Configuring EasyBuild¶

After installing EasyBuild, you should configure it.

EasyBuild should work fine out-of-the-box if you use Lmod as your modules tool. If you are not using Lmod, please see here for more information.

Nevertheless, we strongly recommend you to inspect the default configuration, and to configure EasyBuild according to your preferences and the system on which you will use it.

Available configuration settings¶

One of the central policies in the EasyBuild project is to avoid hardcoded settings in the codebase. While this significantly increases the ability to configure EasyBuild to your liking, it also results in a large amount of available configuration settings.

The full list of configuration settings can be consulted via eb --help, which shows the corresponding command line option accompanied by a short description. At the time of writing, over 240 different configuration settings are supported by EasyBuild.

For the sake of this tutorial we will focus on a specific subset of configuration settings, and cover only the most prominent and important ones.

We will refer to EasyBuild configuration settings using the names as they appears in the output of eb --help, and omit the leading dashes (--) for the sake of clarity.

Keep in mind that every configuration setting can be defined in 3 different ways, see below for more details.

Overall prefix¶

(default: HOME/.local/easybuild)

The prefix configuration setting specifies the overall prefix that EasyBuild should use, which determines the default value for various other configuration settings:

installpath: <prefix>
buildpath: <prefix>/build
sourcepath: <prefix>/sources
repositorypath (easyconfigs archive): <prefix>/ebfiles_repo
containerpath: <prefix>/containers

Here, <prefix> represents the value of the prefix configuration setting.

If one of the configuration settings affected by prefix is defined specifically, the prefix value becomes irrelevant for that specific configuration setting.

Install path¶

(default: <prefix>)

The location for both the software installation directories and generated module files can be controlled via the installpath configuration setting. Software installation directories will be placed in <installpath>/software, while <installpath>/modules/all will be used for generated module files.

The installpath location is usually set to a directory on a shared filesystem when installing software for an HPC cluster. Of course, software can also be installed on a local filesystem, which is particularly useful to test and evaluate software installations.

Separate configuration settings are available for both software and modules locations, as well as for controlling the name of the software and modules/all subdirectories.

We recommend to only change the installpath configuration setting to control the location of software installations and accompanying module files, such that the software and modules directories are located in the same parent directory, and the default software and modules/all names for the subdirectories are used.

Build path¶

(default: <prefix>/build)

For each installation it performs, EasyBuild creates a separate build directory where software will be compiled before installing it. This directory is cleaned up automatically when the installation is successfully completed. To control the location where these build directories are created, you can use the buildpath configuration setting.

Keep in mind that build directories may grow out to several GBs in size during an installation, and that the commands that run in there can be fairly I/O-intensive since they may involve manipulating lots of small files. In addition, a build directory that corresponds to a failing installation is not cleaned up automatically, but it will be cleaned up and recycled when the same installation is re-attempted. Running out of disk space in the location where build directories are created will result in failing installations.

It is strongly recommend to use the path to a directory on a local filesystem for the value of the buildpath configuration setting, since using a shared filesystem like Lustre or GPFS is known to cause problems when building certain software packages. Using an in-memory location (like /dev/shm/$USER) can significantly speed up the build process, but may also lead to problems (due to space limitations, or specific mount options like noexec).

Use a directory on a local filesystem for buildpath for this tutorial. In addition, try to ensure you use a path that will not be used by other users on the same system, so set buildpath to /tmp/$USER, for example.

Source path¶

(default: <prefix>/sources)

For most supported software, EasyBuild can automatically download the source files required for the installation. Before trying to download a source file, EasyBuild will first check if it is already present in the source path.

The locations considered by EasyBuild when checking for available source files, as well as the location to store downloaded source files, can be controlled via the sourcepath configuration setting.

The sourcepath value is a colon (:) separated list of directory paths. Each of these paths will be considered in turn when checking for available source files, until one of them provides the desired source file. Searching for source files is done based on filename, and a couple of subdirectories are considered. For example, for a software package named 'Example', EasyBuild will consider locations like <sourcepath>/e/Example/, <sourcepath>/Example/, and so on.

The first path listed in sourcepath is the location where EasyBuild will store downloaded source files, organised by software name through subdirectories, so EasyBuild expects to have write permissions to this path. For the other paths listed in sourcepath only read permissions are required.

