Table of Contents

tl;dr #

Put the following in your .bashrc

use_build() {
  if hostname | grep "^i" &>/dev/null; then
      echo "loading improv spack"
      module load gcc/13.2.0
      module load openmpi/5.0.1-gcc-13.2.0
      source $HOME/git/spack-improv/share/spack/setup-env.sh
      source $HOME/git/spack-improv/share/spack/spack-completion.bash
      export clustername=improv
  fi
  #other LCRC Machines
  export SPACK_USER_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.spack/$clustername"
  export SPACK_USER_CACHE_PATH="$SPACK_USER_CONFIG_PATH"
}

Then run

mkdir -p ~/git
git clone https://github.com/spack/spack git/spack-improv
git clone https://github.com/robertu94/spack_packages git/robertu94_packages
source ~/.bashrc
use_build
spack compiler find

# for extra packages like libpressio
spack repo add ~/git/robertu94_packages

First create packages.yaml at ~/.spack/improv/packages.yaml with:

packages:
  all:
    providers:
      blas: [openblas]
      lapack: [openblas]
      mpi: [openmpi]
  openmpi:
    externals:
    - spec: openmpi@5.0.1+atomics~cuda~java~memchecker~static~wrapper-rpath fabrics=ucx
      prefix: /gpfs/fs1/soft/improv/software/spack-built/linux-rhel8-zen3/gcc-13.2.0/openmpi-5.0.1-yhyhopk
      modules: [openmpi/5.0.1-gcc-13.2.0]
    buildable: False

After that create compilers.yaml at ~/.spack/improv/linux/compilers.yaml with:

compilers:
- compiler:
    spec: gcc@=13.2.0
    paths:
      cc: /gpfs/fs1/soft/improv/software/spack-built/linux-rhel8-x86_64/gcc-8.5.0/gcc-13.2.0-iyqxotb/bin/gcc
      cxx: /gpfs/fs1/soft/improv/software/spack-built/linux-rhel8-x86_64/gcc-8.5.0/gcc-13.2.0-iyqxotb/bin/g++
      f77: /gpfs/fs1/soft/improv/software/spack-built/linux-rhel8-x86_64/gcc-8.5.0/gcc-13.2.0-iyqxotb/bin/gfortran
      fc: /gpfs/fs1/soft/improv/software/spack-built/linux-rhel8-x86_64/gcc-8.5.0/gcc-13.2.0-iyqxotb/bin/gfortran
    flags: {}
    operating_system: rhel8
    target: x86_64
    modules: [gcc/13.2.0]
    environment: {}
    extra_rpaths: []

And now spack should work. On your next login, just call use_build to reload spack.

For the longer version see the guide on [configuring spack]({% link _guides/spack.markdown %})

What makes this machine special? #

We use mpi from the system to avoid configuring them
We load a new compiler from a module to have access to newer C++ features
Improv shares a home filesystem with other machines like swing these machines are completely different hardware wise and use different module systems. The load function loads a copy of spack specifically for Improv and uses a separate spark instance for other machines. We use spack’s SPACK_USER_CONFIG_PATH to keep these cleanly separate.

Changelog #

2024-02-22 created document