Building Executable Applications

By Executable Applications or app, we mean any .cpp file with its own main function, making use of Chaste functionality.

The Chaste build system assumes that the following locations may contain apps:

• Chaste/apps/src (contains the Cardiac executable)
• Chaste/projects/<project_name>/apps/src (see ChasteGuides/UserProjects if you are unfamiliar with user projects)

To build an app, first configure Chaste as normal:

cmake /path/to/Chaste

If you are building an app in Chaste/apps/src, you should something similar to the following as part of the output:

...
Configuring main Chaste apps
Configuring MeshConvert app
Configuring Chaste app
...

and if your app is in a project, you should see something similar to:

...
Configuring project project_<project_name>
Configuring tests for project project_<project_name>
Configuring apps for project project_<project_name>
Configuring <app_name_1> app for project_<project_name>
Configuring <app_name_2> app for project_<project_name>
...

You then simply build the app as you would any other target:

make -j4 <app_name>

The executable app will be created in either:

• /path/to/build_dir/apps
• /path/to/build_dir/projects/<project_name>/apps

depending on whether the app is in the main Chaste apps directory, or a project directory.

Previous instructions

This page supersedes the previous instructions for building the Cardiac Executable, now available here: SconsArchive/BuildingCardiacExecutable.