EasyBuild (EB)

EasyBuild provides a robust, customizable, and scalable way to automatically build, install, and manage scientific software on HPC environments—ensuring consistent, efficient, and repeatable deployments.

Initialize the EESSI environment: To make the EESSI software available, you first need to source the EESSI initialization script for the 2023.06 version. This command sets up your bash shell environment:
```
source /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/init/bash
```

Configure EasyBuild to avoid using the HOME directory: Due to the strict HOME directory quotas (both block and inode quota; see Overview), EasyBuild must not be used with HOME as a build or installation target, configure EasyBuild to build and install software in scratch space:

BASE="/scratch/${project}/${USER}"

echo "Using project: $project"
echo "Using user:    $USER"
echo "Scratch base:  $BASE"

# --- ensure directories exist ---
mkdir -p "$BASE/eessi" "$BASE/eb_work" "$BASE/eb_sources"

# --- redirect EasyBuild / EESSI installs ---
export EESSI_USER_INSTALL="$BASE/eessi"
export WORKING_DIR="$BASE/eb_work"
export EASYBUILD_SOURCEPATH="$BASE/eb_sources"

Load EasyBuild program:

module load EESSI-extend/2023.06-easybuild

Build the required program available in the EasyBuild catalog (https://docs.easybuild.io/version-specific/supported-software/): With the environment and the EESSI-extensions module loaded, you can run EasyBuild:
```
eb OpenBabel-3.1.1-gompi-2023a.eb
```
If your version already exists, you can add --rebuild to force a rebuild in your namespace:
```
eb OpenBabel-3.1.1-gompi-2023a.eb --rebuild
```
This makes the obabel, babel, and the Python/Pybel module available for use.

Notes for EB usage

Never build or install software in $HOME.
Always redirect EESSI_USER_INSTALL to /scratch or /project.
Scratch storage is recommended for EasyBuild outputs.

Last update by Milán SZŐRI: 2026-02-21