Compile Exodus under Windows

[jmeier]

To work with Exodus files under Windows, one might want to compile the corresponding code in this repo under Windows. As encouraged by @gsjaardema, please find below the steps needed to compile an DLL/LIB of the ExodusII API under Windows.

The instructions below are an modified/extended version of the instructions found here: https://github.com/wortiz/msh2exo
Further, thanks to @wphu for helpful advice in this matter.

1. Install Microsoft Visual Studio (Community Edition is fine) from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ and install C++ developemnt including cmake support.
   For this instructions, Visual Studio 17 2022 is used.

2. Install vcpkg according to https://vcpkg.io/en/getting-started.html (In this test this was done in C:\work)
   Here one nees to clone the vcpkg repo and to run the bootstrap script to build vcpkg. For this open a command prompt and enter the following commands:

cd c:\work
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
.\vcpkg\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat -disableMetrics

3. Install Exodus prerequisites using vcpkg (again, in a command prompt):

cd vcpkg
.\vcpkg install fmt --triplet=x64-windows
.\vcpkg install netcdf-c --triplet=x64-windows

4. Clone the sandialabs/seacas github repository (again, in a command prompt; in this test, the local path is "C:\repos\seacas"):

cd C:\repos
git clone https://github.com/sandialabs/seacas.git

5. Create a "build" directory and make it the current directory

cd C:\repos\seacas
mkdir build
cd build

6. Then using CMake configure SEACAS to build ExodusII (modified from appveyor config in SEACAS repository).
   ToDo: Adjust locations specified with C:\ to preferred locations
   ToDo: if cmake is not on path use full path to cmake.exe

• To make a LIB for static linking (later to be found in "C:\repos\seacas\install\lib")

cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:/work/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="/wd4478 /EHsc" -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="/wd4478" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\repos\seacas\install -DHDF5_ROOT:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows -DMatio_INCLUDE_DIRS:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\include -DNetCDF_ROOT:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows -DSEACASExodus_ENABLE_THREADSAFE:BOOL=OFF -DSEACASIoss_ENABLE_THREADSAFE:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_SEACASExodus:BOOL=ON -DSeacas_ENABLE_DOXYGEN:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_Fortran=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_TESTS=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_Zoltan:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_HIDE_DEPRECATED_CODE:BOOL=ON -DSeacas_SKIP_FORTRANCINTERFACE_VERIFY_TEST:BOOL=ON -DTPL_ENABLE_ADIOS2:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_CGNS:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Kokkos:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_MPI:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Matio:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Netcdf:BOOL=ON -DTPL_ENABLE_Pamgen:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Pthread:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_X11:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_SH="CMAKE_SH-NOTFOUND" -DTPL_ENABLE_gtest:BOOL=OFF

• To make a DLL for dynamic linking (later to be found in "C:\repos\seacas\install\bin")

cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:/work/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="/wd4478 /EHsc" -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="/wd4478" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\repos\seacas\install -DHDF5_ROOT:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows -DMatio_INCLUDE_DIRS:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\include -DNetCDF_ROOT:PATH=C:\work\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows -DSEACASExodus_ENABLE_THREADSAFE:BOOL=OFF -DSEACASIoss_ENABLE_THREADSAFE:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_SEACASExodus:BOOL=ON -DSeacas_ENABLE_DOXYGEN:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_Fortran=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_TESTS=OFF -DSeacas_ENABLE_Zoltan:BOOL=OFF -DSeacas_HIDE_DEPRECATED_CODE:BOOL=ON -DSeacas_SKIP_FORTRANCINTERFACE_VERIFY_TEST:BOOL=ON -DTPL_ENABLE_ADIOS2:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_CGNS:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Kokkos:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_MPI:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Matio:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Netcdf:BOOL=ON -DTPL_ENABLE_Pamgen:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_Pthread:BOOL=OFF -DTPL_ENABLE_X11:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_SH="CMAKE_SH-NOTFOUND" -DTPL_ENABLE_gtest:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS:BOOL=ON 

7. Building Exodus using CMake (from within the build directory where cmake was run above):

cmake --build . --config Release

8. Installing Exodus to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX using CMake (again from the build directory):

cmake --install . --config Release

9. Optional: One may check the resulting DLL using "dumpbin" (use "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022"; for me, this call yields 397 functions)

dumpbin /EXPORTS exodus.dll