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Command line installation options for blueCFD Core installers

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wyldckat edited this page Mar 3, 2018 · 11 revisions

Introduction

This wiki page is aimed towards administrators and advanced users who wish to have automated installation control over the blueCFD-Core installers. The instructions are hard-coded to the 2016 series, but the majority of the functions should remain the same in the 2017 series, possibly with a few additions.

The installers for blueCFD-Core are generated using Inno Setup, therefore all other command line options are also available, which are documented on the official website for Inno Setup: Inno Setup Command Line Parameters

Therefore, this wiki page aims to document the details relevant to blueCFD-Core's installers.

Default options

When using the installer for the first time, it will use the following options by default:

  1. Depending on the permission level of the user running the installer, it will use the respective default installation folder:

  • Users that have administrative powers (not necessarily the Administrator account), it will install at the standard 64-bit location, for example: C:\Program Files\blueCFD-Core-2016

  • Normal users can still use the installer, which will install in their own applications path, for example, in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\blueCFD-Core-2016, where username is the personal account name.

  1. It will do a full installation.

  2. It will create the start menu for blueCFD-Core 2016, although the contents of the menu will be different depending on the Windows version:

  • On Windows 7, it will provide a fully populated menu in Start Menu.

  • On Windows 8 and newer, it will only provide 6 links, where the remaining links are placed in the folder Start Menu within the blueCFD-Core installation folder.

  1. It has additional 5 check-box options, which are as follows:

    1. Create icons on the desktop - this is selected by default on Windows 8 and newer, which it's unselected on Windows 7.

    2. Add MSys2 terminal to the right-click on any folder in Windows Explorer. - this selected by default.

    3. Add Notepad2 to the right-click on any file in Windows Explorer. - this selected by default.

    4. Install MS-MPI 7.1 into Windows for global use (recommended) - this selected by default; even when not selected, the installer will be made available inside the AddOns folder within the blueCFD-Core installation folder.

    5. Enable write permissions in user-related folders within the installation - this is selected by default. For more details about which folders have their permissions changed see section Folders that need user-side permissions.

      • Note: Starting with blueCFD-Core 2016-2, when this option is not selected, the installation will automatically adapt itself to a read-only installation and it will rely on mounting all user-side folders on the user's own profile folder. For more details, see the FAQ entry Read-only installation of blueCFD-Core.

  2. At the end of the installation, it has 3 or 4 additional check boxes, all turned on by default:

    1. blueCFD-Core Online User Guides - Open the web-page to the online User Guides page.

    2. Follow us on Twitter @bluecapept - Open the web-page for our Twitter feed

    3. Follow us on LinkedIn - Open the web-page for our LinkedIn page

    4. Follow FS Dynamics on LinkedIn - Open the web-page for FS Dynamics' LinkedIn page

Controlling the installation options from the command line

The following list provides a one-to-one control of each one of the Default options:

  1. There are two possible ways to control the installation location:

    1. The direct control for personal installation is detailed in section Option for Administrators that want to install for personal use.

    2. For full control of the path, the argument /DIR=PATH can be used, for example:

      blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /DIR="D:\blueCFD-2016"

  2. There are two types of installation available: "Full Installation" and "Custom Installation". Nonetheless, the way these are controlled is through the actual components that are used by the installer, through their keyword names:

    • Base_Files - Install the core of blueCFD-Core, which includes MSys2.

    • paraview - Install ParaView in the AddOns folder, for which you should either already have an MS-MPI version installed or also select the option mpi/msmpi71 (or mpi/msmpi81 for blueCFD-Core 2017).

    • paraview/associate - Associate the .foam file extension to be opened with ParaView.

    • mpi - Install the general MPI runtime and installs the respective OpenFOAM libraries.

    • mpi/msmpi71 - Install the files needed for using MS-MPI 7.1, including the placement of the MS-MPI 7.1 installer in the AddOns folder.

    • mpi/msmpi81 - Install the files needed for using MS-MPI 8.1, including the placement of the MS-MPI 8.1 installer in the AddOns folder.

      • This is only available with blueCFD-Core 2017 and it's disabled by default.

    • For blueCFD-Core 2016:

      • of4x - Install the binaries, scripts and tutorials for OpenFOAM 4.x.

      • of4x/git - Install the git trees, for easily keeping track of source code bug fixes in the provided port of OpenFOAM 4.x.

      • of4x/dev - Install the development files and auxiliary building files (required for OpenFOAM's #codeStream feature).

    • For blueCFD-Core 2017:

      • of5x - Install the binaries, scripts and tutorials for OpenFOAM 5.x.

      • of5x/git - Install the git trees, for easily keeping track of source code bug fixes in the provided port of OpenFOAM 5.x.

