Move linear algebra package testing for the same problem into a single directory

[ktbolt]

Use Case

The current linear algebra package (e.g. PETSc) testing has a separate directory in test/cases for each package and preconditioner

pipe_RCR_3d/
pipe_RCR_3d_bj_trilinos/
pipe_RCR_3d_ilut_trilinos/
pipe_RCR_3d_petsc/
pipe_RCR_3d_trilinos_bj/
pipe_RCR_3d_trilinos_ilut/

Each case duplicates mesh and boundary condition data files. The XML input files are also duplicated so any change to that file must also be changed in five other locations.

It would be better to have all of the linear algebra packages tested in a single directory.

Problem

See above

Solution

Solution 1: Enable reading the XML Linear_algebra parameters from an XML file
Create a tril_ilut.xml file containing

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Linear_algebra type="trilinos" >
  <Preconditioner> trilinos-ilut </Preconditioner>
</Linear_algebra>

Then add a input_parameter attribute to the Linear_algebra keyword that would be used to read in the Linear_algebra parameter XML file

<Linear_algebra input_argument="linear_algebra_file" > </Linear_algebra>

The value of linear_algebra_file would be set as an argument to the svFSIplus command

svFSIplus solver.xml linear_algebra_file=tril_ilut.xml

This would require moderate code changes primarily to the Parameters class but is probably not in general very useful.

Solution 2: Create a Python script to generate variations ofLinear_algebra parameters from a solver input XML file.
For example, write a change-linear-algebra.py script that takes the package name and preconditioner, copies the file just substituting the Linear_algebra parameters.

change-linear-algebra.py svFSI.xml trilinos trilinos-ilut > svFSI-trilinos-ilut.xml

Run the script when the svFSI.xml file changes.

This script would be fairly simple to write.

Alternatives considered

see above

Additional context

No response

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