empa-spack

Spack packages of software used or maintained at Empa.

Check out the wiki for more guides and information on how to use this repository.

Repository structure

This repository must follow the standard Spack repository structure, plus a few additions:

repo/
  ├── repo.yaml   # Metadata for the repository
  └── packages/   # Directory containing package recipes
      ├── package1/
      │   └── package.py
      └── package2/
          └── package.py
uenv/
  ├── software_name/   # Root folder for a given uenv
      ├── vX.Y.Z/      # Version folder (semver schema, patch is optional)
          ├── arch/    # Architecture, 'eiger' (zen2) or 'daint' (gh200)
containers/
  ├── software_name/   # Root folder for an image containing the Dockerfile and all its dependencies
  ├── edf/             # Environment Definition File (EDF) required by the Container Engine
                       #   i.e., which image to load, paths to mount, options, etc.
modules/
  ├── software_name/   # Root folder containing Lmod module files (LUA modules)
                       #   for custom software setup (e.g. paths, env variables, etc.)

The repo.yaml defines the namespace as empa:

repo:
  namespace: empa

The arch/ subfolder under uenv must follow the directory structure of the stackinator tool, to be able to build locally or remotely (with uenv build).

Spack

Prerequisites

1. Ensure you have Spack installed on your system. Follow the Spack installation guide if needed.
2. Ensure git is installed on your system to clone this repository.

Add this repository

1. Clone

Clone the repository to your local system:

git clone https://github.com/empa-scientific-it/empa-spack.git /path/to/local/repo

2. Add the repository to Spack

Register the cloned repository with Spack:

spack repo add --scope site /path/to/local/repo

The --scope site option will register the repository in $(prefix)/etc/spack. Settings saved within the site scope affect only this instance of Spack and override the defaults and system scopes.

You can confirm that the repository was added successfully by running:

spack repo list

You should see an entry for this repository, followed by the built-in Spack repository (or any other repository previously added).

3. Check for available packages

To list all packages provided by this repository, run:

spack list

Packages from this repository will appear with the repository's namespace (e.g., empa.package-name).

Using the custom packages

1. Search for a package

You can search for a specific package using:

spack info package-name

2. Install a package

Install any package from this repository as you would for any Spack package:

spack install package-name

If you want to make sure to install a package from this specific repository, specify the namespace explicitly:

spack install empa.package-name

Important

Spack's repos order matters. If you have multiple repositories with the same package, Spack will use the first one in the list.

For example, if your repos.yaml file looks like:

repos:
  - ~/proto
  - /usr/local/spack
  - $spack/var/spack/repos/builtin

The command spack install hdf5 will install the package from the ~/proto repository, if available. If not, it will install the package from the /usr/local/spack repository, falling back to the built-in Spack repository if necessary, and failing if no repository provides the package.

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For additional info, refer to the Spack documentation.