Conference call notes 20181017

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Notes on the 112th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday Oct 17th 2018 (17:00 - 18:00 CEST)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (4):

• Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
• Adam Huffman (Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, UK)
• Alan O'Cais (JSC, Germany)
• Davide Vanzo (Vanderbilt University, US)

Agenda

• update on upcoming EasyBuild v3.7.1
• alternatives to Google Hangouts for conf calls?
• Q&A

EasyBuild v3.7.1

• ETA: tomorrow (Thu Oct 18th 2018)
• all PRs targeted for EasyBuild v3.7.1 have been merged
  • most in develop branch, some only in 3.7.x
  • develop will be synced after 3.7.x is merged into master
• preview of release notes:
  • framework: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2623/files
    • several fixes related to module wrappers via .modulerc (HMNS, Lmod 7.8 modulerc.lua, old Lmod versions, ...)
    • version requirement for Lmod lowered to 6.5.1 + support by bypassing module version check
    • fixes for subtoolchain-aware --try-toolchain + allow use of --force in some cases
  • easyblocks: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/1550/files
    • fixes related to using config.guess in ConfigureMake easyblock
      • also set --host configure option, not only --build
      • support bypassing the use of the value produced by config.guess
    • fixes to generic ModuleRC easyblock for module wrappers
    • fixes to TensorFlow easyblock to avoid that Python packages like numpy are pulled in from PyPI
  • easyconfigs: https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/7044/files
    • fixes for Python easyconfigs to avoid auto-downloading of Python packages to resolve dependencies

Alternatives to Google Hangouts for conf calls?

• only Google+ is disappearing, not Google Hangouts?
  • we only use Google+ for planning conf calls via events...
• https://zoom.us has no limit w.r.t. attendance, but has a time limit (40 min)
  • time limit is not necessarily bad
  • Davide has good experiences with this
  • also allows recording the meeting (locally on system of host)
  • attendees don't need an account, only host does
• maybe someone has a professional system we can piggy-back on?
  • Davide: WebEx quality is disappointing, no Linux client
• Slack call feature is another option?
  • payed feature, only people who have joined Slack can join the calls

Other

• Davide: support for zipping logs?
  • already there, see --zip-logs configuration option
• Alan: support for updating dependencies
  • see https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2599
  • --update-deps will pick most recent versions for dependencies for which easyconfigs are already available
  • Python is a special case: stick to latest 2.x or 3.x version based on currently used version
  • not perfect, but good enough to be useful
  • next step could be to query upstream for available versions & pick latest when --update-deps is used
    • see also https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/2386
    • how is this done in Google, just picked up from Wikipedia?
    • cfr. way Spack does it based on URL + version
    • good topic to discuss at user meeting
  • related to eb_update for updating extensions (John's script)
    • could be supported under --update-exts
    • get feedback from him?
• HPC-SIG workshop in Birmingham on Mon Oct 22nd 2018
  • Kenneth/Adam are attending too
  • see https://www.eventbrite.com/e/easybuild-hpc-sig-workshop-tickets-51023835666
• EasyBuild is included in PRACE training event on Oct 24th 2018
  • https://events.prace-ri.eu/event/780/
  • Kenneth will reach out to them