Official documentation below.
For the development documentation of the deployment stack, see
deploy/README.md.
For some common issues, please see the FAQ.
Use Spack on the workstations provided by the project
We build Docker images based on Ubuntu 18.04, and the same settings can be used to set Spack up on the desktops:
$ git clone https://github.com/BlueBrain/spack.git
$ mkdir ~/.spack
$ cp spack/sysconfig/ubuntu-18.04/*.yaml ~/.spack
$ sed -e 's/#.*//g' spack/sysconfig/ubuntu-18.04/packages|xargs -r sudo apt-get install --assume-yes
$ . spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
$ spack compiler find
For Ubuntu 20.04:
$ git clone https://github.com/BlueBrain/spack.git
$ mkdir ~/.spack
$ cp spack/sysconfig/ubuntu-20.04/*.yaml ~/.spack
$ sed -e 's/#.*//g' spack/sysconfig/ubuntu-20.04/packages|xargs -r sudo apt-get install --assume-yes
$ . spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
$ spack compiler find
Since Ubuntu 20.04 dropped python2 support, we need to set python3 as the default python:
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3.8 1
To check that we are using python3 as python:
$ sudo update-alternatives --config python
$ There is only one alternative in link group python
$ (providing /usr/bin/python): /usr/bin/python3.8. Nothing to configure.
Now to build software, i.e., MVDTool:
$ git clone git@github.com:BlueBrain/MVDTool.git
$ cd MVDTool
$ spack setup mvdtool@develop
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ ../spconfig.py ..
$ make
Alternatively, to quickly install software based on a local source checkout:
$ git clone git@github.com:BlueBrain/MVDTool.git
$ cd MVDTool
$ spack diy -y --test=root mvdtool@my-custom-version
This version of MVDTool can now be re-used by Spack to build other
software, when ^mvdtool@my-custom-version is appended to the appropriate
spec.
Install software on our cluster, re-using packages build centrally
On BB5, clone this repository to get started using Spack. The following commands are a good way to get started:
$ git clone https://github.com/BlueBrain/spack.git
$ . spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
$ mkdir -p ~/.spack
$ ln -s /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/config/*.yaml ~/.spack
$ export SPACK_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/software
The last step, exporting SPACK_INSTALL_PREFIX is required.
We recommend you set this in your shell's startup scripts.
Before building a program, one can have a look at all the software that would be required to build it.
Without copying the configuration into ~/.spack, an estimate to see what
would be installed for spykfunc yields:
$ spack spec -I spykfunc|head -n 15
Input spec
--------------------------------
- spykfunc
Concretized
--------------------------------
- spykfunc@0.12.0%gcc@4.8.5 arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^hdf5@1.10.4%gcc@4.8.5~cxx~debug~fortran+hl~mpi+pic+shared~szip~threadsafe arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^zlib@1.2.11%gcc@4.8.5+optimize+pic+shared arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^highfive@1.6%gcc@4.8.5~boost build_type=RelWithDebInfo ~mpi arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^cmake@3.13.0%gcc@4.8.5~doc+ncurses+openssl+ownlibs~qt arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^ncurses@6.1%gcc@4.8.5~symlinks~termlib arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^pkgconf@1.5.4%gcc@4.8.5 arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^openssl@1.1.1%gcc@4.8.5+systemcerts arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
- ^perl@5.26.2%gcc@4.8.5+cpanm patches=0eac10ed90aeb0459ad8851f88081d439a4e41978e586ec743069e8b059370ac +shared+threads arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
The leading - sign in the output signifies that this particular piece of
software would have to be built from scratch.
