8.1.5. Library interface to LAMMPS

As described on the Build basics doc page, LAMMPS can be built as a static or shared library, so that it can be called by another code, used in a coupled manner with other codes, or driven through a Python interface.

At the core of LAMMPS is the LAMMPS class which encapsulates the state of the simulation program through the state of the various class instances that it is composed of. So a calculation using LAMMPS requires to create an instance of the LAMMPS class and then send it (text) commands, either individually or from a file, or perform other operations that modify the state stored inside that instance or drive simulations. This is essentially what the src/main.cpp file does as well for the standalone LAMMPS executable with reading commands either from an input file or stdin.

Creating a LAMMPS instance can be done by using C++ code directly or through a C-style interface library to LAMMPS that is provided in the files src/library.cpp and library.h. This C language API, can be used from C and C++, and is also the basis for the Python and Fortran interfaces or wrappers included in the LAMMPS source code.

The examples/COUPLE and python/examples directories contain some example programs written in C++, C, Fortran, and Python, which show how a driver code can link to LAMMPS as a library, run LAMMPS on a subset of processors (so the others are available to run some other code concurrently), grab data from LAMMPS, change it, and send it back into LAMMPS.

A detailed documentation of the available APIs and examples of how to use them can be found in the Programmer Guide section of this manual.