EasyBuild conf call notes

(back to [[Conference calls]]) Notes on the **287th** EasyBuild conference call, Wednesday 28 Jan 2026 (09:00 UTC / 10:00 CET) #### Attendees List of attendees (19): * Jorge Delgado Guerrero (University of Luxembourg) * Bob Dröge (Univ. of Groningen, The Netherlands) * Loris Ercole (CECAM) * Davide Grassano (CECAM) * Jasper Grimm (University of York, UK) * Leonardo Honfi Camilo (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) * Kenneth Hoste (HPC-UGent) * Georgios Kafanas (University of Luxembourg) * Kurt Lust (UAntwerpen & LUMI User Support Team) * Vladislav Mogilev (Univ. of Birmingham, UK) * Sam Moors (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) * Sébastien Moretti (SIB, Switzerland) * Mikael Öhman (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) * Jurij Pečar (EMBL, Germany) * Jarne Renders (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) * Jan Reuter (JSC, Germany) * Jörg Saßmannshausen (Imperial College London, UK) * Åke Sandgren (Umeå University, Sweden) * Alain van Hoof (TU Eindhoven, Netherlands) #### Agenda * overview of recent developments * update of common toolchains * Q&A ### Recent developments * latest EasyBuild release: EasyBuild v5.2.0 (23 Dec 2025) * next (stable) EasyBuild release: EasyBuid v5.2.1 * ETA: mid Feb'26 #### News * 11th EasyBuild User Meeting: 21-23 April 2026 @ Portugal, see https://easybuild.io/eum26 * registration will be opened soon * starting to puzzle together draft agenda, ideas/suggestions welcome! * EasyBuild User Survey * coming soon... #### Merge sprints - future easyconfigs merge sprints planned: - **Mon 16 Feb 2026** - Mon 13 Apr 2026 - Mon 15 Jun 2026 - Mon 17 Aug 2026 - aiming for semi-fixed schedule every other month: 3rd Monday in even months - at some point a sprint to revise & close outdated open issues #### Merged PRs *(changed made in PRs marked with `*` are included latest EasyBuild stable release)* * **blog/docs** *(merged PRs)* * ... * **framework** *(merged PRs)* * *bug fixes* - Add back `easybuild.toolchains.compiler.nvhpc` ([PR #5089](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5089)) - change deprecated NVHPC toolchain classes to inherit from supported counterparts ([PR #5096](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5096)) - Fix crash when showing failed shell command containing special chars ([PR #5098](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5098)) * *enhancements* - ... * *changes* - ... * *code cleanup* - ... * *CI/test suite* - ... * *other* - ... * **easyblocks** *(merged PRs)* * *bug fixes* - avoid incorrect symlinks for NVHPC by force-setting selected CUDA version in install script ([PR #4024](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4024)) - transfer dependencies in `Bundle` easyblock and fix sanity check for module only ([PR #4037](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4037)) - Set `$Python3_ROOT_DIR` in `PythonPackage` easyblock ([PR #4043](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4043)) - Ensure AmberTools will find the correct python library and include dir ([PR #4045](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4045)) - should maybe be also fixed in `CMakeMake`? * *enhancements* - Add support for detecting external MAGMA library for ELSI ([PR #3536](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3536)) - Create lockfile for `Cargo` package if missing ([PR #3995](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3995)) - Explictly call `PythonPackage` and Cargo configure step in `CargoPythonPackage` easyblock ([PR #3996](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3996)) - add LLVM support to ParaStationMPI easyblock ([PR #4047](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4047)) * *updates* - Changes to LLVM easyblock required for LLVM 21 ([PR #3902](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3902)) * *changes* - Make `CargoPythonPackage` the default class for extensions/components of `CargoPythonBundle` ([PR #3993](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3993)) * *new* - New custom easyblock for ROCm-LLVM ([PR #3823](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3823)) * *code cleanup* - ... * *CI* - ... * **easyconfigs** *(merged PRs)* * ***~XXX** easyconfig PRs were merged since last conf call* * *bug fixes/reports* - add patches to hwloc v2.12.1 to better handle ACPI CPCC, fixes performance regression in MPI startup time (time required for `MPI_Init`) (PRs [#25043](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25043) + [#25063](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25063)) - mostly for Zen2/3, the more MPI ranks used, the worse the performance regression is - add patch to use https instead of http to fix failing MDTraj tests ([PR #25111](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25111)) - add missing dependencies for PICRUSt2 2.6.1 ([PR #25139](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25139)) * *enhancements* - ... * *(noteworthy) new software* - ROCm-LLVM v19.0.0 w/ ROCm 6.4.1 ([PR #23304](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23304)) * *noteworthy software updates* * PyTorch v2.7.1 w/ `foss/2024a` + CUDA 12.6.0 ([PR #23923](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23923)) * *cleanup* - ... * *changes* - ... #### Open (active) PRs * **blog/docs** *(open PRs + issues)* * ... * **framework** *(open PRs + issues)* * *bugs* - Properly handle toolchains defining openmp toolchain opt as dict ([PR #5093](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5093)) - Ensure git repo URL does not contan double-slahses