README.md

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 libelf

Documentation

Full documentation for Spack is the first place to look.

Try the Spack Tutorial, to learn how to use spack, write packages, or deploy packages for users at your site.

See also:

• Technical paper and slides on Spack's design and implementation.
• Short presentation from the Getting Scientific Software Installed BOF session at Supercomputing 2015.

Get Involved!

Spack is an open source project. Questions, discussion, and contributions are welcome. Contributions can be anything from new packages to bugfixes, or even new core features.

Mailing list

If you are interested in contributing to spack, join the mailing list. We're using Google Groups for this:

• Spack Google Group

Slack channel

Spack has a Slack channel where you can chat about all things Spack:

• Spack on Slack