Unless you're a Superuser, setting up a development environment and managing software installations on ExaCloud requires a bit of massaging. Below is a set of instructions to install Miniconda and Linuxbrew to manage your Python and system level software installations, respectively. This means, if you need to install most any software package, all you'll need to do is type into your terminal:

brew install PACKAGE

Pretty nifty, eh?

And as an added bonus, if you've ever had errors compiling packages on ExaCloud due to unsupported (old) compilers, the setup has been designed to resolve these issues as well. That said, the compiler issues seems to have been resolved by recent upgrades to ExaCloud.

If you run into any issues or have questions, please create an Issue and I'll try and address them promptly – the aim is to make this guide as easy to use and straightforward as possible.

Log on to ExaCloud, then start an interactive session (i.e. don't use the head node) and setup a packages directory:

condor_submit --interactive
# Wait for a moment while ExaCloud logs you onto a child node...then...
cd ~/ && mkdir packages

Download and install Miniconda (x64, Python 2 version):

wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda2-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
bash Miniconda2-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

The first command downloads an installation script from the Continuum Analytics website, while the second step runs the downloaded bash script. The bash script will have you agree to a license ('yes') and then setup the root directory for Miniconda, which should be /home/users/USERNAME/packages/miniconda (where packages is the directory we created in the first step). Note that I removed the 2 from the default Miniconda installation path (/home/users/USERNAME/miniconda2), this is optional but something to be mindful of in the following steps if you opt not to do this. Finally, Miniconda will ask whether you would like to include Miniconda in your ~/.bash_profile, be sure to say yes here (the default is [no]).

Be sure to log out and log back in for the updated ~/.bash_profile to take effect.

We need to install updated compilers, an updated Git, & cURL.

conda install gcc
conda install libgcc
conda install libgfortran
conda install git
conda install curl

We now have updated compilers, Git, and cURL. Yay.

Note: I documented an issue that was brought to my attention regarding Miniconda requiring NumPy to install the compilers (and probably other software). The issue may have been user-specific, however, if you find Miniconda complaining about needing some Python module, go ahead and install it e.g. pip install numpy . Also, if you come across any other funky dependency requirements please let me know. Kthxbai.

We need to update the build references in our ~/.bash_profile to use the new compilers:

echo 'export CC="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/gcc"' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'export CXX="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/g++"' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'export OBJC="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/gcc"' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'export OBJCXX="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/g++"' >>~/.bash_profile

Note: If you used an alternate path for your Miniconda installation, be sure to update the paths above to reflect that.

Exit the interactive session and log off of ExaCloud. Log back on, and the changes to your ~/.bash_profile will take effect.

Next, let's install Linuxbrew:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Linuxbrew/install/master/install)"

Edit your $PATH variable in your ~/.bash_profile to point to your Linuxbrew installation:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin:$PATH"' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.linuxbrew/sbin:$PATH"' >>~/.bash_profile

Again, log off of ExaCloud. Log back on, and the changes to your ~/.bash_profile will take effect.

Finally, start an interactive session, and check that Linuxbrew installed correctly:

condor_submit --interactive
# Wait for a moment while ExaCloud logs you onto a child node...then...
brew doctor

Note: When working with Linuxbrew, it's always a good idea to run brew doctor before you install anything (i.e. any day you log on to ExaCloud and decide to install or update your packages). Doing so ensures that you won't install packages that break or fail to install due to an incorrect Linuxbrew configuration or package dependency. If you do see any new Warning messages, its a good idea to copy them each into a search engine and make sure that none will cause you any trouble. Also more recent versions of Linuxbrew automatically update before installing any packages, however, if you're installation doesn't do this, be sure to calle brew update before installing any packages.

You may get some warnings. Most of these warnings shouldn't cause you (or your installed packages!) any trouble. The ones I get are (you may see a few more, to understand why see Step 8):

Warning: Setting LD_* vars can break dynamic linking.
Set variables:
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /usr/local/lib

Warning: "config" scripts exist outside your system or Homebrew directories.
`./configure` scripts often look for *-config scripts to determine if
software packages are installed, and what additional flags to use when
compiling and linking.