With the configuration in ~/.spack as stated above, the dependency graph
of our software to install has changed significantly:
$ spack spec -I spykfunc|head -n 15
Input spec
--------------------------------
- spykfunc
Concretized
--------------------------------
[+] spykfunc@0.12.0%gcc@6.4.0 arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^hdf5@1.10.4%gcc@6.4.0~cxx~debug~fortran+hl~mpi+pic+shared~szip~threadsafe arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^zlib@1.2.11%gcc@6.4.0+optimize+pic+shared arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^highfive@1.6%gcc@6.4.0~boost build_type=RelWithDebInfo ~mpi arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^jdk@1.8.0_191-b12%gcc@6.4.0 arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^mvdtool@1.4%gcc@6.4.0 build_type=RelWithDebInfo ~mpi~python arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[+] ^boost@1.68.0%gcc@6.4.0+atomic+chrono~clanglibcpp cxxstd=default +date_time~debug+exception+filesystem+graph~icu+iostreams+locale+log+math~mpi+multithreaded~numpy patches=2ab6c72d03dec6a4ae20220a9dfd5c8c572c5294252155b85c6874d97c323199 ~pic+program_options~python+random+regex+serialization+shared+signals~singlethreaded+system~taggedlayout+test+thread+timer~versionedlayout+wave arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[+] ^cmake@3.13.0%gcc@6.4.0~doc+ncurses+openssl+ownlibs~qt arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
[^] ^py-bb5@0.2%gcc@6.4.0 patches=22a56c05830b2e40dffbcbbc70cd2e95c006e13cb4da867f1b7e0d6292ff6618 arch=linux-rhel7-x86_64
This tells us that all required software is either installed in an upstream
database or provided as external packages in the package database ([^]
and [+], respectively).
Note that software provided via packages.yaml will show up as not
installed, still.
For example, for the first time building TouchDetector, the dependency
graph starts with:
$ spack spec -I touchdetector|head -n 10
Input spec
--------------------------------
- touchdetector
Concretized
--------------------------------
- touchdetector@5.3.4%gcc@8.3.0 build_type=RelWithDebInfo ~openmp patches=ab3b3651b3a623eee5d2a05b11677759bb1ef7ae36f9b048ea7844686b5750af arch=linux-ubuntu18.04-skylake
[+] ^boost@1.65.1%gcc@8.3.0+atomic+chrono~clanglibcpp~context~coroutine cxxstd=98 +date_time~debug+exception~fiber+filesystem+graph~icu+iostreams+locale+log+math~mpi+multithreaded~numpy patches=2ab6c72d03dec6a4ae20220a9dfd5c8c572c5294252155b85c6874d97c323199 ~pic+program_options~python+random+regex+serialization+shared+signals~singlethreaded+system~taggedlayout+test+thread+timer~versionedlayout visibility=hidden +wave arch=linux-ubuntu18.04-skylake
[+] ^catch@2.9.1%gcc@8.3.0 build_type=RelWithDebInfo ~single_header arch=linux-ubuntu18.04-skylake
- ^cmake@3.10.2%gcc@8.3.0~doc+ncurses+openssl+ownlibs patches=dd3a40d4d92f6b2158b87d6fb354c277947c776424aa03f6dc8096cf3135f5d0 ~qt arch=linux-ubuntu18.04-skylake
Note that CMake is marked as not installed. Since it is provided in
packages.yaml, upon installation it will be simply registered in the
local package database rather than rebuilt from source.
To see all installed packages available through the central installations directly, use:
$ spack find -lv|&head
==> 265 installed packages
-- linux-rhel7-x86_64 / gcc@6.4.0 -------------------------------
s26d2n5 arrow@0.11.0 build_type=Release +parquet+python
ocjfhxp arrow@0.11.0 build_type=Release +parquet+python
figbvwx autoconf@2.69
py26izr automake@1.13.4
v6f6e33 binutils@2.31.1+gold~libiberty+nls~plugins
j4xbdil bison@3.0.5
o4mvxg2 boost@1.68.0+atomic+chrono~clanglibcpp cxxstd=default +date_time~debug+exception+filesystem+graph~icu+iostreams+locale+log+math~mpi+multithreaded~numpy patches=2ab6c72d03dec6a4ae20220a9dfd5c8c572c5294252155b85c6874d97c323199 ~pic+program_options~python+random+regex+serialization+shared+signals~singlethreaded+system~taggedlayout+test+thread+timer~versionedlayout+wave
lnnxkhm bzip2@1.0.6+shared
These packages act like locally installed packages, only that you will not
be able to uninstall them.
