GENIE running an expt

Step1: Get the Model Source Code

GENIE is kept in a Subversion (SVN) respository. To learn more about accessing the GENIE code repository see downloading GENIE using SVN. Note that whenever possible, you should download one of the tested and stable releases, rather than just the most recent version, for example:

svn co http://source.ggy.bris.ac.uk/subversion/genie/tags/rel-2-1-0 --username genie-user ~/genie

See the GENIE versions page for more information on model releases and the associated parameter tuning that accompanies a release.

Prerequisites

Note that in addition to the source code GENIE makes use of several applications and packages. You must have the following list of prerequisites installed on your computer, before you can run GENIE:

• Python.
• GNU make.
• The BASH shell.
• The NetCDF libraries. See the using netCDF page for more information about downloading and installing netCDF.
• A C++ compiler, such as that from the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).
• A Fortran compiler (including support for Fortran90). Compilers which are known to work with GENIE include:
  • Intel
  • PGI
  • Pathscale
  • Sun

NB the GNU Fortran compilers (g95 and gfortran) will not currently work with GENIE.

If you would like to use the GLIMMER ice sheet model in conjunction with GENIE, you will also need to download and install GLIMMER separately. See the GLIMMER downlaod page for more details on that.

Step2: Your Local Setup

Before you compile and run GENIE, you must provide information about, for example:

• where you have installed the source code,
• the Fortran compiler you are using,
• the location of the netCDF libraries that you have created

The simplest way to do this is to edit the files user.mak and user.sh in the directory genie-main. Comments in those files explain which lines need to be edited. Note, if you place your source code in ~/genie and provide the dir ~/genie_output in which to collect your output files, this step will be considerably easier.

There is considerable flexibility in the way in which you can run the model and there are alternatives to the file edits above.

Step3: Test the Model

Before running an experiment, you must ensure that your installed version of the model is working correctly. To make this step as easy as possible, GENIE has a built in suite of tests which you can run using just a few simple commands.

First change directory to genie-main and type:

make cleanall

.

This will ensure that your model is in a pristine, uncompiled state (this is important as GENIE has a number of compile-time options). Now we will create a set of reference files against which we will compare all our future model outputs. Since the model has been tested before you downloaded the code, these files are assumed to be 'good'. Type:

make assumedgood

NB that we will run the above command only once, i.e. on all subsequent occassions (unless explicitly instructed) you will just give the test command below. (Note the generated 'assumedgood' files, held in your GENIE output directory, are your responsibility and you should ensure that they are not changed or deleted.)

Now type:

make test