Compatibility of plugins

We strive to maintain compatibility for user written plugins with new versions of ASPECT for as long as possible. However, occasionally we have to restructure interface classes to improve ASPECT further. This is in particular true for new major versions. In order to allow running old plugins with newer ASPECT versions, we provide scripts that can automatically update existing plugins to the new syntax. Executing doc/update_source_files.sh with one or more plugin files as arguments will create a backup of the old file (named old_filename.bak), and replace the existing file with a version that should work with the current ASPECT version. Using this script would look like this:

bash contrib/utilities/update_source_files.sh cookbooks/finite_strain/finite_strain.cc

Note

Not all text replacements are unique, and the structure of plugin files allows for constructs the script can not properly parse. Thus, it is important that you check your updated plugin file for errors. That being said, all plugin files in the main ASPECT repository are updated successfully using this script.