FEniCS Spack packages overlay repository

This Spack package repository contains Spack packages only for the FEniCS Project components. Using spack repo add it can be overlaid onto any complete upstream package repository. Its FEniCS component package will then take precedence over the upstream package repository.

Instructions

For full instructions on using spack repo see the Spack documentation.

TL;DR on a system with spack installed:

spack repo add https://github.com/FEniCS/spack-fenics.git
spack repo list

Alternatively, to work with this repository:

spack repo list

You should see the builtin repository which points at a folder containing the complete upstream Spack packages repository, e.g.:

[+] builtin    v2.2    /Users/jack.hale/.spack/package_repos/fncqgg4/repos/spack_repo/builtin

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/FEniCS/spack-fenics.git

And add it as a repository:

spack repo add spack-fenics/spack_repo/fenics

Run spack repo list again to show, e.g.:

[+] fenics     v2.4    /Users/jack.hale/fenicsx-main/src/spack-fenics/spack_repo/fenics
[+] builtin    v2.2    /Users/jack.hale/.spack/package_repos/fncqgg4/repos/spack_repo/builtin

Package definitions in fenics will now take precedence over duplicates in builtin.

Running spack spec -N fenics-dolfinx@0.9 should give output like:

 -   fenics.fenics-dolfinx@0.9.0~adios2~ipo~petsc~slepc build_system=cmake build_type=RelWithDebInfo generator=make partitioners:=parmetis platform=darwin os=sequoia target=m1 %c,cxx=apple-clang@17.0.0
...

where fenics.fenics-dolfinx implies the use of the fenics repository.

Maintenance commitment

We aim to keep the last three x versions 0.x.* of py-fenics-dolfinx building with PETSc, SLEPc, ADIOS2, Parmetis, SCOTCH and KaHIP support using Ubuntu LTS GCC and clang. As of 12/2025 we do not run unit tests - users should execute these themselves and assess working/non-working functionality on their systems.

Uses

1. Releasing Spack packages to users without waiting for PRs to be merged into the upstream builtin repository.
2. Allows experimentation with FEniCS Spack packages without having to maintain a full branch of the upstream builtin repository.

Developer notes

Diffing against an upstream builtin package set:

export OTHER_PACKAGES_DIR=/path/to/spack-packages/repos/spack_repo/builtin/packages 
cd spack-fenics/spack_repo/fenics/package
for dir in */; do; git --no-pager diff --no-index $OTHER_PACKAGES_DIR/$dir $dir; done;