Important Spack Commands

Spack find

List and search installed packages.

Usage (spack find)

$ spack find <package>@<version>%<compiler> +<variants>

Example output:

$ spack find -v cosmo

==> 8 installed packages
-- linux-rhel7-skylake_avx512 / gcc@8.3.0 -----------------------
cosmo@master~claw cosmo_target=cpu ~cppdycore~debug+dycoretest+eccodes+parallel~pollen~production real_type=double ~serialize slave=tsa ~verbose
cosmo@master~claw cosmo_target=cpu ~cppdycore~debug+dycoretest+eccodes+parallel~pollen~production real_type=float ~serialize slave=tsa ~verbose

-- linux-rhel7-skylake_avx512 / pgi@19.9 ------------------------
cosmo@dev-build~claw cosmo_target=cpu ~cppdycore~debug+dycoretest~eccodes+parallel~pollen~production real_type=float +serialize slave=tsa ~verbose
cosmo@5.07.mch1.0.p6+claw cosmo_target=gpu +cppdycore~debug+eccodes+parallel+pollen+production real_type=double ~serialize slave=tsa ~verbose
cosmo@5.07.mch1.0.p6+claw cosmo_target=gpu +cppdycore~debug+eccodes+parallel+pollen+production real_type=float ~serialize slave=tsa ~verbose

Options (spack find)

--paths, -p: show paths to package install directories
--variants, -v: show variants in output (can be long)

Machine processing (spack find)

For a raw list of installation folders, use

$ spack find --format "{prefix}" <spec>

Example output:

$ spack find --format "{prefix}" cosmo
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/apn_5.09a.mch1.2.p2/pgi/qh4lqyvz73zcm2emfwwhcfue6kkm3xyo
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/apn_5.09a.mch1.2.p2/pgi/ssezzpu36dc4j5lc35rkytuieicoptfr
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/mch/pgi/4h7b7x62dcpvrctghjv23jrpnkep4ela
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/mch/pgi/6ijz5756a65p6wblxbr3enllmpdzcvh5
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/5.09a.mch1.2.p1/pgi/us5kk56wraktww7e543cxi4dbud2lalv
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/5.09a.mch1.2.p1/pgi/o3jtuao2gwrz7uwyekvxvr7ylltwnt4w
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/gcc/aejk4rps3es6o5trdwppzew3f2j37kl6
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/vkwywww3z52ttmlzzpn4df5jnr5paiw4
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/gcc/l52ikknglfrfolr462lc4ez6abulmphs
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/bbjwypwllbba6nmkvronktzo2vt6k3dw
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/gnm6i4pya3lrscgdnvvzgt77bssbfcab
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/koaxr3hlillunjtywkh46vcpzgrarnxc
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/i72unz2dzlp4donztoi7kxbubj4kfqtw
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/rvqs2tqltwlohpkyedzwnjggtwtgu4ly
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/i2hc4rhlhhapga6gheq3tcnbyrytadoy
/project/g110/spack-install/tsa/cosmo/master/pgi/kmrbrer2mlzz2rkn3ykhxr6h6glbwptn

Tip

If you want just any installation folder that matches the spec, the output can be truncated with | head -n 1 to get the first. If you want the installation folder of the spec that matches your spec, filled with the current defaults, you have to use Python.

#!/usr/bin/env spack python
from spack.spec import Spec
s = Spec('cosmo')
s.concretize()
install_dir = s.format('{prefix}')
print(install_dir)

or as a one-liner

$ spack python -c "print(spack.spec.Spec('cosmo').concretized().format('{prefix}'))"

Spack list

List and search available packages.

Usage (spack list)

$ spack list <package>

Spack info

Get a list of all possible building configuration available such as:

versions available
list of dependencies
variants

Variants are a key feature of spack since it describes which build configuration we want (i.e. COSMO with target gpu or cpu).

Usage (spack info)

$ spack info <package>

Spack spec

Check how your package will be installed (i.e. the spec of your package and its dependencies) before actually installing it.

Usage (spack spec)

$ spack spec <package>@<version>%<compiler> +<variants>

Spack install

This will clone the package, build it and install the chosen package plus all its dependencies under /scratch/$USER/spack-install/<your_machine> (see config.yaml in the maching specific config file section for details). The build-stage of your package and its dependencies are not kept (add --keep-stage after the install command in order to keep it). Module files are also created during this process and installed under /scratch/$USER/modules/.

However, being able to compile any other package might require installing your Spack instance if that package is installed by a Jenkins plan. An attempt to build your working copy with the command

$ spack install <package>@master ...

will not perform any compilation if Spack identifies that the requested version of the software was already installed by a Jenkins plan.

That problem is circumvented for COSMO, C++ dycore and other C2SM-hosted software by reserving a specific version (dev-build) of the spack recipe of the package (see int2lm package), which will not be used by Jenkins. Therefore, spack install int2lm@dev-build will find that version among the installed ones in the default Spack instance. For any other package that does not contain this dev-build version, you need to install our own spack instance.

