RELEASE_NOTES

This file contains a description of the major changes to the easybuild-framework EasyBuild package.
For more detailed information, please see the git log.

These release notes can also be consulted at http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Release_notes.html.

v2.7.0 (March 20th 2016)
------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- stabilize Cray support
    - enable 'dynamic' toolchain option by default for Cray* toolchains (#1581)
    - remove FFTW from the Cray toolchains definition (#1585)
    - add external modules metadata for Cray systems (#1638)
    - fix independency of Cray toolchains w.r.t. toolchain build environment (#1641, #1647)
    - remove requirement to use --experimental for Cray toolchains (#1663)
- enable Python optimization mode in 'eb' (#1357)
- improved GitHub integration
    - improve error handling on git commands + better logging for --new-pr/--update-pr (#1590)
    - use git rather than https in --new-pr/--update-pr (#1602)
    - add -u as shorthand for --upload-test-report (#1605)
    - fix --from-pr for PRs that include renamed/deleted files (#1615)
    - add support for --install-github-token and --check-github (#1616)
    - fix fetch_easyconfigs_from_pr w.r.t. duplicate files in PRs (#1628)
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add support for --search-filename and --terse (#1577)
    - support complete bash completion (#1580)
    - add support for %(*ver)s and %(*shortver)s templates (#1595, #1604)
        - incl. %(javaver)s, %(javashortver)s, %(perlver)s, %(perlshortver)s, %(pyver)s, %(pyshortver)s, %(rver)s, %(rshortver)s
    - define HOME constant that can be used in easyconfig files (#1607)
    - implement support for generating 'swap' statements in module files (#1609)
    - add support for --show-config (#1611, #1620)
    - simplified support for --minimal-toolchains (#1614, #1619, #1622, #1625, #1646)
    - add support for --dump-env-script (#1624)
    - enhance ModulesTool.exist to also recognize partial module names (#1630)
    - improve error message for toolchain definition errors (#1631)
    - make default is_short_modname_for check less strict to support versionless external modules as deps (#1632)
    - mention hostname in comment made by --upload-test-report (#1635)
    - support providing additional relative path for prefix in external module metadata (#1637)
    - add ThematicModuleNamingScheme (#1645)
    - enhance logging format: remove logger name, mention location instead (#1649, #1654)
    - update kernel versions for SLES12 (#1659)
    - raise EasyBuildError rather than ImportError in only_if_module_is_available decorator (#1662)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix Lmod spider output in generated modules (#1583)
    - correctly define 'easybuild' namespaces (#1593, #1666, #1680)
        - this change requires that the setuptools Python package is available (at runtime)
        - using custom easyblocks by adding them in the Python search path ($PYTHONPATH) may require adjustments,
          i.e. also using pkg_resources.declare_namespace in the __init__.py files;
          we highly recommend to use --include-easyblocks instead,
          see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Including_additional_Python_modules.html
        - note: this has the side-effect of not being able anymore to reliably use 'eb' in the parent directory of
          the easybuild-framework repository (#1667)
    - fix template for savannah.gnu.org source URL (#1601)
    - stop running 'module purge', only restore environment (#1608)
    - fix license headers: Hercules foundation is now FWO (#1629)
    - avoid that fancylogger tries to import mpi4py to determine MPI rank (#1648)
    - fix error in tests when 'file' backend is not available in Python keyring (#1650)
    - update develop install script (#1651)
    - handle allowed system deps during prepare_step rather than during parsing of easyconfig (#1652)
    - add function to find FlexLM licenses: find_flexlm_license (#1633, #1653)
    - fix availability check for external modules with partial module name (#1634, #1643)
    - fix bootstrap script to ensure setuptools is also installed (#1655)
    - fix issue in bootstrap script with vsc-base being picked up from the OS (#1656)
    - fix bootstrap script for environment where 'python' is Python 3.x (#1660)
    - remove --experimental for tests related to --package (#1665)
    - ensure path to setuptools is included in $PYTHONPATH being used to test scripts (#1671)
    - sanitize environment before initializing easyblocks (#1676)
    - remove reload statements in include.py, since they are not required and break --include-toolchains (#1679)


v2.6.0 (January 26th 2016)
--------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add (experimental) support for opening/updating (easyconfigs) pull requests (--new-pr, --update-pr) (#1528)
- sanitize environment before each installation by undefining $PYTHON* (#1569, #1572)
- various other enhancements, including:
    - allow user-local modules with hierarchical naming schemes (--subdir-user-modules) (#1472)
    - enhance --extended-dry-run output to include paths for requirements in make_module_req (#1520)
    - rewrite read_file to use 'with' (#1534)
    - add support for eb --last-log (#1541)
    - support using fixed install dir scheme (--fixed-installdir-naming-scheme) (#1546)
    - add edge attributes for build dependencies in --dep-graph output (#1548)
    - check whether dependencies marked as external module are hidden (#1552)
    - implement support for --modules-header (#1558)
    - add support to specify 'else' body for conditional statements in modules (#1559)
    - add extra test for --include-easyblocks for generic easyblocks (#1562)
    - allow user to define the default compiler optimization level (--default-opt-level) (#1565)
    - make toolchain.get_variable more robust w.r.t. dummy toolchain (#1566)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix missing 'yaml' module check in tests (#1525)
    - fix 'develop' install script (#1529)
    - correctly quote FPM option values in packagin support (#1530)
    - correctly handle '.' in software name w.r.t. $EB* environment variables (#1538)
    - exclude logs and test reports from packages (#1544)
    - also pass down --job-cores for pbs_python job backend (#1547)
    - skip dependencies marked as external modules when packaging (#1550)
    - fix syntax for set_alias statement in Lua syntax (#1554)
    - handle the case of all 'offline' nodes correctly for --job (#1560)
    - fix test_modules_tool_stateless unit test for stateless ModulesTool with Lmod as modules tool (#1570)

v2.5.0 (December 17th 2015)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add support for IBM XL compilers on Power7 and PowerPC (BlueGene) (#1470)
- add support fo generic compilation using --optarch=GENERIC (#1471)
    - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Controlling_compiler_optimization_flags.html
- update experimental support for .yeb easyconfigs (#1515)
    - support clean way to specify toolchain + dependencies in .yeb easyconfigs
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add support for 'whatis' easyconfig parameter (#1271)
    - add support for SLES 12 and kernel 3.12.x (#1412)
    - add GCCcore toolchain definition (#1451)
    - use 'diff --git' lines to determine patched files in pull request with --from-pr (#1460)
    - add proper option parser to bootstrap script (#1468)
    - add get_gcc_version() function in systemtools module (#1496)
    - don't load fake module in sanity_check_step during a dry run (#1499)
    - allow string values to be passed in make_module_req by hoisting them into a list (#1502)
    - add support for listing build dependencies as hidden dependencies (#1503)
    - also consider lib32/pkgconfig and lib64/pkgconfig for $PKG_CONFIG_PATH (#1505)
    - add support to make_module_dep to specify module to unload before loading a dependency module (#1506)
    - add support to make_module_extra to specify alternative root/version for $EBROOT/$EBVERSION (#1508)
    - packaging support is no longer considered experimental (#1510)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - also consider lib64 in sanity check performed during EasyBuild bootstrap (#1464)
    - also add description/homepage to packages created with FPM (#1469)
    - fix develop setup script to install EasyBuild-develop module in subdirectory (#1480)
    - don't create a whole set of temporary 'minimal-easyconfigs' subdirs with --minimal-toolchains (#1484)
    - only keep polling if exit code is None in run_cmd_qa, to correctly deal with negative exit codes (#1486)
    - fix bootstrap script for missing sys_platform by using newer distribute 0.6.49 in stage 0 (#1490)
    - make sure that extra custom easyconfig parameters are known for extensions (#1498)
    - add missing import for EasyBuildError in easybuild/toolchains/linalg/libsci.py (#1512)
    - isolate tests from possible system-wide configuration files (#1513)
    - only use glob in make_module_req on non-empty strings (#1519)
        - this fixes the problem where $CUDA_HOME and $CUDA_PATH are not defined in module files for CUDA

v2.4.0 (November 10th 2015)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add support for --extended-dry-run/-x (#1388, #1450, #1453, #1455)
- fix checking of sanity check paths w.r.t. discriminating between files and directories (#1436)
    - this impacts several easyconfig files where sanity_check_paths was not 100% correct
- make 'eb' script aware of Python v3.x, fall back to using python2 if required (#1411)
- add experimental support for parsing .yeb easyconfig files in YAML syntax (#1447, #1448, #1449)
    - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Writing_yeb_easyconfig_files.html
- add experimental support for resolving dependencies with minimal toolchains (#1306)
    - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Manipulating_dependencies.html#using-minimal-toolchains-for-dependencies
- various other enhancements, including:
    - refactor extract_cmd function to get rid of if/elif/else spaghetti blob (#1382)
    - add support for --review-pr (#1383)
    - add apply_regex_substitutions functions to perform runtime patching from easyblocks (#1388, #1458)
    - add support for specifying alternate name to be part of generated module name (#1389)
        - via 'modaltsoftname' easyconfig parameter
    - support overriding # used cores via --parallel (#1393)
    - also define $FC and $FCFLAGS in build environment (#1394)
    - add support extracting for .tar.Z files (#1396)
    - include easybuild/scripts in instalation (#1397)
    - ignore hidden directories in find_base_dir (#1413, #1415)
    - add only_if_module_is_available decorator function to guard functionality that uses optional dependencies (#1416)
    - give easyblocks the possibility to choose maxhits for run_cmd_qa (#1417)
    - use class name (string) rather than License instances as values for software license constants (#1418)
    - support controlling recursive unloading of dependencies via 'recursive_module_unload' easyconfig parameter (#1425)
    - implement basic support for type checking of easyconfig parameters (#1427)
    - support auto-converting to expected value type for easyconfig parameters (enabled by default) (#1428, #1437)
    - add support for --rebuild command line option, alternative for --force which doesn't imply --ignore-osdeps (#1435)
    - add support for Mercurial easyconfig repository (#979, #1446)
    - add dedicated class for psmpi toolchain MPI component, and use it in gpsmpi and ipsmpi toolchains (#1454)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix extracting of comments from an easyconfig file that includes 'tail' comments (#1381)
    - fix dev version to follow PEP-440, as required by recent setuptools versions (#1403)
        - required to avoid that setuptools transforms the version itself
        - see also https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/#developmental-releases
    - allow get_cpu_speed to return None if CPU freq could not be determined (#1421)
    - relax sanity_check_paths in EasyBuild bootstrap script to deal with possible zipped .egg (#1422)
    - use empty list as default value for src/patches in Extension class (#1434)
    - skip symlinked files in adjust_permissions function (#1439)
    - Fix HierarchicalMNS to always use full version number (#1440)


