Updating a basic installation using the xlf_install utility

The xlf_install utility is the recommended tool for updating a basic installation of IBM® XL Fortran for Blue Gene®/Q, V14.1. It is located in the root directory of the installation image.

About this task

You can use the xlf_install utility to update IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q, V14.1 if all the following conditions have been met:
  • The base version of IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q, V14.1 is already successfully installed in the /opt/ibmcmp/ directory.
  • The update package has been uncompressed and unpacked on the system.
When you run the xlf_install utility to apply an update, it performs the following tasks:
  • Checks for all prerequisite software packages
  • Uninstalls IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q, V14.1 packages
  • Installs updated compiler packages into the default location
  • Automatically invokes the new_install utility, which installs the license file, renames the old configuration file, and generates a new configuration file
  • Optionally creates symbolic links in /usr/bin/ to the compiler invocation commands
  • Generates an installation log in the /tmp/ directory
To run the xlf_install utility to apply an update for IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q, V14.1:
  1. Change to the directory in which you have unpacked the update package: 
      cd /home/root/update/xlf/mmmYYYY
    where mmmYYYY is the month and year of the update shipment date. (For example, dec2010 indicates a shipment date in December of 2010.)
  2. Install the update by issuing the following command: 
      ./xlf_install -U
    For additional arguments that you can specify for xlf_install, see xlf_install options.
  3. Confirm that you want to uninstall any previously installed IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q, V14.1 packages.
  4. Confirm that you want to uninstall any IBM SMP and MASS packages that were previously installed with IBM XL Fortran for Blue Gene/Q.
    Note: xlf_install uninstalls these packages from their existing location and reinstalls them to the default location, /opt/ibmcmp/. Therefore, if they were previously installed in a nondefault location as part of an IBM XL C/C++ installation, you must run xlc_configure to reconfigure the IBM XL C/C++ compiler to point to the default location for these packages. For procedures, see "Running the xlc_configure utility directly" in the IBM XL C/C++ for Blue Gene®/Q, V12.1 Installation Guide.
  5. Accept the license agreement and licensing information.
  6. Optionally, create the symbolic links for the compiler invocations in the /usr/bin/ directory.
    Note: An alternative to this step is to add the path that contains the compiler invocations to the PATH environment variable. See Setting the PATH environment variable to include the path to the compiler invocations.

    If you choose to create symbolic links, the following links are created in the /usr/bin/ subdirectory:

    • bgxlf
    • bgxlf90
    • bgxlf95
    • bgxlf2003
    • bgxlf2008
    • bgxlf_r
    • bgxlf90_r
    • bgxlf95_r
    • bgxlf2003_r
    • bgxlf2008_r
  7. If you customized the previously generated configuration file, manually edit installation_path/xlf/bg/14.1/etc/ xlf.cfg to replicate those changes in the newly generated configuration file.
Parent topic: Installing an update