Usage (spack install)

$ spack install <package>@<version>%<compiler>

Options (spack install)

-v: print output of configuration and compilation for all dependencies to terminal
--test=root: run package tests during installation for top-level packages (but skip tests for dependencies)
--keep-stage: keep all source needed to build the package

Spack installcosmo

The custom commant spack installcosmo can only be used to build COSMO. This command will clone, build and install COSMO as you would expect using spack install.

Due to the complex dependency structure of COSMO, an additional file called spec.yaml was introduced. This file contains the version of key dependencies like eccodes or cosmo-eccodes-definition. It is fetched from the code prior to the build. The version of the C++ Dycore is always set equal to the COSMO version. Versions of dependencies can be overwritten with user input. The precedence is the following:

user input
version defined in spec.yaml
package default

Usage (spack installcosmo)

$ spack installcosmo cosmo@<version>%<compiler> +<variants>

Options (spack installcosmo)

--test=root: Run COSMO testsuite before installation
--test=all: Run package tests during installation for all packages
-j --jobs: Explicitly set number of parallel jobs
--keep-stage: Don’t remove the build after compilation
-v, --verbose: Verbose installation
--force_uninstall: Force uninstall if COSMO-package is already installed
--dont-restage: If a partial install is detected, don’t delete prior
-u, --until: Phase to stop after when installing
-n, --no-checksum: Do not use checksums to verify downloaded files (unsafe)

Spack dev-build

If you do not want Spack to clone the source of the package you want to install, especially if you are developing, you can use a local source in order to install your package. In order to do so, first go to the base directory of the package and then use spack dev-build instead of spack install.

However being able to compile any other package might require installing your spack instance, f that package is installed by a Jenkins plan.

Notice that once installed, the package will not be rebuilt at the next attempt to spack dev-build, even if the sources of the local directory have changed. In order to force spack to build the local developments anytime, you need to avoid the installation phase (see option --until below).

Usage (spack dev-build)

$ cd </path/to/package>
$ spack dev-build <package>@<version>%<compiler>

Options (spack dev-build)

--test=root: run package tests during installation for top-level packages (but skip tests for dependencies)
--until <stage>: only run installation until certain stage, like build or install

$ spack dev-build --until build <package>@<version>%<compiler> +<variants>

Spack devbuildcosmo

The custom command spack devbuildcosmo can only be used to build COSMO using a local source. Similar to spack installcosmo, it uses the file spec.yaml to determine the version of key dependencies. The version of the C++ Dycore is alway set equal to the COSMO-version. Versions of dependencies can be overwritten with user input. The precedence is the following:

user input
version defined in spec.yaml
package default

There is an option the completely ignore all version specified in spec.yaml to allow builds of older COSMO versions.

Usage (spack devbuildcosmo)

$ cd </path/to/package>
$ spack devbuildcosmo <cosmo>@<version>%<compiler> +<variants>

Options (spack devbuildcosmo)

--no_specyaml: Ignore spec.yaml
-c --clean_build: Clean build
-j <JOBS>, --jobs <JOBS>: Explicitly set number of parallel jobs
--test=root: Run COSMO testsuite before installation
--test=all: Run package tests during installation for all packages
-c, --clean_build: Clean dev-build
--dont-restage: If a partial install is detected, don’t delete prior
-u, --until: Phase to stop after when installing
-n, --no-checksum: Do not use checksums to verify downloaded files (unsafe)

Spack location

Locate paths related to some spec. This command is mainly useful to get the path where a package was installed (a long path with hashes) and access the coresponding binary (somewhere under that location).

As stated in the official spack documentation, “The simplest way to run a Spack binary is to find it and run it” as it is build with RPATH. In most cases there is no need to adjust the environment.

Other options can be used to retrieve other paths like the build directory or the path to the package definition (see official spack documentation or spack location -h)

Usage (spack location)

$ spack location -i <spec>

Spack build-env

Run a command in a specs install environment, or dump its environment to screen or file This command can either be used to run a command in a specs install environment or to dump a sourceable file with the install environment. In case you want to run tests of packages manually this is what you need.

Usage (spack build-env)

$ spack build-env <spec> -- <command>

Replacing <command> with bash allows to interactively execute programmes in the install environment.

Options (spack build-env)

--dump <filename>: dump environment to <filename> to be sourced at some point

Spack edit

Opens package files in $EDITOR. Use this command in order to open the correspondig package.py file and edit it directly.

Usage (spack edit)

$ spack edit <package>

Spack load

Add package to the user environment. It can be used to set all runtime paths like LD_LIBRARY_PATH as defined in the respective package. More information in the official Spack documentation

It is recommended to load the corresponding environment prior to any execution of an executable compiled by Spack.

Usage (spack load)

$ spack load <spec>

Options (spack load)

--first: load the first match if multiple packages match the spec