====== Running potfit ======
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After having compiled a //potfit// binary with the desired options, it is recommended to create a new folder for each //potfit// run. This folder needs to contain at least the parameter, configuration and potential files as well as any other optional files.

A //potfit// run can be started like this:

<code>potfit_binary <parameter_file></code>

The name of the //potfit// binary depends on the selected potential model and interaction. The parameter file contains all further [[:parameters]] describing the optimization.

===  Parallel execution  ===

//potfit// supports [[running:mpi|MPI parallelization]]. If MPI is enabled, the number of MPI processes must be stated at the program start. This is usually done with a (system dependent) startup script like the following one:

<code>mpirun -np P potfit_binary <parameter_file></code>

Here, ''P'' is the number of MPI processes.

If MPI is enabled, the reference configurations will be split among the available processors. If you have 10 configurations, it doesn't make sense to use more than 10 CPUs.