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Kenneth Hoste edited this page Nov 26, 2013 · 26 revisions

EasyBuild configuration

(this page discusses the new style of configuring EasyBuild, which is supported since EasyBuild v1.3.0; for the legacy way of configuring EasyBuild, see here)

Configuring EasyBuild can be done using:

  • eb with command line arguments
  • setting environment variables
  • providing a configuration file

Of course, combining any of these types of configuration works too (and is even fairly common).

The order of preference for the different configuration types is a listed above, i.e., environment variables override the corresponding entries in the configuration file, while command line arguments in turn override the corresponding environment variables and matching entries in the configuration file.

Consistentency across supported configuration types

Note that the various available configuration options are handled consistently across the supported configuration types, i.e. for defining the configuration setting foo-option to bar, the following alternatives are available:

  • configuration file entry (key-value assignment):
foo-option = bar
  • environment variable (upper case, EASYBUILD_ prefix, -s become _s):
$ export EASYBUILD_FOO_OPTION=bar
$ echo $EASYBUILD_FOO_OPTION
bar
  • command line argument (long options preceded by -- and using =):
$ eb --foo-option=bar

For more details w.r.t. each of the supported configuration types, see below.

Available configuration settings

To obtain a full and up-to-date list of available configuration settings, see eb --help. We refrain from listing all available configuration settings here, to avoid outdated documentation.

A couple of selected configuration settings are discussed below, in particular the mandatory settings.

Mandatory configuration settings

A handful of configuration settings are mandatory, and should be provided using one of the supported configuration types.

The following configuration settings are currently mandatory:

  • source path
  • build path
  • install path
  • easyconfigs repository
  • format for name of logfile

If any of these configuration settings is not provided in one way or another, EasyBuild will complain and exit. In practice, all of these have reasonable defaults.

Source path

default: $HOME/.local/easybuild/sources/

The sourcepath configuration setting specifies the directory in which EasyBuild looks for software source and install files.

Looking for the files specified via the sources parameter in the .eb easyconfig file is done in the following order of preference:

  • <sourcepath>/<name>: a subdirectory determined by the name of the software package
  • <sourcepath>/<letter>/<name>: in the style of the easyblocks/easyconfigs directories: in a subdirectory determined by the first letter (in lower case) of the software package and by its full name
  • <sourcepath>: directly in the source path

Note that these locations are also used when EasyBuild looks for patch files in addition to the various easybuild/easyconfigs directories that are listed in the PYTHONPATH.

Build path

default: $HOME/.local/easybuild/build/

The buildpath configuration setting specifies the (temporary) directory in which EasyBuild builds its software packages.

Each software package is (by default) built in a subdirectory of the specified buildpath under <name>/<version>/<toolkit><versionsuffix>.

Note that the build directories are emptied and removed by EasyBuild when the installation is completed (by default).

Tip: using /dev/shm as build path can significantly speed up builds, if it is available and provides a sufficient amount of space.

Install path

default: $HOME/.local/easybuild/

The installpath configuration setting specifies the directory in which EasyBuild installs software packages and the corresponding module files.

The packages themselves are installed under install_path/software in their own subdirectory following the active module naming scheme (e.g., <name>/<version>-<toolkit><versionsuffix>, by default). The corresponding module files are installed under install_path/modules.

Setting MODULEPATH

After the configuration, you need to make sure that MODULEPATH environment variable is extended with the modules/all subdirectory of the installpath, i.e.:

export MODULEPATH=<installpath>/modules/all:$MODULEPATH

It is probably a good idea to add this to your (favourite) shell .rc file, e.g., ~/.bashrc, and/or the ~/.profile login scripts, so you do not need to adjust the MODULEPATH variable every time you start a new session.

Easyconfigs repository

default: FileRepository at $HOME/.local/easybuild/ebfiles_repo

EasyBuild has support for keeping track of (tested) .eb easyconfig files. After successfully installing a software package using EasyBuild, the corresponding .eb file is uploaded to a repository defined by the repository and repositorypath configuration settings.

Currently, EasyBuild supports the following repository types (see also eb --avail-repositories):

  • FileRepository('path', 'sub/dir')): a plain flat file repository; path is the path where files will be stored.
  • GitRepository('path', 'path/in/repository': a non-empty bare git repository (created with git init --bare or git clone --bare); path is the path to the git repository (can also be a URL), path/in/repository is a path inside the repository where to save the files
  • SvnRepository('path'): an SVN repository; path contains the subversion repository location, again, this can be a directory or a URL

You need to set the repository setting inside a configuration file like this:

repository = FileRepository
repositorypath = path

Or, optionally an extra argument representing a subdirectory can be specified:

$ export EASYBUILD_REPOSITORY=FileRepository
$ export EASYBUILD_REPOSITORYPATH=path,sub/dir

You don not have to worry about importing these classes, EasyBuild will make them available to the configuration file.

Using git requires the GitPython Python modules, using svn requires the pysvn Python module (see Dependencies).