due to trailing slash in source URL ([PR #5097](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5097)) * *enhancements* - Add LLVM toolchains using ParaStationMPI ([PR #5094](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5094)) - Add ROCm toolchain based on LLVM toolchain efforts ([WIP PR #5099](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5099)) - active WIP by Jan - feedback & more testing is welcome - for example on LUMI, should support ROCm 6.4 now - for discussion on this, see `#amd-rocm` channel in EESSI Slack (or `#amd` channel in EasyBuild Slack) - AMD's TheRock uses all cores on system, no way to limit it?! * *code cleanup* - ... * *changes* - Deprecate `print_error` function and replace it with new `print_error_and_exit` function ([PR #5092](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-framework/pull/5092)) * *CI/test suite* - ... * **easyblocks** *(open PRs + issues)* * bug fixes/reports - Fix missed sanity check in custom easyblock for GCC ([PR #4041](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4041)) - `Bundle` easyblock not aware of `ignore_test_failure` ([issue #4044](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/issues/4044)) - best way to deal with this is rename `EasyBlock._test_step` in framework to `EasyBlock.test_step` (and current `EasyBlock.test_step` to `EasyBlock._raw_test_step`)? - Ensure AmberTools will find the correct python library and include dir ([PR #4045](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4045)) - Fix setting Python variables in TensorRT easyblock ([PR #4046](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4046)) - fix WIEN2k easyblock for newer toolchains ([PR #4048](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4048)) * enhancements - add custom easyconfig parameter `with_cxx_backtrace` to GCC easyblock to enable the build of the libstdcxx-backtrace library ([PR #3538](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3538)) - add `sanity_pip_list` parameter to verify Python package names and versions with `pip list` ([PR #4049](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4049)) - should be tested with a bunch of existing easyconfigs, like `Python`, `Python-bundle-PyPI`, `SciPy-bundle`, `matplotlib`, etc. - Allow easier reuse of `compose_install_command` of `PythonPackage`, and add `%(python)s` template and default Python libdir in sanity check ([PR #4050](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4050)) - update ELPA easyblock to make it aware of NVHPC toolchain compiler ([PR #4051](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4051)) - **Add option to allow missing or additional detected PyTorch test suites** ([PR #4052](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4052)) - Update QuantumESPRESSO easyblock - add pretestopts + GPU test cmd ([PR #4053](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4053)) * *updates* - Update CP2K easyblock for v2024 and v2025 ([PR #3892](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3892)) * *changes* - Always setup config for vendored crates in Cargo easyblock ([PR #4018](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4018)) * *code cleanup* - Enable flake8-comprehension code style check and fix issues ([PR #3989](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3989)) * *new easyblocks* - add custom easyblock to build & install ROCm components ([PR #3861](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/3861)) - new easyblock for AOCL-LAPACK ([PR #4042](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/4042)) * **easyconfigs** *(open PRs + issues)* * *bug fixes/reports* - add patches to GCCcore 14.2.0 & 14.3.0 to fix ICE with SVE on aarch64 ([PR #25090](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25090)) * *enhancements* - ... * *(noteworthy) new software* * Xfce v4.20 ([PR #24369](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/24369)) * true 3D desktop \o/ * software updates * PyTorch v2.3.0 w/ `foss/2023b` + CUDA 12.4.0 ([PR #23553](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23553)) * PyTorch v2.6.0 w/ `foss/2024a` + CUDA 12.6.0 ([PR #23433](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23433)) * CP2K v2025.2 w/ `foss/2025a` ([PR #23696](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23696)) * *changes* * add patches to allow offline build of Amber ([PR #23747](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/23747)) * require setting `sanity_pip_list` for new PRs ([PR #25112](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25112)) ### Common toolchains - `{foss/intel/lfoss}/{2026a,2026b}` (as usual) or only `{foss/intel/lfoss}/2026` (one toolchain per year)? #### `{foss,intel,lfoss}/2026(a)` - [relevant PRs tagged with `2026a` label](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3A2026a) - MPICH 5.0 coming soon - OpenMPI is working on implementing common ABI in MPI-5 standard (see https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/pull/13280) ### Q&A / other * Jörg: [easyconfigs PR #25158](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/25158) * `configure_step` in PETSc easyblock should be made aware of HDF5 (see `sep_deps` list) * Davide: way to advertise which dependencies are being considered by an easyblock * `eb --known-deps --easyblock EB_PETSc` * would be significant effort in easyblock to report which dependencies they pick up on * OpenMPI-5.0.3-NVHPC-24.9-CUDA-12.6.0.eb fails due to toolchain dependency mismatch with NVHPC / nvidia-compilers ([issue #25120](https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-easyconfigs/issues/25120))