# Need assistance getting DAFoam set up

**URL:** <https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/need-assistance-getting-dafoam-set-up/4268>\
**Category:** Q&A\
**Created:** [July 1, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/need-assistance-getting-dafoam-set-up/4268 "2025-07-01T15:20:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nucci](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@nucci](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/nucci)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/need-assistance-getting-dafoam-set-up/4268/1 "2025-07-01T15:20:47Z")

</div>

Does anyone here have familiarity with DAFoam ([DAFoam: Discrete Adjoint with OpenFOAM for High-fidelity Multidisciplinary Design Optimization | DAFoam](https://dafoam.github.io/index.html))?

I’m trying to set up a containerized version using their Docker container. I converted it to Singularity. The container builds, but DAFoam’s recommended approach is to launch a Docker container as the dafoamuser user, whereas Singularity runs containers in the same context as the user and group of who starts the container.

I tried manually sourcing all the files the dafoamuser user would run, but I still get errors when trying to run even the easy parts of a supplied tutorial.

I’m hoping someone out there in “ask.CI-land” has some experience with running this using a singularity container.

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nucci](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@nucci](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/nucci)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/need-assistance-getting-dafoam-set-up/4268/2 "2025-07-22T19:19:15Z")

</div>

I didn’t get a response here, but I found a solution through other inquiries. I’ll share it now so that it can help someone else in the future.

We’ll start with the container itself. Be sure to use a current build:

> singularity build dafoam\_latest.sif docker://dafoam/opt-packages:latest

This will build the Singularity container and save it as dafoam\_latest.sif file.

Then the following is put into a SLURM script for processing:

> singularity exec dafoam\_latest.sif /bin/bash -l -c ‘export HOME=/home/dafoamuser && export MPLCONFIGDIR=/tmp && . /home/dafoamuser/dafoam/loadDAFoam.sh && ./preProcessing.sh && mpirun -np 4 python runScript.py’

The significant part to make this work is the substring:

> `/bin/bash -l -c 'export HOME=/home/dafoamuser && export MPLCONFIGDIR=/tmp && . /home/dafoamuser/dafoam/loadDAFoam.sh ...`

This overrides the default $HOME environment variable and sets it to the “dafoamuser” that the container environment expects.

It then sets expected shell variables via the string:

> . /home/dafoamuser/dafoam/loadDAFoam.sh

Everything after, which includes the commands

> ./preProcessing.sh && mpirun -np 4 python runScript.py

run the tutorial commands preProcessing.sh and runScript.py

these commands are from the tutorial download tutorials-main.tar.gz, with example NACA0012\_Airfoil/incompressible:

[https://dafoam.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Tutorial\_Aerodynamics\_NACA0012\_Incompressible.html](https://dafoam.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Tutorial_Aerodynamics_NACA0012_Incompressible.html)

Note this example used 4 cores (mpirun -np 4)

Because of how containers and openmpi work (or don’t work, as the case may be), this example is limited to a single node.

This is an adaptation of the SLURM script I used, be sure to modify it for your site-specific settings:

> #!/bin/bash
> 
> #SBATCH --job-name=DAfoam\_test # Job name  
> #SBATCH --output=DAfoam\_test.%j.out # Standard output and error file  
> #SBATCH --nodes=1 # Total number of physical nodes  
> #SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=4 # Maximum number of tasks on each node  
> #SBATCH --time=00:10:00 # Job run time limit  
> #SBATCH --partition=standard # Use standard cores
> 
> echo “Job started on `hostname` at `date`”
> 
> # Run DAfoam in its container
> 
> singularity exec dafoam\_latest.sif /bin/bash -l -c ‘export HOME=/home/dafoamuser && export MPLCONFIGDIR=/tmp && . /home/dafoamuser/dafoam/loadDAFoam.sh && ./preProcessing.sh && mpirun -np 4 python runScript.py’  
> local\_rc=$?
> 
> # Print status
> 
> echo " "  
> echo “Command exited with return code $local\_rc”
> 
> # Exit
> 
> echo " "  
> echo “Job ended on `hostname` at `date`”

Your mileage may vary!

If anyone else has additional information to share, especially getting this to work with MPI across multiple nodes, please follow up!