v2.3.0 (September 2nd 2015)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- requires vsc-base v2.2.4 or more recent (#1343)
    - required for mk_rst_table function in vsc.utils.docs
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add support for generating documentation for (generic) easyblocks in .rst format (#1317)
    - preserve comments in easyconfig file in EasyConfig.dump() method (#1327)
    - add --cleanup-tmpdir option (#1365)
        - enables to preserve the used temporary directory via --disable-cleanup-tmpdir
    - enhance EasyConfig.dump() to reformat dumped easyconfig according to style guidelines (#1345)
    - add support for extracting .iso files using 7z (p7zip) (#1375)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - correctly deal with special characters in template strings in EasyConfig.dump() method (#1323)
    - rework easybuild.tools.module_generator module to avoid keeping state w.r.t. fake modules (#1348)
    - fix dumping of hidden deps (#1354)
    - fix use of --job with hidden dependencies: include --hidden in submitted job script when needed (#1356)
    - fix ActiveMNS.det_full_module_name() for external modules (#1360)
    - fix EasyConfig.all_dependencies definition, fix tracking of job dependencies (#1359, #1361)
    - fix 'ModulesTool.exist' for hidden Lua module files (#1364)
    - only call EasyBlock.sanity_check_step for non-extensions (#1366)
        - this results in significant speedup when installing easyconfigs with lots of extensions, but also
          results in checking the default sanity check paths if none were defined for extensions installed as a module
    - fix using module naming schemes that were included via --include-module-naming-schemes (#1370)

v2.2.0 (July 15th 2015)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add support for using GC3Pie as a backend for --job (#1008)
    - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Submitting_jobs.html
- add support for --include-* configuration options to include additional easyblocks, toolchains, etc. (#1301)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Including_additional_Python_modules.html
- add (experimental) support for packaging installed software using FPM (#1224)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Packaging_support.html
- various other enhancements, including:
    - use https for PyPI URL templates (#1286)
    - add GNU toolchain definition (#1287)
    - make bootstrap script more robust (#1289, #1325):
        - exclude 'easyblocks' pkg from sys.path to avoid that setup.py for easybuild-easyblocks picks up wrong version
        - undefine $EASYBUILD_BOOTSTRAP* environment variables, since they do not correspond with known config options
    - improve error reporting/robustness in fix_broken_easyconfigs.py script (#1290)
    - reset keep toolchain component class 'constants' every time (#1294)
    - make --strict also a build option (#1295)
    - fix purging of loaded modules in unit tests' setup method (#1297)
    - promote MigrateFromEBToHMNS to a 'production' MNS (#1302)
    - add support for --read-only-installdir and --group-writable-installdir configuration options (#1304)
    - add support for *not* expanding relative paths in prepend_paths (#1310)
    - enhance EasyConfig.dump() method to use easyconfig templates where possible (#1314, #1319, #1320, #1321)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix issue with cleaning up (no) logfile if --logtostdout/-l is used (#1298)
    - stop making ModulesTool class a singleton since it causes problems when multilple toolchains are in play (#1299)
    - don't modify values of 'paths' list passed as argument to prepend_paths in ModuleGenerator (#1300)
    - fix issue with EasyConfig.dump + cleanup (#1308, #1311)
    - reenable (and fix) accidentally disabled test (#1316)

