Build Configuration Options

RAJA uses BLT, a CMake-based build system. In Getting Started With RAJA, we described how to run CMake to configure RAJA with its default option settings. In this section, we describe RAJA configuration options that are most useful for users to know about and their defaults.

RAJA Option Types

RAJA contains two types of options, those that exist in RAJA only and those that are similar to standard CMake options or options provided by BLT; i.e., dependent options in CMake terminology. RAJA dependent option names are the same as the associated CMake and BLT option names, but with the RAJA_ prefix added.

Note

RAJA uses a mix of RAJA-only options and CMake-dependent options that can be controlled with CMake or BLT variants.

  • Dependent options are typically used for disabling features. For example, when the CMake option -DENABLE_TESTS=On is used to enable tests in the build of an application that includes multiple CMake-based package builds, providing the CMake option -DRAJA_ENABLE_TESTS=Off will disable compilation of RAJA tests, while compiling them for other packages.

  • We recommend using the option names without the RAJA_ prefix, when available, to enable features at compile time to avoid potential undesired behavior. For example, passing the option -DRAJA_ENABLE_CUDA=On to CMake will not enable CUDA because ENABLE_CUDA is off by default. So to enable CUDA, you need to pass the -DENABLE_CUDA=On option to CMake.

Setting Options

The RAJA configuration can be set using standard CMake variables along with BLT and RAJA-specific variables. For example, to make a release build with some system default GNU compiler and then install the RAJA header files and libraries in a specific directory location, you could do the following in the top-level RAJA directory:

$ mkdir build-gnu-release
$ cd build-gnu-release
$ cmake \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc \
  -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++ \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install-gnu-release ../
$ make
$ make install

Following CMake conventions, RAJA supports three build types: Release, RelWithDebInfo, and Debug. With CMake, compiler flags for each of these build types are applied automatically and so you do not have to specify them. However, if you want to apply other compiler flags, you will need to do that using appropriate CMake variables.

All RAJA options are set like regular CMake variables. RAJA settings for default options, compilers, flags for optimization, etc. can be found in files in the RAJA/cmake directory and top-level CMakeLists.txt file. Configuration variables can be set by passing arguments to CMake on the command line when calling CMake. For example, to enable RAJA OpenMP functionality, pass the following argument to CMake:

cmake ... \
-DENABLE_OPENMP=On \
...

Alternatively, CMake options may be set in a CMake cache file and passing that file to CMake using the CMake -C option; for example:

cmake ... \
-C my_cache_file.cmake \
...

The directories RAJA/scripts/*-builds contain scripts that run CMake for various build configurations. These contain cmake invocations that use CMake cache files (we call them host-config files) and may be used as a guide for users trying to set their own options.

Next, we summarize RAJA CMake options and their defaults.

Available RAJA CMake Options and Defaults

RAJA uses a variety of custom variables to control how it is compiled. Many of these are used internally to control RAJA compilation and do not need to be set by users. Others can be used to enable or disable certain RAJA features. Most variables get translated to compiler directives and definitions in the RAJA config.hpp file that is generated when CMake runs. The config.hpp header file is included in other RAJA headers so all options propagate consistently through the build process for all of the code.

Note

The following discussion indicates which options exist in RAJA only and those which are dependent options. Dependent options appear in the discussion with parentheses around the ‘RAJA_’ prefix to indicate that the option name without the prefix can be used and is often preferred.

The following tables describe which variables set RAJA options and and their default settings:

Examples, tests, warnings, etc.

CMake variables can be used to control whether RAJA tests, examples, tutorial exercises, etc. are built when RAJA is compiled.

Variable

Default

(RAJA_)ENABLE_TESTS

On

(RAJA_)ENABLE_EXAMPLES

On

RAJA_ENABLE_EXERCISES

On

(RAJA_)ENABLE_BENCHMARKS

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_REPRODUCERS

Off

(RAJA_)ENABLE_COVERAGE

Off (supported for GNU compilers only)

Other configuration options are available to specialize how RAJA is compiled:

Variable

Default

(RAJA_)ENABLE_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_FORCEINLINE_RECURSIVE

On (Intel compilers only)

RAJA_ALLOW_INCONSISTENT_OPTIONS

Off

RAJA Views/Layouts may be configured to check for out of bounds indexing at run time:

Variable

Default

RAJA_ENABLE_BOUNDS_CHECK

Off

Note

RAJA bounds checking is a run time check and will add considerable execution time overhead. Thus, this feature should only be used for debugging and correctness checking and should be disabled for production builds.

RAJA Features

Some RAJA features are enabled by RAJA-specific CMake variables.

Variable

Meaning

RAJA_ENABLE_RUNTIME_PLUGINS

Enable support for dynamically loaded RAJA plugins. Default is off.

