Quick Start

Installing Ascent and Third Party Dependencies

The quickest path to install Ascent and its dependencies is via uberenv:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/alpine-dav/ascent.git
cd ascent
python scripts/uberenv/uberenv.py --install --prefix="build"

After this completes, build/ascent-install will contain an Ascent install.

We also provide spack settings for several well known HPC clusters, here is an example of how to use our settings for NERSC’s Cori System:

python scripts/uberenv/uberenv.py --install --prefix="build" --spack-config-dir="scripts/uberenv_configs/spack_configs/nersc/cori/"

For more details about building and installing Ascent see Building Ascent. This page provides detailed info about Ascent’s CMake options, uberenv and Spack support. We also provide info about building for known HPC clusters using uberenv and a Docker example that leverages Spack.

Public Installs of Ascent

We also provide public installs of Ascent for the default compilers at a few DOE HPC centers.

Summary table of public ascent installs:

Site	System	Compiler	Runtime	Install Path
LLNL LC	CZ TOSS 3 (Pascal)	gcc 4.9.3	OpenMP	/usr/gapps/conduit/software/ascent/current/toss_3_x86_64_ib/openmp/gnu/ascent-install
NERSC	Cori	gcc 8.2.0	OpenMP	/project/projectdirs/alpine/software/ascent/current/cori/gnu/ascent-install/
OLCF	Summit	gcc 6.4.0	OpenMP	/gpfs/alpine/world-shared/csc340/software/ascent/current/summit/openmp/gnu/ascent-install/
OLCF	Summit	gcc 6.4.0	CUDA	/gpfs/alpine/world-shared/csc340/software/ascent/current/summit/cuda/gnu/ascent-install/

See Using Public Installs of Ascent for more details on using these installs.

Using Ascent in Your Project

The install includes examples that demonstrate how to use Ascent in a CMake-based build system and via a Makefile.

CMake-based build system example (see: examples/ascent/using-with-cmake):

Example that shows how to use an installed instance of Ascent in another
CMake-based build system.

To build:
 mkdir build
 cd build
 cmake \
  -DAscent_DIR={ascent install path}   \
  -DConduit_DIR={conduit install path} \
  -DVTKH_DIR={vtkh install path}          
  ../
make
./ascent_render_example

In order to run directly in a sub directory below using-with-cmake in an ascent install, 
set Ascent_DIR to ../../..

 mkdir build
 cd build
 cmake .. -DAscent_DIR=../../..
 make
 ./ascent_render_example

Makefile-based build system example (see: examples/ascent/using-with-make):

Example that shows how to use an installed instance of Ascent in Makefile
based build system.

To build:
 env ASCENT_DIR={ascent install path} make
 ./ascent_render_example

From within an ascent install:
 make 
 ./example

Which corresponds to:

 make ASCENT_DIR=../../../ 
 ./example