Spack has access to the full dependency graph of the packages above, and
environments will be set accordingly.
The configuration of upstream package databases can be found in
~/.spack/upsreams.yaml.
Additional packages are installed and available as external software, where
Spack will trim the dependency tree and only consider the external package
without any sub-dependencies.
The information for external packages is stored in
~/.spack/packages.yaml, and can also be printed on the command line:
$ spack config get packages|&grep -C 1 paths:|tail -n 20
--
util-macros:
paths:
util-macros@1.19.1: /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/deploy/tools/2018-12-19/linux-rhel7-x86_64/gcc-6.4.0/util-macros-1.19.1-et5doh3u6t
--
valgrind:
paths:
valgrind@3.13.0 +boost~mpi+only64bit+ubsan: /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/deploy/tools/2018-12-19/linux-rhel7-x86_64/gcc-6.4.0/valgrind-3.13.0-z5rpvffayd
--
xz:
paths:
xz@5.2: /usr
--
zeromq:
paths:
zeromq@4.2.5 +libsodium: /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/deploy/external-libraries/2019-01-04/linux-rhel7-x86_64/gcc-6.4.0/zeromq-4.2.5-qvzt3welbs
--
zlib:
paths:
zlib@1.2.11 +optimize+pic+shared: /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/deploy/external-libraries/2019-01-04/linux-rhel7-x86_64/gcc-6.4.0/zlib-1.2.11-w43e56tzqj
Use our central deployment with our Jenkins instance
When building Spack packages with Jenkins, please use the bb5 executors.
Then you will be able to install software with:
$ git clone https://github.com/BlueBrain/spack.git
$ . spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
$ mkdir fake_home
$ export HOME=${PWD}/fake_home
$ mkdir -p ~/.spack
$ ln -s /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/config/*.yaml ~/.spack
$ export SPACK_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/software
$ spack build-dev <my_package>
Note that a custom home directory is created to avoid any interference from a shared configuration of Spack.
Use our automated Docker build to test on Travis
The MVDTool CI configuration shows how to use our continuously updated Docker image with Travis for a simple build:
services:
- docker
matrix:
include:
- name: "C++ Build"
before_install:
- docker pull bluebrain/spack
- docker run -v $PWD:/source -w /source bluebrain/spack:latest spack diy --test=root mvdtool@develop
- name: "Python Build"
before_install:
- docker pull bluebrain/spack
- docker run -v $PWD:/source -w /source bluebrain/spack:latest spack diy --test=root "py-mvdtool@develop^python@3:"
script: "ruby -ne 'puts $_ if /^==>.*make.*test|^==>.*python.*setup\\.py.*test/../.*phase.*install/ and not /^==>|make: \\*\\*\\*/' spack-build.out"
The last line will extract the results from running unit tests during
installation for your convenience. This requires either a valid test
target for make in CMake or a corresponding command in setup.py for
Python.
Add new software to our module system
Centrally build modules can be made available by sourcing the following script:
$ . /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/config/modules.sh
$ module avail|&tail
/gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/deploy/applications/2018-12-19/modules/tcl/linux-rhel7-x86_64
functionalizer/3.11.0 py-bluepyopt/1.6.56/python2
neurodamus/hippocampus/python3 py-bluepyopt/1.6.56/python3
neurodamus/master/python3 py-efel/3.0.22/python2
neurodamus/plasticity/python3 py-efel/3.0.22/python3
neurodamus/plasticity/python3-knl spykfunc/0.12.0/python3
parquet-converters/0.3 steps/3.3.0/python3/parallel
py-bluepymm/0.6.38/python2 synapsetool/0.3.2/parallel
py-bluepymm/0.6.38/python3 touchdetector/4.3.3
The output above shows the applications category of modules, which are
generated from centrally build packages.
