Input Parameters

Most Parthenon behavior is controlled via an input file, generally named parthinput.<problem-name>. Parameters in this file take the form param = value, with a particular type for each parameter set in the Parthenon code.

Parameters are split into blocks, denoted by bracketed names (<blockname>). All Parthenon-specific parameters are in blocks named <parthenon/x>. Below is an incomplete list of some parameters Parthenon accepts, split by block.

<parthenon/job>

General parthenon options such as problem name and parameter handling.

Option

Default

Type

Description

name
archive_parameters
none
false
string
string
Name of this problem or initialization, prefixed to output files.
Produce a parameter file containing all parameters known to Parthenon. Set to true for an output file named parthinput.archive. Set to timestamp for a file with a name containing a timestamp.

<parthenon/time>

Options related to time-stepping and printing of diagnostic data.

Option

Default

Type

Description

tlim
nlim
perf_cycle_offset
ncycle_out
ncycle_out_mesh
ncrecv_bdry_buf_timeout_sec
none
-1
0
1
0
-1.0
float
int
int
int
int
Real
Stop criterion on simulation time.
Stop criterion on total number of steps taken. Ignored if < 0.
Skip the first N cycles when calculating the final performance (e.g., zone-cycles/wall_second). Allows to hide the initialization overhead in Parthenon.
Number of cycles between short diagnostic output to standard out containing, e.g., current time, dt, zone-update/wsec. Default: 1 (i.e, every cycle).
Number of cycles between printing the mesh structure to standard out. Use a negative number to also print every time the mesh was modified. Default: 0 (i.e, off).
Timeout in seconds for the ReceiveBoundaryBuffers tasks. Disabed (negative) by default. Typically no need in production runs. Useful for debugging MPI calls.

<parthenon/mesh>

See the Adaptive Mesh Refinement documentation for details of the required parameters in <parthenon/mesh> and <parthenon/meshblock>.

Option

Default

Type

Description

nghost

2

int

Number of ghost cells for each mesh block on each side.

<parthenon/sparse>

See the Sparse implementation documentation for details.

Option

Default

Type

Description

enable_sparse
alloc_threshold
dealloc_threshold
dealloc_count
true
1e-12
1e-14
5
bool
float
float
int
If set to false, sparse variables will always be allocated, see also Run-time
Global (for all sparse variables) threshold to trigger allocation of a variable if cells in the receiving ghost cells are above this value.
Global (for all sparse variables) threshold to trigger deallocation if all active cells of a variable in a block are below this value.
First deallocate a sparse variable if the dealloc_threshold has been met in this number of consecutive cycles.