Common Tasks

Common Tasks#

This page describes commonly-encountered development tasks.

Inlist Options#

Adding a new option#

Note

The simplest approach is often to find a similar existing option and follow the pattern revealed by searching for the occurrences of that option in the source code.

This guide applies to star-related options (star_job, controls, and pgstar).

First, add an entry of the relevant type in the appropriate .inc file in star_data/private.

  • star_job : star_job_controls.inc

  • controls : star_controls.inc

  • pgstar : pgstar_controls.inc

Next, add an entry with the default option value and some documentation (see Format for MESA defaults files) into the appropriate *.defaults file in star/defaults.

  • star_job : star_job.defaults

  • controls : controls.defaults

  • pgstar : pgstar.defaults

Finally, update the appropriate *_io.f90 files in star/private, which are responsible for reading/writing the Fortran namelists.

  • star_job : star_job_ctrls_io.f90

  • controls : ctrls_io.f90

  • pgstar : pgstar_ctrls_io.f90

This will require several edits.

  • Add your option to the namelist declaration near the start of that file.

  • Add code transferring your option from the value read by the namelist to the star_info structure in the store_* routine.

  • For the case of star_job and controls, add code transferring your option from the star_info structure to the namelist value in the set_*_for_writing routine. This is what is used to enable the options save_star_job_namelist and save_controls_namelist.

History/Profile Output#

Note

The simplest approach is often to find a similar existing output and follow the pattern revealed by searching for the occurrences of that quantity in the source tree.

Adding a history column#

First, update star/private/star_history_def.f90. Here, you need to define the integer parameter of the form h_my_new_column internally used to identify the column. Later in the file, assign the name it will be given via an assignment like history_column_name(h_my_new_column) = 'my_new_column'.

Next, update star/private/history.f90 to add a new case in the switch statement, case(h_my_new_column). The code in this case should set the variable val to the desired output value.

Finally, add the new column to star/defaults/history_columns.list along with a short comment about what this column means. It should likely be commented out (off by default).

Adding a profile column#

First, update star/private/star_profile_def.f90. Here, you need to define the integer parameter of the form p_my_new_column internally used to identify the column. Later in the file, assign the name it will be given via an assignment like profile_column_name(p_my_new_column) = 'my_new_column'.

Next, update star/private/profile_getval.f90 to add a new case in the switch statement, case(p_my_new_column). The code in this case should set the variable val to the desired output value corresponding to cell k.

Finally, add the new column to star/defaults/profile_columns.list along with a short comment about what this column means. It should likely be commented out (off by default).

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