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Packaging support

Note

Packaging support was added as an experimental feature in EasyBuild v2.2.0 (cfr. Experimental features). Since EasyBuild v2.5.0, it is considered stable.

Prerequisites

EasyBuild leverages FPM to create binary packages (RPMs, Debian files, etc.).

Hence, FPM must be available in some way or another. One way is via EasyBuild, for example by installing a module for FPM using one of the available easyconfig files.

EasyBuild will also take care of installing Ruby for you (which is required for FPM itself):

$ export EASYBUILD_PREFIX=/home/example

$ eb FPM-1.3.3-Ruby-2.1.6.eb --robot
[...]
== building and installing Ruby/2.1.6...
[...]
== COMPLETED: Installation ended successfully
[...]
== building and installing FPM/1.3.3-Ruby-2.1.6...
[...]
== COMPLETED: Installation ended successfully
== Results of the build can be found in the log file /home/example/software/FPM/1.3.3-Ruby-2.1.6/easybuild/easybuild-FPM-1.3.3-20150524.181859.log
== Build succeeded for 2 out of 2

$ module load FPM/1.3.3-Ruby-2.1.6

$ fpm --version
1.3.3

Configuration options

Several configuration options related to packaging support are available.

  • --package:
    • enables packaging; other options will be void unless this option is enabled
  • --package-tool=<tool>:
    • specifies which tool you wish to package with; for now, only fpm is supported (and is set as default)
  • --package-type=<type>:
  • --package-naming-scheme=<PNS>:
    • specifies which package naming scheme to use; default: EasyBuildPNS
  • --packagepath:
    • specifies destination path of packages being built
  • --package-release:
    • specifies the package release (default: 1); typically, this should be an integer value

Note

Changing the package naming scheme should be done with caution. For example, RPM will only allow one package of a particular name to be installed, so if you wish multiple versions of a package to be installed at the same time you need to ensure variables like the software version are included in the package name.

Usage

To make EasyBuild generate packages, just use --package. By default, this will make EasyBuild leverage FPM to create RPMs:

$ export EASYBUILD_PREFIX=/home/example
$ eb --package Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare.eb --robot
[...]
== building and installing Perl/5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare...
== fetching files...
== creating build dir, resetting environment...
== unpacking...
== patching...
== preparing...
== configuring...
== building...
== testing...
== installing...
== taking care of extensions...
== postprocessing...
== sanity checking...
== cleaning up...
== creating module...
== packaging...
== COMPLETED: Installation ended successfully
== Results of the build can be found in the log file /home/example/software/Perl/5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare/easybuild/easybuild-Perl-5.20.1-20150527.023522.log
== Build succeeded for 1 out of 1

Packages will be located in the directory indicated by the --packagepath configuration option; by default, this corresponds to $prefix/packages.

By default, the package will have the following properties:

$ rpm -qip --requires --provides /home/example/packages/Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare.eb2.2.0-1.x86_64.rpm
Name        : Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare
Version     : eb2.2.0
Release     : 1
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: (not installed)
Group       : default
Size        : 64539427
License     : unknown
Signature   : (none)
Source RPM  : Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare.eb2.2.0-1.x86_64.src.rpm
Build Date  : Tue 07 Jul 2015 11:27:54 PM EDT
Build Host  : 59e46bbf1cd0
Relocations : /
Packager    : <easybuild@59e46bbf1cd0>
Vendor      : easybuild@59e46bbf1cd0
URL         : http://example.com/no-uri-given
Summary     : no description given
Description :
no description given
GCC-4.9.2-dummy-dummy
rpmlib(PartialHardlinkSets) <= 4.0.4-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare
Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare = eb2.2.0-1
Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare(x86-64) = eb2.2.0-1

Packaging existing installations

To create packages for existing software installations (performed using EasyBuild), combine --package with --skip --rebuild:

$ eb --package Perl-5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare.eb --skip --rebuild
[...]
== building and installing Perl/5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare...
== fetching files...
== creating build dir, resetting environment...
== unpacking [skipped]
== patching [skipped]
== preparing...
== configuring [skipped]
== building [skipped]
== testing [skipped]
== installing [skipped]
== taking care of extensions...
== postprocessing [skipped]
== sanity checking...
== cleaning up...
== creating module...
== packaging...
== COMPLETED: Installation ended successfully
== Results of the build can be found in the log file /home/example/software/Perl/5.20.1-GCC-4.9.2-bare/easybuild/easybuild-Perl-5.20.1-20150527.041734.log
== Build succeeded for 1 out of 1
Last update: November 25, 2022