Spack
Spack is a multi-platform package manager that builds and installs
multiple versions and configurations of software. It works on Linux,
macOS, and many supercomputers. Spack is non-destructive: installing a
new version of a package does not break existing installations, so many
configurations of the same package can coexist.
Spack offers a simple "spec" syntax that allows users to specify versions
and configuration options. Package files are written in pure Python, and
specs allow package authors to write a single script for many different
builds of the same package. With Spack, you can build your software
all the ways you want to.
See the
Feature Overview
for examples and highlights.
To install spack and your first package, make sure you have Python.
Then:
$ git clone https://github.com/spack/spack.git
$ cd spack/bin
$ ./spack install zlib
Documentation
Full documentation is available, or
run spack help or spack help --all.
Tutorial
We maintain a
hands-on tutorial.
It covers basic to advanced usage, packaging, developer features, and large HPC
deployments. You can do all of the exercises on your own laptop using a
Docker container.
Feel free to use these materials to teach users at your organization
about Spack.
Community
Spack is an open source project. Questions, discussion, and
contributions are welcome. Contributions can be anything from new
packages to bugfixes, documentation, or even new core features.
Resources:
- Slack workspace: spackpm.slack.com.
To get an invitation, click here. - Mailing list: groups.google.com/d/forum/spack
- Twitter: @spackpm. Be sure to
@mentionus!
Contributing
Contributing to Spack is relatively easy. Just send us a
pull request.
When you send your request, make develop the destination branch on the
Spack repository.
Your PR must pass Spack's unit tests and documentation tests, and must be
PEP 8 compliant. We enforce
these guidelines with Travis CI. To
run these tests locally, and for helpful tips on git, see our
Contribution Guide.
Spack uses a rough approximation of the
Git Flow
branching model. The develop branch contains the latest
contributions, and master is always tagged and points to the latest
stable release.
Code of Conduct
Please note that Spack has a
Code of Conduct. By participating in
the Spack community, you agree to abide by its rules.
Authors
Many thanks go to Spack's contributors.
Spack was created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov.
Citing Spack
If you are referencing Spack in a publication, please cite the following paper:
- Todd Gamblin, Matthew P. LeGendre, Michael R. Collette, Gregory L. Lee,
Adam Moody, Bronis R. de Supinski, and W. Scott Futral.
The Spack Package Manager: Bringing Order to HPC Software Chaos.
In Supercomputing 2015 (SC’15), Austin, Texas, November 15-20 2015. LLNL-CONF-669890.
License
Spack is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the
Apache License (Version 2.0). Users may choose either license, at their
option.
All new contributions must be made under both the MIT and Apache-2.0
licenses.
See LICENSE-MIT,
LICENSE-APACHE,
COPYRIGHT, and
NOTICE for details.
SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
LLNL-CODE-647188