9.1 Quickstart: How to run CO5BOLD

The generation of a start file and the modification of the parameter file is a somewhat complex process. In short, the following steps have to be performed.

1. Produce an executable rhd.exe (see Sect.4.1) and put it into your working directory.

2. Make sure the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH is - still - set correctly, so that all necessary libraries are included (which usually just means: don't change it after a successful compilation).

3. Choose a start model (e.g. the final model of an earlier simulation or a model produced with an IDL routine).

4. Create the parameter file rhd.par: typically, you will start with an existing file and edit it just a bit. You should check that the paths names of EOS and opacity files are set correctly (watch the username!). For details about the parameter file see Sect.7.1.1.

5. Prepare the runtime environment. That might involve - depending on operating system, compiler, and machine - commands like
   ulimit -s unlimited (to increase the overall stacksize)
   export OMP_STACKSIZE=300M (to increase the stacksize per thread for an OpenMP run)
   export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8 (to prepare an OpenMP run on 8 cores)

6. Start the simulation with
   nice nohup rhd.exe > rhd.out &

7. You can see how the simulation proceeds with
   tail -f rhd.out

8. The other data files usually are in a binary format. You can check them e.g. with - if installed, see Sect.6.2.6.2 -
   uiolook rhd.mean
   They are usually read and analyzed with IDL routines (see Sect.6.2.7.3) or processed by a spectrum-synthesis code.

For machines with batch queue there is a script, which can handle an entire sequence of simulations (see Sect.9.2).