Make sure you have write permissions to the first path listed in sourcepath, so EasyBuild is able to store downloaded files there. Feel free to list additional paths if you already have a cache of downloaded files available somewhere.

Easyconfigs archive¶

(default: <prefix>/ebfiles_repo)

EasyBuild keeps track of the easyconfig files that were used for installations in the easyconfigs archive, the location of which is specified by the repositorypath configuration setting.

By default the specified path is assumed to be a regular directory, but using a Git repository as easyconfigs archive is also supported (for more details, see the EasyBuild documentation).

For the sake of this tutorial we recommend using a regular directory, and sticking to the default location as a subdirectory of the prefix configuration setting.

Modules tool & module syntax¶

(default: Lmod as modules tool, Lua as module syntax)

By default, EasyBuild assumes you are using Lmod as modules tool. In addition, it will generate module files in Lua syntax, as supported by Lmod (next to Tcl syntax).

To diverge from this, you can define the modules-tool configuration setting to indicate you are using a different modules tool; see the output of eb --avail-modules-tools for a list of supported modules tools. Note that for anything other than Lmod, you must make sure that the actual modules tool binary command is available through $PATH (more information on this in the EasyBuild documentation).

If you prefer that EasyBuild generates module files in Tcl syntax, you can instruct it to do so via the module-syntax configuration setting. Note that this is required if you are using a modules tool other than Lmod, since only Lmod supports module files in Lua syntax.

We recommend using EasyBuild with the defaults settings: Lmod as modules tool, and Lua as module syntax.

Robot search path¶

(default: robot-paths specifies the location to the easyconfig files included with EasyBuild installation; dependency resolution is not enabled)

When EasyBuild needs to locate one or more easyconfig files, it will do so via the robot search path. This applies to both easyconfig files that were specified using only their filename as an argument to the eb command, as well as to easyconfigs required to resolve dependencies (more on that later).

To control the robot search path, two configuration settings are available: robot and robot-paths. Both accept a colon-separated list of locations to consider when looking for easyconfig files, with robot overriding robot-paths.

The key difference between these two configuration settings is that defining robot also enables dependency resolution, and hence makes EasyBuild install missing dependencies, alongside specifying a list of paths to consider when searching for easyconfig files. On the other hand, defining robot-paths does not have the side effect of enabling dependency resolution.

In addition, you can use the --robot command line option without specifying any paths to it, to only enable dependency resolution.

Note

Keep in mind that when either of the robot or robot-paths configuration settings are defined, the default value corresponding to the location of easyconfigs included with the EasyBuild is no longer considered.

There are ways around this however, which are outside of the scope of this tutorial.

For more information, see the EasyBuild documentation.

Module naming scheme¶

(default: EasyBuildMNS)

EasyBuild will use a specific naming scheme for the module files it generates for each of the software installations. This ensures consistency, regardless of who uses EasyBuild to perform the installation.

Different types of module naming schemes are supported (flat, hierarchical, ...) and you can provide an implementation of your own custom module naming scheme if desired. A number of different naming schemes are included with EasyBuild, which you can consult via eb --avail-module-naming-schemes.

The default EasyBuildMNS module naming scheme roughly corresponds to the filename of easyconfig files, and consists of the software name followed by a combination of the software version, toolchain and an optional label (which corresponds to the value of the versionsuffix easyconfig parameter): <name>/<version><-toolchain><versionsuffix>. Just like with names of easyconfig files, the <-toolchain> part is omitted when the system toolchain is used, and the <versionsuffix> value is empty by default.

Configuration levels¶

Configuring EasyBuild can be done in different ways:

through one or more configuration files;
via $EASYBUILD_* environment variables;
using eb command line options;

Each of the methods corresponds to a configuration level.

Every configuration setting can be defined via one of these mechanisms, without exception!

Configuration level hierarchy¶

There is a strict hierarchy between the different configuration levels supported by EasyBuild.

Settings defined via a configuration file only override default values.

A configuration setting that is defined via the corresponding $EASYBUILD_* environment variable takes precedence over the value specified in a configuration file (if any).

Finally, values specified through eb command line options always win, regardless of whether the corresponding configuration setting was already defined some other way, be it via a configuration file or an environment variable.

