  Set this to the directory where Cantera should be installed.

  • default: ''

• python_package: [ new | full | minimal | none | default ]

  If you plan to work in Python 2, then you need the full Cantera Python package. If, on the other hand, you will only use Cantera from some other language (e.g. MATLAB or Fortran 90/95) and only need Python to process CTI files, then you only need a minimal subset of the package and Cython and NumPy are not necessary. The none option doesn’t install any components of the Python interface. The default behavior is to build the full Python 2 module if the required prerequisites (NumPy and Cython) are installed.

  • default: 'default'

• python_cmd: [ /path/to/python_cmd ]

  Cantera needs to know where to find the Python interpreter. If the python_cmd option is not set, then the configuration process will use the same Python interpreter being used by SCons.

  • default: ''

• python_array_home: [ /path/to/python_array_home ]

  If NumPy was installed using the --home option, set this to the home directory for NumPy for Python 2.

  • default: ''

• python_prefix: [ /path/to/python_prefix ]

  Use this option if you want to install the Cantera Python 2 package to an alternate location. On Unix-like systems, the default is the same as the prefix option. If the python_prefix option is set to the empty string or the prefix option is not set, then the package will be installed to the system default site-packages directory. To install to the current user’s site-packages directory, use python_prefix=USER.

  • default: ''

• python3_package: [ y | n | default ]

  Controls whether or not the Python 3 module will be built. By default, the module will be built if the Python 3 interpreter and the required dependencies (NumPy for Python 3 and Cython for the version of Python for which SCons is installed) can be found.

  • default: 'default'

• python3_cmd: [ /path/to/python3_cmd ]

  The path to the Python 3 interpreter. The default is python3; if this executable cannot be found, this value must be specified to build the Python 3 module.

  • default: 'python3'

• python3_array_home: [ /path/to/python3_array_home ]

  If NumPy was installed using the --home option, set this to the home directory for NumPy for Python 3.

  • default: ''

• python3_prefix: [ /path/to/python3_prefix ]

  Use this option if you want to install the Cantera Python 3 package to an alternate location. On Unix-like systems, the default is the same as the prefix option. If the python_prefix option is set to the empty string or the prefix option is not set, then the package will be installed to the system default site-packages directory. To install to the current user’s site-packages directory, use python_prefix=USER.

  • default: ''

• matlab_toolbox: [ y | n | default ]

  This variable controls whether the MATLAB toolbox will be built. If set to y, you will also need to set the value of the matlab_path variable. If matlab_toolbox is set to default, the MATLAB toolbox will be built if matlab_path is set.

  • default: 'default'

• matlab_path: [ /path/to/matlab_path ]

  Path to the MATLAB install directory. This should be the directory containing the extern, bin, etc. subdirectories. Typical values are: C:/Program Files/MATLAB/R2011a on Windows, /Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app on OS X, or /opt/MATLAB/R2011a on Linux.

  • default: ''

• f90_interface: [ y | n | default ]

  This variable controls whether the Fortran 90/95 interface will be built. If set to default, the builder will look for a compatible Fortran compiler in the PATH environment variable, and compile the Fortran 90 interface if one is found.

  • default: 'default'

• FORTRAN: [ /path/to/FORTRAN ]

  The Fortran (90) compiler. If unspecified, the builder will look for a compatible compiler (gfortran, ifort, g95) in the PATH environment variable. Used only for compiling the Fortran 90 interface.

  • default: ''

• FORTRANFLAGS: [ string ]

  Compilation options for the Fortran (90) compiler.

  • default: '-O3'

• coverage: [ yes | no ]

  Enable collection of code coverage information with gcov. Available only when compiling with gcc.

  • default: 'no'

• doxygen_docs: [ yes | no ]

  Build HTML documentation for the C++ interface using Doxygen.

  • default: 'no'

• sphinx_docs: [ yes | no ]

  Build HTML documentation for Cantera using Sphinx.

  • default: 'no'

• sphinx_cmd: [ /path/to/sphinx_cmd ]

  Command to use for building the Sphinx documentation.

  • default: 'sphinx-build'

• system_eigen: [ default | y | n ]

  Select whether to use Eigen from a system installation (y), from a Git submodule (n), or to decide automatically (default). If Eigen is not installed directly into a system include directory, e.g. it is installed in /opt/include/eigen3/Eigen, then you will need to add /opt/include/eigen3 to the extra_inc_dirs option.

  • default: 'default'

• system_fmt: [ default | y | n ]

  Select whether to use the fmt library from a system installation (y), from a Git submodule (n), or to decide automatically (default).

  • default: 'default'

• system_sundials: [ default | y | n ]

  Select whether to use SUNDIALS from a system installation (y), from a Git submodule (n), or to decide automatically (default). Specifying sundials_include or sundials_libdir changes the default to y.

  • default: 'default'

• sundials_include: [ /path/to/sundials_include ]

  The directory where the SUNDIALS header files are installed. This should be the directory that contains the cvodes, nvector, etc. subdirectories. Not needed if the headers are installed in a standard location, e.g., /usr/include.

  • default: ''

• sundials_libdir: [ /path/to/sundials_libdir ]

  The directory where the SUNDIALS static libraries are installed. Not needed if the libraries are installed in a standard location, e.g., /usr/lib.

