Conference call notes 20180919

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Notes on the 110th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday Sept 19th 2018 (5pm - 6.15pm CEST)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (8):

• Damien Alvarez (JSC, Germany)
• Fotis Georgatos (SDSC, Switzerland)
• Victor Holanda (CSCS, Switzerland)
• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Adam Huffman (Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, UK)
• Davide Vanzo (Vanderbilt University, US)
• Bart Oldeman (ComputeCanada)
• Åke Sandgren (Umeå University, Sweden)

Agenda

• update on upcoming EasyBuild v3.7.0
• Q&A

EasyBuild v3.7.0

• ETA for release
  • final freeze this Friday Sept 21st: after that only bug fixes
  • regression test over the weekend
  • release early next week
• framework:
  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/milestone/58
  • already merged:
    • fix for --check-conflicts: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2583
      • required for Java wrapper
  • to be considered (?)
    • support for downloading from a git repo: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2555
      • still missing a test (+ fix for merge conflict)...
• easyblocks:
  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/milestone/50
  • TODO:
    • FSL (Davide): https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1498
    • ship config.guess script for ConfigureMake: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1506
      • licensing concerns GPLv3 vs GPLv2
      • Ake: alternative is to try and download it 'on the fly'
      • Bart: config option for location where to find more recent config.guess
    • Ake: also update for Siesta easyblock?
      • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1510
• easyconfigs:
  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/milestone/53
  • blocker: Java 'wrapper': https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/6712
    • (finally) good to go now?
    • ModuleRC should create backup rather than blindly overwrite...
    • order of .modulerc files may differ between module tools, user can override with local .modulerc?
      • allows users to shoot themselves in the foot by redefining Java/1.8 wrapper?
    • TODO: docs on this
  • several other easyconfig PRs will be merged when ready before 3.7.0 window closes
  • already merged:
    • automagic checking for SHA256 checksums: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/5005

Other

• Ake: generating desktop files?
• Damian: libXp/printproto in X11 bundle?
  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/issues/6861
  • makes sense to include, no need to update old easyconfigs that use libXp as a dep
• deprecating old toolchains for EasyBuild 4.0
  • 2015* & 2016* still have uses, e.g. OpenFOAM 2.x (because of the GCC version)
  • see also https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild/issues/447
  • Bart: QLogicMPI is still supported by framework, but it shouldn't?
• PyPI download stats: https://pypistats.org/packages/easybuild
  • still a lot of downloads using Python 2.6
  • mostly due to EasyBuild framework tests in Travis still mostly using Python 2.6?
• Ake: some interest from MVAPICH2 community about combining with Intel compilers
  • that toolchain definition doesn't exist yet in framework...
  • happy to help out with anyone who wants to work on that :)
  • Fotis: MVAPICH2 is interesting because it's open source & ABI compatible with MPICH-based MPI libraries (like Cray MPI)
    • similar argument for MATLAB
  • Victor: already done at CSCS?
• Victor: GROMACS 2018.3 was released with important bug fixes in it
  • Ake could look into this
• Victor: some problems with GROMACS easyblock w.r.t. optarch
  • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/blob/master/easybuild/easyblocks/g/gromacs.py#L93
  • mainly an issue with cross-compiling of GROMACS
    • cfr. http://manual.gromacs.org/documentation/2018/install-guide/index.html#simd-support
  • also relevant for OpenCV, FFTW
  • see also https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/issues/1443
  • values recognized in there are currently specific to Intel compiler...
    • should also recognize -march=skylake etc.
  • should framework provide better support for abstract away optarch values?
  • Bart: should have dedicated easyconfig parameter to specify target arch
• Victor: question on https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2536
  • unclear what the question is?
  • Kenneth: minimal toolchains is irrelevant for Cray toolchains afaik
• Victor: anyone working on support for --try-dependencies?
  • someone in CSCS may be able to work on this
  • Damian: was discussed during EasyBuild User Meeting in Jülich
  • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2136, could be a good starting point
  • no progress for now?
• Victor: .yeb easyconfig format
  • proposal for Ansible-compatible format
  • good idea to open an issue in framework to get feedback (e.g. from Fotis)
• Bart: automagic downloads for Intel software?
  • Spack is using semi-public URLs to enable auto-downloading URLs
    • see https://github.com/spack/spack/blob/develop/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/intel/package.py
    • Kenneth will check & see what added that support in Spack
  • should we ask Intel support whether it's OK?
  • Kenneth can ask Todd?
• Adam can put people in touch on FSL support
• Damian: HPC Container Maker vs EasyBuild
  • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/issues/2508
    • intention is to leverage HPCCM as a library in EasyBuild
    • that way EasyBuild doesn't need to know how to generate both Docker & Singularity recipe files (syntax-wise)
    • see also https://github.com/NVIDIA/hpc-container-maker/issues/20 & https://github.com/NVIDIA/hpc-container-maker/issues/25
  • do container images always need to be built from scratch?
    • no: existing container image can be used as a base for another container
    • cfr. https://easybuild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Containers.html#stacking-container-images