EasyBuild documentation

Welcome to the documentation of EasyBuild, a software build and installation framework that allows you to manage (scientific) software on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems in an efficient way.

This documentation is intended for EasyBuild version 2.1.1, and was last rebuilt on Wed, 03 Aug 2016 13:23:16.

Introductory topics

• What is EasyBuild?
• Concepts and terminology
  • EasyBuild framework
  • Easyblocks
  • Toolchains
    • dummy toolchain
  • Easyconfig files
  • Extensions
• Typical workflow example: building and installing WRF
  • Searching for available easyconfigs files
  • Getting an overview of planned installations
  • Installing a software stack

Getting started

• Installing EasyBuild
  • Requirements
  • Bootstrapping EasyBuild
    • Bootstrapping procedure
    • Sanity check
    • Running unit tests
    • Example bootstrap run
  • Advanced bootstrapping options
    • Skipping the installation of easy_install (stage 0)
    • Bootstrapping using supplied source tarballs
  • Dependencies
    • Required dependencies
    • Optional dependencies
  • Sources
  • In case of installation issues...
    • How to collect info in case sanity checks fail or there is another issue
• Configuring EasyBuild
  • Supported configuration types
    • Consistentency across supported configuration types
    • Configuration file(s)
    • Environment variables
    • Command line arguments
  • Available configuration settings
    • Mandatory configuration settings
    • Optional configuration settings

Basic usage topics

• Using the EasyBuild command line
  • Specifying builds
    • By providing a single easyconfig file
    • Via command line options
    • By providing a set of easyconfig files
  • Commonly used command line options
    • Command line help, --help / -H
    • Report version, --version
    • List of known toolchains, --list-toolchains
    • List of available easyblocks, --list-easyblocks
    • All available easyconfig parameters, --avail-easyconfig-params / -a
    • Enable debug logging, --debug / -d
    • Forced reinstallation, --force / -f
    • Searching for easyconfigs, --search / -S
    • Enabling dependency resolution, --robot / -r and --robot-paths
    • Get an overview of planned installations --dry-run / -D
    • Tweaking existing easyconfig files, using --try-*
• Writing easyconfig files: the basics
  • What is an easyconfig (file)?
  • Available easyconfig parameters
  • Mandatory easyconfig parameters
  • Common easyconfig parameters
    • Source files and patches
    • Dependencies
    • Configure/build/install command options
    • Sanity check
    • Easyblock specification
    • Module class
  • Tweaking existing easyconfig files
  • Dynamic values for easyconfig parameters
  • Contributing back
• Understanding EasyBuild logs
  • Basic information
  • Navigating log files
    • Log message format
    • Useful handles in log files

Advanced usage topics

• Integration with GitHub
  • Using a GitHub token to enable authenticated access via --github-user
  • Using easyconfigs from pull requests via --from-pr
    • Synergy with –robot
    • Specifying particular easyconfig files
• Manipulating dependencies
  • Filtering out dependencies using --filter-deps
  • Installing dependencies as hidden modules using --hide-deps
• Partial installations
  • Stopping the installation procedure after a step using -s/--stop
  • Installing additional extensions using -k/-skip
  • Only (re)generating (additional) module files using --module-only
    • Only (re)generating (existing) module file
    • Generating additional module files
• Using external modules
  • Using external modules as dependencies
  • Metadata for external modules

Other topics

• Code style
  • Notes
• Unit tests
  • What the unit tests are not
  • Available unit test suites
  • Applications
  • Usage
• Useful scripts
  • fix_broken_easyconfigs.py
  • install-EasyBuild-develop.sh
  • clean_gists.py
• Deprecated functionality
  • Overview of deprecated functionality in EasyBuild version 2.1.1
  • Deprecation policy
  • How to check for use of deprecated functionality
• Removed functionality
  • Overview of removed functionality since EasyBuild v2.0

Getting help

Having trouble? We’d like to help!

• Search this documentation collection
• Search for information in the archives of the easybuild@lists.ugent.be mailing list or subscribe to post a question.
• Did you try eb --help?
• Ask a question in the #easybuild IRC channel on the Freenode network
• Consider participating to an EasyBuild conference call
• Report issues with EasyBuild framework in our framework ticket tracker.
• Report issues with EasyBuild easyblocks in our easyblocks ticket tracker.
• Report issues with EasyBuild easyconfigs in our easyconfigs ticket tracker.
• Report issues with EasyBuild documentation or other aspects in our general ticket tracker.

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Lists and tables

As of version EasyBuild version 2.1.1:

• The complete table of available toolchains is visible at List of known toolchains
• The list of available easyblocks is visible at List of easyblocks
• The list of available (generic) easyconfig parameters is visible at Available easyconfig parameters

Appendices

• Documentation changelog
• EasyBuild release notes
• Search
• Useful Links