v2.1.1 (May 18th 2015)
----------------------

bugfix release
- fix issue with missing load statements when --module-only is used, don't skip ready/prepare steps (#1276)
- enhance --search: only consider actual filename (not entire path), use regex syntax (#1281)
- various other bug fixes, including:
    - fix generate_software_list.py script w.r.t. dependencies marked as external modules (#1273)
    - only use $LMOD_CMD value if lmod binary can't be found in $PATH (#1275)
    - fix location of module_only build option w.r.t. default value (#1277)
    - fix combined use of --hide-deps and hiddendependencies (#1280)
    - remove log handlers that were added during tests, to ensure effective cleanup of log files (#1282)
        - this makes the unit test suite run ~3x faster!
    - define $CRAYPE_LINK_TYPE if 'dynamic' toolchain option is enabled for Cray compiler wrappers (#1283)

v2.1.0 (April 30th 2015)
------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- requires vsc-base v2.2.0 or more recent
    - added support for LoggedException
    - added support for add_flex action in GeneralOption
    - added support to GeneralOption to act on unknown configuration environment variables
- add support for only (re)generating module files: --module-only (#1018)
    - module naming scheme API is enhanced to include det_install_subdir method
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Partial_installations.html#module-only
- add support for generating module files in Lua syntax (note: requires Lmod as modules tool) (#1060, #1255, #1256, #1270)
    - see --module-syntax configuration option and http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Configuration.html#module-syntax
- deprecate log.error method in favor of raising EasyBuildError exception (#1218)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Deprecated-functionality.html#depr-error-reporting
- add support for using external modules as dependencies, and to provide metadata for external modules (#1230, #1265, #1267)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Using_external_modules.html
- add experimental support for Cray toolchains on top of PrgEnv modules: CrayGNU, CrayIntel, CrayCCE (#1234, #1268)
    - see https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/EasyBuild-on-Cray for more information
- various other enhancements, including:
    - clear list of checksums when using --try-software-version (#1169)
    - sort the results of searching for files (e.g., --search output) (#1214)
    - enhance test w.r.t. use of templates in cfgfile (#1217)
    - define %(DEFAULT_REPOSITORYPATH)s template for cfgfiles (see eb --avail-cfgfile-constants) (#1220)
    - also reset $LD_PRELOAD when running module commands, in case module defined $LD_PRELOAD (#1222)
    - move location of 'module use' statements in generated module file (*after* 'module load' statements) (#1232)
    - add support for --show-default-configfiles (#1240)
      - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Configuration.html#default-configuration-files
    - report error on missing configuration files, rather than ignoring them (#1240)
      - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Configuration.html#configuration-env-vars
    - clean up commit message used in easyconfig git repository (#1248)
    - add --hide-deps configuration option to specify names of software that must be installed as hidden modules (#1250)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Manipulating_dependencies.html#hide-deps
    - add support for appending/prepending to --robot-paths to avoid overwriting default robot search path (#1252)
        - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Using_the_EasyBuild_command_line.html#robot-search-path-prepend-append
    - enable detection of use of unknown $EASYBUILD-prefixed environment variables (#1253)
    - add --installpath-modules and --installpath-software configuration options (#1258)
      - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Configuration.html#installpath
    - use dedicated subdirectory in temporary directory for each test to ensure better cleanup (#1260)
    - get rid of $PROFILEREAD hack when running commands, not needed anymore (#1264)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - make bootstrap script robust against having vsc-base already available in Python search path (#1212, #1215)
    - set default value for unpack_options easyconfig parameter to '', so self.cfg.update works on it (#1229)
    - also copy rotated log files (#1238)
    - fix parsing of --download-timeout value (#1242)
    - make test_XDG_CONFIG_env_vars unit test robust against existing user config file in default location (#1259)
    - fix minor robustness issues w.r.t. $XDG_CONFIG* and $PYTHONPATH in unit tests (#1262)
    - fix issue with handling empty toolchain variables (#1263)

