HPC/Applications/python

Python variants

Interpreter-only releases from the Python Software Foundation

Releases of just a Python interpreter from the python.org sources:

python/pyMajor.pyMinor/compilerName-compMajor.compMinor/pyMajor.pyMinor.pyPatch-moduleBuild

Interpreter releases bundled with the OS

The Python interpreter that comes with the operating system is required for many system-provided and add-on packages. It normally does not need to be loaded as a module. It is included here for visibility in the module system, and as a base for (usually older) modules which provide Python packages outside of Conda or Pip. These packages often are tied to the interpreter version under which they were installed.

python-osname/pyMajor.pyMinor/compilerName-compMajor.compMinor/pyMajor.pyMinor.pyPatch

Conda-based Python suites

These packages are not specific applications but rather wide-ranging software suites which typically contain:

• a Python interpreter
• the conda/pip package management systems,
• a rich set of Python-native packages and add-on executables as selected by the distributor,
• all underlying libraries like LAPACK and possibly even MPI.
  • Idle – Python Integrated DeveLopment Environment
  • Tcl – Interpreter for the Tool Command Language
  • MPI – Runtime environment for parallel applications using Message Passing Interface, providing the mpirun or mpiexec commands, plus related binaries and libraries.

Caveat: An MPI Runtime within a Python subsystem makes parallel computing easily accessible under Python, but this means a "mere python module" can clash with other MPI implementations on Carbon.

Avoid loading both a Python suite and an MPI implementation at the same time, especially in your dot-files. Doing so may lead to non-obvious failures with either the bundled parallel Python applications or (worse) unrelated compiled applications on Carbon.

python-distributor/pyMajor.pyMinor/distMajor/distributor_defined_version[…]-moduleBuild

Conda environments

These packages are conda environments, derived from one of the conda suites , with package selection customized for Carbon:

python-env-distributor/pyMajor.pyMinor/distMajor/pyVersion[…]-moduleBuild
# or?
python-env-distributor-Carbon/pyMajor.pyMinor/distMajor/pyVersion[…]-moduleBuild
# Possible extension for alternative package selections:
python-env-distributor-purpose/pyMajor.pyMinor/distMajor/pyVersion[…]-moduleBuild