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Kenneth Hoste edited this page Nov 27, 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)

Supported configuration types

Configuring EasyBuild can be done by:

  • using eb with command line arguments
  • setting environment variables ($EASYBUILD_...)
  • providing one or more configuration files

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 as 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 (in section somesection) to bar, the following alternatives are available:

  • configuration file entry (key-value assignment):
[somesection]
foo-option = bar
  • environment variable (upper case, EASYBUILD_ prefix, -'s become _'s):
$ export 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.

Configuration file

List of used configuration files

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

Note that each available configuration file will be used, and that the configuration settings specified in these files will be retained according to the order of preference as indicated above.

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).

Configuration file format

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).

Configuration files are organized in sections, the section name for a particular configuration setting are indicated in the output of eb --help. Some examples sections are: MAIN, basic, config, informative, override, regtest, software, unittest, ... .

Sections are indicated by specifying the section name in square brackets on a dedicated line, e.g., [basic].

Configuration settings are specified in a key = value or key: value format, without using quotes for string-like values. For boolean configuration settings, values that evaluated to True (e.g., true, 1, ...) are all equivalent to enabling the setting.

Comment lines start with a hash character # (just like in Python code).

An example dummy configuration file that should make everything clear is shown below.

[basic]
# always enable logging to stdout
logtostdout = true
[config]
# use Lmod as modules tool
modules-tool: Lmod
# use different default installation path
prefix = /home/you/work/easybuild/

Environment variables

All configuration settings listed as long options in eb --help can also be specified via EASYBUILD_-prefixed environment variables.

Configuration settings specified this way always override the corresponding setting specified in a configuration file.

For example, to enable debug logging using an environment variable:

export EASYBUILD_DEBUG=1

More examples of using environment variables to configure EasyBuild are shown in the sections below.

Command line arguments

The configuration type with the highest prededence is eb command line arguments, which override settings specified via environment variables or in configuration files.

For some configuration options, both short and long command line arguments are available (see eb --help); the long options indicate how the configuration setting should be specified in a configuration file or via an environment variable ($EASYBUILD_<LONGOPTION>).

For boolean configuration settings, both the --<option> and --disable-<option> variants are always available.

Legacy configuration (deprecated!)

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

  • the -C and --config command line arguments (use --configfiles instead)
  • the $EASYBUILDCONFIG environment variable (use $EASYBUILD_CONFIGFILES instead)
  • the default path $HOME/.easybuild/config.py (new-style default path is $HOME/.easybuild/config.cfg)
  • the legacy fallback path <installpath>/easybuild/easybuild_config.py (only default/fallback path is $HOME/.easybuild/config.cfg)

Likewise, the following legacy environment variables allowed to override selected configuration settings:

  • $EASYBUILDBUILDPATH: build path to be used by EasyBuild (use $EASYBUILD_BUILDPATH instead)
  • $EASYBUILDINSTALLPATH: install path to be used by EasyBuild (use $EASYBUILD_INSTALLPATH instead)
  • $EASYBUILDSOURCEPATH: source path to be used by EasyBuild (use $EASYBUILD_SOURCEPATH instead)
  • $EASYBUILDPREFIX: build/install/source path prefix to be used (use $EASYBUILD_PREFIX instead)

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

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 (--sourcepath)

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

The sourcepath configuration setting specifies the parent path of 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 (--buildpath)

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

The buildpath configuration setting specifies the parent path of the (temporary) directories in which EasyBuild builds its software packages.

Each software package is (by default) built in a subdirectory of the specified buildpath under <name>/<version>/<toolchain><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 (--installpath)

default: $HOME/.local/easybuild/

The installpath configuration setting specifies the parent path of the directories in which EasyBuild installs software packages and the corresponding module files.

The packages themselves are installed under <installpath>/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 <installpath>/modules/all, and symlinks are installed in <installpath>/modules/<moduleclass>.

Setting $MODULEPATH

After (re)configuring EasyBuild, you need to make sure that $MODULEPATH environment variable is extended with the modules/all subdirectory of the installpath so you can load the modules created for the software built with EasyBuild, 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 $MODULEPATH every time you start a new session.

Easyconfigs repository (--repository, --repositorypath)

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

EasyBuild has support for archiving (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', 'subdir'): a plain flat file repository; path is the path where files will be stored, subdir is an optional subdirectory of that path where the files should be stored
  • GitRepository('path', 'subdir/in/repo': 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); subdir/in/repo is optional, and specifies a subdirectory of the repository where files should be stored in
  • SvnRepository('path', 'subdir/in/repo'): an SVN repository; path contains the subversion repository location (directory or URL), the optional second value specifies a subdirectory in the repository

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

[config]
repository = FileRepository
repositorypath = <path>

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

$ export EASYBUILD_REPOSITORY=GitRepository
$ export EASYBUILD_REPOSITORYPATH=<path>, <subdir>

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 missing 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 archive (i.e., it is not considered a fatal error).

Logfile format (--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 string templates is supported:

  • %(name)s: the name of the software package to install
  • %(version)s: the version of the software package to install
  • %(date)s: the date on which the installation was performed (in YYYYMMDD format, e.g. 20120324)
  • %(time)s: 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 (--subdir-software, --subdir-modules)

(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 <moduleclass> suffixes for the module install paths.

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.

Currently, the following modules tools are supported:

  • EnvironmentModulesC: C version of environment modules (modulecmd)
  • EnvironmentModulesTcl: Tcl-only version of environment modules (modulecmd.tcl)
  • Lmod: Lmod, an modern alternative to environment modules, written in Lua (lmod)

You can determine which modules tool you are using by checking the output of type module (in a bash shell), or alias module (in a tcsh shell).

The actual module command (i.e., modulecmd, modulecmd.tcl, lmod, ...) must be available via $PATH (which is not standard).

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

eb --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.

For more details, see the dedicated wiki page Using a custom module naming scheme.

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