1flexiblas(1) The FlexiBLAS Library flexiblas(1)
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6 flexiblas - the FlexiBLAS administration tool
7
9 flexiblas [options] command [command-options]
10 flexiblas64 [options] command [command-options]
12
14 The flexiblas tool is a command line utility shipped with the FlexiBLAS
15 library. It is used to configure the global and the local flexiblasrc
16 file. Its main purpose it selecting the default BLAS backend used with
17 FlexiBLAS and other runtime specific options. FlexiBLAS uses up to four
18 locations to search for its configuration, a system-wide configuration
19 file, a per-user configuration file, a per-host configuration file, and
20 one configuration file defined by an environment variable FLEXI‐
21 BLAS_CONFIG. The configuration files are evaluated in this order and a
22 later loaded one overwrites the settings of a previously loaded one.
23 The flexiblas64 tool is used for the 64-bit integer variant of Flexi‐
25 BLAS.
26 Furthermore, it can be used to add or remove BLAS backends form the
28 configuration files.
29 Usage Examples
32 If application are build against FlexiBLAS, there are severval ways to
33 select the active BLAS library. The installed (and known) BLAS backends
34 can be listed via
35 flexiblas list
37 The default BLAS backend can be set using
39 flexiblas default NAME_OF_THE_LIBRARY
41 If the BLAS backend should only be set temporary, this can be done via
43 the FLEXIBLAS environment variable. This can either be set to a name of
44 a BLAS backend (from flexiblas list)
45 FLEXIBLAS=NAME_OF_THE_LIBRARY ./yourapp
47 or to the path of a shared object containing a BLAS implementation
49 FLEXIBLAS="/usr/lib/libyourblas.so" ./yourapp
51 Hooks
54 FlexiBLAS supports so called hooks to modify/extent/change the behavior
55 of BLAS and LAPACK functions. This can be used for profiling, automatic
56 offloadlind, and other debuging purposes. The hooks are configured ei‐
57 ther via the FLEXIBLAS_HOOK environment variable or the flexiblas tool.
58 The FLEXIBLAS_HOOK variable contains a colon separate list of hooks or
59 shared libraries containing the hook. The hooks are loaded in the order
60 they are specified. If the hook_enabled setting in a configuration file
61 is set but empty all hooks are disabled for this configuration file.
62 In this way the per host setting can disable the user settings. Using
63 the hook disableall command the hook_enabled entry is removed and thus
64 no hook settings are in the configuration.
65 Configuration Priority
68 FlexiBLAS uses serveral configuration paths to select the BLAS backend
69 or enable and disable other functionality. The configuration is read in
70 the following order, thereby previous read information is overwritten.
71 That means that last read configuration has the highest priority.
72 1. /etc/flexiblasrc - The system wide configuration file, hooks can not
74 be configured here.
75 2. /etc/flexiblasrc.d/*.conf - Additional system wide configurations,
77 read only.
78 3. ${HOME}/flexiblasrc - The user's configuration file.
80 4. ${HOME}/flexiblasrc.$(hostname) - The user's configuration file on a
82 host, useful for NFS homedirectories.
83 5. FLEXIBLAS_CONFIG - The environment variable is used to specified a
85 separate configuration file, e.g. per project.
86 6. FLEXIBLAS, FLEXIBLAS_HOOK - Select a BLAS implementation or a hook
88 without changing the config.
89 64-bit Integers
92 If FlexiBLAS is compiled with 64 bit intergers, flexiblas is replaced
93 by flexiblas64 and FLEXIBLAS is replaced by FLEXIBLAS64 in all names of
94 configuration files, environment variable, etc.
95
98 Commands
99 help Print information about the tool and its usage.
100 print Print the whole BLAS related configuration including search
102 paths, default settings, etc.
103 list List all available BLAS libraries from the configuration files.
105 default BLASNAME
107 Sets the default BLAS backend in the selected configuration
108 file.
109 default
111 Removes the default setting from the selected configuration
112 file.
113 add BLASNAME sharedlibrary.so ["comment string"]
115 Add a new BLAS backend called "BLASNAME" to the selected config‐
116 uration file. This will create a section like
117 [BLASNAME]
119 library=sharedlibrary.so
120 comment="comment string"
121 in the selected configuration file. The comment string is op‐
123 tional.
124 remove NAME
126 Remove a BLAS backed called "NAME" from the selected configura‐
127 tion file.
128 set property [value]
130 Set a property in the configuration file. If the value is not
131 given the property is reset to its default. The available prop‐
132 erties are listed below.
