Conference call notes 20240103

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Notes on the 237th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday 3 Jan 2024 (09:00 UTC)

Attendees

List of attendees (6):

• Simon Branford (Univ. of Birmingham, UK)
• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Kurt Lust (UAntwerpen, Belgium + LUMI User Support Team))
• Sébastien Moretti (SIB, Switzerland))
• Leonardo Honfi Camilo (Univ. of Wageningen, Netherlands)
• Alexander Grund (TU Dresden, Germany)

Agenda

• overview of recent developments
• quick status update on development for EasyBuild 5.0
• Q&A

Recent developments

• latest EasyBuild release: 4.9.0 (30 Dec 2023)
  • see release notes + highlights
• next EasyBuild release: hopefully EasyBuild v5.0.0
  • there will only be an EasyBuild v4.9.1 if there's a clear need for it
• ETA for EasyBuild 5.0 release: hopefully first EasyBuild release of 2024
  • started doing short sprint meetings, each Monday at 10:00 CE(S)T to set next 5 goals to tackle that week
  • monthly sync meetings every 1st Wed of the month at 14:00 CE(S)T: next today Wed 3 Jan'24 at 14:00 CET
  • see also https://hackmd.io/tZtz6vMmRfGL6N9Rf__OEA
• recent changes
  • docs (merged PRs)
    • ...
  • framework (merged PRs)
    • bug fixes
      • fix support for Environment Modules as modules tool to pass unit tests with v4.2+ (PR #4369)
      • adapt module function check for Environment Modules v4+ (PR #4371)
      • relax major version match regex in find_related_easyconfigs using for --review-pr (PR #4385)
      • resolve templated values in extension names in _make_extension_list (PR #4392)
      • use more recent easyblocks PR in test_github_merge_pr (PR #4414)
    • enhancements
      • add support for --list-software --output-format=json (PR #4152)
      • adapt version pattern for EnvironmentModules to allow using development version (PR #4416)
      • use --all option with EnvironmentModules v4.6+ to get available hidden modules (PR #4417)
    • changes
      • ...
    • code cleanup
      • remove superflous string formatting (PR #4411)
      • clean up uses of getattr and hasattr (PR #4412)
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • bug fixes
        • ...
      • changes
        • ...
  • easyblocks (merged PRs)
    • bug fixes
      • add requirement for EULA acceptance to CUDA easyblock (PR #3045)
      • fix specifying path to SuiteSparse header files and libraries in numpy, Trilinos, PETSc easyblocks (PR #3056)
      • fix det_pylibdir provided by PythonPackage easyblock for Python 3.12+ (PR #3057)
      • take into account that binutils might be a filtered dependency for TensorFlow (PR #3058)
      • fix nvptx sanity check for Clang >= 14.x (PR #3059)
    • enhancements
      • add custom easyconfig parameter cmake_options to SuiteSparse easyblock (PR #3031)
    • updates
      • update custom easyblock for Intel MPI easyblock for v2021.11 (PR #3039)
      • update custom easyblock for Intel MKL for v2024.x (PR #3042)
    • changes
      • also consider $EB_COMSOL_LICENSE_FILE environment variable in custom easyblock for COMSOL (PR #3044)
    • new easyblocks
      • add generic CargoPythonBundle easyblock (PR #2964)
      • add custom easyblock for flook that includes install step (PR #3034)
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • ...
  • easyconfigs (merged PRs)
    • ~50 easyconfig PRs were merged since last conf call
    • bug fixes
      • use CargoPythonBundle generic easyblock for timm to install required Rust packages in a controlled way (PR #18332)
    • enhancements
      • ...
    • (noteworthy) new software
      • ...
    • noteworthy software updates
      • PyTorch v2.1.2 w/ foss/2022a (PR #19444) + foss/2022b (PR #19445)
        • easyconfig with CUDA is WIP
        • getting tests to work isn't really getting better with newer PyTorch versions...
        • we're running PyTorch test suite quite broadly, incl. "classic" Intel/AMD, AVX-512 (like Intel Sapphire Rapids), ...
      • foss/2023b (PR #19449)
      • intel/2023b (PR #19450)
    • changes
      • add versionsuffix -param to ReaxFF and add -sim variant (PR #19307)
      • let SuiteSparse easyblock set CMAKE_OPTIONS for SuiteSparse v7.1.0 (PR #19177)
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • ...
• work-in-progress
  • docs (open PRs + issues)
    • project board to perform yearly review cycle of all documentation pages: https://github.com/orgs/easybuilders/projects/17/views/1
  • framework (open PRs + issues)
    • reported bugs / bug fixes
      • Run unit tests on an updated version of Modules 4 (PR #4415)
    • enhancements
      • add check_group support for module files in Tcl syntax (PR #4418)
    • changes
      • drop load storm safe guard for Environment Modules v4.2.4+ (PR #4373)
      • use more performant and concise dict construction (PR #4410)
      • clean up & speed up environment checks (PR #4409)
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • deprecate failure to resolve a template value (PR #3285)
      • detect Fortran .mod files in GCCcore installations (PR #4389)
      • rename unclear run methods to install extensions (PR #4400)
      • use run_shell_cmd in scripts (PR #4422)
      • implement support for 'stream_output' option in run_shell_cmd (PR #4423)
      • replace parallel easyconfig parameter by maxparallel (PR #4398)
  • easyblocks (open PRs + issues)
    • bug reports/fixes
      • fix extension filter for Perl packages (PR #2699)
        • easyconfigs PR #18789 is a big step towards merging this, but there are other easyconfigs that needs to be tested first, like XML-LibXML, worker, GD, ...
      • implementation of CMake policy error for Python (WIP PR #3055)
        • see also https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/18963#issuecomment-1755794879
      • fix ELPA preprocessor flag for QuantumESPRESSO >= 7 (PR #3063)
    • enhancements
      • update KOKKOS_CPU_MAPPING for AArch64 in LAMMPS (WIP PR #3036)
      • refactor GAMESS-US easyblock to directly write install.info (v2) (PR #3047)
    • updates
      • update Clang-AOMP easyblock for ROCm 5.6 (PR #2958)
    • new easyblocks
      • new easyblock for DualSPHysics (PR #3050)
    • changes
      • ...
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • enable download_dep_fail, use_pip, sanity_pip_check by default in PythonPackage easyblock (PR #3022)
        • needs some tests to make sure nothing is horribly broken (but should be fine)
        • follow-up is needed in easyconfigs, to:
          • clean up easyconfigs in 5.0.x branch that now set use_pip & co to True (see easyconfigs PR #19265)
          • explicitly set use_pip & co to False in (non-archived) easyconfig that currently don't specify them at all (which should be a minimal set of easyconfigs)
      • convert generic easyblocks to run_shell_cmd (PR #3046)
  • easyconfigs (open PRs + issues)
    • bug fixes/reports
      • add patches for OpenBLAS v0.3.21 to disable -ftree-vectorize for netlib LAPACK (PR #19280)
    • enhancements
      • ...
    • new software
      • ...
    • noteworthy software updates
      • Qt5 v5.15.11 w/ GCCcore/13.2.0 (for foss/2023b) (PR #19320)
    • changes
      • ...
    • EasyBuild 5.0 (to 5.0.x branch)
      • clean up easyconfigs that explicitly set use_pip, sanity_pip_check and download_dep_fail (PR #19265)
    • closed PRs
      • ...

Q&A / others

• EasyBuild User Meeting 2024
  • Tue-Thu 23-25 April 2024 in Umeå (Sweden)