  • default: ''

• blas_lapack_libs: [ string ]

  Cantera can use BLAS and LAPACK libraries available on your system if you have optimized versions available (e.g., Intel MKL). Otherwise, Cantera will use Eigen for linear algebra support. To use BLAS and LAPACK, set blas_lapack_libs to the the list of libraries that should be passed to the linker, separated by commas, e.g., "lapack,blas" or "lapack,f77blas,cblas,atlas".

  • default: ''

• blas_lapack_dir: [ /path/to/blas_lapack_dir ]

  Directory containing the libraries specified by blas_lapack_libs. Not needed if the libraries are installed in a standard location, e.g. /usr/lib.

  • default: ''

• lapack_names: [ lower | upper ]

  Set depending on whether the procedure names in the specified libraries are lowercase or uppercase. If you don’t know, run nm on the library file (e.g., nm libblas.a).

  • default: 'lower'

• lapack_ftn_trailing_underscore: [ yes | no ]

  Controls whether the LAPACK functions have a trailing underscore in the Fortran libraries.

  • default: 'yes'

• lapack_ftn_string_len_at_end: [ yes | no ]

  Controls whether the LAPACK functions have the string length argument at the end of the argument list (yes) or after each argument (no) in the Fortran libraries. - default: ‘yes’

• system_googletest: [ default | y | n ]

  Select whether to use gtest from system installation (y), from a Git submodule (n), or to decide automatically (default). - default: ‘default’

• env_vars: [ string ]

  Environment variables to propagate through to SCons. Either the string all or a comma separated list of variable names, e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH,HOME.

  • default: 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH,PYTHONPATH'

• use_pch: [ yes | no ]

  Use a precompiled-header to speed up compilation

  • default: 'yes'

• cxx_flags: [ string ]

  Compiler flags passed to the C++ compiler only. Separate multiple options with spaces, e.g., cxx_flags='-g -Wextra -O3 --std=c++11'

  • default: ''

• cc_flags: [ string ]

  Compiler flags passed to both the C and C++ compilers, regardless of optimization level

  • default: ''

• thread_flags: [ string ]

  Compiler and linker flags for POSIX multithreading support.

  • default: ''

• optimize: [ yes | no ]

  Enable extra compiler optimizations specified by the optimize_flags variable, instead of the flags specified by the no_optimize_flags variable.

  • default: 'yes'

• optimize_flags: [ string ]

  Additional compiler flags passed to the C/C++ compiler when optimize=yes.

  • default: ''

• no_optimize_flags: [ string ]

  Additional compiler flags passed to the C/C++ compiler when optimize=no.

  • default: ''

• debug: [ yes | no ]

  Enable compiler debugging symbols.

  • default: 'yes'

• debug_flags: [ string ]

  Additional compiler flags passed to the C/C++ compiler when debug=yes.

  • default: ''

• no_debug_flags: [ string ]

  Additional compiler flags passed to the C/C++ compiler when debug=no.

  • default: ''

• debug_linker_flags: [ string ]

  Additional options passed to the linker when debug=yes.

  • default: ''

• no_debug_linker_flags: [ string ]

  Additional options passed to the linker when debug=no.

  • default: ''

• warning_flags: [ string ]

  Additional compiler flags passed to the C/C++ compiler to enable extra warnings. Used only when compiling source code that is part of Cantera (e.g. excluding code in the ‘ext’ directory).

  • default: ''

• extra_inc_dirs: [ string ]

  Additional directories to search for header files (colon-separated list).

  • default: ''

• extra_lib_dirs: [ string ]

  Additional directories to search for libraries (colon-separated list).

  • default: ''

• boost_inc_dir: [ /path/to/boost_inc_dir ]

  Location of the Boost header files. Not needed if the headers are installed in a standard location, e.g. /usr/include.

  • default: ''

• stage_dir: [ /path/to/stage_dir ]

  Directory relative to the Cantera source directory to be used as a staging area for building e.g., a Debian package. If specified, scons install will install files to stage_dir/prefix/....

  • default: ''

• VERBOSE: [ yes | no ]

  Create verbose output about what SCons is doing.

  • default: 'no'

• renamed_shared_libraries: [ yes | no ]

  If this option is turned on, the shared libraries that are created will be renamed to have a _shared extension added to their base name. If not, the base names will be the same as the static libraries. In some cases this simplifies subsequent linking environments with static libraries and avoids a bug with using valgrind with the -static linking flag.

  • default: 'yes'

• versioned_shared_library: [ yes | no ]

  If enabled, create a versioned shared library, with symlinks to the more generic library name, e.g. libcantera_shared.so.2.3.0 as the actual library and libcantera_shared.so and libcantera_shared.so.2 as symlinks.

  • default: 'no'

• layout: [ standard | compact | debian ]

  The layout of the directory structure. ‘standard’ installs files to several subdirectories under ‘prefix’, e.g. $prefix/bin, $prefix/include/cantera, $prefix/lib. This layout is best used in conjunction with ‘prefix’=’/usr/local’. ‘compact’ puts all installed files in the subdirectory defined by ‘prefix’. This layout is best with a prefix like ‘/opt/cantera’. ‘debian’ installs to the stage directory in a layout used for generating Debian packages.

  • default: 'standard'