Spec URL: http://ankursinha.fedorapeople.org/metis/metis.spec SRPM URL: http://ankursinha.fedorapeople.org/metis/metis-4.0.3-1.fc15.src.rpm Description: METIS's key features are the following: Provides high quality partitions! Experiments on a large number of graphs arising in various domains including finite element methods, linear programming, VLSI, and transportation show that METIS produces partitions that are consistently better than those produced by other widely used algorithms. The partitions produced by METIS are consistently 10% to 50% better than those produced by spectral partitioning algorithms. It is extremely fast! Experiments on a wide range of graphs has shown that METIS is one to two orders of magnitude faster than other widely used partitioning algorithms. Graphs with over 1,000,000 vertices can be partitioned in 256 parts in a few seconds on current generation workstations and PCs. Produces low fill orderings! The fill-reducing orderings produced by METIS are significantly better than those produced by other widely used algorithms including multiple minimum degree. For many classes of problems arising in scientific computations and linear programming, METIS is able to reduce the storage and computational requirements of sparse matrix factorization, by up to an order of magnitude. Moreover, unlike multiple minimum degree, the elimination trees produced by METIS are suitable for parallel direct factorization. Furthermore, METIS is able to compute these orderings very fast. Matrices with over 200,000 rows can be reordered in just a few seconds on current generation workstations and PCs.
LICENSE reads: The METIS package is copyrighted by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. It can be freely used for educational and research purposes by non-profit institutions and US government agencies only. Other organizations are allowed to use METIS only for evaluation purposes, and any further uses will require prior approval. The software may not be sold or redistributed without prior approval. One may make copies of the software for their use provided that the copies, are not sold or distributed, are used under the same terms and conditions. This is clearly nonfree and unappropriate for Fedora.
I found this in the elmerfem metis package: "Metis license: -------------- * Copyright 1997, Regents of the University of Minnesota Our policy regarding the distribution of METIS with third-party applications is as follows: * Non-commercial applications METIS can be freely distributed provided that: o Proper references are included. o The original documentation and copyright notice is included. * Commercial applications METIS can be freely distributed provided that: o Proper references are included. o The original documentation and copyright notice is included. o METIS is a relatively small portion of the overall application. " I'll email upstream and request clarification before we proceed. Thanks, Regards, Ankur
It still doesn't look like the licensing is Free here, but I'll wait to see what clarification comes from upstream.
(In reply to comment #3) > It still doesn't look like the licensing is Free here, but I'll wait to see > what clarification comes from upstream. Here's the clarification(quoting): " Hi Ankur Metis is used as the main strategy for mesh partitioning i.e. its relevant only for parallel computations. We have a historical OK from Metis developers to distribute it with Elmer. However, I understand that this does not make Metis free software. There is an alternative package, Scotch [1], which to my understanding provides similar functionality. It is used in the Debian build of Elmer. We should try to invest some time to test these packages and use perhaps it instead of Metis. As a quick solution I think that building ElmerGrid without Metis is OK. Just change the #define PARTMETIS in femelmer.h to zero and there is some alternative text printed in case Metis is called. Best regards, Peter [1] http://www.labri.fr/perso/pelegrin/scotch/ " I'm going to go look at scotch. This one's a CANTFIX :/ Thanks all for the inputs :) Regards, Ankur
Oh! And I'm going to build elmergrid without elmer as upstream suggests for the time being. When scotch is ready, I'll rebuild elmergrid with it. Thanks, Ankur