If the release candidate is available when they say and we can do most of the testing against that, I don't see it being a big risk to try and include it and it won't hurt to help test the RC.
I see that they have changed their versioning so that 5.2 is a less significant change than it would have been under the 4.x series. On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 6:59 AM Kenneth Hoste <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > GCC 4.8.5 and 4.9.3 were released last week, but more importantly w.r.t. > the 2015b common toolchains: GCC 5.2.0 (bugfix release for GCC 5.1.0) is > planned to be released July 10th 2015 (see > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2015-06/msg00202.html). > > That opens up the discussion again: should we hold off finalizing the > foss/2015b (+ gompi/2015b) and intel/2015b definitions until GCC 5.2.0 > is available, so we can use it as a base rather than our current pick > GCC 5.1.0? > > If the release of GCC 5.2 happens effectively on July 10th, it may be > doable to still make that change and have sufficient time for > (re)testing, but it'll be quite tight... > > Thoughts? > > > regards, > > Kenneth > > > > On 17/06/15 12:50, Kenneth Hoste wrote: > > Hello EasyBuilders, > > > > With summer approaching rapidly (I'm sure you're aware), it's time to > > look into defining the 2015b update of the common compiler toochains > > 'foss' and 'intel'. > > > > For those of you not aware yet: the common toolchains are an attempt > > at synchronizing the major toolchains being used with EasyBuild across > > different sites, to try and reap the benefits of each others efforts > > even more. The idea is to refresh these toolchains every 6 months. > > > > It's important to note that we are not enforcing these toolchains on > > anyone: it's up to you whether you join in or not, and other > > toolchains and toolchain versions will of course remain supported as > > they have been in the past (with the exception of some old toolchains > > that I'd like to deprecate sometime soon (goalf, iqacml), but more on > > that later). > > > > I've taken the liberty to come up with a proposal for foss/2015b and > > intel/2015b, see also the respective pull requests > > https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/1695 and > > https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/1696. > > > > foss/2015b: > > GCC v5.1.0 > > binutils/2.25 (which implies also including zlib/1.2.8) > > OpenMPI v1.8.5 (note: with 1.8.6 likely to be released very soon, > > this may get bumped before the definition is cast into stone) > > OpenBLAS 0.2.14 > > FFTW 3.3.4 > > ScaLAPACK 2.0.2 > > > > intel/2015b: > > (GCC v5.1.0 + binutils/2.25) > > Intel compilers (icc + ifort) 2015.3.187 (a.k.a. 15.0.3.187) > > Intel MPI v5.0.3.048 > > Intel MKL v11.2.3.187 > > > > A couple of notes on this: > > > > * The most significant change is including binutils into these > > toolchains (which also reels in zlib). > > The reason for this is analogous to the reason for including GCC in > > the intel toolchain: to be independent from what the OS provides. > > This is very relevant for RHEL6-based Haswell systems, where the > > standard binutils version included is too old to support AVX2 (cfr. > > https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/issues/1605), as > > several EasyBuild sites have discovered. > > > > * After careful consideration, we bumped the GCC version to the latest > > an greatest 5.1.0, despite it being a new major version. > > There are several reasons for this, including better OpenMP 4.0 and > > C+11 support in GCC 5.1.0, and the 2nd most recent 4.9.2 being rather > > old (Oct'14). > > > > Other communities have explored the impact of moving to GCC 5.1.0 > > (e.g. > > > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2015-February/207549.html > ). > > Although the impact significant, it's limited to a small set of > > packages, and the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion. > > > > * Other changes include bumping the versions to the latest and greatest. > > > > > > Preliminary testing using Python and Boost has shown that rebuilding > > existing 2014b easyconfigs doesn't yield too much surprises. > > > > I'm planning to run further tests in the coming weeks rebuilding > > existing easyconfigs using the 2014b toolchains, but unless major > > issues pop up, I consider these 2015b toolchain definitions solid. > > > > > > Feedback, suggestions and/or remarks are much appreciated, both in > > this mail thread and via the respective pull requests. > > > > Unless major concerns come forward, my intention is to include these > > 2015b toolchains + several easyconfigs using them in the next > > EasyBuild release (v2.2.0, planned for end of June/early July). > > > > Last but not least: please refrain from using these 2015b toolchains > > in production until the respective pull requests are merged. Until > > then, the toolchain definitions may still be tweaked (and probably > > will be for foss/2015b w.r.t. the OpenMPI version)! > > > > > > regards, > > > > Kenneth > >
