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Version vYYYY.MM.p -- Release date YYYY-MM-DD

  • Important Notes:

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • Added view class for PairwiseField (PairwiseFieldView)
    • Refactored use of pair-wise fields in hydro packages to avoid using pointers and allow empty PairwiseFields
    • ArtificialViscosity has been refactored for use on the GPU.
      • ArtificialViscosity is now ArtificialViscosityView.
      • ArtificialViscosityHandle is now ArtificialViscosity.
      • Both inherit from ArtificialViscosityBase.
      • FiniteVolumeViscosity, MonGViscosity, LimitedMonGViscosity, and TensorMonGViscosity are split into a value and view class.
    • Added RAJAfied versions of SPH and SolidSPH called SPH_RAJA and SolidSPH_RAJA.
      • These allow us to test the evaluate derivatives call on device.
      • Added wrappers for RAJA atomics.
      • Added performance tests for evaluate derivates to track RAJA kernel performance.
    • Added SPHERAL_ENABLE_ASAN CMake option for doing ASAN builds.
    • Added view class for PairwiseField (PairwiseFieldView).
    • Refactored use of pair-wise fields in hydro packages to avoid using pointers and allow empty PairwiseFields.
    • Bin files in install (bin/spheral and bin/spheral-ats) now use relative paths instead of being configured for one specific path.
    • Added a page to the docs about GPU development.
    • Optimized field lookups in state, reducing per-call cost from O(N) to O(log N)

  • Bug fixes:

    • Adiak memory leak is fixed by calling adiak::clean() before exit.
    • Performance tests no longer import from Spheral proper but only rely on SpheralConfigs.py.
    • SPH now requests volume from RK.
    • Fixed a circular dependency in the Johnson-Cook damage model.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Updated to PYB11Generator 2025.12.1.
    • Converted all Spheral Python modules to be submodules of a single PYB11Generator module (SpheralCompiledModules). For users importing from the master Spheral.py file (or it's dimensional specialization) this change is hidden, so there is no user interface impact.
    • Fixed bug with incorrect optimizations when for Debug builds with hip enabled.
    • Updated from Rocm 6.2.0 to 6.4.3.
    • Added update-tpls commit message trigger.
    • Spheral mpi python interface ensures proper allocation calls are used on Flux machines to avoid strange hangs that can occur if running outside of allocations.
    • tpl-manager.py updates:
      • Added --no-upstream option for when on LC machines but cannot access upstream.
      • Added --dry-run option for testing purposes.
    • Performance testing and CI improvements:
      • Structure for performance tests is different, with the tests themselves set in a perf_tests.py file and run_perf.py runs the perf tests using ATS.
      • The cleanup old directories job is now a scheduled pipelines that runs weekly.
      • The performance tests and deploy jobs are now scheduled pipelines that run on a schedule.
      • Gitlab pages now uses Plotly for interactive visualizations.
      • Gathering of performance data for the deploy stage is now parallelized over ranks and threads.
      • Merges to develop will create installs to a shared directory for use by the performance testing scripts.
      • Added umask command for updating upstreams and removed separate job to update permissions.
      • Build and test job now fails if import of Spheral module fails.
      • Number of ranks on RZAdams increased from 84 to 96 per node for performance tests.
    • Builds and installs are cleaner:
      • Rpaths are no longer overwritten, allowing things set in the Spack host config file to be used.
      • Spheral libraries are only installed once now and a Spheral.pth with a relative path to the install lib is used in the virtual python environment.
    • Updated build system support spack v1.
      • Updated TPL Manager to support spack v1.1.0.
      • Updated CI to support python v3.12 and Ubuntu 24.04.
      • Added actual Spheral release versions and TPL conditions to Spheral package.
      • Added more system libraries to make building on LC faster.
    • TPL updates:
      • LEOS updated from 8.4.2 to 8.5.2.
      • ROCM version updated from 6.2.0 to 6.4.3.
      • Boost updated from 1.85 to 1.87 to prepare for using Clang 20 eventually.
      • CHAI, Umpire, and RAJA updated to 2025.12.0.

