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Singularity

Singularity is a container system developed for use on high-performance computing clusters. Container computing allows the creation of a virtual-machine-like environment, which gives the user access to different configurations of software for use on clusters.

Using Singularity to install a container on Roar can help users:

  • avoid dependence challenges
  • perform the same expected behavior on local and remote systems
  • easily move containers to new locations

This may help if you need to run a container without having sudo access, but keep in mind that the container must integrate seamlessly into the existing destination infrastructure.

Getting Started with Using Singularity

Before getting started with using Singularity on Roar, you will need to install Singularity on a system for which you have root access. Singularity’s official user guide provides instructions for doing this. Roar uses version 2.6.0 of Singularity.

You may also obtain help in ACI-b like so:

[cjb47@comp-sc-0157 ~]$ singularity help
USAGE: singularity [global options...] [command options...] ...

GLOBAL OPTIONS

-d|–debug Print debugging information
-h|–help Display usage summary
-s|–silent Only print errors
-q|–quiet Suppress all normal output
–version Show application version
-v|–verbose Increase verbosity +1
-x|–sh-debug Print shell wrapper debugging information

GENERAL COMMANDS

help Show additional help for a command or container
selftest Run some self tests for singularity install

CONTAINER USAGE COMMANDS

exec Execute a command within container
run Launch a runscript within container
shell Run a Bourne shell within container
test Launch a testscript within container

CONTAINER MANAGEMENT COMMANDS

apps List available apps within a container
bootstrap *Deprecated* use build instead
build Build a new Singularity container
check Perform container lint checks
inspect Display container’s metadata
mount Mount a Singularity container image
pull Pull a Singularity/Docker container to $PWD

COMMAND GROUPS

image Container image command group
instance Persistent instance command group

CONTAINER USAGE OPTIONS

see singularity help

For any additional help or support visit the Singularity
website: https://www.sylabs.io