Conference call notes 20230201

(back to Conference calls)

Notes on the 215th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday 1 February 2023 (09:00 UTC)

Attendees

List of attendees (XXX):

• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent)

• Sebastian Achilles (JSC, Germany)

• Simon Branford (Univ. of Birmingham, UK)

• Jasper Grimm (University of York, UK)

• Alexander Grund (TU Dresden, Germany)

• Adam Huffman (Big Data Institute, Oxford, UK)

• Kurt Lust (UAntwerpen & LUST)

• Sebastien Moretti (SIB, Switzerland)

• Mikael Öhman (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden)

• Bart Oldeman (Digital Research Alliance of Canada)

• Jurij Pečar (EMBL, Germany)

Agenda

• overview of recent developments + outlook to next EasyBuild release
• update on porting of EasyBuild docs to MarkDown (done!)
• source tarballs provided by GitHub will change
  • see https://github.blog/changelog/2023-01-30-git-archive-checksums-may-change/ + https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/45830
• Q&A

Recent developments

• release timeline
  • latest release: EasyBuild v4.7.0 (9 Jan 2023)
  • ETA next release (EasyBuild v4.7.1): mid Feb'23
• recent changes
  • framework
    • bug fixes
      • use better test assertions by replacing use of assertFalse/assertTrue (PR #4170)
    • enhancements
      • ...
    • changes
      • ...
    • docs
      • ...
  • easyblocks
    • bug fixes
      • ...
    • enhancements
      • make NAMD easyblock aware of (pre)testopts (PR #2856)
    • updates
      • ...
    • changes
      • ...
    • new software
      • ...
  • easyconfigs
    • ~XXX easyconfig PRs were merged since last conf call
    • bug fixes
      • add patches for Qt5 5.15.5 to fix compilation failures in abseil and breakpad with glibc 2.34 (PR #17165)
      • add patch to make ncbi-vdb 3.0.0 compatible with HDF5 1.12.2 (PR #17140)
    • enhancements
      • add sanity check command to OpenMolcas v22.10 (PR #17128)
    • (noteworthy) new software
      • ...
    • noteworthy software updates
      • PySCF 2.1.1 (PR #16862)
      • iomkl/2021b (PR #17147)
    • changes
      • ...
• work in progress
  • framework
    • reported bugs / bug fixes
      • Python packages are being installed to local/lib/python*/dist-packages due to tweaks to sysconfig.py in OS (issue #4128)
      • improve error when checksum dict has no entry for a file (PR #4150)
      • fix to_checksums with None values in dicts and recursion (PR #4159)
      • fix the checksum type check (PR #4164)
        • see also docs PR #853
      • fix use of locate in check_os_dependency (PR #4166)
    • enhancements
      • allow to directly import EasyConfig constants from the module (PR #4144)
      • enhance documentation of checksums easyconfig parameter (docs PR #853)
    • changes
      • ...
  • easyblocks
    • bug reports/fixes
      • fix finding of failed tests in output of PyTorch test step (PR #2859)
    • enhancements
      • allow use of test_cmd without runtest for ConfigureMake (PR #2837)
      • enhance CMakeMake easyblock to run ctest command if runtest is True (PR #2838)
    • updates
      • update scipy easyblock for scipy >= 1.9 to correctly configure BLAS/LAPACK library to use via Meson (PR #2862)
      • fix TensorFlow easyblock for new versions of Bazel & TensorFlow (PR #2854)
    • new software
      • ...
    • changes
      • ...
  • easyconfigs
    • still close to 800 open easyconfig PRs...
    • bug fixes/reports
      • fix patch for TensorFlow 2.5+ on ARM (PR #17101)
    • enhancements
      • add Set::Object extension to Perl 5.32.1 (PR #17151)
    • new software
      • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/labels/new
      • Finder (PR #16910)
    • noteworthy software updates
      • CP2K v9.1 & v2022.1 for foss 2022a (PR #16007)
      • TensorFlow 2.9.1 (PR #16008)
      • SciPy-bundle v2022.11 with foss/2022.10 (PR #16912)
        • WIP because requires update to scipy easyblock (see easyblock PR #2862)
      • WRF v4.4.1 with foss/2022.10 (PR #16835)
        • should be updated to foss/2022b
        • requires netCDF (PR #16834)
      • HDF5 1.14.0 (PR #17093 + PR #17107 vs PR #16834)
        • stick to HDF5 1.12.x for 2022b generation, or use latest HDF5 1.14.0?
        • HDF5 supports building in "compatibility mode" for software that is not compatible yet with HDF5 1.14.x
    • changes
      • ...

Update on porting of EasyBuild docs to MarkDown

• revamped EasyBuild documentation now available at https://docs.easybuild.io
• automatic redirects are in place, there should be no broken links (docs.easybuild.io/en/latest/... and easybuild.readthedocs.io/...)

Source tarballs provided by GitHub will change

• see https://github.blog/changelog/2023-01-30-git-archive-checksums-may-change/ + https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/45830
• ...

Q&A

• ...