      • of5x/dev - Install the development files and auxiliary building files (required for OpenFOAM's #codeStream feature).

    • gnuplot - Install Gnuplot in the AddOns folder.

    • notepad2 - Install Notepad2 in the AddOns folder.

    In order to use these options the command line arguments /TYPE=custom and /COMPONENTS="" have to be used. For example:

    blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /TYPE=custom /COMPONENTS="Base_Files, of4x, mpi/msmpi71"

  3. The start menu group name can be controlled with the command line argument /GROUP="", for example:

    blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /GROUP="CFD\blueCFD-Core-2016-1"

    On the other hand, to disable the creation of this icon group, use the argument /NOICONS, for example:

    blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /NOICONS

  4. In order to control each of the additional 5 check-box options, the following corresponding keywords are used:

    1. desktopicon - Create icons on the desktop

    2. msys_reg - Add MSys2 terminal to the right-click on any folder in Windows Explorer.

    3. notepad2_reg - Add Notepad2 to the right-click on any file in Windows Explorer.

    4. installMSMPI71 - Install MS-MPI 7.1 into Windows for global use (recommended)

    5. installMSMPI81 - Install MS-MPI 8.1 into Windows for global use

      • Only available for blueCFD-Core 2017.

    6. modifypermissions - Enable write permissions in user-related folders within the installation

    To select these options, use the command line argument /TASKS="", for example:

    blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /TASKS="notepad2_reg,modifypermissions"

  5. Unfortunately there is no command line control for the check-box options at the end of the installation. These can only be unselected interactively and will be used by default.

Important Notes

  • In section Installation options for installing MS-MPI are provided more details on how to launch the MS-MPI installer through the command line, given that the blueCFD-Core installer will launch the MS-MPI installer interactively by default.

  • Keep in mind that running this from the command line might still ask for the permission to install, if launched from an account that has administrative capabilities, but does not have full administrative power by default. For more details on how to do that, see Microsoft Windows -> Command-Line Reference -> Runas.

  • As explained in the page Inno Setup Command Line Parameters, the options /SILENT (progress bar still appears) or /VERYSILENT (no windows) can be used to reduce interaction with the user, for example:

    blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /SILENT

Option for Administrators that want to install for personal use

The blueCFD-Core installer has a hidden feature that allows a user with administrative powers to perform an installation for personal use only. To perform this, launch the installer with the option /SINGLEUSER=1, from a Windows command line, for example:

blueCFD-Core-2016-1-win64-setup.exe /SINGLEUSER=1

This will make the installer not use administrative powers and will install by default on the user's own personal folders, as described in section Default options.

Folders that need user-side permissions

In order to simplify the default installation process, the blueCFD-Core installers provide the option to Enable write permissions in user-related folders within the installation, which means that the list of folders below will be changed from read-only to read-write permissions for normal users, so that the resulting blueCFD-Core installation can be used as intended.

Note: If this option is turned off, see the FAQ entry Read-only installation of blueCFD-Core.

The list of folders which have their permissions changed are as follows:

msys64\home\ofuser
msys64\etc
msys64\dev
msys64\tmp
msys64\var\tmp
ofuser-of4
ofuser-of5

If either one of the options of4x/git (install the git trees) or of4x/dev (install the development files) are selected, then the following folders will also have their permissions changed for easier software development:

OpenFOAM-4.x
ThirdParty-4.x

Similarly same applies for blueCFD-Core 2017, namely if either one of the options of5x/git (install the git trees) or of5x/dev (install the development files) are selected, then the following folders will also have their permissions changed for easier software development:

OpenFOAM-5.x
ThirdParty-5.x

Installation options for installing MS-MPI

As explained in the section Controlling the installation options from the command line, the MS-MPI installer is launched interactively by default by the blueCFD-Core installer. And even when the respective task to install MS-MPI is not used, its installer is placed at AddOns\MSMPI71_MSMpiSetup.exe and/or AddOns\MSMPI81_MSMpiSetup.exe, which means that this can be launched automatically afterwards.

The command line options available are as follows (quoting from the dialogue box shown when running MSMPI71_MSMpiSetup.exe /?):

Usage: MSMPISetup.exe [flags ...] Flags:

  • [-unattend] - This will run with no UI.
  • [-force] - Specifies to overwrite any existing version.
  • [-minimal] - This will install just the runtime components.
  • [-full] - This will install all components.
  • [-installroot <folder_path>] - Specifies the install directory.
  • [-temp <folder_path>] - Specifies the temp directory to extract files.
  • [-log <file_path>] - Specifies the path to write the MSI log file.
  • [-appendlog] - Will append to log file instead of overwrite it.
  • [-verbose] - Specifies to use verbose logging with the MSI.

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