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Documentation of -S and -W are meaningless #3467

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EvanTheB opened this issue May 1, 2019 · 1 comment
Open

Documentation of -S and -W are meaningless #3467

EvanTheB opened this issue May 1, 2019 · 1 comment
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@GodloveD
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Documentation good first issue help wanted

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@EvanTheB
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@EvanTheB EvanTheB commented May 1, 2019

-S, --scratch strings include a scratch directory within the container that is linked to a temporary dir (use -W to force location)
-W, --workdir string working directory to be used for /tmp, /var/tmp and $HOME (if -c/--contain was also used)

I can only find the above description of these settings. (man page, --help, and readthedocs, https://www.sylabs.io/guides/3.2/user-guide/cli/singularity_run.html#singularity-run).

What is a "scratch directory"?
What is a "temporary dir"?
How can one 'working directory' be used for all of "/tmp, /var/tmp and $HOME"?

What does -S do without -W?
What does -W do without -c?
@EvanTheB EvanTheB changed the title Documentation of -S and -W is meaningless Documentation of -S and -W are meaningless May 1, 2019
@al3x609
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@al3x609 al3x609 commented May 1, 2019

e.g /scratch mount directory option is made for cluster environments where /scratch is mount point for the nfs with the same name for big storage devices or infiniband networks.

  • working directory is about of change the default behavior at the moment of mount directories from host OS. this replace the standard mount points for a preferred temporal directory, this can help to keep isolate environment inside the containers.
    these options exist because the applications need write some "temporal" files to disk and if you need keep this file after "exit" of the container.

  • -c option is a shortcut for isolate the container and mount only the minimal requirements.
    use minimal /dev and empty other directories (e.g. /tmp and $HOME) instead of sharing filesystems from your host

the above is only a little interpretation from a singularity user,
I appreciate opinions from developers.
@EvanTheB EvanTheB mentioned this issue May 3, 2019
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Labels
Documentation good first issue help wanted
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@EvanTheB @al3x609 @GodloveD @jscook2345
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