As far as I know, LD_LIBRARY_PATH is considered evil:
http://xahlee.info/UnixResource_dir/_/ldpath.html
I agree, using RPATH avoids a lot of evil. From the EasyBuild perspective,
that is really needed to achieve the kind of compiler flexibility people
want. The goal would be for EasyBuild modules to NOT set LD_LIBRARY_PATH
at all, to have it all be done via RPATH. Since Spack already does this,
EasyBuild would do well to copy the feature.
As for RUNPATH vs. RPATH... I'd never heard of RUNPATH before today. But
from the information provided, it seems to be somewhat ill-conceived. What
good is a "feature" that doesn't work in a predictable fashion?
If one is successful in avoiding LD_LIBRARY_PATH (an excellent goal), then
RPATH and RUNPATH are equilalent. In that case, maybe RUNPATH would be a
good idea --- it would allow the user to override RUNPATH by setting
LD_LIBRARY_PATH in special cases; for example, to temporarily test things
with a different version of a library.
-- Elizabeth
