#641542 paraview: Please use xdmf2 package rather than internal versionof xdmf

Package:
paraview
Source:
paraview
Description:
Parallel Visualization Application
Submitter:
Alastair McKinstry
Date:
2026-02-05 11:01:02 UTC
Severity:
wishlist
#641542#5
Date:
2011-09-14 09:23:11 UTC
From:
To:
Xdmf2 is shipped with paraview sources, but is also used in the VisIt software
(which is being packaged), so I have packaged it as  xdmf and it is now available
(version 2.1) in debian unstable. Please use this version rather than the internal
xdmf.

Thanks
Alastair McKinstry

#641542#10
Date:
2011-09-16 08:30:17 UTC
From:
To:
severity 641542 serious
thanks

This is a violation of policy on convenient library. Marking as serious.

#641542#17
Date:
2012-01-06 20:08:32 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Alastair,

it seems, there are different versions of xdmf (or fork), if I
correctly understood from this thread [1].

========
Biddiscombe, John A.

"...the vtkXdmfReader in paraview would need to be rewritten to use
the new Xdmf API..."
========

[1] http://www.paraview.org/pipermail/paraview/2011-December/023547.html

Anton

#641542#22
Date:
2012-01-25 20:39:28 UTC
From:
To:
I'm going to reduce the severity of the bug to the "Wishlist".
Rewriting the software is not the task of packaging.

The RC-bug will probably remove Paraview from Wheezy [1], [2].

Comments are welcome.

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/01/msg00653.html
[2] http://release.debian.org/~nthykier/rc-buggy-leaf-pkgs-dd-list-2012-01-25

Anton

#641542#27
Date:
2012-02-03 20:47:59 UTC
From:
To:
severity 641542 wishlist
thanks

#641542#34
Date:
2021-01-28 20:30:13 UTC
From:
To:
We have been trying to reach you as regards the estate of Late George Brumley, you were made one of the beneficiaries of his estate. Do get back to me at your earliest convenience. The Trustees
#641542#39
Date:
2026-02-01 17:46:08 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Alastair, do you think Bug#641542 is still live, or should we close
it now, or reframe it?

There's a couple of points on the current state of it.

Firstly the vendored xdmf code was in VTK not paraview as such.
paraview had been vendering its own VTK code due to incompatibility
with libvtk9-dev, but that is now resolved with paraview 6 / vtk9 9.5.
The xdmf code is still in VTK, so I'm moving this bug from paraview
to vtk9.

Next, vtk9 does vendor both xdmf2 and xdmf3 in ThirdParty.
But debian's separate libxdmf-dev is xdmf3 not xdmf2 (if I understood
correctly).

vtk9 does allow to build with some external libraries. We're doing
that with eigen, expat, zlib and others. vtk allows for this with a
EXTERNAL option in the CMakeLists.txt for the ThirdParty component dir.

But in the case of both xdmf2 and xdmf3, vtk is using
vtk_module_third_party_internal, with no EXTERNAL.

I tried briefly to patch ThirdParty/xdmf3 to use the external
libxdmf-dev, but VTK didn't find the external library cleanly. It can
probably be done but it will need some effort. Is it worth the effort?

But even if vtk9 is patched to use external libxdmf-dev, that's xdmf3
not xdmf2 (correct me if I'm wrong about that).

Kitware has taken responsibility for ongoing xdmf code development at
https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf
But they haven't (yet) facilitated enabling VTK to use xdmf as an external
xdmf library. Instead, they've just been updating their vendored copy
from time to time when needed, most recently last week with
https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/merge_requests/12864

With respect to VisIt, paraview 6 uses Utilities/VisItBridge to access
VisIt, rather than providing VisIt directly. As far as I can see VTK
doesn't contain VisIt either. So there's currently no second copy of
xdmf2 as such. Debian currently isn't packaging VisIt itself, but I
can't see a direct copy of xdmf (either version) in the VisIt source at
https://github.com/visit-dav/visit/tree/develop/src/third_party_builtin
src/CMake/FindXdmf.cmake seems to imply they would get xdmf from vtk
(vtklibxml2)

