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Compilers

Overview

Compilers are installed on all NERSC compute systems so that users may compile and run their codes. NERSC provides multiple versions of compilers for the C, C++, and Fortran languages on each system.

Compiler wrappers provided by the vendor wrap the base compilers on the machine. These wrappers are the recommended way to invoke compilers on NERSC machines, for a number of reasons:

  1. Compiler wrappers cross-compile for the appropriate compute-node target.
  2. Compiler wrappers automatically include the path to MPI header files and take care of resolving MPI paths during the linking stage of compilation.
  3. The command to invoke the compiler is independent of the underlying base compiler. This results in fewer changes to your Makefile when switching to a new base compiler.

The set of compilers underlying the compiler wrappers are known as base compilers. The available base compilers vary depending on the compute system. Base compilers, without wrappers, can also be used to compile non-MPI codes.