Appendix

Discussion

This discussion would not be complete without a mention for external modules or dependencies that are required by the software. For example, pip is a package manager that installs to some python base. Two equivalent python installations with different submodules are, by definition, different. There are two possible choices to take, and we leave this choice up to the generator of the container.

In practice, we have found that global installs tend to be larger, well maintained libraries (e.g., libraries installed with apt-get or package managers like pip) and having them represented in the %post section, to be shared among apps, helps with any kind of analysis that wants to separate what might be considered the general container “base” against the different custom software installed.

We do not enforce using SCIF for Singularity images or any other container. It’s creation and discussion is implemented and provided to only help scientists more easily create reproducible, transparent containers.

Conclusion

The Scientific Filesystem is advantageous in that the container creator can embed his or her work with implied metadata about software and container contents. SCIF also makes it easier to package different run scripts with the container, and expose them easily to the user. However, this does not mean that the standard approach of using a container as a general toolbox and distributing it with a series of external callers is bad or wrong. The choice to use (or not use) SCIF apps is largely dependent on the goals of the creator, and the intended users.

Additional reading material