Conference call notes 20160525 - easybuilders/easybuild GitHub Wiki

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Notes on the 52nd EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday May 28th 2016 (5pm - 5.30pm CEST)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (6):

  • Damian Alvarez Mallon (JSC, Germany)
  • Pablo Escobar (sciCORE, UniBas)
  • Fotis Georgatos (Illumina, UK)
  • Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent)
  • Adam Huffman (Francis Crick Institute, UK)
  • Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)

Agenda

  • EasyBuild v2.8.1 bugfix release
  • brainstorm on backwards incompatible changes for EasyBuild v3.0
  • Q&A

Notes

  • v2.8.1

  • v2.9 end of June'16

    • will include whatever is ready by then
    • intention is to include 2016b toolchains (discussion to be opened soon on mailing list)
  • v3.0.0

    • 1k (10^3) supported software packages!
    • Lmod by default, with Lua module files?
      • already used in production in JSC
      • issue with footer in older versions of Lmod (bump req version?)
      • Pablo:
        • easyconfigs for Lmod use non-dummy toolchain?
        • Lua isn't statically linked?
        • include installation of Lmod/Lua in bootstrap?
      • easyconfigs may have Tcl code embedded
    • --minimal-toolchains by default (docs: http://easybuild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Manipulating_dependencies.html#using-minimal-toolchains-for-dependencies)
      • used in production @ JSC
      • Alan: may cause problems in combination with a hierarchy
      • module names are not unique, two diff toolchains may yield same module location
      • easyconfig dumped in repo may contain something wrong
      • mostly a matter of clearly documenting this
      • no problem in clean module tree
    • zipped log files in installdir (by default)
    • stable .yeb support
      • fat easyconfigs...
    • support for RPATH linking (default?)
      • probably not enough time for thorough testing by EB v3.0 to make it default...
    • drop old/inactive toolchains: iqacml, goalf, ictce
      • 'archive' easyconfigs .archive, throw big fat warning when they're used
      • what about other easyconfigs, like CMake with intel toolchains
    • robot enabled by default? or at least better error message for missing deps (mention if easyconfig is found)
      • Pablo: commonly done by other tools: yum, brew, ...
      • ask for confirmation, cfr. yum?
    • devel vs debug logging
      • log.devel, --devel
      • --debug by default?
    • also copy patch files, easyblock(s) into install dir?
      • rather than only the the easyconfig
      • add checksums on sources/patches in archived easyconfig
    • $INTEL_LICENSE_FILE & $LM_LICENSE_FILE are considered after license_file easyconfig parameter
    • better control over versions of dependencies
      • use a single version for a particular dependency, rather than multiple
      • eb --change-deps=CMake@latest
      • support for picking last known version of all deps
      • e.g. fix freetype version across stack
      • similar to --try-toolchain: generate easyconfigs with new dep versions, ask confirmation
    • easy way to bumping extension versions using 'eb'
    • eb --try-update-version to bump software versions
    • Singularity support

Q&A

  • Fotis: latest Intel toolchain 'just works' intel/2016.03-GCC-5.3
    • good candidate intel/2016b
  • mention of EasyBuild in HPC-SIG UK mailing list