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Installing PETSc On Microsoft Windows#

Are You Sure?

Are you sure you want to use Microsoft Windows?

Developing HPC software is more difficult on Microsoft Windows than Linux and macOS systems. We recommend using a Microsoft Windows system for PETSc only when necessary.

There are many ways to install PETSc on Microsoft Windows’s systems.

Linux on Microsoft Windows#

Cygwin/GNU Compilers on Microsoft Windows#

Cygwin/GNU compilers allow building standalone PETSc libraries and binaries that work on Microsoft Windows, with Cygwin pre-built libraries for BLAS, LAPACK, and Open MPI.

  1. Install Cygwin:

    Download and install Cygwin from https://www.cygwin.com and make sure the following Cygwin components are installed:

    • python3

    • make

    • gcc-core gcc-g++ gcc-fortran

    • liblapack-devel

    • openmpi libopenmpi-devel libhwloc-devel libevent-devel zlib-devel

  2. To build with Cygwin installed BLAS, LAPACK, and Open MPI (from default locations), do (from Cygwin64 Terminal):

    $ ./configure

  3. Follow the Unix instructions for any additional configuration or build options.

Note

  • Libraries built with Cygwin/GNU compilers are not compatible and cannot be linked with Microsoft or Intel compilers.

  • Native libraries like MS-MPI, Intel MPI cannot be used from Cygwin/GNU compilers.

  • Most external packages are likely to work, however the configure option --download-mpich does not work.

Native Microsoft/Intel Windows Compilers#

Microsoft Windows does not provide a Unix shell environment, and the native Microsoft and Intel compilers behave differently from Unix compilers. To use these compilers, install Cygwin to provide the Unix environment. Under Cygwin, specify the native compiler names directly, such as cl, icx, ifort, or ifx. During configuration, PETSc replaces these names with its bundled win32fe [1] wrappers. These wrappers allow the native Microsoft and Intel tools to be used from Cygwin make; users normally do not invoke the wrappers directly.

  1. Install Cygwin:

    Download and install Cygwin from https://www.cygwin.com and make sure the following Cygwin components are installed:

    • python3

    • make

    Additional Cygwin components like git and CMake can be useful for installing external packages.

  2. Remove Cygwin link.exe when using Intel Classic compilers:

    Cygwin link.exe can conflict with the Intel icl and ifort compilers. If you use either compiler, rename it from Cygwin64 Terminal:

    $ mv /usr/bin/link.exe /usr/bin/link-cygwin.exe

  3. Setup Cygwin64 Terminal with working compilers:

    Set up the compilers in a Cygwin bash command shell so that commands such as cl foo.c, icx foo.c, or ifx foo.F90 work from that shell. Older oneAPI installations can use ifort foo.F instead. For example:

    1. Start the Intel oneAPI command prompt for Intel 64 and a supported Visual Studio version.

    2. Within this command prompt, run Cygwin64 Terminal, i.e., mintty.exe as:

      C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe -

    3. Verify that the selected compilers are usable in this Cygwin64 Terminal.

    4. Run configure with the selected compilers and then build the libraries with make (as per the usual instructions).

Example Configure Usage With Microsoft Windows Compilers#

Use configure with the current Intel oneAPI C, C++, and Fortran compilers (without MPI). The Intel ifx compiler currently requires a static PETSc build on Microsoft Windows:

$ ./configure --with-cc=icx --with-cxx=icx --with-fc=ifx --with-shared-libraries=0 --with-mpi=0 --download-fblaslapack

Older oneAPI installations that provide the Intel Classic ifort compiler can use:

$ ./configure --with-cc=cl --with-cxx=cl --with-fc=ifort --with-mpi=0 --download-fblaslapack

If Fortran or C++ usage is not required, use:

$ ./configure --with-cc=cl --with-fc=0 --with-cxx=0 --download-f2cblaslapack

Note

  • Microsoft cl can be used instead of Intel icx, for example --with-cc=cl --with-cxx=cl.

  • Under Cygwin, PETSc automatically maps the bare cl, icx, ifort, and ifx compiler names to its bundled win32fe [1] wrappers.

  • Intel oneAPI ifx currently works with --with-shared-libraries=0 only.

  • The --download-package option may work with some external packages and fail with most packages.

Using MPI, MKL#

We support both MS-MPI (64-bit) and Intel MPI on Microsoft Windows. We also support using Intel MKL as a BLAS and LAPACK implementation. See the repository’s current Intel MPI, MKL, and ifx configuration example or the legacy ifort configuration example.

Warning

Avoid spaces in $PATH

It is better to avoid spaces or similar special characters when specifying configure options. On Microsoft Windows, this usually affects MPI or MKL paths. Microsoft Windows supports DOS short names for directories, so prefer that notation. The Cygwin cygpath tool can convert a path, for example:

$ cygpath -u "$(cygpath -ms '/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Microsoft MPI')"

Project Files#

We cannot provide Microsoft Visual Studio project files for users as they are specific to the configure options, location of external packages, compiler versions etc. used for any given build of PETSc, so they are potentially different for each build of PETSc. So if you need a project file for use with PETSc - do the following.

  1. Create an empty project file with one of the examples, say $PETSC_DIR/src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex2.c

  2. Try compiling the example from Cygwin bash shell - using make - i.e.:

    $ cd $PETSC_DIR/src/ksp/ksp/tutorials
$ make ex2

  3. If the above works - then make sure all the compiler/linker options used by make are also present in the project file in the correct notation.

  4. If errors - redo the above step. If all the options are correctly specified, the example should compile from Microsoft Visual Studio.

MSYS2/MinGW (GNU) Compilers on Microsoft Windows#

These allow building standalone Microsoft Windows libraries and applications that are compatible with the Microsoft and Intel compilers.

  1. Install MSYS2 and MS-MPI:

    Download and install MSYS2 from https://www.msys2.org. If you want to use MPI, we recommend you use MS-MPI from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/message-passing-interface/microsoft-mpi.

  2. Update MSYS2 and install base packages:

    First, launch a MSYS2 MinGW x64 shell. Double-check this is the proper type of shell by typing

    $  echo $MINGW_PREFIX
/mingw64

    If you see something else, e.g., /clang64, this is not the correct type of shell, it may still work, but this is less tested. Then, update your installation using pacman (you may be asked to quit and re-open your shell).

    $  pacman -Syu

    Install the following packages that are needed by some PETSc dependencies.

    $  pacman -S autoconf automake-wrapper bison bsdcpio make git \
mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain patch python flex \
pkg-config pkgfile tar unzip mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake \
mingw-w64-x86_64-msmpi mingw-w64-x86_64-openblas mingw-w64-x86_64-jq

  3. Configuring:

    The two difficulties here are: 1) make sure PETSc configure picks up the proper Python installation, as there are more than one available in a MSYS2 MinGW shell and 2) tell PETSc where MS-MPI mpiexec is. We recommend not using shared libraries as it is easier to create standalone binaries that way.

    $  /usr/bin/python ./configure --with-mpiexec='/C/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ MPI/Bin/mpiexec' \
--with-shared-libraries=0

Note

MinGW (GNU) compilers can also be installed/used via Cygwin (not just MSYS2).

Debugging on Microsoft Windows#

Running PETSc programs with -start_in_debugger is not supported on Microsoft Windows. Debuggers need to be initiated manually. Make sure your environment is properly configured to use the appropriate debugger for your compiler. The debuggers can be initiated using Microsoft Visual Studio:

$ devenv ex1.exe

Intel Enhanced Debugger:

$ edb ex1.exe

or GNU Debugger

$ gdb ex1.exe

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