133 Hook commands:
136 Hooks are additional plugins that integrate in the call of a BLAS or
137 LAPACK function. They are used for debugging or profiling purpose.
138 hook list
141 List all available hooks. The hooks are automatically found in
142 the FlexiBLAS library directories.
143 hook show hook-name
145 Show details about a specific hook. This includes the name, the
146 authors, a short description, and the list of configurable op‐
147 tions.
148 hook enable hook-name
150 Enable a hook. If more than one hook is enabled they are exe‐
151 cuted in the order they got enabled.
152 hook disable hook-name
154 Disable a hook.
155 hook disableall
157 Disable all hooks in a configuration and remove the setting from
158 the configuration. This is necessary if, i.e., hooks are enabled
159 in the user configuration and the host configuration file has an
160 empty hook_enabled field. In this case the FlexiBLAS does not
161 use a hook since the host configuration overwrites the user con‐
162 figuration. Then hook disableall is used to remove the hook_en‐
163 abled from the host configuration.
164 hook enabled
166 Show all enabled hooks in the configuration files.
167 hook active
169 Show the currently active hooks and from which configuration
170 file they are loaded.
171 hook set hook-name option-name value
173 Set an option for a hook to the given value. All available op‐
174 tions for a hook can be shown with the hook show command. 0ook-
175 name option-name Unset an option for a hook.
176 General Options:
179 -u, --user
180 Edit the user's flexiblasrc configuration (default options, ex‐
181 cept of executing as root).
182 -g, --global
184 Edit the global flexiblasrc configuration (default in case of
185 executing as root).
186 -H, --host
188 Edit the host configuration file.
189 -E, --environment
191 Edit the configuration file given by the environment variable
192 FLEXIBLAS_CONFIG.
193 -p, --pipe
195 Make the output of some commands, like list pipe compatible to
196 use them in scripts.
197 -h, --help
199 Print this information and exit.
200 -v, --version
202 Print the versionformation and exit.
203 Properties
206 verbose integer
207 Change the verbosity level of FlexiBLAS. The default verbosity
208 level is 0 which only displays critical errors. If a level
209 larger than is specified, FlexiBLAS will produce many debug in‐
210 formation on stderr.
211 nolapack integer
213 If the value is non zero, FlexiBLAS does not load the LAPACK
214 functions from the backend. That means that only the internal
215 LAPACK routines are used.
216
218 /etc/flexiblasrc
219 System-wide FlexiBLAS configuration file.
220 /etc/flexiblasrc.d/*.conf
222 Additional system-wide configuration files. Read-only, Installed
223 by BLAS library to be included in FlexiBLAS.
224 ~/.flexiblasrc
226 User FlexiBLAS configuration file.
227 ~/.flexiblasrc.$(hostname)
229 User FlexiBLAS configuration file for a specific host.
230
233 FLEXIBLAS_CONFIG
234 Using the FLEXIBLAS_CONFIG environment variable an additional
235 configuration can be set. This can be used for per-project set‐
236 tings.
237 FLEXIBLAS
239 Select a BLAS implementation ignoring the configuration set‐
240 tings. If the content of the variable is a path to a shared ob‐
241 ject containing a BLAS library, this is used as BLAS implementa‐
242 tion. It is not required that this BLAS library is configured in
243 any of the configuration files.
244 FLEXIBLAS_HOOK
246 The FLEXIBLAS_HOOK variable contains a colon separated list of
247 hooks which should be loaded. If a hook is a path to a shared
248 object instead of a name of an available hook, FlexiBLAS tries
249 to load this library as a hook,
250 FLEXIBLAS_LIBRARY_PATH
252 The FLEXIBLAS_LIBRARY_PATH variable contains a colon separated
253 list of addtional search paths for FlexiBLAS. The paths are
254 used to find BLAS implementations and hooks.
255
258 The current information about the developers and reporting bugs can be
259 found on the FlexiBLAS homepage.
260 FlexiBLAS Homepage: <http://www.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/projects/flexi‐
262 blas>
263
265 Martin Koehler, Jens Saak
266
268 M. Koehler and J. Saak, FlexiBLAS - A flexible BLAS library with runtime exchangeable backends,
269 LAPACK Working Note 284, 2013
270
273 Copyright (C) 2013-2020 Martin Koehler
274
276 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/li‐
277 censes/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and
278 redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
279M. Koehler 2013-2022 flexiblas(1)