Sylabs vs hpcng

[Joseph Manel Andres Moscardo]

Hi ,

I am back to singularity after a while, and found two git repos and 2 websites with documentation for what I would say is the same,

https://github.com/hpcng/singularity

https://github.com/sylabs/singularity

Can someone explain whether they are forks or CE/Enterprise ?

thanks.

[Dave Dykstra]

sylabs/singularity is an independent fork of hpcng/singularity as of
April of this year. See
https://groups.google.com/u/1/a/lbl.gov/g/singularity/c/UbywVHXD_co

Dave

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[v]

There isn't a trivial answer to this question because it depends who you ask. Sylabs is the company that the founder of Singularity started originally for Singularity, and they were maintaining it of course at sylabs to start, and then switched to an organization called hpcng at the request of the creator, and the split happened (it seems) because of some internal squabble, when Sylabs forked back to the original home. If you are a community member, it's been a little bit like whiplash. You'll hear a different story depending on who you ask.

So which one to use? A common answer I keep being told is that one is the "official" version and the other not.  But an interesting observation - the hpcng version seems to be pulling many commits from Sylabs: https://github.com/hpcng/singularity/pulls?q=sylabs. So despite the switch - there is still a good amount of (as the creator likes to say) "cross-pollination" and it's a shame that these two parties haven't figured out how to rectify their differences.

To answer your question - you can make an independent decision about which you want to install. Heck, you can flip a coin. I would (personally) base it on where you think development is happening, or which you think provides better support. Or perhaps the release schedule that you are looking for. I don't think there is really a correct answer to this question, or any answer at all. It's mostly opinion. I would also keep abreast of news from both sides, as some future decision could further influence what you want to do. And if you haven't, check out podman, which is a promising contender in the space.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/YZQcX%2BVLIIsZEFFA%40fnal.gov.

[Joshua Studen]

Which one does Kurtzer represent? 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAM%3Dpu%2BKbYrJ%3DBbxEFd0D00%3DG0dH5eGDSOn5pFoiTt8rtngcrtQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[v]

Greg is with hpcng.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAFR0EmnG5Dc1jm6%2BNm2mNOYYrgL5OosDvtj3ssm%3DHsiVeXGdRQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Dave Dykstra]

As is the person who wrote most of the v3 core, Cedric Clerget.

Because those people are with hpcng and because in general I think it is
healthier for open source projects to be run by the community rather
than a single company, I have chosen to keep the EPEL singularity
package that I maintain be based on the hpcng project and to increase
the time I spend on supporting the project. On the other hand, I know
that it is very important to many people to have commercial support and
I very much want a healthy Sylabs because they are able to dedicate
significant resources to supporting and advancing Singularity. So it is
my firm hope that the two projects will get back together again into one
at some point, or for the Sylabs project to be based on the community
project rather than be independent.

Dave

On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 02:51:18PM -0700, v wrote:
> Greg is with hpcng.
>
> On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 2:50 PM Joshua Studen <joshua...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Which one does Kurtzer represent?
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 16, 2021, 1:29 PM v <vso...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> There isn't a trivial answer to this question because it depends who you
> >> ask. Sylabs is the company that the founder of Singularity started
> >> originally for Singularity, and they were maintaining it of course at
> >> sylabs to start, and then switched to an organization called hpcng at the
> >> request of the creator, and the split happened (it seems) because of some
> >> internal squabble, when Sylabs forked back to the original home. If you are
> >> a community member, it's been a little bit like whiplash. You'll hear a
> >> different story depending on who you ask.
> >>
> >> So which one to use? A common answer I keep being told is that one is the
> >> "official" version and the other not. But an interesting observation - the
> >> hpcng version seems to be pulling many commits from Sylabs:

> >> https://github.com/hpcng/singularity/pulls?q=sylabs . So despite the

> >> switch - there is still a good amount of (as the creator likes to say)
> >> "cross-pollination" and it's a shame that these two parties haven't figured
> >> out how to rectify their differences.
> >>
> >> To answer your question - you can make an independent decision about
> >> which you want to install. Heck, you can flip a coin. I would (personally)
> >> base it on where you think development is happening, or which you think
> >> provides better support. Or perhaps the release schedule that you are
> >> looking for. I don't think there is really a correct answer to this
> >> question, or any answer at all. It's mostly opinion. I would also keep
> >> abreast of news from both sides, as some future decision could further
> >> influence what you want to do. And if you haven't, check out podman

> >> <https://podman.io/ >, which is a promising contender in the space.

> >> https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAM%3Dpu%2BKbYrJ%3DBbxEFd0D00%3DG0dH5eGDSOn5pFoiTt8rtngcrtQ%40mail.gmail.com
> >> <https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAM%3Dpu%2BKbYrJ%3DBbxEFd0D00%3DG0dH5eGDSOn5pFoiTt8rtngcrtQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer >

> >> .
> >>
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> > https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAFR0EmnG5Dc1jm6%2BNm2mNOYYrgL5OosDvtj3ssm%3DHsiVeXGdRQ%40mail.gmail.com
> > <https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/d/msgid/singularity/CAFR0EmnG5Dc1jm6%2BNm2mNOYYrgL5OosDvtj3ssm%3DHsiVeXGdRQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer >

> > .
> >
>
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