v2.0.0 (March 6th 2015)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- requires vsc-base v2.0.3 or more recent
    - avoid deprecation warnings w.r.t. use of 'message' attribute (hpcugent/vsc-base#155)
    - fix typo in log message rendering --ignoreconfigfiles unusable (hpcugent/vsc-base#158)
- removed functionality that was deprecated for EasyBuild version 2.0 (#1143)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Removed-functionality.html
    - the fix_broken_easyconfigs.py script can be used to update easyconfig files suffering from this (#1151, #1206, #1207)
    - for more information about this script, see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Useful-scripts.html#fix-broken-easyconfigs-py
- stop including a crippled copy of vsc-base, include vsc-base as a proper dependency instead (#1160, #1194)
    - vsc-base is automatically installed as a dependency for easybuild-framework, if a Python installation tool is used
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Installation.html#required-python-packages
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add support for Linux/POWER systems (#1044)
    - major cleanup in tools/systemtools.py + significantly enhanced tests (#1044)
    - add support for 'eb -a rst', list available easyconfig parameters in ReST format (#1131)
    - add support for specifying one or more easyconfigs in combination with --from-pr (#1132)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Integration_with_GitHub.html#using-easyconfigs-from-pull-requests-via-from-pr
    - define __contains__ in EasyConfig class (#1155)
    - restore support for downloading over a proxy (#1158)
        - i.e., use urllib2 rather than urllib
        - this involved sacrificing the download progress report (which was only visible in the log file)
    - let mpi_family return None if MPI is not supported by a toolchain (#1164)
    - include support for specifying system-level configuration files for EasyBuild via $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS (#1166)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Configuration.html#default-configuration-files
    - make unit tests more robust (#1167, #1196)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Unit-tests.html
    - add hierarchical module naming scheme categorizing modules by 'moduleclass' (#1176)
    - enhance bootstrap script to allow bootstrapping using supplied tarballs (#1184)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Installation.html#advanced-bootstrapping-options
    - disable updating of Lmod user cache by default, add configuration option --update-modules-tool-cache (#1185)
        - for now, only the Lmod user cache can be updated using --update-modules-tool-cache
    - use available which() function, rather than running 'which' via run_cmd (#1192)
    - fix install-EasyBuild-develop.sh script w.r.t. vsc-base dependency (#1193)
    - also consider robot search path when looking for specified easyconfigs (#1201)
        - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Using_the_EasyBuild_command_line.html#specifying-easyconfigs
- various bug fixes, including:
    - stop triggering deprecated/no longer support functionality in unit tests (#1126)
    - fix from_pr test by including dummy easyblocks for HPL and ScaLAPACK (#1133)
    - escape use of '%' in string with command line options with --job (#1135)
    - fix handling specified patch level 0 (+ enhance tests for fetch_patches method) (#1139)
    - fix formatting issues in generated easyconfig file obtained via --try-X (#1144)
    - use log.error in tools/toolchain/toolchain.py where applicable (#1145)
    - stop hardcoding /tmp in mpi_cmd_for function (#1146, #1200)
    - correctly determine variable name for $EBEXTLIST when generating module file (#1156)
    - do not ignore exit code of failing postinstall commands (#1157)
    - fix rare case in which used easyconfig and copied easyconfig are the same (#1159)
    - always filter hidden deps from list of dependencies (#1161)
    - fix implementation of path_matches function in tools/filetools.py (#1163)
    - make sure plain text keyring is used by unit tests (#1165)
    - suppress creation of module symlinks for HierarchicalMNS (#1173)
    - sort all lists obtained via glob.glob, since they are in arbitrary order (#1187)
    - stop modifying $MODULEPATH directly in setUp/tearDown of toolchain tests (#1191)

v1.16.2 (March 6th 2015)
------------------------

(no changes compared to v1.16.1, simple version bump to stay in sync with easybuild-easyblocks)

v1.16.1 (December 19th 2014)
----------------------------

bugfix release
- fix functionality that is broken with --deprecated=2.0 or with $EASYBUILD_DEPRECATED=2.0
    - don't include easyconfig parameters for ConfigureMake in eb -a, since fallback is deprecated (#1123)
    - correctly check software_license value type (#1124)
    - fix generate_software_list.py script w.r.t. deprecated fallback to ConfigureMake (#1127)
- other bug fixes
    - fix logging issues in tests, sync with vsc-base v2.0.0 (#1120)

v1.16.0 (December 18th 2014)
----------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- deprecate automagic fallback to ConfigureMake easyblock (#1113)
    - easyconfigs should specify easyblock = 'ConfigureMake' instead of relying on the fallback mechanism
    - note: automagic fallback to ConfigureMake easyblock will be dropped in EasyBuild v2.0
    - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Deprecated-functionality.html#configuremake-fallback
- stop triggering deprecated functionality, to enable use of --deprecated=2.0 (#1107, #1115, #1119)
    - see http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Deprecated-functionality.html#configuremake-fallback for more information
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add script to clean up gists created via --upload-test-report (#958)
    - also use -xHost when using Intel compilers on AMD systems (as opposed to -msse3) (#960)
    - add Python version check in eb command (#1046)
    - take versionprefix into account in HierarchicalMNS module naming scheme (#1058)
    - clean up and refactor main.py, move functionality to other modules (#1059, #1064, #1075, #1087)
    - add check in download_file function for HTTP return code + show download progress report (#1066, #1090)
    - include info log message with name and location of used easyblock (#1069)
    - add toolchains definitions for gpsmpi, gpsolf, impich, intel-para, ipsmpi toolchains (#1072, #1073)
        - support for Parastation MPI based toolchains
    - enforce that hiddendependencies is a subset of dependencies (#1078)
        - this is done to avoid that site-specific policies w.r.t. hidden modules slip into contributed easyconfigs
    - enable use of --show_hidden for avail subcommand with recent Lmod versions (#1081)
    - add --robot-paths configure option (#1080, #1093, #1095, #1114)
    - support use of %(DEFAULT_ROBOT_PATHS)s template in EasyBuild configuration files (#1100)
        - see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Using_the_EasyBuild_command_line.html#controlling-the-robot-search-path
    - use -xHost rather than -xHOST, to match Intel documentation (#1084)
    - update and cleanup README file (#1085)
    - deprecate self.moduleGenerator in favor of self.module_generator in EasyBlock (#1088)
    - also support MPICH MPI family in mpi_cmd_for function (#1098)
    - update documentation references to point to http://easybuild.readthedocs.org (#1102)
    - check for OS dependencies with both rpm and dpkg (if available) (#1111)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix picking required software version specified by --software-version and clean up tweak.py (#1062, #1063)
    - escape $ characters in module load message specified via modloadmsg easyconfig parameter) (#1068)
    - take available hidden modules into account in dependency resolution (#1065)
    - fix hard crash when using patch files with an empty list of sources (#1070)
    - fix Intel MKL BLACS library being used for MPICH/MPICH2-based toolchains (#1072)
    - fix regular expression in fetch_parameter_from_easyconfig_file function (#1096)
    - don’t hardcode queue names when submitting a job (#1106)
    - fix affiliation/mail address for Fotis in headers (#1105)
    - filter out /dev/null entries in patch file in det_patched_files function (#1108)
    - fix gmpolf toolchain definition, to have gmpich as MPI components (instead of gmpich2) (#1101)
        - ‘MPICH’ refers to MPICH v3.x, while MPICH2 refers to MPICH(2) v2.x (MPICH v1.x is ancient/obsolete)
        - note: this requires to reinstall the gmpolf module, using the updated easyconfig from easybuild-easyconfigs#1217