To update the version of any of these modules, edit the corresponding YAML
configuration:
$ vim spack/deploy/packages/bbp-packages.yaml
If there are dependencies used in a broader scope/by several software
packages, consider adding them to one of the following steps in the
deployment chain (all found in spack/deploy/packages):
parallel-librariesfor everything using MPI or highly performantserial-libraries,python-packagesfor general purpose librariesexternal-librariesfor packages that are seldomly changed and for which the dependency graph may be truncated by Spack (e.g., Spark, Python) - mainly dependencies for building
To actually enable the generation of corresponding module files, new software has to be whitelisted in the module configuration for spack, e.g. by editing:
$ vim spack/deploy/configs/applications/modules.yaml
Look for a key whitelist, and add the package. Packages listed in the
module whitelist should be as generic as possible, i.e., not tied to
specific versions.
Commit the changes and file a pull request on Github. Jenkins will build the additional software required, with all output available in a separate directory:
$ ls /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/apps/hpc/jenkins/pulls/165
config deploy mirror spack
Software packages and modules should be updated upon pull request merge and
a nightly basis.
The config directory contains the same configuration files as the regular
deployment and can be used instead.
Official upstream documentation
Spack is a multi-platform package manager that builds and installs multiple versions and configurations of software. It works on Linux, macOS, and many supercomputers. Spack is non-destructive: installing a new version of a package does not break existing installations, so many configurations of the same package can coexist.
Spack offers a simple "spec" syntax that allows users to specify versions and configuration options. Package files are written in pure Python, and specs allow package authors to write a single script for many different builds of the same package. With Spack, you can build your software all the ways you want to.
See the Feature Overview for examples and highlights.
To install spack and your first package, make sure you have Python. Then:
$ git clone https://github.com/spack/spack.git
$ cd spack/bin
$ ./spack install zlib
Full documentation is available, or
run spack help or spack help --all.
We maintain a hands-on tutorial. It covers basic to advanced usage, packaging, developer features, and large HPC deployments. You can do all of the exercises on your own laptop using a Docker container.
Feel free to use these materials to teach users at your organization about Spack.
Spack is an open source project. Questions, discussion, and contributions are welcome. Contributions can be anything from new packages to bugfixes, documentation, or even new core features.
Resources:
- Slack workspace: spackpm.slack.com. To get an invitation, click here.
- Mailing list: groups.google.com/d/forum/spack
- Twitter: @spackpm. Be sure to
@mentionus!
Contributing to Spack is relatively easy. Just send us a
pull request.
When you send your request, make develop the destination branch on the
Spack repository.
Your PR must pass Spack's unit tests and documentation tests, and must be PEP 8 compliant. We enforce these guidelines with Travis CI. To run these tests locally, and for helpful tips on git, see our Contribution Guide.
Spack uses a rough approximation of the
Git Flow
branching model. The develop branch contains the latest
contributions, and master is always tagged and points to the latest
stable release.
Please note that Spack has a Code of Conduct. By participating in the Spack community, you agree to abide by its rules.
Many thanks go to Spack's contributors.
Spack was created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov.
If you are referencing Spack in a publication, please cite the following paper:
- Todd Gamblin, Matthew P. LeGendre, Michael R. Collette, Gregory L. Lee, Adam Moody, Bronis R. de Supinski, and W. Scott Futral. The Spack Package Manager: Bringing Order to HPC Software Chaos. In Supercomputing 2015 (SC’15), Austin, Texas, November 15-20 2015. LLNL-CONF-669890.
Spack is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0). Users may choose either license, at their option.
All new contributions must be made under both the MIT and Apache-2.0 licenses.
See LICENSE-MIT, LICENSE-APACHE, COPYRIGHT, and NOTICE for details.
SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
LLNL-CODE-647188