Registration will close on 31st August
Location:
This course will take place face-to-face at University of Nottingham
This course will not be streamed online and a recording will not be made.
Overview:
This course aims to introduce the use of containers with the goal of using them to effect reproducible computational environments. Such environments are useful for ensuring reproducible research outputs and for simplifying the setup of complex software dependencies across different systems. The course will introduce the use of Singularity/Apptainer containers but the material will be of use for whatever container technology you plan to, or end up, using. On completion of this course attendees should:
- Have an understanding of what Singularity/Apptainer containers are, why they are useful and the common terminology used
- Have a working Singularity/Apptainer installation on your local system to allow you to use containers
- Understand how to use existing Docker/Singularity/Apptainer containers for common tasks
- Be able to build your own Singularity/Apptainer containers by understanding both the role of a recipe in building containers, and the syntax used in Singularity/Apptainer recipes
- Understand how to manage Singularity/Apptainer containers on your local system
- Appreciate decisions that need to be made around containerising research workflows
- Appreciate issues around reproducibility in software, understand how containers can address some of these issues and what the limits to reproducibility using containers are
Prerequisites:
You must have a laptop where you have admin/sudo access running Windows 10/11 (with WSL2), macOS or Linux.
You should have basic familiarity with using a command shell, and the lesson text will at times request that you “open a shell window”, with an assumption that you know what this means. Under Linux or macOS it is assumed that you will access a bash shell (usually the default), using your Terminal application. Under Windows, we assume you are using WSL2. The lessons will sometimes request that you use a text editor to create or edit files in particular directories. It is assumed that you either have an editor that you know how to use that runs within the working directory of your shell window (e.g. nano), or that if you use a graphical editor, that you can use it to read and write files into the working directory of you
Requirements:
Participants are required to abide by the ARCHER2 Code of Conduct.