Exception "basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid" thrown at initialization of static global variables

[Paolo Crosetto]

Dear developers,

trying to execute Dolfin on a Blue Gene machine I noticed that in the source file GlobalParameters.cpp the environment variable $HOME is read. However in the Blue Gene nodes OS a fully functional shell does not exist. I was getting a "basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid" exception at the very beginning (because the GlobalParameter is initialized via a static global variable). This because a std::string is initialised with an empty char*. It would be nice to be warn about that... it's tricky to find such problem.

Paolo

[Garth Wells (garth-wells)]

Thanks for the report.

I really don't like that we read in parameters in a default way. I would prefer to remove it. At the very least, we should use Boost FileSystem to get some platform-independence.

[Anders Logg (logg)]

On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 09:29:19AM -0000, Garth Wells wrote:
> Thanks for the report.
>
> I really don't like that we read in parameters in a default way. I would
> prefer to remove it. At the very least, we should use Boost FileSystem
> to get some platform-independence.

It might be a nice feature to have. It lets a user config FEniCS to
maybe always run with the Trilinos backend on a system where both are
available (and the user does not want or can recompile).

I will look at the bug as soon as I get a working system (working on
some UFC changes).

--
Anders

[Garth Wells (garth-wells)]

It's not uncommon on HPC systems that $HOME is not available, which is why I'm marking this as 'critical'.