v1.15.2 (October 7th 2014)
--------------------------

bugfix release
- fix $MODULEPATH extensions for Clang/CUDA, to make goolfc/cgoolf compatible with HierarchicalMNS (#1050)
- include versionsuffix in module subdirectory with HierarchicalMNS (#1050, #1055)
- fix unit tests which were broken with bash patched for ShellShock bug (#1051)
- add definition of gimpi toolchain, required to make gimkl toolchain compatible with HierarchicalMNS (#1052)
- don't override COMPILER_MODULE_NAME obtained from ClangGCC in Clang-based toolchains (#1053)
- fix wrong code in path_to_top_of_module_tree function (#1054)
    - because of this, load statements for compilers were potentially included in higher-level modules under HierarchicalMNS

v1.15.1 (September 23rd 2014)
-----------------------------

bugfix release
- take into account that multiple modules may be extending $MODULEPATH with the same path,
  when determining path to top of module tree (see #1047)
        - this bug caused a load statement for either icc or ifort to be included in higher-level
          modules installed with an Intel-based compiler toolchain, under the HierarchicalMNS module naming scheme
- make HierarchicalMNS module naming scheme compatible with cgoolf and goolfc toolchain (#1049)
- add definition of iompi (sub)toolchain to make iomkl toolchain compatible with HierarchicalMNS (#1049)

v1.15.0 (September 12th 2014)
-----------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various other enhancements, including:
    - fetch extension sources in fetch_step to enhance --stop=fetch (#978)
    - add iimpi toolchain definition (#993)
    - prepend robot path with download location of files when --from-pr is used (#995)
    - add support for excluding module path extensions from generated modules (#1003)
        - see 'include_modpath_extensions' easyconfig parameter
    - add support for installing hidden modules and using them as dependencies (#1009, #1021, #1023)
        - see --hidden and 'hiddendependencies' easyconfig parameter
    - stop relying on 'conflict' statement in module files to determine software name of toolchain components (#1017, #1037)
        - instead, the 'is_short_modname_for' method defined by the module naming scheme implementation is queried
    - improve error message generated for a missing easyconfig file (#1019)
    - include path where tweaked easyconfigs are placed in robot path (#1032)
    - indicate forced builds in --dry-run output (#1034)
    - fix interaction between --force and --try-toolchain --robot (#1035)
    - add --software option, disable recursion for --try-software(-X) (#1036)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix HierarchicalMNS crashing when MPI library is installed with a dummy toolchain (#986)
    - fix list of FFTW wrapper libraries for Intel MKL (#987)
    - fix stability of unit tests (#988, #1027, #1033)
    - make sure $SCALAPACK_INC_DIR (and $SCALAPACK_LIB_DIR) are defined when using imkl (#990)
    - fix error message on missing FFTW wrapper libs (#992)
    - fix duplicate toolchain elements in --list-toolchains output (#993)
    - filter out load statements that extend the $MODULEPATH to make the module being installed available (#1016)
    - fix conflict specification included in module files (#1017)
    - avoid --from-pr crashing hard unless --robot is used (#1022)
    - properly quote GCC version string in archived easyconfig (#1028)
    - fix issue with --repositorypath not honoring --prefix (#1031)
    - sync with latest vsc-base version to fix log order (#1039)
    - increase # commits per page for --from-pr (#1040)