Version v2025.12.0 -- Release date 2025-12-19

  • Important Notes:

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • GPU Porting Effort:
      • Spheral::FieldView allows for implicit data migration of Spheral::Field data.
        • Implements FieldView datatypes as handles to be used for migrating data to and from the GPU.
        • Unit testing for semantic behaviour, H/D copy, and allocation / deallocaiton across a range of common patterns.
        • Unit testing to ensure implicitly copyable Spheral data types can be copied to and from the device correctly.
      • Spheral::FieldListView enables GPU access to field data while maintaining Field->FieldList associations across execution spaces.
        • Adds addition functionality to FieldView to expose chai api calls.
        • Host/Device unit testing for a range of expected patterns and behaviours seen in Spheral.
      • GeomVector and Geom3Vector have been converted for use on the GPU.
        • CPU & GPU unit testing of the public interface.
      • RankNTensor (Third, Fourth, Fifth) have been refactored to execute on the GPU.
      • Spheral::NodePairListView allows for implicit data migration of Spheral::NodePairList data.
      • Created view classes for the Quadratic and CubicHermite interpolator classes.
        • These follow the inheritance pattern used previously.
      • Updated Kernels to be device ready.
      • Created a TableKernelView class for use on device.
      • Optimizations to RankTensor types:
        • Stack allocation of tensor data; Static casting for CRTP implementation.
      • GeomTensor & GeomSymmetricTensor have been refactored for use on the GPU.
      • New Logging utility for runtime debug messages.
      • Created initMAView(), a wrapper for chai::ManagedArray with proper checking.
      • Adds a few types to the state:
        • std::vector of boundary, for when you want to register the boundaries in the state.
        • Option to enroll copies of items, without which enrolling a double or any other built-in type from the python interface will fail (with the standard enroll, it will create a temporary double, enroll the address of that temporary double, and then kill the temporary double).
      • Adds timing to a few high-cost functions.
      • Updates to FlatConnectivity:
        • Adds some missed variable initializations.
        • Adds unique index computation for global connectivity, without which indices would need to be summed directly.
        • Fixes non-functional python bindings.
      • (Python) Fixes particularly awful bug where variables from an exec statement won't be loaded into globals() if a temporary variable is used elsewhere.
      • Field/FieldView reimplemented using our value/view inheritance pattern.
      • Added std::span (boost::span until we move to C++20) version of view classes for Field and FieldList. This allows us to avoid complicated external systems like CHAI::ManagedArray for unified memory systems.
        • New CMake configuration variable SPHERAL_UNIFIED_MEMORY switches between using span or ManagedArray in the view classes (default to OFF, which means ManagedArray).
      • Converted Geometry Tensor types to be entirely inlined and host/device compliant.
      • FieldNames are inlined for easier use on device.
      • Silo python wrappers are now installed and accessible through the Spheral virtual python environment but currently unused.

