[Libmesh-users] read_serialized_data and read_header

[David K. <dkn...@se...>]

In the reduced_basis code, we read in vectors from file using 
read_serialized_data, in RBEvaluation::read_in_basis_functions. To make 
this work, at the moment we call read_header in 
RBEvaluation::read_in_basis_functions, but the way this read_header call 
is made seems to be wrong, e.g. it breaks when n_vars > 1.

It seems to me that read_header is a pretty low-level function, and its 
purpose is to initialize a new system, rather than to be called on a 
system that is already initialized?

With this in mind, a more robust approach is to remove the call to 
read_header in RBEvaluation::read_in_basis_functions, and call 
EquationSystems::read to initialize the equation_systems object prior to 
calling read_serialized_data. The call to read_serialized_data (on one 
of the systems in the EquationSystems object) then works fine.

But I was wondering if it's possible to call read_serialized_data 
*without* first calling EquationSystems::read, e.g. calling 
read_serialized_data on a System that was initialized "manually" in the 
main function? What is it in EquationSystems::read that preps the System 
for a call to read_serialized_data?

Thanks,
David