FDS Compilation

This page describes how to compile FDS, which is written in Fortran (2008 standard). We use the latest version of the Intel Fortran compiler, but other compilers should work, such as the Gnu Fortran compiler. If you find an up-to-date Fortran compiler that does not work, let us know.

Preliminaries

• Get an account on GitHub and fork the firemodels/fds Repository. See the Git Notes Getting Started wiki for more details. Clone your forked repository to your computer.
• Install a Fortran compiler and MPI libraries. If using Linux, read GNU fortran and OpenMPI installation guidelines here. For Windows, we only have experience with Intel Fortran combined with the Intel MPI libraries.
• If you are working on a Windows computer, install the Gnu make utility. If the make command doesn't work, add the location of the make application to your PATH.

Building FDS

• cd to the directory in the fds repository called Build.
• cd to the appropriate directory within Build, such as mpi_intel_linux_64 for the Intel compiler and Open MPI libraries under linux or impi_intel_win_64 and for the Intel compiler and Intel MPI libraries under Windows.
• Type make_fds.bat or make_fds.sh, depending on your OS.

Alternatively on a Windows PC you may

• Open the directory Build\impi_intel_win_64 directory within using the Windows Explorer interface
• Double-click on the make_fds.bat batch file

If you get stuck, take a look at the make_fds script to better understand what is actually happening. Chances are that there a different path name or compiler version number installed on your machine. Look at the makefile and ensure that everything associated with your build target is defined. In particular, make sure that mpifort is defined when using Open MPI and mpiifort is defined when using Intel MPI.