On Big Red at IU, how can I use SoftEnv to customize my software environment?

Note: Big Red is scheduled to be retired from service September 30, 2013. Indiana University is replacing it with Big Red II, the fastest university-owned supercomputer in the nation, capable of performing one quadrillion floating-point operations per second (1 petaflop). For more, see Big Red II at Indiana University. No new Big Red accounts will be created after May 3, 2013. If you have a Big Red account as of May 3, you will still be able to access and use Big Red until your account is migrated to Big Red II. If you have questions or concerns contact the High Performance Systems group.

The SoftEnv environment management system is used on Big Red at Indiana University to simplify application and environment configuration for users and administrators.

When you log into Big Red for the first time, a ~/.soft file, defining system defaults, will be created for you. These defaults, such as Intel's C/C++ and Fortran compilers and OpenMPI, may suffice, but if they don't, you can add additional packages, such as MPICH.

On this page:

• Viewing available software packages
• Default ~/.soft file
• Changing your environment
  • Temporary changes
  • Permanent changes

Viewing available software packages

The softenv command will show you the software available on the system, and the keywords for accessing each software package. At the command prompt, enter:

Keywords and the associated software are listed with a preceding "+" (plus sign). Macros (pre-defined lists of keywords) have a preceding "@" (at sign).

Default ~/.soft file

By default, your Big Red ~/.soft file contains only the @bigred macro.

Changing your environment

You can add and remove keywords (i.e., software packages) from your environment either temporarily or permanently. For example, you can remove a keyword associated with software you never use, add a keyword associated with software you expect to use regularly, or make temporary changes for testing.

Temporary changes

To temporarily add a keyword (i.e., software package) to your environment, first use softenv (as described above) to determine whether the package you want is available and, if it is, identify the keyword associated with it. Then, use the soft command as follows, replacing keyword with the appropriate keyword:

To temporarily remove a keyword from your environment, use:

To restore your environment to the default settings in your ~/.soft file, use the resoft command:

Permanent changes

To permanently change your environment, edit your ~/.soft file, adding or removing keywords and macros. For the changes to take effect, enter resoft , or log out and then log in again.

Note: If you want to prepend @remove lines (e.g., @remove +keyword) or other software paths to your environment, place them at the beginning of the file, before any keywords or macros.