Build Issues

Build issues are commonly caused by an invalid environment, an update to your repository (leading to a mismatch between MOOSE and your application), or one of our MOOSE Conda packages being out of date.

Verify the Conda Environment is active and up to date, with the latest version of our moose packages:
```
conda activate base
conda env remove -n moose
conda create -n moose moose-dev=2024.04.12
conda activate moose
```
if conda activate moose failed, see Conda Issues above.
note
Whenever an update is performed in Conda, an update should also be performed on your MOOSE repository, and vice versa. It is important to keep both of these in sync.
Verify the MOOSE repository is up to date, with the correct vetted version of libMesh:
warning
Be sure you have committed/saved your work. The following commands will delete untracked files!
```
cd moose
git checkout master
git clean -xfd

<output snipped>

git fetch upstream
git pull
git submodule update --init
```
Verify you either have no moose directory set, or it is set correctly.
```
[~] > echo $MOOSE_DIR

[~] >
```
The above should return nothing, or it should point to the correct moose repository.
note
Most users, do not use or set MOOSE_DIR. If the above command returns something, and you are not sure why, just unset it:
```
unset MOOSE_DIR
```

Try building a simple hello world example (there is more text than what is visible, be sure to copy it all):


cd /tmp
cat << EOF > hello.C
#include <mpi.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  // Initialize the MPI environment
  MPI_Init(NULL, NULL);

  // Get the number of processes
  int world_size;
  MPI_Comm_size(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &world_size);

  // Get the rank of the process
  int world_rank;
  MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &world_rank);

  // Get the name of the processor
  char processor_name[MPI_MAX_PROCESSOR_NAME];
  int name_len;
  MPI_Get_processor_name(processor_name, &name_len);

  // Print off a hello world message
  printf("Hello world from processor %s, rank %d out of %d processors\n",
         processor_name, world_rank, world_size);

  // Finalize the MPI environment.
  MPI_Finalize();
}
EOF

mpicxx -fopenmp hello.C

If the above build fails, and you have the correct Conda environment loaded (conda activate moose), then something is failing beyond the scope of this document, and you should now contact us via the discussion forum.

If the build was successful, attempt to execute the hello word example:


mpiexec -n 4 /tmp/a.out

You should receive a response similar to the following:


Hello world from processor my_hostname, rank 0 out of 4 processors
Hello world from processor my_hostname, rank 1 out of 4 processors
Hello world from processor my_hostname, rank 3 out of 4 processors
Hello world from processor my_hostname, rank 2 out of 4 processors

Sometimes a build will fail due to running out of memory. When a build fails in this way, it is not always apparent. The compiler will simply die while not explaining why:


make -j 8
...<trimmed>
Compiling C++ (in opt mode) moose/framework/contrib/exodiff/FileInfo.C...
Compiling C++ (in opt mode) moose/framework/contrib/exodiff/stringx.C...
Compiling C++ (in opt mode) moose/framework/contrib/exodiff/iqsort.C...
(standard input): Assembler message:
(standard input): 488982: Warning: end of file not at end of a line; newline inserted
x86_64-conda-linux-gnu-c++: fatal error: Killed signal terminated program cc1plus
compilation terminated.
make: *** [moose/framework/build.mk:150: moose/test/build/unity_src/object.x86_64-conda-linux-gnu.opt.lo] Error 1
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

If you are receiving a similar result, try reducing how many cores you are compiling with (try make -j 4 instead). Each core consumes roughly 2GB of RAM (more if you are compiling in debug mode). Errors of this type are common among users who may be running on some form of virtual machine, or when operating within an HPC cluster with strict resource availability guidelines.

If all of the above has succeeded, you should attempt to rebuild MOOSE or your application again. If you've made it this far, and the above is working, but MOOSE fails to build, then it is time to ask us why on the discussion forum.

Build Issues