EasyBuild is motivated by the need for a tool that allows to:

• independently install multiple versions of software side-by-side
• support multiple compilers and libraries for building software and its dependencies
• keep the software build configuration simple
• divert from the standard configure / make / make install with custom procedures (which is often necessary for scientific software)
• use environment modules for dependency resolution and making the software available to users in a transparent way
• keep record of the installation logs
• keep track of installation configuration in version control

Some key properties of EasyBuild:

• installation configuration is done using a (very concise) .eb specification file
• custom behaviour is described in easyblocks; these are Python classes that can be plugged into the EasyBuild framework
• the generation of the module files to easily make the software available to users
• the dependencies for installation are resolved using environment modules and can be automatically installed using the robot feature
• after the installation, the specification files can be sent to a repository for archiving