Detailed instructions for building and installing ELEFANT are available here. Some frequently asked questions about ELEFANT are available here.

Where to Ask Questions?

There are three different mailing lists set up ELEFANT.

• elefant-announce This list is a low volume list intended mainly for the ELEFANT release manager to post information about ELEFANT releases and release schedules. Archives can be found here.
• elefant-users This list is mainly for end users of ELEFANT. This is the place to ask questions about installation problems or configuration tips and tricks. Archives can be found here.
• elefant-dev This list is mainly intended for developers and is used to discuss design decisions and major code changes. If you have found a bug in ELEFANT and want to post a patch then this is the default list to post to. Archives can be found here.

I Have Found a Bug. What Should I Do?

First of all, search through the mailing list archives to ensure that you are not reporting a known issue. Then search through the bug database to ensure that it is a known problem. Now you have two options:

• If you are a ELEFANT developer (i.e. you have a login on the ELEFANT website) then enter the bug into the bug database and assign it to the appropriate developer.
• If you are an ELEFANT user (i.e. you do not have a login on the ELEFANT website) then send a mail to the elefant-users mailing list.

In either case please include as much information about your environment as possible including your PETSc version number, your ELEFANT version number and any other relevant information including configuration files. Also clearly outline the steps needed to reproduce the bug.

Private Emails Do Not Help Others

If you mail one of the ELEFANT developers directly with a support question, you're likely to be ignored. This doesn't mean that we don't want to help you out, on the contrary, we very much want to see you succeed in using ELEFANT. It's just that we don't like answering the same questions over and over again, and one-on-one support is pretty difficult via email. Thus we provide our general support in a public forum (the mailing lists mentioned above) where the questions and answers get archived and can be used by future users. This also allows other knowledgeable users help us out in providing support.