Conference call notes 20181114 - easybuilders/easybuild GitHub Wiki

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Notes on the 114th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday Nov 14th 2018 (17:00 - 18:00 CET)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (7):

  • Damian Alvarez (JSC, Germany)
  • Victor Holanda (CSCS, Switzerland)
  • Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
  • Fotis Georgatos (SDSC, Switzerland
  • Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)
  • Bart Oldeman (ComputeCanada)
  • Åke Sandgren (Umeå University, Sweden)

Agenda

  • updates on upcoming EasyBuild v3.8.0
  • best approach to fix version/download bug in SCOTCH 6.0.5 easyconfigs
  • changes in impi 2019.x that require updates to easyblock
  • Q&A

Outlook to EasyBuild v3.8.0

  • ETA: (unknown, but soonish)
  • framework
    • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/milestone/60
    • highlights:
      • support for deprecating specific easyconfigs + (particular versions of) toolchains
      • support for submitting jobs directly to Slurm via --job
      • support for using EasyBuild as a library: requires running set_up_configuration before using any framework functionality
      • clean error when 'eb' is cancelled with Ctrl-C (as opposed to a nasty traceback)
    • TODO
      • deprecating goolf, ictce toolchains (after asking feedback from EasyBuild community via ML)
      • bug fix for silent overwriting of easyconfigs during dump
      • archiving of easyblocks + bug fix for not including all changes to self.cfg
        • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2653
        • some easyconfig parameters like 'start_dir' should not be included in easyconfig saved to reprod/
        • current PR mixes up two things, should flesh out saving of easyblocks into dedicated PR
        • do patches that get injected via hooks get saved?
          • Åke: yes they do
        • to fix (Alan): easyconfig saved in reprod/ subdir is only affected by EB config, not by hooks/easyblock
        • should the hooks also be saved to reprod/? (should be a separate PR)
  • easyblocks
  • easyconfigs

Version bug in SCOTCH 6.0.5 easyconfigs

Changes in impi 2019.x that require updates to easyblock

  • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1546

  • changes in locations of libraries

  • impi now also depends on libfabric

    • there is support for using an external libfabric (not supported in easyblock for now)
  • impi 2019 changed the default library to be the non-mt version...

    • -lmpi now doesn't point to -lmpi_mt anymore
    • should EB keep new default behaviour, or something stick to previous default?
    • actual use of threaded MPI is fairly rare
      • application that do use it are hopefully carefully checking
    • Alan: behavior when mpirun is not used for running commands has also changed in impi 2019.x
      • Damian: could be a problem with libfabric getting confused by default when both VERBS + PSM are available
  • does this raise concerns w.r.t. using impi 2019 in upcoming intel/2019a common toolchain?

Other