EasyBuild v5.0

A high-level overview of changes in EasyBuild version 5.0.0 is listed below.

Click on a particular item for more information.

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Breaking changes

EasyBuild v5.0 includes a number of backwards-incompatible changes:

• Python 3.6+ is required to run EasyBuild v5.0.0
• If Lmod is used as modules tool, then version >= 8.0 is required;
• If Environment Modules is used as modules tool, then version >= 4.3.0 is required;

See also the overview of removed functionality below.

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Changed default configuration or behaviour

The default value for several EasyBuild configuration settings + default behaviour of EasyBuild has been changed in EasyBuild v5.0.

Changed default configuration in EasyBuild framework

• RPATH linking is enabled by default (rpath)
• Trace output is enabled by default (trace)
• Including extensions statement in generated modules is enabled by default (module-extensions)
• Using depends_on for dependencies in generated modules is enabled by default (module-depends-on)
• Use Slurm as default job backend (job-backend)
• Default maximum build parallelism is set to 16 (max-parallel)

Changed behaviour in EasyBuild framework

• Change semantics of --dry-run (-D), so it doesn't imply --robot (-r)
• Move verifying of checksums from source to fetch step, to include it with --fetch
• Create lib to lib64 symlink (and vice versa) before running postinstallcmds
• Use sha256 as the default checksum type
• Use default value $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS from XDG basedir spec: /etc/xdg (instead of /etc)
• Reverse order for parsing files in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
• Don't allow unresolved templates in easyconfig parameters by default
• Refactor make_extension_string method in EasyBlock class
• Change default for change_into_dir option in extract_file function to to False
• Change Toolchain.get_flag so it doesn't automatically prepend a dash (-) to compiler flags
• Enforce correct .patch(.*) extension for patch files
• Run sanity checks commands from an empty temporary directory rather than the software install directory
• Only allow use of rpath toolchain option when system toolchain is used

Changed defaults in easyblocks

• download_dep_fail, use_pip, sanity_pip_check enabled by default for PythonPackage easyblock
• CMakeMake easyblock sets LIBDIR configuration option to lib by default

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Enhancements

Various significant enhancements are included in EasyBuild v5.0, including:

• New function to run shell commands: run_shell_cmd
• Interactive debugging of failing shell commands via env.sh and cmd.sh scripts
• New collection of easyconfig templates
• Mark support for installing extensions in parallel as stable (no longer experimental)
• Mark easystack support as stable (no longer experimental)
• Reproducible tarballs for sources created via git_config
• New home for the archive of easyconfigs
• Granular exit codes
• Copy build directory and/or log file(s) if installation failed to path specified via --failed-install-build-dirs-path or --failed-install-logs-path
• Specify changes that should be made by generated module files via module_load_environment
• Add support for alternate easyconfig parameters/templates/constants
• --keep-debug-symbols configuration option to set default value of 'debug' toolchain option
• Provide control over how generated modules update search path for header files (via --module-search-path-headers)
• Provide control over how EasyBuild specifies path to header files during installation (via --search-path-cpp-headers)
• Provide control over how EasyBuild specifies path to libraries during installation (via --search-path-linker)
• Support not using $PYTHONPATH to specify the location of installed Python packages (via --prefer-python-search-path)
• Revamp of easyconfig parameter modextrapaths
• Detect Fortran .mod files in GCCcore installations
• Let ConfigureMake generic easyblock error out on unrecognized configure options
• Require download_instructions for non-public sources

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Removed functionality

Functionality that was deprecated a while ago in EasyBuild v4.x has been removed in EasyBuild v5.0:

• EasyBuild bootstrap script
• Experimental support for .yeb easyconfig
• --accept-eula configuration setting
• --wait-on-lock configuration setting
• is_generic_easyblock function from easybuild.framework.easyconfig.easyconfig
• copytree, rmtree2 functions from easybuild.filetools
• fetch_extension_sources method in EasyBlock class
• mod_exists_regex_template option in ModulesTool.exist method
• Toolchain.add_dependencies method
• disable_templating + default_fallback options in get_easyblock_class function
• skip_lower option from template_constant_dict function
• use_git_am option for apply_patch function
• skip_symlinks option for adjust_permissions function
• log_error option in which function
• descr option for simple_option function
• dummy toolchain
• Support for 32-bit targets

In addition, several software-specific easyblocks that were no longer used have been removed: ACML, ALADIN, Allinea, ARB, ATLAS, BamTools, Bioconductor, BiSearch, BLACS, Blender , BWISE, CFDEMcoupling, Chapel, CHARMM, cppcheck, DL_POLY_Classic, DOLFIN, Doris, Doxygen, EggLib, EPD, ESPResSo, fastStructure, FoldX, FreeFEM, HEALPix, IMOD, IPP, IronPython, libsmm, MetaVelvet, Modeller, Molpro, Mono, Mothur, MSM, MTL4, MyMediaLite, mutil, MVAPICH2, ncurses, NEMO, OpenIFS, Pasha, pbdMPI, pbdSLAP, PGI, picard, pplacer, Primer3, PyQuante, python_meep, Samcef, SAS, Scalasca v1.x, SHRiMP, SNPhylo, SOAPdenovo, TAU, TotalView, UFC, VSC-tools, and WRF-Fire.

Easyconfig files for unsupported toolchains were archived in the easyconfigs-archive repository.

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Deprecated functionality

Some functionality is being deprecated in EasyBuild v5.0, and is scheduled to be removed in EasyBuild v6.0:

• parallel easyconfig parameter
• run_cmd and run_cmd_qa functions (replaced with run_shell_cmd)
• 'source' step (renamed to 'extract')
• post_install_step method in EasyBlock class (renamed to post_processing_step)
• make_module_req_guess method in EasyBlock class (replaced with module_load_environment class attribute)
• run, prerun, postrun, run_async methods in EasyBlock class
• easybuild.tools.py2vs3 module
• Older checksum types
• EnvironmentModulesC or EnvironmentModulesTcl modules tools
• GC3Pie as job backend
• Using optarch value without leading dash
• COMPILER*_FLAGS attributes in Compiler class (replaced with COMPILER*_OPTIONS)
• Easyconfig parameter modextrapaths_append (integrated in modextrapaths)
• Easyconfig parameter allow_append_abs_path (integrated in modextrapaths)
• Easyconfig parameter allow_prepend_abs_path (integrated in modextrapaths)

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Other changes

• Toolchain support policy

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Other links

• Beta releases and release candidates
• GitHub Project board for EasyBuild v5.0
• Talk on EasyBuild 5.0 at 8th EasyBuild User Meeting (EUM'23)
• Talk on EasyBuild 5.0 at 9th EasyBuild User Meeting (EUM'24)
• Talk on EasyBuild 5.0 at 10th EasyBuild User Meeting (EUM'25)