#641542#48
Date:
2026-02-01 18:05:50 UTC
From:
To:
I mentioned that Kitware is developing xdmf at
https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf

But looking at VTK MR#12864, more closely, it was copied from
https://gitlab.kitware.com/spiros.tsalikis/xdmf which is a fork of
https://gitlab.kitware.com/third-party/xdmf

https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf
https://gitlab.kitware.com/spiros.tsalikis/xdmf
or
https://gitlab.kitware.com/third-party/xdmf
?

Will the real Xdmf please stand up?

#641542#53
Date:
2026-02-04 14:54:49 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Drew

Sorry on the delay in replying, I got hit with a VPN bug and couldn't
reach my email from my current laptop.

I think reframe it. Your reading of the problem is correct, I think.
I packaged xdmf way-back-when and moved it directly to xdmf3 thinking it
would (should) work like any other library, with transitions. Not
expecting an application to use both xdmf2 and xdmf3.

I've no plans (or time ) to package VisIt, so don't see the need.
We could either leave it as wishlist, or close

Regards
Alastair

On 01/02/2026, 17:49, "Drew Parsons" <dparsons@debian.org> wrote:

Package: paraview
Followup-For: Bug #641542
X-Debbugs-Cc: Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry@debian.org>
Control: reassign -1 src:vtk9 9.5.2+dfsg3-1


Hi Alastair, do you think Bug#641542 is still live, or should we close
it now, or reframe it?

There's a couple of points on the current state of it.

Firstly the vendored xdmf code was in VTK not paraview as such.
paraview had been vendering its own VTK code due to incompatibility
with libvtk9-dev, but that is now resolved with paraview 6 / vtk9 9.5.
The xdmf code is still in VTK, so I'm moving this bug from paraview
to vtk9.

Next, vtk9 does vendor both xdmf2 and xdmf3 in ThirdParty.
But debian's separate libxdmf-dev is xdmf3 not xdmf2 (if I understood
correctly).

vtk9 does allow to build with some external libraries. We're doing
that with eigen, expat, zlib and others. vtk allows for this with a
EXTERNAL option in the CMakeLists.txt for the ThirdParty component dir.

But in the case of both xdmf2 and xdmf3, vtk is using
vtk_module_third_party_internal, with no EXTERNAL.

I tried briefly to patch ThirdParty/xdmf3 to use the external
libxdmf-dev, but VTK didn't find the external library cleanly. It can
probably be done but it will need some effort. Is it worth the effort?

But even if vtk9 is patched to use external libxdmf-dev, that's xdmf3
not xdmf2 (correct me if I'm wrong about that).

Kitware has taken responsibility for ongoing xdmf code development at
https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf
But they haven't (yet) facilitated enabling VTK to use xdmf as an external
xdmf library. Instead, they've just been updating their vendored copy
from time to time when needed, most recently last week with
https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/merge_requests/12864

With respect to VisIt, paraview 6 uses Utilities/VisItBridge to access
VisIt, rather than providing VisIt directly. As far as I can see VTK
doesn't contain VisIt either. So there's currently no second copy of
xdmf2 as such. Debian currently isn't packaging VisIt itself, but I
can't see a direct copy of xdmf (either version) in the VisIt source at
https://github.com/visit-dav/visit/tree/develop/src/third_party_builtin
src/CMake/FindXdmf.cmake seems to imply they would get xdmf from vtk
(vtklibxml2)

#641542#58
Date:
2026-02-04 16:17:49 UTC
From:
To:
I think the general request of the bug is still valid.
Kitware should keep https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf up to date, and
fit for use by VTK,
so VTK's xdmf3 ought to have an EXTERNAL configuration option available.

People might still ask about the external xdmf library, so we might as
well keep the bug open.
I'll update the title to xdmf3 and link to VTK upstream issue #17702
(unifying xdmf support).

Drew