  • Bug fixes

    • Corrected rolling and torsional coefficient in DEM which were 2x the expected value.
    • Updated ATS to bring in fix for python 3.12+.
    • Fixed bug where failing ATS tests were not properly reporting back for docker builds.
    • Silo memory leak is not fixed but the memory impact is 100x smaller.
    • Cleaned up some variable types and trapping error conditions in generateCylDistributionFromRZ for generating rotated problems.
    • Fixed the git strategy for the update TPLs and build caches CI stages.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Changed int to size_t for Field and FieldList.
    • A python virtual environment is installed in the spheral build dir, removing the need to build the install target during regular development.
    • ./spheral and ./spheral-ats have been moved to /bin for both build and installs.
    • CMake directly handles all of the installation environment configuration and setup during the install stage.
    • ManagedArray callback routines are guarded by CHAI_DISABLE_RM.
    • CMake/build logic has been reconfigured:
      • ENABLE_TIMER is now SPHERAL_ENABLE_TIMERS.
      • The following CMake options now have the added SPHERAL_ prefix:
        • ENABLE_TESTS, ENABLE_1D, ENABLE_2D, ENABLE_3D, ENABLE_SHARED, ENABLE_DOCS.
        • ENABLE_ANEOS, ENABLE_LEOS, ENABLE_HELMHOLTZ, ENABLE_OPENSUBDIV.
        • ENABLE_NAN_EXCEPTIONS, ENABLE_BOUNDCHECKING, DBC_MODE.
      • The CXXONLY variables have been removed and replaced with a SPHERAL_ENABLE_PYTHON variable. C++ builds default to being static when this variable is disabled.
      • ENABLE_INSTATIATION option has been removed.
      • Compiler definitions and options are now applied directly to targets instead of using add_compile_definition or add_compile_options.
      • Compiler flags are set for HIP or CXX depending on the configuration.
      • Update BLT to version 0.7.1.
      • Added CXX_LINK_FLAGS.
    • Target exporting is now being tested in the CI on the RZ.
    • Updating boost function calls to std library implementations where possible.
    • Switched the CZ CI to use Dane instead of Ruby.
      • Increased the number of threads for certain memory intensive tests to prevent OOM error.
    • Updated GitHub actions since GitLab mirror changed.
    • CHAI is no longer a submodule.
      • CHAI, RAJA, Umpire, and Camp are all brought in through Spack as external TPLs now.
      • Umpire is updated to version 2025.03.1.
      • RAJA is updated to version 2025.03.0.
    • LEOS interface changes:
      • LEOS spack recipe is simplified.
      • Memory space and exec spaces are set to CPU for when we update to using LEOS+rocm.
    • Update Axom from 0.9.0 to 0.12.0.
    • Added spack logic to build TPLs that use CMake as debug when debug is turned on in the spec by adding build_type=Debug.
    • HDF5 is now brought in using find_package instead of being brought in manually.
    • Packages associated with ROCM on Cray machines now have consistent prefixes.
    • PolyClipper and PYB11Generator are updated.
    • Added option for combining 1D, 2D, and 3D explicit instantiations, which significantly reduces the size of Spheral static libraries. To use, configure with SPHERAL_COMBINE_INSTANTIATIONS=ON.
    • PYB11Generator has been updated to allow new features:
      • Ouput multiple pybind11 C++ files for parallel compilation.
      • Optionally mark generated C++ files to not be regenerated (dangerous developer option).
    • Cleaned up the comparison operators for Geometry types, and removed lots of "using std::*" from implementations.
    • Updated to PYB11Generator v2025.12.0 for full pybind11 v3 support.

Version v2025.06.1 -- Release date 2025-07-21

  • Important Notes:
    • This is a patch release for v2025.06.0.

Notable changes include:

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:
    • The porosity models now restart the full field of initial sound speeds, rather than assuming they are set during problem initialization every time.
    • Set limits on porosity contributions to damage while crushing out porosity.
    • Added better limits on ANEOS internal eps(rho, T) interpolation, which seems to have improved ANEOS stability.

Version v2025.06.0 -- Release date 2025-06-18

  • Important Notes:

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • The tpl-manager.py is completely overhauled to include the following:
      • Utilize the Spheral Spack environments.
      • Handle some build cache functionality.
      • Do things Uberenv did like download and install Spack itself.
    • Implicit time integration is now supported.
      • CrankNicolsonIntegrator is the current implicit default
      • The Physics package interface has been augmented to support implicit integration with two important methods that must be provide:
        • Physics::dtImplicit to provide a maximum bounding time step
        • Physics::maxResidual should provide a maximum dimensionles residual change to check for convergence
      • Sundials is now an optional (but default) third-party lib in Spheral, and provides a non-linear solver we now wrap in a new Solver interface in Spheral (wrapping Sundials KINSOL solver).
    • FSISPH has a new flag (decoupleDamagedMaterial, default True) which can be turned off to more tightly couple damaged to undamaged material.
      • planeStrain has been removed as an option in FSISPH as part of unifying deviatoric evolution with other hydros.
    • LEOS (Livermore Equation Of State) package now available in Spheral. Requires access to the LEOS package itself, which most folks outside LLNL will not have.
    • gtest suite integration for writing minimal c++ unit tests on the host and device without needing to compile large potions of the code.
    • Both ASPH and ASPHClassic now allow the user to override the final H evolution through optional functors added to the classes:
      • HidealFilter
      • RadialFunctor
    • FacetedSurfaceASPHHydro has been removed in favor of providing user filters to the ASPH methods (i.e., the RadialFunctor method).
    • Field resizing operations have been removed from the public interface.
    • Performance analysis tools are improved.
      • Added an "advance" Caliper timer to be used in the future as the default reference timer.
      • Added a deploy CI stage to create a GitLab page with the historical performance benchmarks.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Native Spack environments are now being used.
      • Uberenv is no longer used.
      • Adds logic to simplify building on non-LC systems; tries to find existing installed compilers and packages.
      • Adds spack.yaml environment files for current LC systems and a dev_pkg environment, which is used for creating the build cache.
      • Local Spack packages for TPLs are removed or simplified when possible since the builtin Spack packages are no longer replaced.
      • The upstream Spack instance is no longer used when creating the build cache.
      • The package.yaml for Spheral is improved to allow full Spheral installation through Spack.
      • Centralizes things like upstream location, compiler types and versions, and specs in the environments and configs.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • ATS submodule is updated to fix bug with latest Flux update on LC systems.
    • Update Polytope version.
    • TPL manager removes the symoblic links to the install directory.
    • Consolidated CMake configured files into SpheralConfigs.py.in.
    • Deviatoric stress evolution in lower dimensions (1 and 2D) now consistent with other solid hydros.
    • Changes the SPHERAL_TEST_INSTALL_PREFIX to be relative to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/tests directory.
    • Fixed bug where performance tests would incorrectly move a benchmark directory if rerunning failed jobs.
    • Cleaned out some old unused code.
    • Fixed bugs related to DEM timestep, redistribution, and thread safety.

Version v2025.01.0 -- Release date 2025-01-31

  • Important Notes:

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • MPI variables are now wrapped as 
      SPHERAL_OP_SUM, SPHERAL_OP_MAX, SPHERAL_OP_MIN
    • CHAI added as a submodule of Spheral for co-developing features necessary for GPU port.
    • RAJA & Umpire added as first level dependencies.
    • Axom updated to v0.9.0.
    • TPL builds have been split off into a separate Gitlab CI stage to help with timeouts on allocations.
    • Failed ATS runs are automatically retested once in the Gitlab CI.
    • Python execute command is centralized in scripts/spheralutils.py now.
    • Caliper updated v2.11.
    • Adiak added as TPL.
    • Created singleton wrapper for cali::ConfigManger and python wrapped Caliper timer and Adiak routines.
    • New ASPH idealH algorithm implemented, which is much more robust and accurate as H elongations become extreme.
    • New experimental hourglass control algorithm implemented, along with some basic tests/demonstrations.
    • H update algorithms converted to their own independent physics packages, no longer part of the various hydro packages.
    • Physics interface updated slightly:
      • Physics::postStateUpdate now returns a bool indicating if boundary conditions should be enforced again.
      • Physics packages can now have Physics sub-packages, which can be run before or after the main package. The SpheralController now checks for these packages and adds them to the physics package list as needed.
      • Physics packages can indicate if they require Voronoi cell information be available. If so, a new package which computes and updates the Voronoi information is automatically added to the package list by the SpheralController (similar to how the Reproducing Kernel corrections are handled).
    • Command line options are now consistent. Default values of a string "None" are no longer allowed and any input through the command line of "None" will become the python NoneType None.
    • Cleaned up use of std::any in State objects using a visitor pattern to be rigorous ensuring all state entries are handled properly during assignement, equality, and cloning operations. This is intended to help ensure our Physics advance during time integration is correct.
    • Performance regression testing is now available. All developers are encouraged to run the performance testing suite for any code changes that might impact performance. See documentation for more details.
    • Added our old ASPH IdealH H update as an option. While it is not as reliable as our current default ASPH, it does not require building the Voronoi and is therefore signifcantly faster.
    • Converted artificial viscosities to Physics packages, and add them as pre-subpackages to Hydro objects.
    • Split artificial viscosities based on the type of pressure they compute (currently Scalar or Tensor), which is slightly more efficient.
      • This required making the hydro packages evaluateDerivatives into templated methods based on the type of Q they are handed.
      • Also introduced a new base class (ArtificialViscosityHandle), which provides a handle class not templated on the type of Q pressure for Hydro objects to hold onto.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Distributed source directory must always be built now.