v1.14.0 (July 9th 2014)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- important changes
    - required Lmod version bumped to v5.6.3 (#944)
        required due to enhancements and bug fixes in Lmod, e.g. making "--terse avail" significantly faster, and
        correctly handling a prepend-path statement that includes multiple directories at once
    - required Tcl/C environment modules version set to 3.2.10 (
        - hard requirement due to fixed modulecmd segmentation fault bug, that only tends manifests itself
          when making a large amount of changes in the environment (e.g. module load <toolchain>)
    - renamed EasyBuildModuleNamingScheme to EasyBuildMNS
- enhanced custom module naming schemes functionality to support hierarchical module naming schemes (#953, #971, #975)
    - extended API for custom module naming schemes to allow tweaking different aspects of module naming
        - see easybuild/tools/module_naming_scheme/mns.py for abstract ModuleNamingScheme class
        - an example hierarchical module naming scheme is included, see HierarchicalMNS
    - split up full module names into a module subdirectory part, which becomes part of $MODULEPATH),
      and a 'short' module name (is exposed to end-users)
        - example: 'GCC/4.7.2' in 'Core' subdir, 'OpenMPI/1.6.5' in 'Compiler/GCC/4.7.2' subdir
    - make ModuleNamingScheme class a singleton, move it into easybuild.tools.module_naming_scheme.mns module
    - implement ActiveMNS wrapper class for quering active module naming scheme
    - implement toolchain inspection functions that can be used in a custom module naming scheme
        - det_toolchain_compilers, det_toolchain_mpi in easybuild.tools.module_naming_scheme.toolchain
    - significant code cleanup & enhanced unit tests
- enhance & clean up tools/modules.py (#944, #953, #963, #964, #969)
    - make ModulesTool a singleton to avoid repeating module commands over & over again needlessly
    - use 'module use', 'module unuse' rather than fiddling with $MODULEPATH directly
    - improve debug logging (include full stdout/stderr output of module commands)
    - remove deprecated functionality (add_module, remove_module, indirect module load)
- various other enhancements, including:
    - added toolchain definitions for 'common' toolchains: 'intel' and 'foss' (#956)
    - implement caching for easyconfig files, parsed easyconfigs and toolchains (#953)
    - enable --ignore-osdeps implicitely when -D, --dry-run or --dep-graph are used (#953)
    - flesh out use_group and det_parallelism function, include them in easybuild.tools.systemtools (#953)
    - make symlinking of module files part of module naming scheme API (#973)
        - list of symlinks paths can be controlled using det_module_symlink_paths() method
    - added support for new configuration options:
        - tweaking compiler flags triggered by 'optarch' toolchain options using --optarch (#949)
        - filtering out dependencies from easyconfig files using --filter-deps (#957)
        - filtering environment included in test reports with --test-report-env-filter (#959)
            e.g. --test-report-env-filter='^SSH|USER|HOSTNAME|UID|.*COOKIE.*'
        - made suffix used for module files install path configurable, using --suffix-modules-path (#973)
    - added support for additional easyconfig parameters:
        - define aliases in module files ('modaliases') (#952)
        - add print message on module load ('modloadmsg') and Tcl footer ('modtclfooter') in module files (#954, #974) 
- various bug fixes, including:
    - don't try to tweak generated easyconfigs when using --try-X (#942)
    - currently create symlinks to module files modules/all under a custom module naming scheme (#953)
    - restore traceback error reporting on hard crashes (#965)

v1.13.0 (May 29th 2014)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- make --try-X command line options work recursively (i.e. collaborate with --robot) (#922)
    - EasyBuild will first build a full dependency graph of the specified easyconfigs, and then apply the --try specifications
        - the elements of the dependency graph for the used toolchain and its dependencies are left untouched
    - this makes "eb foo-1.0-goolf-1.4.10.eb --try-toolchain=ictce,5.5.0 --robot" also work when 'foo' has dependencies
    - caveat: the specified easyconfig files must all use the same toolchain (version)
- add support for testing easyconfig pull requests from EasyBuild command line (#920, #924, #925, #932, #933, #938)
    - add --from-pr command line option for downloading easyconfig files from pull requests
    - add --upload-test-report command line option for uploading a detailed test report to GitHub as a gist
        - this requires specifying a GitHub username for which a GitHub token is available, using --github-user
        - with --dump-test-report, the test report can simply be dumped to file rather than being uploaded to GitHub
        - see also https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/Review-process-for-contributions#testing-result
- the 'makeopts' and 'premakeopts' easyconfig parameter are deprecated, and replaced by 'buildopts' and 'prebuildopts' (#918)
    - both 'makeopts' and 'premakeopts' will still be honored in future EasyBuild v1.x versions, but should no longer be used
- various other enhancements, including:
    - add --disable-cleanup-builddir command line option, to keep the build dir after a (successful) build (#853)
        - the build dir is still cleaned up by default for successful builds, i.e. --cleanup-builddir is the default
    - also consider lib32 in paths checked for $LD_LIBRARY_PATH and $LIBRARY_PATH (#912)
    - reorganize support for file/git/svn repositories into 'repository' package, making it extensible (#913)
    - add support for 'postinstallcmds' easyconfig parameter, to specify commands that need to be run after the install step (#918)
    - make 'VERSION=' part in version of C environment modules tool optional, which is required for older versions (#930)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix small issues in bootstrap script: correctly determine EasyBuild version and make sure modules path exists (#915)
    - fix github unit tests (#916)
    - disable useless debug logging for unit tests (#919)
    - fix unit test for --skip (#929)
    - make sure 'start_dir' can be set based on location of unpacked first source file (#931)
    - the 'vsc' package shipped with easybuild-framework is synced with vsc-base v1.9.1 (#935)
        - fancylogger (used for logging in EasyBuild) is now robust against strings containing UTF8 characters
        - the 'deprecated' logging function now does a non-strict version check (rather than an erroneous strict check)
        - the easybuild.tools.agithub module is removed, vsc.utils.rest now provides the required functionality
    - fix support for unpacking gzipped source files, don't unpack .gz files in-place in the source directory (#936)

