OpenFOAM v9 User Guide

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3.3 Running applications

Each application is designed to be executed from a terminal command line, typically reading and writing a set of data ﬁles associated with a particular case. The data ﬁles for a case are stored in a directory named after the case as described in section 4.1 ; the directory name with full path is here given the generic name <caseDir>.

For any application, the form of the command line entry for any can be found by simply entering the application name at the command line with the -help option, e.g. typing

blockMesh -help

returns the usage

    Usage: blockMesh [OPTIONS]
    options:
      -blockTopology     write block edges and centres as .obj files
      -case <dir>        specify alternate case directory, default is the
                         cwd
      -dict <file>       specify alternative dictionary for the blockMesh
                         description
      -noFunctionObjects do not execute functionObjects
      -region <name>     specify alternative mesh region
      -srcDoc            display source code in browser
      -doc               display application documentation in browser
      -help              print the usage

If the application is executed from within a case directory, it will operate on that case. Alternatively, the -case <caseDir> option allows the case to be speciﬁed directly so that the application can be executed from anywhere in the ﬁling system.

Like any UNIX/Linux executable, applications can be run as a background process , i.e. one which does not have to be completed before the user can give the shell additional commands. If the user wished to run the blockMesh example as a background process and output the case progress to a log ﬁle, they could enter:

blockMesh > log &

OpenFOAM v9 User Guide - 3.3 Running applications