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Clarify uenv spack view #70

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Merged
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Apr 1, 2025
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Clarify uenv spack view #70

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Update uenv.md
RMeli Apr 1, 2025
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Update docs/build-install/uenv.md
RMeli Apr 1, 2025
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Update docs/build-install/uenv.md
RMeli Apr 1, 2025
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Update docs/build-install/uenv.md
RMeli Apr 1, 2025
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24 changes: 19 additions & 5 deletions docs/build-install/uenv.md
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On systems that have NVIDIA GPUs (`gh200` and `a100` uarch), it also provides the latest version of `cuda` and `nccl`, and is configured for GPU-aware MPI communication.

To use Spack as an upstream, the uenv has to be started with the `spack` view:
To use Spack as an upstream, the uenv can be started with the `spack` view:

```bash
uenv start prgenv-gnu/24.11:v1 --view=spack
```

??? note "what does the `spack` view do?"
??? note "What does the `spack` view do?"
The `spack` view sets environment variables that provide information about the version of Spack that was used to build the uenv, and where the uenv Spack configuration is stored.

This information is useful because it is strongly recomended that you use the same version of Spack to build software on top of the uenv.


| <div style="width:12em">variable</div> | <div style="width:18em">example</div> | description |
| -------- | ------- | ----------- |
| `UENV_SPACK_CONFIG_PATH` | `user-environment/config` | the path of the upstream [spack configuration files]. |
| `UENV_SPACK_REF` | `releases/v0.23` | the branch or tag used - this might be empty if a specific commit of Spack was used. |
| `UENV_SPACK_URL` | `https://github.com/spack/spack.git` | The git repository for Spack - nearly always the main spack/spack repository. |
| `UENV_SPACK_COMMIT` | `c6d4037758140fe...0cd1547f388ae51` | The commit of Spack that was used |

!!! warning

The environment variables set by the `spack` view are scoped by `UENV_`.
Therefore, they don't change Spack-related environment variables.
You can use them to consistently set Spack-related environment variables.

You can then set the uenv as an upstream Spack instance as follows:

```bash
export SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH=$UENV_SPACK_CONFIG_PATH
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@msimberg msimberg Apr 1, 2025

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This is good, but may be dangerous if users don't know to use separate indexes, user config paths, etc. per uenv. I don't know if we want/need to provide a full guide on how to do that (I can share what I do), but a warning may be useful at least at this point?

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@RMeli RMeli Apr 1, 2025 •
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Merged too quickly. =)

I actually did not realize that the reminder of the documentation was about uenv-spack; I thought it was still very much WIP and undocumented. Therefore, the above is probably bad for the end user, which should be encouraged to use the tool (I suppose). I can rephrase it to make it clearer that things are not set automatically but one should do so if they wish (without giving too many suggestions).

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@msimberg msimberg Apr 1, 2025

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I didn't realize either 😬 Yeah, I think the idea is that the uenv-spack tool consumes UENV_SPACK_CONFIG_PATH etc. but it sets up a clone of spack etc. on its own, right? If that's the case, exporting SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH here probably isn't going to harm anyone, but it won't help either...

```

??? warning "Upstream Spack version"

It is strongly recomended that your version of Spack and the version of Spack in the uenv match when building software on top of an uenv.

### Describing what to build

!!! example "Create a build path with a template `spack.yaml` and `repo`:"
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