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Conference call notes 20190220

Kenneth Hoste edited this page Feb 20, 2019 · 3 revisions

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Notes on the 119th EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday Feb 20th 2019 (17:00 - 18:00 CET)

Attendees

Alphabetical list of attendees (5):

  • Fotis Georgatos (SDSC, Switzerland)
  • Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent, Belgium)
  • Mikael Öhman (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden)
  • Bart Oldeman (ComputeCanada)
  • Davide Vanzo (Vanderbilt University, US)

Agenda

  • update on next EasyBuild release (3.8.2 or 3.9.0)
  • updates on porting of EasyBuild framework to support Python 3
  • follow-up on moving Python to GCCcore
  • Q&A

Update on next EasyBuild release

Follow-up on moving Python to GCCcore + multi-Python installations of Python packages

  • cfr. https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/issues/7463
  • Python 2.7.15 w/ GCCcore + SciPy with foss/2019a
  • Mikael: deap may require numpy?
  • SciPy with intel/2019a doesn't work straight away
  • Mikael: alias of Python/2.7.15-foss-2019a to SciPy/* doesn't work
    • alias is tied to software name for which it's created
    • only way out is to rename Python@GCCcore to PythonCore :(
      • would require fix in framework like for GCC(core)
    • check with Lmod maintainer whether cross-name aliases can work?
    • is this a blocker w.r.t. user experience?
  • multi-Python support is still in the works (cfr. Bart's PR in framework)

Python 3 porting

Other

  • Mikael: moving down software to GCCcore or GCC/iccifort level

    • based on performance benchmarking "home work" (is GCCcore a sensible option?)
    • should things be moved down from intel to iccifort (similar for foss to GCC)? What's the benefit?
    • Bart: moving down to compiler-level done religiously at ComputeCanada if it doesn't need MPI/BLAS/LAPACK
      • MKL is also pulled down to GCCcore level (so more stuff can be pulled down to compiler-level because of that)
      • Bart: examples of software that relies on parallel FFT?
      • Davide: downside is breaking symmetry between foss/intel wrt where FFTW lives
    • Bart: main benefit is that these packages do not need to be recompiled for different MPI libraries/versions
    • Davide: stuff is being pulled down to GCC/iccifort in own repo
    • Davide: floating-point accuracy could also be affected for math libraries by using different compilers
    • Kenneth: should we start tracking what toolchain capabilities are required per software?
      • that would open possibility to let Travis fail if packages are added with top-level toolchain...
      • Davide: toolchain being picked is mostly done based on existing easyconfigs
      • maybe useful for being more religious on this starting with 2019a?
    • Davide: compiler+MPI level is often overlooked right now (gompi, iimpi)
      • Mikael: little packages in this cat?
      • Bart: Valgrind, ParMETIS, Boost, Ray, CGNS, RaxML, ...
  • Davide: use of --force-download when testing PRs

    • should have a bypass in case there are no source URLs listed?
    • makes sense if it makes your life easier...
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