RAJA_ENABLE_DESUL_ATOMICS

Replace RAJA atomic implementations with Desul variants at compile-time. Default is off.

RAJA_ENABLE_VECTORIZATION

Enable SIMD/SIMT intrinsics support. Default is on.

Programming model back-end support

Variables that control which RAJA programming model back-ends are enabled are as follows (names are descriptive of what they enable):

Variable

Default

(RAJA_)ENABLE_OPENMP

Off

(RAJA_)ENABLE_CUDA

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_CLANG_CUDA

Off

(RAJA_)ENABLE_HIP

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_TARGET_OPENMP

Off (when on, ENABLE_OPENMP must also be on)

RAJA_ENABLE_SYCL

Off

Other programming model specific compilation options are also available:

Variable

Default

(RAJA_)ENABLE_CLANG_CUDA

Off (if on, (RAJA_)ENABLE_CUDA must be on too!)

RAJA_ENABLE_EXTERNAL_CUB

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_NV_TOOLS_EXT

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_EXTERNAL_ROCPRIM

Off

RAJA_ENABLE_ROCTX

Off

Turning the (RAJA_)ENABLE_CLANG_CUDA variable on will build CUDA code with the native support in the Clang compiler.

Note

See Getting Started With RAJA for more information about using the RAJA_ENABLE_EXTERNAL_CUB and RAJA_ENABLE_EXTERNAL_ROCPRIM variables, as well other RAJA back-ends.

Timer Options

RAJA provides a simple portable timer class that is used in RAJA example codes to determine execution timing and can be used in other apps as well. This timer can use any of three internal timers depending on your preferences, and one should be selected by setting the ‘RAJA_TIMER’ variable.

Variable

Values

RAJA_TIMER

chrono (default), gettime, clock

What these variables mean:

Value

Meaning

chrono

Use the std::chrono library from the C++ standard library

gettime

Use timespec from the C standard library time.h file

clock

Use clock_t from time.h

Data types, sizes, alignment, etc.

The options discussed in this section are typically not needed by users. They are provided for special cases when users want to parameterize floating point types in applications, which makes it easier to switch between types.

Note

RAJA data types in this section are provided as a convenience to users if they wish to use them. They are not used within RAJA implementation code directly.

The following variables are used to set the data type for the type alias RAJA::Real_type:

Variable

Default

RAJA_USE_DOUBLE

On (type is double)

RAJA_USE_FLOAT

Off

Similarly, the RAJA::Complex_type can be enabled to support complex numbers if needed:

Variable

Default

RAJA_USE_COMPLEX

Off

When turned on, the RAJA::Complex_type is an alias to std::complex<Real_type>.

There are several variables to control the definition of the RAJA floating-point data pointer type RAJA::Real_ptr. The base data type is always Real_type. When RAJA is compiled for CPU execution only, the defaults are:

Variable

Default

RAJA_USE_BARE_PTR

Off

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_PTR

On

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_ALIGNED_PTR

Off

RAJA_USE_PTR_CLASS

Off

When RAJA is compiled with CUDA enabled, the defaults are:

Variable

Default

RAJA_USE_BARE_PTR

On

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_PTR

Off

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_ALIGNED_PTR

Off

RAJA_USE_PTR_CLASS

Off

The meaning of these variables is:

Variable

Meaning

RAJA_USE_BARE_PTR

Use standard C-style pointer

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_PTR

Use C-style pointer with restrict qualifier

RAJA_USE_RESTRICT_ALIGNED_PTR

Use C-style pointer with restrict qualifier and alignment attribute (see RAJA_DATA_ALIGN below)

RAJA_USE_PTR_CLASS

Use pointer class with overloaded [] operator that applies restrict and alignment intrinsics. This is useful when a compiler does not support attributes in a typedef.

RAJA internally uses a parameter to define platform-specific constant data alignment. The variable that control this is:

Variable

Default

RAJA_DATA_ALIGN

64

This variable is used to specify data alignment used in intrinsics and typedefs in units of bytes.

For details on the options in this section are used, please see the header file RAJA/include/RAJA/util/types.hpp.

Other RAJA Features

RAJA contains some features that are used mainly for development or may not be of general interest to RAJA users. These are turned off be default. They are described here for reference and completeness.

Variable

Meaning

RAJA_ENABLE_FT

Enable/disable RAJA experimental loop-level fault-tolerance mechanism

RAJA_REPORT_FT

Enable/disable a report of fault- tolerance enabled run (e.g., number of faults detected, recovered from, recovery overhead, etc.)

Setting RAJA Back-End Features

Various ENABLE_* options are listed above for enabling RAJA back-ends, such as OpenMP and CUDA. To access compiler and hardware optimization features, it may be necessary to pass additional options to CMake. Please see Getting Started With RAJA for more information.