For example, let us consider a fictional configuration setting named magic:

If a value for magic is specified in an EasyBuild configuration file, then this value will only be used if the corresponding environment variable ($EASYBUILD_MAGIC) is not defined and if the --magic command line option is not used;
If the $EASYBUILD_MAGIC environment is defined however, then its value will be used for the this-is-magic configuration setting;
Unless the --magic command line option is used, since in that case the value provided as an argument there will be used instead.

Configuration files¶

Configuration files are the most basic way of configuring EasyBuild. Two types of are supported by EasyBuild: user-level and system-level configuration files. The output of eb --show-default-configfiles tells you which locations are considered, and whether any configuration files were found.

EasyBuild configuration files are written in the standard INI format, and the configuration settings are grouped into different sections.

To create an EasyBuild configuration file, the output of eb --confighelp is very useful: it produces the list of all supported configuration settings which are readily grouped in sections and with every entry commented out, along with accompanying descriptive comments mentioning the default values, and in the correct syntax.

Configuration files are the recommended mechanism to define configuration settings that should always be in place, regardless of the software you are installing.

EasyBuild configuration files vs easyconfig files¶

EasyBuild configuration files are sometimes confused with easyconfig files, due to the similar name. However, these are two entirely different concepts!

EasyBuild configuration files (usually *.cfg) are a way of configuring the general behaviour of EasyBuild across different software installations. They define configuration settings, such as the location where software should be installed, or the syntax that should be used when generating module files.

An easyconfig file (*.eb) on the other hand specifies the details for one particular software installation. It does this by defining a set of easyconfig parameters, which tell EasyBuild the name and version of the software to install, which toolchain and easyblock to use, etc.

For each software installation performed by EasyBuild, there is a corresponding easyconfig file. There typically are only a handful of configuration files used however, for example a system-level configuration file, perhaps combined with a user-level one. Or there may be no configuration files involved at all, since EasyBuild can also be configured through other mechanisms: environment variables and command line options.

`$EASYBUILD_*` environment variables¶

A particularly easy way to configure EasyBuild is through environment variables.

At startup, EasyBuild will pick up any environment variable of which the name starts with 'EASYBUILD_'. For each of these, it will determine the corresponding configuration setting (or exit with an error if none was found).

Mapping the name of a configuration setting to the name of the corresponding environment variable is straightforward: use capital letters, replace dashes (-) with underscores (_), and prefix with EASYBUILD_.

For example: the module-syntax configuration setting can be specified by defining the $EASYBUILD_MODULE_SYNTAX environment variable:

export EASYBUILD_MODULE_SYNTAX=Tcl

Configuring via environment variables is especially practical for controlling the EasyBuild configuration in a more dynamic way. For example, you can implement a simple shell script that defines $EASYBUILD_* environment variables based on the current context (user, hostname, other environment variables), and configure EasyBuild through sourcing it.

Note

Keep in mind that environment variables are only defined for the shell session you are currently working in. If you want to configure EasyBuild through environment variables in a more persistent way, you can leverage one of the shell startup scripts (for example $HOME/.bash_profile or $HOME/.bashrc).

`eb` command line options¶

Finally, you can also configure EasyBuild by specifying one or options to the eb command.

As mentioned earlier, the values for configuration settings defined this way override the value that is specified through any other means. So if you want to be sure that a particular configuration setting is defined the way you want it to be, you can use the corresponding command line option.

There are various configuration settings for which it only makes sense to use the command line option. An example of this is letting the eb command print the EasyBuild version (via eb --version). Although you could configure EasyBuild to always print its version and then exit whenever the eb command is run, that would not be very useful...

Command line options are typically used to define configuration settings that are only relevant to that particular EasyBuild session. One example is doing a test installation into a temporary directory:

eb --installpath /tmp/$USER example.eb

Inspecting the current configuration (`--show-config`)¶

Given the large amount of available configuration settings in EasyBuild and the different configuration levels, you can easily lose track of exactly how EasyBuild is configured.

Through the --show-config command line option you can easily inspect the currently active EasyBuild configuration.

The output of --show-config includes a sorted list of all configuration settings that are defined to a non-default value, along with a couple of important ones that are always shown (like buildpath, installpath, sourcepath, and so on). In addition, it also indicates at which configuration level each setting was defined, so you can trace down where it was defined if needed.

