Checking the PETSc version

The PETSc version is defined in $PETSC_DIR/include/petscversion.h with the three macros PETSC_VERSION_MAJOR, PETSC_VERSION_MINOR, and PETSC_VERSION_SUBMINOR.

The shell commands make getversion or $PETSC_DIR/lib/petsc/bin/petscversion prints out the PETSc version. The command

$ $PETSC_DIR/lib/petsc/bin/petscversion <eq,gt,lt,ge,le> major.minor<.subminor>

allows one to add tests to make files, CMake files, configure scripts etc, to ensure the PETSc version is compatible with your applications. For example,

$ $PETSC_DIR/lib/petsc/bin/petscversion eq 3.22

returns 1 if the PETSc version is 3.22 (any subminor version is allowed). While

$ $PETSC_DIR/lib/petsc/bin/petscversion ge 3.21

returns 1 if the PETSc version is 3.21 or higher.

Though we try to avoid making changes to the PETSc API, they are inevitable; thus we provide tools to help manage one’s application to be robust to such changes.

During configure/make time

The command

$ $PETSC_DIR/lib/petsc/bin/petscversion eq xxx.yyy[.zzz]

prints out 1 if the PETSc version matches xxx.yyy[.zzz] and 0 otherwise. The command works in a similar way for lt, le, gt, and ge. This allows your application configure script, or makefile or CMake file to check if the PETSc version is compatible with application even before beginning to compile your code.

During compile time

The CPP macros

• PETSC_VERSION_EQ(MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR)

• PETSC_VERSION_LT(MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR)

• PETSC_VERSION_LE(MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR)

• PETSC_VERSION_GT(MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR)

• PETSC_VERSION_GE(MAJOR,MINOR,SUBMINOR)

may be used in the source code to choose different code paths or error out depending on the PETSc version.

At Runtime

The command

char  version(lengthofversion);
PetscErrorCode PetscGetVersion(char version[], size_t lengthofversion)

gives access to the version at runtime.