    • Git strategies in the Gitlab CI are fixed so a clone only occurs on the first stage for each job, instead of for all stages for each job.

    • New Gitlab CI pipeline cleanup strategy deletes job directories immediately upon successful completion.

    • The FSISPH package is now optional (SPHERAL_ENABLE_FSISPH).

    • The GSPH package is now optional (SPHERAL_ENABLE_GSPH).

    • The SVPH package is now optional (SPHERAL_ENABLE_SVPH).

    • Cleaner Spheral Spack package.

    • ENABLE_DEV_BUILD can now export targets properly.

    • Added a GCC flag to prevent building variable tracking symbols when building PYB11 modules. This is unnecessary, and on some platforms trying to build such symbols is very expensive and in some cases fails.

    • Consolidates lcatstest.in and run_ats.py into a single spheral_ats.py script.

    • SPHERAL_TEST_INSTALL_PREFIX now includes the tests directory.

    • Removed most configured files and added a SpheralConfigs.py file to use at runtime instead.

    • Python runtime packages are now handled in the Spheral build pipeline with pip.

      • Removed pip package dependencies from spack.
      • Introduced Spheral_Python_Env function to manage Python environments for build and runtime dependencies.
      • spheral-setup-venv now only copies installed Spheral libraries to environments at install time.
      • Added pip cache support to local directory (~/.cache/spheral_pip/), customizable via SPHERAL_PIP_CACHE_DIR.
      • Added ATS as a submodule due to lack of PyPI package.

    • Moved Spheral from BlueOS/NVIDIA systems to support CRAY/AMD.

      • Migrated CI to CRAY/AMD due to pip compatibility issues with BlueOS.
      • Added HIP support for device/offload tests and updated TPLs for HIP-enabled builds.
      • Updated GitLab CI and Developer scripts for flux scheduling system compatibility.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Wrappers for MPI calls are simplified and improved.
    • Time step estimate due to velocity divergence in RZ space has been fixed.
    • Fixed tolerances for ANEOS equation of state temperature lookup
    • Clang C++ warnings have eliminated, so the Clang CI tests have been updated to treat warnings as errors.
    • Fix for installing libraries when building individual package with ENABLE_DEV_BUILD=On.
    • Bugfix for RZ solid CRKSPH with compatible energy.
    • Parsing of None string now always becomes None python type. Tests have been updated accordingly.
    • IO for checkpoints and visuzalization can now be properly turned off through SpheralController input options.
    • Bugfix for atomicWeight in ANEOS.
    • Fixed porosity model interaction with damage for zero porosity case.

Version v2024.06.1 -- Release date 2024-07-09

  • Important Notes:

    • This is a patch release for v2024.06.0.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • CD pipeline hotfix for installing release builds on LC machines.
    • Fixes an issue with the use of the axom::quest::SignedDistance interface.

Version v2024.06.0 -- Release date 2024-06-27

  • Important Notes:
    • External users of the code will need to supply config files for tpl-manager to find system libraries correctly. Steps to do this are detailed in the external user build guide.

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • Added MFV hydro from Hopkins 2015 with extension for ALE options.
    • Adding optional user specified smoothing scale method for SPH, FSISPH, and CRKSPH.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • PYBind11 libraries no longer depend on the structure of the PYB11 source directory.
      • CMake interface for adding PYBind11 target libraries is modified to more closely match how C++ libraries are created.
      • Multiple Spheral Python modules / CMake targets can be specified for a single directory.
      • KernelIntegrator and FieldList directories are divided into 2 modules / targets.
    • tpl-manager.py will no longer use generic x86_64 configs for non LC systems. Users will be required to supply their own configs for pointing spack at external packages.
    • Spack version is increased from 0.19 to 0.22.
    • Spack upstream is updated.
    • Removed the python 3 module load for the Gitlab CI to fix an issue with pkg-config changing.
    • Zlib target and TPL cmake file is removed.
    • PYB11Generator repo is updated.
    • Spack config and package files inside Spheral are updated to accommodate Spack 0.22.
      • Package recipes for py-numpy-stl, py-pillow, py-pipreqs, td, and tk are removed.
      • Versions for python dependencies in the Spheral spack recipe are fixed and updated (in some cases).