If access to the easyconfigs repository fails for some reason (e.g., no network or a required Python module), EasyBuild will issue a warning. The software package will still be installed, but the (successful) easyconfig will not be automatically added to the repository.

Logfile format

default: easybuild, easybuild-%(name)s-%(version)s-%(date)s.%(time)s.log

The logfile-format configuration setting contains a tuple specifying a log directory name and a template log file name. In both of these values, using the following fields is supported:

  • name: the name of the software package to install
  • version: the version of the software package to install
  • date: the date on which the installation was performed (in YYYYMMDD format, e.g. 20120324)
  • time: the time at which the installation was started (in HHMMSS format, e.g. 214359)

For example, the logfile format can be specified as follows in the EasyBuild configuration file:

logfile-format = "easylog", "easybuild-%(name)s.log"

Optional configuration settings

Software and modules install path suffixes

(supported since v1.1.0)

defaults: software as software install path suffix, modules as modules install path suffix

The software and modules install path suffixes can be adjusted using the subdir-software and/or subdir-modules configuration settings, for example:

$ export EASYBUILD_SUBDIR_SOFTWARE=installs
$ eb --subdir-modules=module_files ...

Note: EasyBuild will still use the additional all and base suffixes for the module install paths, along with a directory for every module class that is being used.

Modules tool

default: EnvironmentModulesC

Specifying the modules tool that should be used by EasyBuild can be done using the modules-tool configuration setting. A list of supported modules tools can be obtained using eb --avail-modules-tools, example include: EnvironmentModulesC, EnvironmentModulesTcl, Lmod, etc.

For example, to indicate that EasyBuild should be using Lmod as modules tool:

export EASYBUILD_MODULES_TOOL=Lmod
Active module naming scheme

default: EasyBuildModuleNamingScheme

The module naming scheme that should be used by EasyBuild can be specified using the module-naming-scheme configuration setting.

More details are available on the dedicated wiki page Using a custom module naming scheme.

Supported configuration types

Configuration file

The EasyBuild configuration file follows the default Python configuration format as parsed by the configparser module (see http://docs.python.org/2/library/configparser.html).

The set of configuration files that will be used by EasyBuild is determined in the following order of preference:

  • the path(s) specified via command line argument --configfiles
  • the path(s) specified via the $EASYBUILD_CONFIGFILES environment variable
  • the default path for the EasyBuild configuration file, i.e. $HOME/.easybuild/config.cfg

On top of this, the command line argument --ignoreconfigfiles allows to specify configuration files that should be ignored by EasyBuild (regardless of whether they are specified via any of the options above).

Environment variables

Command line arguments

Legacy configuration options (deprecated)

In EasyBuild v1.x, a couple of configuration options other than the ones below are available that follow the legacy configuration style, including:

  • the -C and --config command line arguments
  • the $EASYBUILDCONFIG environment variable
  • the default path $HOME/.easybuild/config.py
  • the legacy fallback path <installpath>/easybuild/easybuild_config.py

We strongly advise to switch to the new way of configuring EasyBuild as soon as possible, since the legacy style will no longer be supported in EasyBuild v2.x.

Default configuration

## Example configuration

This is a simple example configuration file, that specifies the user's home directory as the install_path and that uses /tmp/easybuild as the build_path. Additionally, it states that the .eb repository resides in $HOME/ebfiles and that it stores flat files:

import os

home = os.getenv('HOME')

build_path = "/tmp/easybuild"
install_path = home
source_path = os.path.join(home, "sources")

repository_path = os.path.join(home, "ebfiles")
repository = FileRepository(repository_path)

log_format = ("easybuildlogs", "%(name)s-%(version)s.log")

module_classes = ['base', 'bio', 'chem', 'compiler', 'lib', 'phys', 'tools']

Default configuration

The default configuration file that comes with EasyBuild (easybuild/easybuild_config.py) can be used as a starting point if you create your own configuration file, see here.

Paths

In the default configuration file, the prefix for the build, install and source directories is obtained from the EASYBUILDPREFIX environment variable. If this variable was not defined, the prefix is set to $HOME/.local/easybuild/

If for some reason HOME is not defined, the configuration file falls back to using /tmp/easybuild as the prefix for the various paths.

These paths are then defined as follows:

  • build_path: <prefix>/easybuild/build
  • install_path: <prefix>/easybuild
  • source_path: <prefix>/easybuild/sources

Easyconfigs repository

The repository_path is specified as <prefix>/ebfiles_repo, and repository is set to FileRepository

Log format

The default log format uses all fields available:

("easybuildlog", "easybuild-%(name)s-%(version)s-%(date)s.%(time)s.log")

Reconfiguration using environment variables

You can (temporarily) override both the build_path, source_path and install_path settings by defining the EASYBUILDBUILDPATH, EASYBUILDSOURCEPATH and EASYBUILDINSTALLPATH environment variables.

Overriding the configuration file is commonly done when testing new easyblocks.

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