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Upgrading from 0.4

PETSc.jl 0.5 is a breaking release. Most of the high-level API has new names, the low-level LibPETSc functions return their outputs, and the package needs Julia 1.12 and PETSc 3.25. This page is the order in which to update code written for 0.4. Every change is listed in the Release notes, and every renamed function in the rename table at the end of Naming Conventions.

1. Requirements

  • Julia 1.12 or newer. On an older Julia, the package manager keeps installing 0.4.
  • PETSc 3.25. PETSc_jll 3.25 is installed automatically. A library configured with PETSc.set_library! must be a PETSc 3.25 build; PETSc.check_wrappers_version() warns when it is not.
  • One PetscInt width per process. PETSc.petsclibs holds four libraries (Float64, Float32, ComplexF64, ComplexF32) with Int64 indices. Code that indexes petsclibs[5:8], or asks PETSc.getlib for an Int32 library, fails. To use Int32 indices, call PETSc.set_petscint!(Int32) once and restart Julia (see Installation).

2. Run your code and fix the warnings

About a hundred functions were renamed. The old names still work until 0.6 and print a warning the first time each call site runs, for example

┌ Warning: getcorners is deprecated, use corners

These warnings appear without --depwarn=yes. Run your code or its test suite once, and replace every name a warning reports.

3. Qualify names that are no longer exported

using PETSc now brings in only the types you construct:

LibPETSc
DMDA, DMStag, DMPlex
PetscVec, PetscMat, PetscOptions
KSP, SNES, TS
petsclibs

Everything else, including functions 0.4 exported such as set_library!, library_info and audit_petsc_file, fails with an UndefVarError. Write PETSc.set_library!(…), or import the names you use: using PETSc: set_library!, initialize, finalize.

4. Changes that print no warning

These changes have no deprecation warning, because the name stayed the same or dispatch cannot tell the old call from the new one. Check your code for each of them.

Callback setters take the callback first. 0.4 accepted both orders; 0.5 accepts only the callback-first one, which is the one do syntax needs. This applies to set_function!, set_snes_jacobian!, set_convergence_test!, set_compute_rhs!, set_compute_operators!, set_rhs_function!, set_rhs_jacobian!, set_ifunction!, set_ijacobian!, set_monitor! and add_coarsen_hook!.

# 0.4
PETSc.setfunction!(snes, f!, r)

# 0.5
PETSc.set_function!(f!, snes, r)
PETSc.set_function!(snes, r) do fx, snes, x
    # ...
end

Type names are Symbols. type_name (0.4: gettype or type) returns a Symbol, or nothing when PETSc has not set a type yet. A comparison with a String is now false without any error.

# 0.4
PETSc.gettype(snes) == "newtonls"

# 0.5
PETSc.type_name(snes) === :newtonls

DM queries return the DM's own dimension. 0.4 padded every answer to three dimensions. In 0.5, corners, ghost_corners, local_indices, global_indices, info and size return values of the DM's dimension: for a 2D DMDA, corners(da).lower is a CartesianIndex{2} and corners(da).size an NTuple{2,Int}, so corners(da).size[3] throws a BoundsError. info renames dof to ndofs and mpi_proc_size to procs, and drops s, which duplicated stencil_width.

DMs have their own types. DMDA, DMStag and DMPlex are concrete types below LibPETSc.AbstractPetscDM. A method annotated ::PetscDM no longer matches them; annotate with LibPETSc.AbstractPetscDM or with the concrete type. A DM that comes back from PETSc without a known type (for example PETSc.dm(ksp)) can be turned into the typed one with PETSc.narrow(dm).

Errors have specific types. Invalid arguments raise ArgumentError or DimensionMismatch where 0.4 failed an @assert, and creating a PETSc object with PetscVec, PetscMat, KSP, SNES, TS or a DM constructor on a library that is not initialized raises PETSc.PetscNotInitialized. Code that caught AssertionError must catch these instead.

Handles you do not own. Readers such as PETSc.dm(ksp), PETSc.solution(snes) and PETSc.local_coordinates(dm) return a handle that belongs to the object they were called on. destroy! on such a handle does nothing (PETSc.owns tells you which is which). Destroying it was never correct, and code that did so should stop.

Reordered arguments. Functions that write into a vector take that vector first, and the DM second:

# 0.4
PETSc.dm_global_to_local!(gvec, lvec, dm)
PETSc.dm_local_to_global!(lvec, gvec, dm)

# 0.5
PETSc.global_to_local!(lvec, dm, gvec)
PETSc.local_to_global!(gvec, dm, lvec)

The 0.4 names still work and warn, but only when called directly: a 0.4-order call passed through invoke, or through a variable holding the function, is not translated. The same applies to project_function! and project_field!.

5. Low-level LibPETSc code

The LibPETSc wrappers are regenerated for PETSc 3.25 and follow a new calling convention:

  • Outputs are returned. A C output argument is no longer passed in as a Ref:

    # 0.4
s = Ref{LibPETSc.PetscSection}()
LibPETSc.PetscSectionCreate(petsclib, comm, s)
section = s[]

# 0.5
section = LibPETSc.PetscSectionCreate(petsclib, comm)

    Several outputs come back as a tuple, for example nroots, nleaves, ilocal, iremote = LibPETSc.PetscSFGetGraph(petsclib, sf).

  • Type names are Strings. LibPETSc.PCSetType(petsclib, pc, "ilu") works directly, and the registered names are constants such as LibPETSc.PCILU and LibPETSc.KSPGMRES. XGetType functions return a String.

  • Renamed handle types. PetscKSP and PetscSNES are now KSP and SNES (AbstractPetscKSP and AbstractPetscSNES are AbstractKSP and AbstractSNES). The old names still work until 0.6.

  • Functions PETSc defines only in its headers are gone. About 95 macros and inline functions with no symbol in the library (VecSetValue, MatSetValue, PetscStrcmp, PetscTime, …) are no longer wrapped. Use the array versions (VecSetValues, MatSetValues) or plain Julia.

  • PetscBool is one byte, as it is in PETSc since 3.24. Code that uses LibPETSc.PetscBool needs no change. Code that writes a PETSc boolean as Cint or Int32 in its own ccall or unsafe_store! must use LibPETSc.PetscBool instead.

The Release notes list the remaining changes, and wrapping/DEVIATIONS.md lists every category of changed wrapper.

6. Looking up a name