Conference call notes 20170621

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Notes on the 79th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday June 21st 2017 (5pm - 6.pm CET)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (7):

• Damian Alvarez (JSC, Germany)
• Pablo Escobar (UniBas, Switzerland)
• Fotis Georgatos (Illumina, UK)
• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Adam HUffman (Francis Crick Institute, UK)
• Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)
• Davide Vanzo (Vanderbilt University)

Agenda

• outlook to EasyBuild v3.3.0
• moving EasyBuild repositories to https://github.com/easybuilders organisation
• 2017b toolchains
• Q&A

Notes

EasyBuild v3.3.0

• overview of already merged changes:
  • framework: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/milestone/46?closed=1
  • easyblocks: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/milestone/38?closed=1
  • easyconfigs: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/milestone/41?closed=1
• TODO:
  • framework
    • fix for --set-default-module: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2243
    • support for --detect-loaded-modules: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2228
      • what to do with modules not generated by EasyBuild?
      • Damian: current functionality is OK
        • follow up in another PR to also consider external modules?
    • support for renaming sources on download: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2223
      • missing docs before it can be merged
  • easyblocks
    • hopefully support for MXNet: https://github.com/easybuilders/g/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1135
  • easyconfigs
    • enable automatic style checks: https://github.com/easybuilders/g/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/2506
    • • any easyconfig PRs that are ready before the merge window closes
• ETA: this or next week (or the week after...)

Moving to https://github.com/easybuilders

• before or after summer holidays (July 14th for @boegel)?
  • Wed July 5th would be feasible, in hours before next conf call...
• impact should be minimal, cfr. https://help.github.com/articles/about-repository-transfers/
  • only http://hpcugent.github.io/easybuild/ affected, everything else redirects automagically?

More helping hands for reviewing/testing/merging contributions

• mainly for easyconfig PRs, but there should also be other people that can merge PRs to easyblocks/framework repos
• checklist: https://gist.github.com/boegel/315385ae425268cb75ec583f451da88b
• Pablo: make EasyBuild also consider other easyconfig repos in easybuilders project
  • let eb warn about finding easyconfigs in other repos like archived easyconfigs
  • Kenneth: e.g. JSC (Adam, Damian), CSCS(?), Cyprus Institute(?), easybuild.experimental, ...
• being eligible for merge rights can be treated loosely if needed by @boegel as BDFL

2017b toolchains

• intel/2017b

  • latest & greatest components:
    • GCC 7.1.0 (20170502) + binutils 2.28 (20170302)
    • Intel compilers 2017.4.196 (20170510)
    • Intel MPI 2017.3.196 (20170506)
    • Intel MKL 2017.3.196 (20170428)
  • TODO:
    • get confirmation from Intel about 2017.4.196 compilers on top of GCC 7.1
    • prepare PR (based on https://github.com/easybuilders/g/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/4618)
      • revamp this PR to 2017b
    • test existing intel/2017a (& intel/2016b?) easyconfigs with proposed intel/2017b

• foss/2017b

  • latest & greatest components:
    • GCC 7.1.0 (20170502) + binutils 2.28 (20170302)
    • OpenMPI 2.1.1 (20170510)
    • OpenBLAS 0.2.19 (20160901) (quite old...)
      • Alan: issue with threads? https://github.com/easybuilders/g/easybuild-easyconfigs/issues/4524
    • FFTW 3.3.6(.pl2)
  • TODO
    • prepare PR
    • test existing foss/2017a (& foss/2016b?) easyconfigs with proposed foss/2017b

• should be part of EasyBuild v3.3.1 (mid July)

Other

• near future: toolchain for new AMD systems
  • Clang-based compiler (AOCC?) http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-sdks/cpu-development/amd-aocc/
  • any test systems available for this?
• also: Fortran compiler for Clang (beta), ARM Fortran compiler, ...
• Alan: issues on OpenPOWER with config.guess and config.sub
  • these need to be patched to make build work on OpenPOWER
  • released version don't include required changes
  • copy over config.guess/config.sub & repack tarball
  • does Jack have any experience with this?