Easybuild/lmod notes

Lmod is a system of loadable modules. It is used on many HPC systems to allow the user to choose the software and libraries they load. It allows multiple versions of the same program to be installed.

EasyBuild is a program which can compile common software and automatically creates module files when it does this.

Installing lmod

Run the command apt install lmod

Install easybuild

This will only install for the current user

pip install easybuild

Running it with sudo will probably install it for all users.

Install easybuild as a module

Not sure if this is required, but it means we have another independent copy of EasyBuild.

eb --install-latest-eb-release --prefix $HOME/EasyBuild

Using Easybuild

find an easybuild package

eb -S packagename

dryrun package install

eb packagename-version.eb -Dr (take the full basename from the output of eb -S)

really install a package

eb packagename-version.eb -r

Configuring EasyBuild

The main config file is .config/easybuild/config.cfg

Create a custom easybuild config

create .config/easybuild/config.cfg

add a [config] section and then add config options, e.g.

job-cores=5
modules-tool=Lmod

test the config with

eb --show-config

Lines with a (D) are defaults, (E) enviroment variables and (F) config file.

Set easybuild to store modules somewhere else

Add the following to your config:

buildpath = ./EasyBuild/build
sourcepath = ./EasyBuild/sources
installpath = /sharedfs/modules

Tell lmod where to find the modules

You can tempoarily set where lmod gets modules from by running

module use ~/.local/easybuild/modules/all

DON’T module use ~/.local/easybuild/modules/, this results in confusion resolving module names

This can be made permanent by adding entries into /etc/lmod/modulespath