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

Full documentation is available, or run spack help or spack help --all.

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.

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 @mention us!

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.

Please note that Spack has a Code of Conduct. By participating in the Spack community, you agree to abide by its rules.

Many thanks go to Spack's contributors.

Spack was created by Todd Gamblin, [email protected].

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.

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