Having additional scripts in your path can confuse software installed via
Homebrew if the config script overrides a system or Homebrew provided
script of the same name. We found the following "config" scripts:
  /home/users/cordier/packages/miniconda/bin/python-config
  /opt/ganglia/bin/ganglia-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/python-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/xml2-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/python2.6-config

If you got any other warnings, check Stackoverflow to make sure they're not important and, if you're feeling ambitious, follow the steps to clear them – but be careful; if you're not starting fresh you could upset software that you already have installed. I should also note that some warnings can't and shouldn't be cleared as they require file and directory privileges not available to non-administators on ExaCloud. For example, you should not attempt to clear the following warning:

Having additional scripts in your path can confuse software installed via
Homebrew if the config script overrides a system or Homebrew provided
script of the same name. We found the following "config" scripts:
  /opt/ganglia/bin/ganglia-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/python-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/xml2-config
  /opt/rocks/bin/python2.6-config

Strictly speaking, if Python isn't your jam, once you have Linuxbrew you don't need Miniconda and can delete it. That said, I've found certain system level dependencies available on Miniconda that aren't explicitly available on Linuxbrew. Of course, if you are a Pythonista, it's also great for managing virtual environments and installing Python packages (i.e. it works in place of pip):

# For example...
conda install numpy
conda install scipy
conda install scikit-learn

To just use Linuxbrew (and pip for Python package management), you'll need to install new compilers, Git, and (optionally) cURL with Linuxbrew, update your build references, then delete Miniconda:

brew install gcc
brew install git
brew install curl

Next, you should modify the Miniconda build references we exported in Step 4 from your ~/.bash_profile. To do this, use vim, emacs, nano, or your preferred CLI-based editor. The lines in your ~/.bash_profile should look like this:

export CC="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/gcc"
export CXX="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/g++"
export OBJC="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/gcc"
export OBJCXX="$HOME/packages/miniconda/bin/g++"

Note: Again, if your Miniconda installation is somewhere else, these paths may look different (but you probably already know that).

They should be changed to:

export CC="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin/gcc"
export CXX="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin/g++"
export OBJC="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin/gcc"
export OBJCXX="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin/g++"

Finally, remove Miniconda:

cd ~/packages && rm -rf miniconda

A few notes on Step 8:

• The . in of the folder name .linuxbrew means the folder is a system folder. Folders following this naming convention are generally hidden from the user. That said, you can still cd into them (e.g. to access the location of your compilers, you can always type cd ~/.linuxbrew/bin)
• It may not be strictly required to set the build variables above unless you're compiling your own source code (i.e. in C/C++, etc.), but it's nonetheless a good idea to set them up so you won't encounter any future problems should the occasion arise.

Finally, some packages that may be of interest to install:

#
# Some Languages
#

# R Language
brew install homebrew/science/r

# Python 2.7.x
brew install python

# Python 3.5.x
brew install python3

# Java 1.8
brew install jdk

# Java 1.7
brew install jdk7

# Octave
brew install homebrew/science/octave

# Ruby
brew install ruby

Node.js
brew install node

#
# Some Bioinformatics Tools
#

# Bowtie
brew install homebrew/science/bowtie

# Bowtie 2
brew install homebrew/science/bowtie2

# BWA
brew install homebrew/science/bwa

# Clustal W
brew install homebrew/science/clustal-w

# Clustal Omega
brew install homebrew/science/clustal-omega

# Cufflinks
brew install homebrew/science/cufflinks

# FastQC
brew install homebrew/science/fastqc

# GATK
brew install homebrew/science/gatk

# Novoaligner
brew install homebrew/science/novoaligner

# Picard
brew install homebrew/science/picard-tools

# Samtools
brew install homebrew/science/samtools

# Snpeff
brew install homebrew/science/snpeff

# Soap deNovo
brew install homebrew/science/soapdenovo

# SRA Toolkit
brew install homebrew/science/sratoolkit

# Tophat
brew install homebrew/science/tophat

# Velvet
brew install homebrew/science/velvet

Note: Some of the real benefits of Linuxbrew (and any package manager) are consistency in installation practices, smart (automated) dependency management, and ease of versioning. That said, ExaCloud does have some of the software provided by the recipes above pre-installed. To see what software (and versions) are already installed, check out exainfo.ohsu.edu (you must be logged on to the OHSU network). If you're interested in specific versions of a software, see the Linuxbrew documentation or type man brew into your terminal to learn how to install a specific version.

Not sure which installation recipe you need? The command below has you covered:

brew search PACKAGE

Want to keep your search science-y?

brew search science

Hope this has been helpful, Cheers!