Add documentation on the "Building MFEM" page for CMake install #291

gabsillis · 2024-11-07T19:09:15Z

Based on information provided in the INSTALL file and CMake documentation.
Followed the directory structure in the Makefile based tutorial

Closes issue #290

Based on information provided in the INSTALL file and CMake documentation Followed the directory structure in the Makefile based tutorial

src/building.md

helloworld922 · 2024-11-13T22:15:37Z

src/building.md

+cmake .. -DMFEM_USE_CUDA=YES
+```
+Note that this requires CMake 3.8 or newer
+


Suggested change

To specify what CUDA architecture to target:

```sh

cmake .. -DCUDA_ARCH="sm_70"

```

The CUDA architecture is formatted as `sm_{CC}`, where CC is the GPU compute capability of the target GPU without the decimal point. A list of Nvidia GPU compute capabilities can be found in [the Nividia developers documentation](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus).

TODO: currently I think MFEM's CMake setup doesn't allow targeting multiple CUDA architectures at once. I think we should fix this?

There is a CMake 3.18 target property CUDA_ARCHITECTURES that allows semicolon separated lists https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_tgt/CUDA_ARCHITECTURES.html

Right now it looks like mfem manually sets the -arch flag. From the nvcc compiler documentation it seems like it might take comma separated lists if the format is the same as the --gpu-code flag. I don't have access to cuda enabled machines to try this out right now.

The all, all-major, and native options for the architecture may be worth mentioning.

I expanded support for all, all-major, and native as well as multiple specific cuda architectures in this PR: pr4561.

Supported formats now include:
-DCUDA_ARCH="all"
-DCUDA_ARCH="all-major"
-DCUDA_ARCH="native"
-DCUDA_ARCH="{ARCH1},{ARCH2},..."
-DCUDA_ARCH="{ARCH1};{ARCH2};..."
where ARCHN can be either just the CC number (70, 86, etc.), or optionally prefixed with sm_ (sm_70, sm_86, etc.).

This should work even for CMake older than 3.18 (the current CMakeLists minimum version is 3.8).

looks great, added some documentation for this!

Co-authored-by: Andrew Ho <[email protected]>

jandrej · 2024-11-19T18:40:39Z

src/building.md

 ```
+
+## Building MFEM with CMake
+To build a serial form of MFEM with CMake first create a build directory. For example, using a build directory named `build`:


s/form/version

jandrej · 2024-11-19T18:41:01Z

src/building.md

+cmake --build . -j 4
+```
+### Parallel build using CMake
+To build a parallel form of MFEM with CMake first build METIS and Hypre as described above.


s/form/version

jandrej · 2024-11-19T18:41:25Z

src/building.md

+To build a parallel form of MFEM with CMake first build METIS and Hypre as described above.
+From the MFEM source directory, create a build directory. For example, using a build directory named `build`:
+```sh 
+cd mfem-4.5


don't add versions to general instructions

This was something I had a question about while writing this, the Makefile section of these instructions assume mfem-4.5, should I stick to that convention or use "MFEM_DIR", and should the Makefile instructions do the same?

jandrej · 2024-11-19T18:41:35Z

src/building.md

+```
+
+Run the CMake configuration on the MFEM source directory using the `MFEM_USE_MPI` CMake variable to enable MPI. 
+This will automatically search for the system MPI implementation, the METIS installation (in `<mfem-source-dir>/../metis-4.0`), and Hypre installation (in `<mfem-source-dir/../hypre`).


jandrej · 2024-11-19T18:42:55Z

src/building.md

+cmake --build . -j 4
+```
+
+### Alternate configuration steps


s/Alternate/Alternative

or "Advanced"?

Left version numbers for now as this mirrors the GNU makefile portion of the instructions

tzanio · 2025-01-04T19:35:04Z

@jandrej and @v-dobrev, can you take another look when you get a chance?

tzanio · 2025-01-18T18:18:39Z

ping: @jandrej and @v-dobrev

tzanio · 2025-09-30T20:42:46Z

@helloworld922 and @cjvogl, what do you think about this PR?

helloworld922 · 2025-10-01T16:24:04Z

The special CUDA_ARCH specifications stuff (list of multiple architectures, all, native, etc.) ended up getting removed from #4561 due to other incompatible changes with how we build with CUDA/HIP.

I've been using CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES and CMAKE_HIP_ARCHITECTURES and omitting CUDA_ARCH and HIP_ARCH entirely to use CMake's native multi-gpu arch support.

Do we want to add support for this to CUDA_ARCH? I can revive those changes so CUDA_ARCH is interchangeable with CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES. I think HIP_ARCH should work as expected.

Add documentation on the "Building MFEM" page for cmake install

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Based on information provided in the INSTALL file and CMake documentation Followed the directory structure in the Makefile based tutorial

gabsillis added enhancement documentation labels Nov 7, 2024

tzanio requested review from helloworld922, jandrej and v-dobrev November 10, 2024 19:58

tzanio self-assigned this Nov 10, 2024

helloworld922 requested changes Nov 13, 2024

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gabsillis and others added 2 commits November 13, 2024 16:00

Apply suggestions from code review

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Co-authored-by: Andrew Ho <[email protected]>

update CUDA section of cmake for PR #4561

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jandrej reviewed Nov 19, 2024

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src/building.md Outdated

cmake --build . -j 4

```

### Alternate configuration steps

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s/Alternate/Alternative

or "Advanced"?

v-dobrev mentioned this pull request Dec 5, 2024

Install miniapp content mfem/mfem#4583

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incorporate suggested changes from jandrej

ee43a1d

Left version numbers for now as this mirrors the GNU makefile portion of the instructions

helloworld922 approved these changes Dec 9, 2024

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tzanio changed the title ~~Add documentation on the "Building MFEM" page for cmake install~~ Add documentation on the "Building MFEM" page for CMake install Jan 4, 2025

tzanio mentioned this pull request Feb 3, 2025

Website changes for MFEM v4.8 #308

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kmk142789 approved these changes Sep 30, 2025

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helloworld922 mentioned this pull request Oct 1, 2025

Change CMake CUDA_ARCH behavior mfem/mfem#5051

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tzanio mentioned this pull request Oct 6, 2025

Website changes for MFEM v4.9 #346

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+To specify what CUDA architecture to target:
+```sh
+cmake .. -DCUDA_ARCH="sm_70"
+```
+The CUDA architecture is formatted as `sm_{CC}`, where CC is the GPU compute capability of the target GPU without the decimal point. A list of Nvidia GPU compute capabilities can be found in [the Nividia developers documentation](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus).

Add documentation on the "Building MFEM" page for CMake install #291

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gabsillis commented Nov 7, 2024

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tzanio commented Jan 4, 2025

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helloworld922 commented Oct 1, 2025 •

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