Conference call notes 20180905

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Notes on the 109th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday Sept 5th 2018 (5pm - 6pm CEST)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (6):

• Damien Alvarez (JSC, Germany)
• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Davide Vanzo (Vanderbilt University, US)
• Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)
• Bart Oldeman (ComputeCanada)
• Fotis Georgatos (SDSC, Switzerland)

Agenda

• update on upcoming EasyBuild v3.7.0
• automagic checking of SHA256 checksums in easyconfig PRs will be enabled soon
  • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/5005
• better support for tweaking easyconfig file via hooks?
  • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/issues/2557
• Q&A

EasyBuild v3.7.0

• ETA: mid next week?
• framework:
  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/milestone/58
  • already merged:
    • support for considering multiple subtoolchains (https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2466)
    • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2561
    • --check-contrib (https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2551)
      • needs docs update
  • to be merged:
    • support for parse_hook (https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2562)
      • Alan: how does this affect reproducibility?
    • Bart: fallback to requests for downloading: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2538
• easyblocks:
  • bug fix: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1495
• easyconfigs:
  • Java 'wrapper': https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/5203
  • enforcing SHA256 checksums in PRs: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/5005

Other

• Davide: difference between --check-conflicts & the dependency variant check on Travis

  • Travis also runs --check-conflicts on each .eb
  • mimic dep variant checks via eb --check-conflicts-filter '*2018a*'?
  • lots of exceptions though, see check in Travis: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/blob/master/test/easyconfigs/easyconfigs.py#L156
  • support for only running dep variant test in easyconfigs repo could be sufficient
    • python -O -m test.easyconfigs.easyconfigs test_dep_versions_per_toolchain_generation
    • should be documented in contrib guide

• Damian: problems with 'exts_classmap' easyconfig parameter

  • https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/blob/master/easybuild/framework/easyblock.py#L1890
  • easyblocks specified in exts_classmap must derive from ExtensionEasyBlock (e.g. PythonPackage)
    • error could be clearer there
  • distinction between 'extensions' (e.g. Python packages, which sit on top of something else, e.g. Python), and stand-alone software being installed in the same installation prefix
  • to combine nodejs & JupyterLab into a single installation prefix, the Bundle easyblock could be used, see use of components in X11 easyconfigs
  • exts_classmap should be deprecated & removed in EasyBuild 4.0?
    • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/issues/506

• Fotis: .ebp concept vs new parse_hook (https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2562)

  • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/issues/544
  • parse_hook is considered a better option
    • customizations in a single place in Python code
    • no worries w.r.t. format of original easyconfig
    • downside: requires Python coding

• Fotis: anyone playing with EB+Lmod container images?

  • Kenneth has a basic Singularity definition file to share
  • this could be interesting: https://github.com/NVIDIA/hpc-container-maker