Spack is a package management tool designed to support multiple versions and configurations of software on a wide variety of platforms and environments. It was designed for large supercomputing centers, where many users and application teams share common installations of software on clusters with exotic architectures, using libraries that do not have a standard ABI. Spack is non-destructive: installing a new version does not break existing installations, so many configurations can coexist on the same system.
Most importantly, Spack is simple. It offers a simple spec syntax so that users can specify versions and configuration options concisely. Spack is also simple for package authors: package files are written in pure Python, and specs allow package authors to maintain a single file for many different builds of the same package.
See the :doc:`features` for examples and highlights.
Get spack from the github repository and install your first package:
$ git clone -c feature.manyFiles=true --depth=2 https://github.com/spack/spack.git
$ cd spack/bin
$ ./spack install libelfNote
-c feature.manyFiles=true improves git's performance on repositories with 1,000+ files.
--depth=2 prunes the git history to reduce the size of the Spack installation.
If you're new to spack and want to start using it, see :doc:`getting_started`, or refer to the full manual below.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Basics features getting_started basic_usage replace_conda_homebrew frequently_asked_questions
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Links Tutorial (spack-tutorial.rtfd.io) <https://spack-tutorial.readthedocs.io> Packages (packages.spack.io) <https://packages.spack.io> Binaries (binaries.spack.io) <https://cache.spack.io>
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Reference configuration config_yaml packages_yaml build_settings environments containers mirrors module_file_support repositories binary_caches bootstrapping command_index chain extensions pipelines signing gpu_configuration
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Contributing contribution_guide packaging_guide build_systems developer_guide
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: API Docs Spack API Docs <spack> LLNL API Docs <llnl>