[QE-developers] proper directory delimiters under windows

[Paolo Giannozzi]

Hi, where do precompiled binaries come from and how are they compiled?
Unfortunately very few people know about compilation on Windows (and one of
the few recently moved to a different job :-( ). I remember encountering
all kinds of funny problems running on Windows executables compiled with
MinGW. They convert "/" to "\" in the directory name when a file is opened,
but "C:" wasn't accepted, if I remember correctly. I am not sure whether a
directory name containing "\" is considered to be valid, though. Natively
compiled Windows binaries should accept the Windows syntax for directories,
I guess. I know for sure (see the user guide) that it is possible to
compile natively on WIndows using PGI 19.10.

Paolo

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 11:54 AM Josh Lipton-Duffin <
josh.liptonduffin at qut.edu.au> wrote:

> Dear QE Developers,
>
>
>
> I am a longtime ‘dabbler’ in QE, having not used the program in too much
> depth other than a few geometry optimisations. Up until recently I have
> always interacted with the package over a unix-like HPC cluster, but have
> recently found it convenient to run small jobs on a windows desktop.
>
>
>
> I am using the precompiled binaries (v6.3), and I have noticed that when
> composing the input file one must specify paths to output files,
> pseudopotentials, etc using the unix-style forward slash “/”, eg
>
>
>
> pseudo_dir  = "C:/Users/me/QE/pseudos"
>
>
>
> however, this is syntactically incorrect on windows operating systems, as
> the accepted convention should use a backslash as a directory separator,
> eg.
>
>
>
> pseudo_dir  = "C:\Users\me\QE\pseudos"
>
>
>
> The real problem I am having is that Burai, the nice GUI from Japan will
> construct the input files using the latter convention; however, when pw.exe
> receives an input file with this structure it throws an error, unable to
> parse the directory. This isn’t a problem for Burai on mac or linux
> platforms, since their directory delimiter is the same as unix.
>
>
>
> Is it possible to have the windows binary (or, indeed all versions) to
> recognise either a backslash or a forward slash in the input file as a
> directory delimiter? I can see where this might cause problems in escaping
> characters properly, but from an end-user standpoint it would be easier to
> move input files across different platforms if either character would work.
>
>
>
> Best regards from Australia,
>
> -jld
>
>
>
> --
>
> Assoc. Professor Josh Lipton-Duffin  |  Principal Research Fellow for
> Surface Science
>
> Institute for Future Environments (IFE) | Central Analytical Research
> Facility (CARF)
>
> Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
>
> Address: Level 6, P Block, Gardens Point campus, 2 George St Brisbane QLD
> 4000
>
> Tel: +61 7 3138 0762 | |  Email: josh.liptonduffin at qut.edu.au | Web:
> www.qut.edu.au/ife/carf
>
> Please consider the environment before printing this email
>
> CRICOS No: 00213J
>
>
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-- 
Paolo Giannozzi, Dip. Scienze Matematiche Informatiche e Fisiche,
Univ. Udine, via delle Scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy
Phone +39-0432-558216, fax +39-0432-558222
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