Reporting Bugs And Errors#

Bug reports can be sent to petsc-users@mcs.anl.gov (public mailing list with public archives) or petsc-maint@mcs.anl.gov (private maintenance mailing list without archives). Installation issues generally require sending in configure.log, make.log i.e uncompressed large attachments - here petsc-maint@mcs.anl.gov is preferable. Check Mailing lists

Topics can include:

  • Report bugs.

  • Ask for clarification.

  • Ask for help in tracking down bugs.

  • Request new features within PETSc.

  • Recommmend changes or additions to the development team.

Note

We respond to almost all email the same day and many within the hour.

Important

Please do not send e-mail requests to the individual PETSc authors; all list e-mail is automatically distributed to all of the PETSc authors, so our response time here will be fastest.

Before sending a bug report, please consult the FAQ to determine whether a fix or work-around to the problem already exists. Also, see the chapter on performance tuning in the PETSc users manual for guidelines on achieving good efficiency within PETSc codes.

Small Documentation fixes#

We welcome corrections to our documentation directly by clicking “Edit this page”, on the upper right corner of the page, making your edits, and following the instructions to make a merge request. Merge requests for such fixes should always have the GitLab docs-only label set.

Guidelines For Bug Reports#

The more information that you convey about a bug, the easier it will be for us to target the problem. We suggest providing the following information:

Don’ts

  • Please do NOT send winmail.dat Microsoft email attachments; we cannot read them.

  • Please do NOT stick huge files like configure.log DIRECTLY into the email message. Instead, include them as attachments.

  • Please do NOT paste your entire codes DIRECTLY into the email message. Instead, include them as attachments. Small snippets of code are acceptable however.

Do’s

  • Detailed steps to recreate the problem if possible.

  • Copy of the complete error message if feasible, otherwise include the full error message as an attachment.

  • If the problem involves installation, send the entire configure.log and make.log as attachments.

    • configure.log can be found either at $PETSC_DIR/configure.log, $PETSC_DIR/configure.log.bkp (which holds the second-most recent configure.log), or in $PETSC_DIR/$PETSC_ARCH/lib/petsc/conf/configure.log[.bkp].

    • make.log can be found in the same places as listed above, however note that there is no make.log.bkp so be sure to not overwrite your make.log with additional build attempts.

  • Machine type: (e.g. HPC, laptop, etc.)

  • OS Version and Type: (run uname -a to get the version number)

  • PETSc Version: (run PETSc program with -version, or look in $PETSC_DIR/include/petscversion.h)

  • MPI implementation: (e.g. MPICH, LAM, IBM, SGI)

  • Compiler and version: (e.g. Gnu C, Gnu g++, native C)

  • Probable PETSc component: (e.g. Mat, Vec, DM, KSP, etc.)