DOLFIN doesn't compile on OS X Lion

[Harish Narayanan]

I am running into the attached problem when trying to build FEniCS on OS X Lion with Xcode 4.3. Does anyone recognise where I should start looking?

Moving to this latest Xcode updated compilers and moved them around the file system, which I believe must be causing the problem.

[L Olson (l-olson)]

macports does not support XCode 4.3. They suggest using Xcode 4.2 (or 4.1) on Lion:
http://www.macports.org/install.php

That could be the issue.

I did see a possible fix here in the comments:
http://mandogmachine.com/2012/02/xcode-4-3-breaks-macports/

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/clang /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/clang
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/clang++ /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/clang++

But I haven't tried it.

[L Olson (l-olson)]

Also, I had the same errors that you found when I was at Xcode 4.3. So I reverted (before finding the link above).

[Harish Narayanan (hnarayanan)]

I had arrived at a similar fix for MacPorts and documented it here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100382636415340600164/posts/U9mMqX9tGJu

The thing is that MacPorts now works, and all the ports I have tried with it since then build. Something else---perhaps boost or the strictness of the compilers---has been changed.

[L Olson (l-olson)]

I think it has something to do with python and swig (and boost?). When I went through a fresh macports (no errors, btw) with XCode 4.3 using the latest dorsal pull, the C++ examples worked fine in demos directory. It was the python that kept breaking (with instant.recompile errors).

[L Olson (l-olson)]

Ok, so I did a clean wipe. Xcode 4.2, fresh macports, and the latest dorsal pull. cpp demos are fine, python demos still fail with

 python demo_poisson.py <178>
Calling FFC just-in-time (JIT) compiler, this may take some time.
Calling DOLFIN just-in-time (JIT) compiler, this may take some time.
In instant.recompile: The module did not compile, see '/Users/lukeo/.instant/error/dolfin_compile_code_e1943bf019544ac3d18ab9b095c465ab/compile.log'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "demo_poisson.py", line 54, in <module>
    f = Expression("10*exp(-(pow(x[0] - 0.5, 2) + pow(x[1] - 0.5, 2)) / 0.02)")
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dolfin/functions/expression.py", line 478, in __new__
    cpp_base, members = compile_expressions([cppcode])
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dolfin/compilemodules/expressions.py", line 188, in compile_expressions
    code_snippets), classnames)
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dolfin/compilemodules/expressions.py", line 126, in compile_expression_code
    dolfin_module_import=["function", "mesh", "common"])
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dolfin/compilemodules/jit.py", line 66, in mpi_jit
    return local_jit(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dolfin/compilemodules/compilemodule.py", line 474, in compile_extension_module
    **instant_kwargs)
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/instant/build.py", line 492, in build_module
    recompile(modulename, module_path, setup_name, new_compilation_checksum)
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/instant/build.py", line 115, in recompile
    "compile, see '%s'" % compile_log_filename_dest)
  File "/Users/lukeo/Work/FEniCS/lib/python2.7/site-packages/instant/output.py", line 49, in instant_error
    raise RuntimeError(text)
RuntimeError: In instant.recompile: The module did not compile, see '/Users/lukeo/.instant/error/dolfin_compile_code_e1943bf019544ac3d18ab9b095c465ab/compile.log'

The compile.log file is posted above. Again, it seems that it's boost...

[Harish Narayanan (hnarayanan)]

I've fixed support for Xcode 4.3. Also, to fix your pydolfin problems, make sure

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc
export CXX=/usr/bin/g++

are set before running the Python demos.

[L Olson (l-olson)]

Ok, that fix worked for me.

One note, when I updated the latest macports, vtk5 is broken on Lion, so I had to follow this hack: https://trac.macports.org/ticket/33465