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Corrected an erroneous VERIFY in the P-alpha porosity constructor (with Fields of porosity and sound speed) that forced runs to stop even with correct input parameters
    • Fixed a bug in the standard ASPH hydros (ASPH, SolidASPH, and RZ varieties) that gave incorrect results. FSI ad CRK models with ASPH smoothing scales were OK, but standard SPH using ASPH smoothing scales were simply incorrect for non-unit aspect ratio H's. Also added ATS tests to help catch such errors going forward.

Version v2024.01.1 -- Release date 2024-02-17

  • Important Notes:
    • This is a patch release for v2024.01.0.

Notable changes include:

  • New features/ API changes:

    • Adding an optional second-stage problem start-up hook to the Physics package interface: Physics::initializeProblemStartupDependencies. The idea is to keep basic sizing of arrays and such in the first stage (Physics::initializeProblemStartup), while this new hook is used for updating any initial Physics state (and therefore provides a State and StateDerivatives object).
    • DEM
      • new field list to track max particle overlap
      • user can optional turn off fast time stepping

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Improved the target export functionality.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Fixed bug with ConstantBoundary in the presence of porosity with the new porosity models introduced in v2024.01.00.
    • Updating header lists for including Spheral modules in external projects.
    • Adding effective viscous pressure back to FSISPH.
    • Initial volumes for damage models were incorrectly not taking into account pore space when computing failure statistics for seeding flaws. Fixed.
    • DEM
      • fixed bug in solid boundary unique indices that causes particle sticking
      • fixed bug in solid boundary update policies
      • fixed solid boundary restartability for moving bcs

Version v2024.01.00 -- Release date 2024-01-19

  • Important Notes:
    • The PolyClipper, BLT, and PYB11Generator submodules have been modified. Be sure to recursively update the submodules.

Notable changes include:

  • New features/ API changes:

    • Adding P-alpha porosity model.
    • Updating treatment of various state variables in the presence of porosity.
    • Introduced a new common base class for porosity physics (PorosityModel), which PalphaPorosity and StrainPorosity share.
    • Revamped interaction UpdatePolicies with FieldLists:
      • UpdatePolicies have a new virtual method: clonePerField: True means when registering a FieldList copy the Policy for each Field in the FieldList; False means register the FieldList for update itself with the single instance of the Policy.
      • This change removes most of our redundant Field/FieldList update policies, and allows us to be more granular in applying different policies to single Field values in a FieldList.
    • Adding more Shadow Python interfaces wrapping our C++ classes, in particular PalphaPorosity and StrainPorosity.
    • EquationOfState now requires instances to provide \partial P/\partial \rho and \partial P/\partial \epsilon. All current equations of state have been updated accordingly.
    • Tillotson and Gruneisen EOSs implementations updated a bit in the revamping.
    • Added more material options to MaterialPropertiesLib.py (mostly from Melosh's 89 book).

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Spheral now provides First Class CMake support (using the BLT nomenclature). Spheral and its dependencies are now exported to simplify importing the project. To import Spheral into another project using CMake, use: 
      find_package(Spheral_CXX <path_to_spheral_installation>)
    • CMake variables have a more consistent naming convention. Unused variables are removed.
    • Added ENABLE_DEV_BUILD option to improve build times during code development.
    • Upped our required C++ standard to 17.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Fixed melt behavior in Steinberg-Guinan strength model, which was ignoring melt for damaged material.
    • Fixed range of dimensionless melt temperature for Johnson-Cook strength.
    • FSISPH new features and modifications to method.
      • NOTE constructor inputs have changed.
      • strength implementation modified.
      • new features added including plane strain option and settable minP for interfaces.
      • new, more rigorous, interface and free surface tracking.
    • Fixed initialization of longitudinal sound speed and Youngs modulus for damage models.
    • Corrected some minor bugs/inconsistencies in the Tillotson EOS.
    • lcats updated to work with current TOSS4 machine configurations.
    • Updated various tests to make out automated testing more robust.

