Table of Contents

Compiling applications in Mahti

General instructions

  • Whenever possible, use the local disk on the login node for compiling software.
    • Compiling on the local disk is much faster and shifts load from the shared file system.
    • The local disk is cleaned frequently, so please move your files elsewhere after compiling.

Building MPI applications

C/C++ and Fortran applications can be built with GNU, AMD, or Intel compiler suites. The GNU compilers are loaded by default. AMD compilers can be loaded using the Modules system with the command:

module load clang

and Intel compilers with the command:

module load intel

Different applications function better with different suites, so the selection needs to be done on a case-by-case basis.

The MPI environment in Mahti is OpenMPI, and when building MPI applications all compiler suites can be used with the mpicc (C), mpicxx (C++), or mpif90 (Fortran) wrappers.

The compiler options for different suites are different. The recommended basic optimization flags are listed in the table below. It is recommended to start from the safe level and then move up to intermediate or even aggressive, while making sure the results are correct and the program's performance has improved.

Optimisation level GNU Intel AMD (clang)
Safe -O2 -march=native -O2 -fp-model precise -O2 -march=native
Intermediate -O3 -march=native -O2 -O3 -march=native
Aggressive -O3 -march=native -ffast-math -funroll-loops -O3 -fp-model fast=2 -no-prec-div -fimf-use-svml=true -O3 -march=native -ffast-math -funroll-loops

A detailed list of options for the Intel and GNU compilers can be found on the man pages (man gcc/gfortran, man icc/ifort) when the corresponding programming environment is loaded, or in the compiler manuals (see the links above).

List all available versions of the compiler suites:

module spider gcc
module spider clang
module spider intel

Building OpenMP and hybrid applications

Additional compiler and linker flags are needed when building OpenMP or MPI/OpenMP hybrid applications:

Compiler suite OpenMP flag
GNU and AMD -fopenmp
Intel -qopenmp

Building serial applications

For building serial applications, one needs to use compiler suite specific compiler command:

Compiler suite C C++ Fortran
GNU gcc g++ gfortran
AMD clang clang++ flang
Intel icc icpc ifort

Last edited Wed Aug 26 2020