/APSIM_Docker

Dockerfile and helper files to build Apsim Classic in a Docker container

Primary LanguageDockerfileMIT LicenseMIT

ARCHIVE NOTICE

The information in this repository is now out of date, as it relates to APSIM Classic release 7.9. Please see https://github.com/APSIMInitiative/APSIMClassic for up to date versions.

Docker container for APSIM Classic Build

This container builds APSIM Classic, and creates a self-extracting binary as an artifact, which is then used for the Runtime container. The following comments explain the logic behind how the Build container was created.

Generic build instructions for APSIM Classic

APSIM's documentation is quite terse, and scattered all over the place. There are no step-by-step build/install instructions, so a lot of guess-work is required. The general flow is:

  1. Download the source code using subversion from the upstream server (https://apsrunet.apsim.info/svn/apsim/trunk/)
  2. Install OS's pre-requisites as listed under Compiling under LINUX, making sure to use Mono 4.6 or 4.8
  3. Install the required R packages
  4. Install pre-requisites not listed as needed (based on trial and error by attemptimg the build several times)
  5. Run the BuildAll.sh script under Model/Build
  6. Export the APSIM environment variable pointing to the right location, and create a self-extracting archive for distribution with Release/Release.sh

Generic installation instructions

  1. Run the self-extracting archive, optionally specifying a destination path
  2. Export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the location of $apsim_path/Model
  3. mono Apsim.exe is the main program. ApsimModel.exe is a native (libc) application. See this thread for more info.

Container-specific notes

  • Ubuntu:Xenial was chosen, but Debian:Wheezy would probably work as well
  • We need Mono 4.6 or 4.8 based on the comments by the developer (Peter deVoil p.devoil@uq.edu.au)
  • APSIM apparently needs /etc/localtime to run so we have to install tzdata. While we're are it, we configure our local timezone
  • Subversion is needed to pull the source code. The while loop works around an issue where svn co dies with a "Connection reset by peer" error
    • TODO: It may be better to pre-download the source code and mount it as a volume when the container runs
    • TODO: We could use ENV variables to choose and build a different release from upstream
  • p7zip-full is needed to provide 7z, used by the Cotton model Makefile
  • p7zip is needed to provide 7zr, used by the Release.sh which creates the self-extracting artifact
  • mono-vbnc is needed to provide System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0 (used by ApsimToSim.exe)
  • libmonosgen-2.0-1 is needed to provide libmonosgen-2.0-1 (used by ApsimModel.exe)
  • The file CottonPassword.txt is hardcoded on the Cotton model Makefile and expected to be found under /etc/CottonPassword.txt. The file was provided by the developer (Dean Holzworth Dean.Holzworth@csiro.au). YOU MUST GET THE PASSWORD FROM THE DEVELOPERS or the Docker build will fail. Alternatively, you can also disable building the model by commenting out the Compile Cotton section in files/BuildAll.xml
  • These files have been hacked so that the build actually works
    • Model/TclLink/Makefile and Model/RLink/Makefile.linux: Prepended ProcessDataTypesInterface.exe with mono instead of calling it directly, so that we don't have to use bimfmt as described here
    • Model/Build/BuildAll.xml: Disabled building unit tests (requires NUnit v3 for which there is no Debian package and installing from source feels like an overkill)