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Working with Gridware Applications: Perl

The following guide will detail the installation of Perl, along with some of the advanced features of Alces Gridware when working with the Perl Gridware package.

Perl Installation

Many different versions of Perl are available through the Alces Gridware utility - you can see the list of available packages with the alces gridware search function, for example:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ alces gridware search --name perl
base/apps/perl/5.10.1          base/apps/perl/5.12.4
base/apps/perl/5.14.2          base/apps/perl/5.16.1
base/apps/perl/5.16.3          base/apps/perl/5.18.0
base/apps/perl/5.20.2          base/apps/perl/5.8.8
base/apps/perl/5.8.9           base/apps/sierraperl/20080201
base/libs/bioperl/1.2.3        base/libs/bioperl/1.6.901
base/libs/bioperl/1.6.923

To install, for example - Perl version 5.20.2; run the following command:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ alces gridware install apps/perl/5.20.2
Preparing to install main/apps/perl/5.20.2
Installing main/apps/perl/5.20.2
Importing apps-perl-5.20.2-el7.tar.gz

 > Fetching archive
        Download ... OK

 > Preparing import
         Extract ... OK
          Verify ... OK

 > Processing apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
       Preparing ... OK
       Importing ... OK
     Permissions ... OK

 > Finalizing import
          Update ... OK
    Dependencies ... OK

Installation complete.

Once the compilation has finished - the Perl 5.20.2 Gridware package will be available for use; check its availability and load using:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ module avail
---  /opt/gridware/local/el7/etc/modules  ---
  apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ module load apps/perl
apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
 | -- libs/gcc/system ... SKIPPED (already loaded)
 |
 OK
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ perl --version
This is perl 5, version 16, subversion 3 (v5.16.3) built for x86_64-linux-thread-multi

Multiple versions of a package can exist at one time, however only one version of a particular application module can be loaded at any one time. To load a different version of Perl:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ alces module load apps/perl/5.18.0/gcc-4.8.5
apps/perl/5.18.0/gcc-4.8.5 ... VARIANT (have alternative: apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5)
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ alces module unload apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
              apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5 ... UNLOADING --> OK
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ alces module load apps/perl/5.18.0/gcc-4.8.5
apps/perl/5.18.0/gcc-4.8.5
 | -- libs/gcc/system ... SKIPPED (already loaded)
 |
 OK
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ perl --version
This is perl 5, version 18, subversion 0 (v5.18.0) built for x86_64-linux

Installation of language libraries

Through the Alces Gridware utility, installation of lanaguage libraries is possible both on a system-wide level, and also on a per-user basis. The following section details both system-wide language library installation, as well as user-level language library installation.

System-wide language libraries: Perl

As the alces administrator user, or any other sudo enabled user that can switch to root - change to the root user account.

Next, load the version of Perl you wish to add language libraries to - for example perl/5.20.2

[root@login1(scooby) ~]# module load apps/perl/5.20.2
apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
 | -- libs/gcc/system
 |    * --> OK
 |
 OK

Next - use the cpan utility to install the Perl libraries you, or additional system users require - for example:

[root@login1(scooby) ~]# cpan Date::Simple
Fetching with Net::FTP:
ftp://cpan.etla.org/pub/CPAN/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
Reading '/opt/gridware/share/perl/5.20.2/cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz'
<--snip-->

The Date::Simple module will now be available to any system user loading the Perl 5.20.2 Gridware package.

To verify successful installation, switch to a non-root user; for example alces will now be able to see and use the Date::Simple module:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ module load apps/perl/5.20.2
apps/perl/5.20.2/gcc-4.8.5
 | -- libs/gcc/system
 |    * --> OK
 |
 OK
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ cpan -l 2>&1 | grep Date::Simple | head -n1
Date::Simple        3.03

User-specific language libraries: Perl

Users may also wish to install their own language libraries, these will be unavailable to other users of the environment.

As the user you wish to install a Perl module for, load the perl Gridware application, then use cpan to install the required module:

[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ cpan File::Slurp
Fetching with Net::FTP:
ftp://cpan.etla.org/pub/CPAN/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
Reading '/home/barney/gridware/share/perl/5.20.2/cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz'
<-- snip -->
[alces@login1(scooby) ~]$ cpan File::Slurp
Reading '/home/barney/gridware/share/perl/5.20.2/cpan/Metadata'
  Database was generated on Fri, 19 Feb 2016 02:41:02 GMT
File::Slurp is up to date (9999.19).

The File::Slurp installation was successful - and we can now use it as the alces user. Switching to another user will confirm the user-level installation success; the root user will not be able to use the File::Slurp Perl module, requiring the module be installed again:

[root@login1(scooby) ~]# alces module load apps/perl/5.20.2
[root@login1(scooby) ~]# cpan File::Slurp
Fetching with Net::FTP:
ftp://cpan.etla.org/pub/CPAN/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
Reading '/home/alces/gridware/share/perl/5.20.2/cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz'