# Seeking help building the superbuild

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 27, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309 "2024-08-27T13:27:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/alexandre_minot/32/7132_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Alexandre_Minot)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/1 "2024-08-27T13:27:22Z")

</div>

Hello,

I need to build ParaView and it’s dependencies to run ParaView through Catalyst from our simulation code. I therefore need ParaView to be built against our environments, particularly our various MPIs.

I am trying to use the superbuild to achieve that. However, though the installation goes to completion without errors, it seems incomplete. In particular, I do not get ParaView Catalyst in the ParaView installation/lib64 directory I specified. Here are the commands I used:

```auto
cmake $PARAVIEW_SRC \
   -Dparaview_SOURCE_SELECTION=5.13.0 \
   -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
   -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PARAVIEW_ROOT/ \
   -DPARAVIEW_BUILD_EDITION=CATALYST \
   -DUSE_SYSTEM_mpi=ON \
   -DUSE_SYSTEM_cxx11=ON \
   -DSUPERBUILD_PROJECT_PARALLELISM=40 \
   -DCMAKE_SKIP_INSTALL_RPATH=ON \
   -DCMAKE_SKIP_RPATH=ON \
   -GNinja

ninja install

```

Anything wrong with what I’m doing? Am I specifying the install target directory incorrectly? Is there superbuild build documentation outside of the readme?

Maybe something that would help me understand things: What commands / options do you use to generate the following ParaView from you download page:  
ParaView-5.13.0-osmesa-MPI-Linux-Python3.10-x86\_64.tar.gz

Thanks,  
Alexandre

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/2 "2024-08-27T13:37:16Z")

</div>

> [@Alexandre\_Minot](#):
>
> ` -DPARAVIEW_BUILD_EDITION=CATALYST \`

That can be right, there is not such CMake option in the paraview-superbuild, where does this comes from ?

> What commands / options do you use to generate the following ParaView from you download page:

[https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/-/blob/master/.gitlab/ci/configure\_linux\_osmesa\_shared.cmake?ref\_type=heads](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/-/blob/master/.gitlab/ci/configure_linux_osmesa_shared.cmake?ref_type=heads) (dont forget to follow the includes)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/alexandre_minot/32/7132_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Alexandre_Minot)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 1:42pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/3 "2024-08-27T13:42:19Z")

</div>

Thanks for your quick answer. I will take a look at the link to sent. A per your first comment, I am getting this build option from the readme:  
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild#paraview-editions](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild#paraview-editions)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/4 "2024-08-27T13:43:57Z")

</div>

Indeed, you are right, however I’m afraid I do not use this setting and rely on setting the project variables individually.

FYI @ben.boeckel

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/5 "2024-08-27T15:05:28Z")

</div>

The `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` for the superbuild only really matters when the superbuild supports being installed. This is only really considered in the `paraviewsdk` project (which probably never got updated for `catalyst` support). Instead, use `superbuild_install_location`. All projects will then install directly to that location instead of `<builddir>/install` and it will have everything you need. Note that this will not be relocatable to other paths though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/alexandre_minot/32/7132_2.png) [@Alexandre\_Minot](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Alexandre_Minot)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/6 "2024-08-27T16:53:59Z")

</div>

Thanks, I will checkout this variable. Can you detail what you mean by not relocatable? Do you mean I cannot move the installation around? Indeed, I need to distribute ParaView with our software. I therefore need a self contained and movable installation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/seeking-help-building-the-superbuild/15309/7 "2024-08-27T18:39:19Z")

</div>

> [@Alexandre\_Minot](#):
>
> Can you detail what you mean by not relocatable?

The superbuild will (on Linux and macOS) use absolute paths to the libraries in rpaths and the like. The packaging step is what fixes them to be relative to each other so that it can live anywhere on a system.

> [@Alexandre\_Minot](#):
>
> Indeed, I need to distribute ParaView with our software. I therefore need a self contained and movable installation.

Do you need an SDK too? If so, just `libcatalyst` or all of ParaView? If it is just the runtime, the existing (non-macOS) packaging should work to make a relocatable runtime bundle. Adding just `libcatalyst` development bits isn’t too hard as it is fairly self-contained though. However, given that `libcatalyst` is ABI-compatible, building against any suitable `libcatalyst` should be able to load the ParaView `libcatalyst` implementation.
