Hello EasyBuilders,
EasyBuild v1.3.0 has just been released, and is available via GitHub and PyPi.
This release includes the work that was contributed during the 3rd EasyBuild
hackathon in Nicosia, Cyprus.
This is a very rich release, for multiple reasons.
The framework got a major update and revamp by:
* adding support for more consistent and flexible configuration of
EasyBuild, while keeping support for the 'old-style' configuration (until
v2.x); we will document the new-style configuration soon on the EasyBuild wiki
pages
* the framework/easyconfig.py module was reorganized into multiple
modules in the framework/easyconfig package, while adding support for
specifying the license applicable to a software package (e.g. proprietary,
GPLv2, BSD, ...)
* adding support for the goolf compiler toolchain that uses OpenBLAS;
we recommend to use this fully open-source toolchain over goalf, since the
latter relies on ATLAS which can be a pain to get built/installed
* multiple other enhancements and bug fixes (see release notes for
details [1])
All these changes were made such that full backwards compatibility with
previous v1.x releases is maintained.
Several (mostly internal) constructs that we want to get rid of in v2.0.0 have
been deprecated but will remain supported for now, more on that later.
Next to adding support for building/installing CUDA and Ferret, several
existing easyblocks were enhanced to produce better builds, rely on common
functionality or fix occasional problems.
The 'license' easyconfig parameter for Intel tools has been deprecated, the
generic 'license_file' parameter should be used instead.
Support for 13 new software packages was added, alongside easyconfig files for
building 201 different software packages using the goolf compiler toolchain.
Various existing easyconfig files we enhanced or received fixes, most notably:
* a proper module class specification in each one of the 869 supplied
easyconfig files
* include single, double, long double and quad precision FFTW libraries
behind a single FFTW module
* various fixes in the OpenMPI easyconfig files, e.g.:
* using '--without-openib --without-udapl' for '-no-OFED'
suffixed easyconfigs, thus making the semantics of the builds match with the
version suffix
* using '--enable-openmp' as correct configure flag for
enabling OpenMP support (as opposed to the non-existing --with-openmp option)
* drop use of explicit '--with-udapl', since it does more harm
than good w.r.t. making the OpenMPI build work correctly
* removed explicit libibmad/libibumad/libibverbs dependencies,
since the required version of these libraries is too much tied to the IB
drivers provided by the OS (also done for MVAPICH2)
Do note that explicitly disabling Infiniband support in the '-no-OFED' OpenMPI
builds effectively renders the goalf-1.1.0-no-OFED compiler toolchain
ill-suited for producing IB-capable software builds, as it was intended from
the start.
The detailed release notes are available at [1][2][3].
The next release is currently planned for end of April. We will try and outline
our release plans more clearly sometime soon.
Enjoy EasyBuild v1.3.0!
regards,
Kenneth
[1] https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-framework/blob/develop/RELEASE_NOTES
[2] https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyblocks/blob/develop/RELEASE_NOTES
[3] https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/blob/develop/RELEASE_NOTES
