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.

Warning

(Tue 18 March 2025) The sections linked to from this overview below are known to be incomplete. Extra information will be gradually added over the next couple of days.

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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 options 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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FAQ

(coming soon)

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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)