Version v2023-06-0 -- Release date 2023-06-20

  • Important Notes:
    • This is the first release using Python 3.
    • Restart files are not backwards compatible with prior releases.

Notable changes include:

  • New features/ API changes:

    • We now use Python 3 rather than Python 2. The conversion from Python 2->3 is larger than most prior Python updates, which is part of why we held off for so long on this conversion. Python 2 is no longer supported however, and most other Python packages are only Python 3 now as well. Python comes with a tool (2to3) which can do most of the work converting a Python 2 script to Python 3, so we recommend when updating one of your old Python 2 run scripts or utilities you first let run 2to3 over that script.
    • FileIO has been simplified in how it handles Fields, which has reduced the API of FileIO. However, this has two compromises:
      • Restart files are not backwards compatible with older releases.
      • Fields in restart files are pretty much binary blobs, and so are not easily inspected by hand.
    • We have removed support for the Python interface to Gnuplot, since the Python Gnuplot package had significant interface changes. Please convert such interactive graphics to Matplotlib, which has very similar support to our older Gnuplot utilities by importing SpheralMatplotlib.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • PYB11Generator and PolyClipper are now submodules (in extern/)
    • Converted our PYB11 generator build rules to use the newly provided PYB11Generator Cmake rules.
    • toss_4_x86_64_ib system compatibility.
    • Updated spack version to v0.19.1
    • --debug and --no-spec options added to tpl-manager.py for outputing debug and skipping spack spec step.
    • --init-only option in tpl-manager.py will only initialize a local spack instance, skipping any TPL configuration.
    • TOSS4 compatibility for LC systems.
    • "risky" builds are installed on LC machines through gitlab CI.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Fixed numerous compiler warnings with newer compilers such as G++ 9.4.
    • r-path for additional TPLs can be propogated to Spheral libraries with SPHERAL_ADDITIONAL_RPATHS.
    • The DEM package has received a significant updated.
      • Added simple analytic solid boundaries (planes,cylinder,sphere).
      • User given more control over DEM fast time stepping.
      • Simplified initialization and improved robustness.

Version v2023.03.0 -- Release date 2023-03-29

This release contains ...

  • Important Notes:
    • Spheral now requires C++ 14
    • Spheral C++ libs are compiled into a single library (Spheral_CXX)

Notable changes include:

  • New features/ API changes:

    • New Discrete Element Model (DEM) physics package with linear-damped spring approach.
    • Adding a CUDA smoke test that can be called from the Spheral python API.
    • NVCC / CUDA 11 gitlab-ci jobs.
    • ATS default filters for non-MPI, debug and CUDA builds are injected into spheral-atstest script.
    • Latest Develop docker containers hosted on ghcr.io/llnl/spheral:latest.
    • External / offline builds are tested through github actions.
    • New polyhedral gravity solver.
    • Improved DEM timestep choice, so that points that do not overlap do not overly constrain the timestep.
    • Point potential gravity solver can now have non-unit metrics.
    • Pair-max damage algorithm now decouples points in different NodeLists or with different fragmentIDs.
    • Added direct support for FacetedVolumes to FileIO interface.
    • ANEOS now allows shallow copies to be made.
    • Polyhedron contain method can now optionally use Axom methods to test for containment.
    • Adding user specified functions for shear modulus and yield strength as a function of damage.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • The C++ library interface is compiled into a single Spheral_CXX library.
    • Previous Spheral C++ libraries are still CMAKE targets, but are "ojbect" libraries.
    • ATS bumped to version 7.0.9 for blueos smpi option support.
    • Eigen bumped to 3.4.0 for NVCC compatiblity.
    • C++ flag suppression is gaurded with build time CMake generators to only apply to C++ compilers.
    • Python runtime libraries are now managed through Spack / tpl-manager.
    • Added ENABLE_NAN_EXCEPTIONS (default OFF) Cmake flag to raise an exception when a NAN occurs (Gnu only).
    • Byte-compiling python installed in virtual spheral environment.
    • Invoking spheral no longer byte-compiles Python imported in a spheral script.
    • HDF5 links as a shared library. Static lib usage can be forced with ENABLE_STATIC_TPL.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • spheral-atstest scripts always point to locally installed ATS instance.
    • gitlab-ci report-results script for analyzing ATS CI runs.
    • Support for offline Spheral builds (provided TPLs are installed).
    • Fixes for restarting without regenerating the original node positions in the Python script.
    • Protected from division by zero in DEM when points coincide.
    • Corrected support for minimum pressure (intact and damaged) with porous materials.
    • Removed term driving damaged material to the reference density in solid hydros.
    • Added verbose flag to EquationOfState::specificThermalEnergyForPressure so users can see how the iterative search proceeds.