This is the output produced by eb --show-config for the default EasyBuild configuration, where EasyBuild was installed via pip install --user (which results in the value shown for the robot-paths configuration setting):

#
# Current EasyBuild configuration
# (C: command line argument, D: default value, E: environment variable, F: configuration file)
#
buildpath      (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/build
containerpath  (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/containers
installpath    (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild
repositorypath (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/ebfiles_repo
robot-paths    (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/easyconfigs
sourcepath     (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/sources

As shown here, all configuration settings shown follow the default prefix value ($HOME/.local/easybuild), and none of the values diverge from the default value, since all entries are marked with (D) for "default value").

Example

Now let us do some basic configuring and inspect the resulting output of --show-config.

First, create a user-level EasyBuild configuration file to define the prefix configuration setting:

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/easybuild
echo '[config]' > $HOME/.config/easybuild/config.cfg
echo 'prefix=/apps' >> $HOME/.config/easybuild/config.cfg

In addition, define the buildpath configuration setting using the corresponding environment variable:

export EASYBUILD_BUILDPATH=/tmp/$USER

Then run --show-config while you specify that the installpath configuration setting should be defined as /tmp/$USER:

$ eb --installpath=/tmp/$USER --show-config
#
# Current EasyBuild configuration
# (C: command line argument, D: default value, E: environment variable, F: configuration file)
#
buildpath      (E) = /tmp/easybuild
containerpath  (F) = /apps/containers
installpath    (C) = /tmp/easybuild
packagepath    (F) = /apps/packages
prefix         (F) = /apps
repositorypath (F) = /apps/ebfiles_repo
robot-paths    (D) = /home/example/.local/easybuild/easyconfigs
sourcepath     (F) = /apps/sources

The output indicates that the installpath setting was specified through a command line option (indicated with (C)), that the buildpath setting was defined via an environment variable (indicated with (E)), that the robot-paths setting still has the default value (indicated with (D)), and that all other configuration settings were specified via a configuration file, some of which indirectly through the prefix value (indicated with (F)).

Exercises¶

Exercise C.1 - Configure EasyBuild

Configure EasyBuild to use the easybuild subdirectory in your home directory for everything, except for:

The location of the build directories: use /tmp/$USER for this;
The locations that should be considered when searching for source files: include both $HOME/easybuild/sources and /easybuild/sources, but make sure that source files that are downloaded by EasyBuild are stored in $HOME/easybuild/sources.

Leave other configuration settings set to their default value.

(click to show solution)

This is pretty straightforward.

Here we just define the corresponding environment variables:

export EASYBUILD_PREFIX=$HOME/easybuild
export EASYBUILD_BUILDPATH=/tmp/$USER
export EASYBUILD_SOURCEPATH=$HOME/easybuild/sources:/easybuild/sources

The location where EasyBuild should download source files to must be listed first in the sourcepath configuration setting.

The output of --show-config should look like this:

buildpath      (E) = /tmp/example
containerpath  (E) = /home/example/easybuild/containers
installpath    (E) = /home/example/easybuild
packagepath    (E) = /home/example/easybuild/packages
prefix         (E) = /home/example/easybuild
repositorypath (E) = /home/example/easybuild/ebfiles_repo
robot-paths    (D) = /home/example/easybuild/easyconfigs
sourcepath     (E) = /home/example/easybuild/sources:/easybuild/sources

Exercise C.2 - Install a trivial software package with EasyBuild

Try running the following command:

eb bzip2-1.0.6.eb

Where do you expect to find the installation?

(click to show solution)

The software was installed in $HOME/easybuild, since that's how we configured EasyBuild in Exercise 3.1:

$ ls $HOME/easybuild
ebfiles_repo  modules  software  sources

The actual installation is in $HOME/easybuild/software, while the module file was generated in $HOME/easybuild/modules/all:

$ ls $HOME/easybuild/software
bzip2
$ ls $HOME/easybuild/software/bzip2
1.0.6
$ ls $HOME/easybuild/software/bzip2/1.0.6
bin  easybuild  include  lib  man

$ ls $HOME/easybuild/modules/all
bzip2
$ ls $HOME/easybuild/modules/all/bzip2
1.0.6.lua

The source file for bzip2 1.0.6 was downloaded to $HOME/easybuild/sources:

$ ls $HOME/easybuild/sources/b/bzip2
bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz

We will discuss this in more detail in the next part of the tutorial.

Make sure EasyBuild is configured as instructed in exercise 3.1 before you continue with the rest of this tutorial.

[next: Basic usage]

Last update: April 21, 2022