title: Metis: libmetis.a disappeared and reinstallation creates libmetis.so instead
body: <h2>The fact</h2>
  
  <p>I have got <strong>metis 5.1.0</strong> installed on a desktop running on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.</p>
  
  <p>Recently I compiled a piece of software in parallel configuration that could not find the file /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/lib/<strong>libmetis.a</strong> and threw a fatal error.    </p>
  
  <p>This looks weird to me because all was fine with an earlier version of the same software and with the existing metis installation.</p>
  
  <h2>Disappearance of libmetis.a</h2>
  
  <p>I have evidence that <strong>libmetis.a</strong> had been installed, though, from the stderr+stout files of the first metis installation. 
  For example from somewhere in the output of <code>make install</code> I can see:</p>
  
  <p><code>/usr/bin/cmake -P cmake_install.cmake
  -- Install configuration: ""
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/include/metis.h
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/lib/libmetis.a
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/bin/gpmetis</code></p>
  
  <p>Therefore some action must have deleted libmetis.a at some point. 
  I have no recollection or clue of which action could have done this.</p>
  
  <h2>Reinstallation of metis</h2>
  
  <p>I then reinstalled the same version of metis by running the very same script that I used the first time. The procedure is</p>
  
  <p><code>sudo make uninstall
  sudo make clean
  sudo make config prefix=/opt/metis/metis-5.1.0 shared=1 cc=gcc gdb=1 debug=1
  sudo make
  sudo make install</code></p>
  
  <p>The corresponding lines in the stdout+sterr have changed though</p>
  
  <p><code>/usr/local/bin/cmake -P cmake_install.cmake
  -- Install configuration: ""
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/include/metis.h
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/lib/libmetis.so
  -- Installing: /opt/metis/metis-5.1.0/bin/gpmetis</code></p>
  
  <h2>Comparison</h2>
  
  <ul>
  <li><strong>cmake</strong> lives on another path. I can't recall a reason for this. I do confirm that currently cmake is installed in /usr/local/bin/cmake and that /usr/bin/cmake does not exist any longer. Either way, the version of cmake has been 3.3.1 ever since (I believe).</li>
  <li><strong>libmetis.so</strong> gets installed instead of <strong>libmetis.a</strong>. </li>
  <li>Comparing the old and new stderr+stdout of the <code>make install</code> line by line, I see that cmake has been engaged in the first installation a great deal more. Unfortunately I have overwritten the files of the first installation and cannot provide more detail.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <h2>Summary</h2>
  
  <p>To summarize the changes I noted are</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>the static library <strong>libmetis.a</strong> disappeared (blind spot why/how/when)</li>
  <li><strong>cmake</strong> is displaced (blind splot why/how/when)</li>
  <li>a copycat installation of metis leads to shared-object library <strong>libmetis.so</strong> rather than libmetis.a, perhaps after a different usage of cmake. I look at that <code>shared=1</code> in the config command suspiciously, but had worked with scripts with an intention to repeat all operations faithfully. (Though not always are good intentions coded down correctly.)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The aim is to have the libmetis.a file in place again, as requested by parallel software down the line.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions tips and pieces of wisdom to fix this issue? Thanks in advance for thinking along.</p>