Version v2022.06.1 -- Release date 2022-06-24

This is a bugfix release, which corrects a path problem that broke our convenient ANEOS constructors using the provided input for quartz, dunite, and serpentine.

Version v2022.06.0 -- Release date 2022-06-09

This release contains new features, bugfixes, and build improvements. Please see the Spheral Documentation for more information about items in this release.

  • Important Notes: This Spheral release is the first release to support the new Spack based TPL (Third Party Library) management system. The previous CMake based TPL system has been deprecated and removed. The documentation has detailed instructions on how to use this new TPL system.

Notable changes include:

  • New features/ API changes:

    • Spack TPL management system.
    • Support for Gitlab-CI testing with Spheral.
    • Addition of SidreFileIO.
    • Support for Sidre Parallel IO (SPIO).
    • Full Documentation re-organization.
    • GSPH now has it's own pure-virtual GenericHydro class.
    • Adding some persistent state to the hydro objects to remeber criteria for diagnostics.
    • Moved inferace fields of SlideSurface class into the Hydro class.
    • FSISPH handles same-material damaged strength similarly to Spheral's default SPH solver.
    • New ProbabilisticDamageModel, which should be used in place of our prior Grady-Kipp implementations.
    • More Damage application options, and new defaults
    • Artificial viscosity for SPH variants now defaults to LimitedMonaghanGingoldViscosity.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Deleting CMake TPL system and all AutoTools Build system artifacts.
    • Removing support for mirrors in spack tpl system.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Spheral fixed when running in Debug mode with MPI=Off.
    • Typos fixed in quickstart guide. #116
    • Pedantic check for expired pointer to the RestartRegistrar. Ensures we don't call into deleted objects.
    • Switching GammaLaw and Polytropic EOS to the isentrpic bulk modulus for consistency w/ Solid EOS.
    • Update scalar and tensor damage calc in FSISPH to be more consistent with SolidSPHHydro.
    • CullenDehnen segfault fix.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/LLNL/spheral/compare/2022.2.0-pre-spack...v2022.6.0

Version vYYYY.MM.p -- Release date YYYY-MM-DD

  • Important Notes:

Notable changes include:

  • New features / API changes:

    • Added verbose time step frequency to SpheralController, allowing time step information to be printed every N steps instead of every step.
    • Periodic work frequencies in SpheralController can now be callables, enabling dynamic frequency changes during a simulation.
    • Added gradientPairs to modernize the gradient calculation using node pairs.
    • Silo output now supports subdirectories within silo files.
    • Added support for 1D silo output, readable as curves in VisIt.
    • Added a damping factor to the ideal H iteration in both SPH and ASPH smoothing scales to improve convergence for difficult initial distributions.
    • Added a check in SpheralController that limits the initial neighbor count to a reasonable value before iterateIdealH begins.
    • iterateIdealH now supports extra packages during the initial H iteration and a flag to force Voronoi tessellation.

  • Build changes / improvements:

    • Cleaned up the gradient instantiation template.

  • Bug Fixes / improvements:

    • Moved axis boundary logic out of individual SPH and CRKSPH hydro constructors into SpheralController, where it is applied once during initialization. This allows the axis BC to work without hydro.
    • Added allReduceLoc utility so the controlling time step is printed once with its owning rank, rather than once per rank when time steps do not vary by processor.