v1.12.1 (April 25th 2014)
-------------------------

bugfix release
- return to original directory after executing a command in a subdir (#908)
- fix bootstrap with Lmod, fix issue with module function check and Lmod (#911)

v1.12.0 (April 4th 2014)
------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various enhancements, including:
    - completed support for custom module naming schemes (#879, #904)
        - a fully parsed easyconfig file is now passed to the det_full_module_name function
        - this does require that an easyconfig file matching the dependency specification is available
    - added more features to better support using a shared install target with multiple users (#902, #903, #904)
    - further development on support for new easyconfig format (v2.0) (#844, #848)
        - not considered stable yet, so still requires using --experimental
    - enhanced bootstrap script to also support Lmod and modulecmd.tcl module tools (#869)
    - added support to run_cmd_qa function to supply a list of answers  (#887)
    - detect mismatch between definition of 'module' function and selected modules tool (#871)
        - allowing mismatch now requires --allow-modules-tool-mismatch; an empty 'module' function is simply ignored
    - provide lib64 fallback option for directories in default sanity check paths (#896)
    - add support for adding JAR files to $CLASSPATH (#898)
    - enhanced and cleaned up unit tests (#877, #880, #884, #899, #901)
    - code cleanup and refactoring
        - get rid of global variable for configuration settings in config.py, use singleton instead (#874, #888, #890, #892)
        - track build options via singleton in config.py rather than passing them around all over (#886, #889)
        - avoid parsing easyconfig files multiple times by passing a parsed easyconfig to the easyblock (#891)
        - deprecate list of tuples return type of extra_options static method (#893, #894)
        - move OS dependency check to systemtools.py module (#895)
- bug fixes, including:
         fix linking with -lcudart if CUDA is part of the toolchain, should also include -lrt (#882)

v1.11.1 (February 28th 2014)
----------------------------

bugfix release
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix hard crash when $LMOD_CMD specified full path to lmod binary, but spider binary is not in $PATH (#861, #873)
    - fix bug in initialisation of repositories, causing problems when a repository subdirectory is specified (#852)
    - avoid long wait when dependency resolution fails if --robot is not specified (#875)

v1.11.0 (February 16th 2014)
----------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various enhancements, including:
    - add checksum support for extensions (#807)
    - make checksum functionality more memory efficient by reading in blocks (#836)
    - rewrite of dependency solving for speed and better reporting of missing dependencies (#806, #818)
    - refactoring of main.py (#815, #828)
        - function/method signatures to pass down build options
        - move functions from main.py into easybuild.framework.X or easybuild.tools
    - provide better build statistics (#824)
    - add --experimental, --deprecated and --oldstyleconfig command line options (#838)
        - with --experimental, new but incomplete (or partially broken) features are enabled
        - with --deprecated, removed of deprecated functionality can be tested (anything deprecated will fail hard)
        - with --disable-oldstyleconfig, support for the old style configuration is disabled
    - define $LIBRARY_PATH in generated module files (#832)
    - more constants for source URLs (e.g. for downloads from bitbucket) (#831)
    - prefer $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and ~/.config/easybuild over ~/.easybuild for configuration files (#820)
    - add support for specifying footers to be appended to generated module files (#808)
        - see --modules-footer command line option
    - track version of modules tool + cleanup of modules.py (#839)
    - move actual run_cmd and rum_cmd_qa implementations from tools.filetools into tools.run (#842, #843)
    - add support for generating modules that support recursive unloading (#830)
        - see --recursive-module-unload command line option
    - add flexibility support for specifying OS dependencies (#846)
        - alternatives can be specified, e.g. ('openssl-devel', 'libssl-dev')
    - initial (incomplete) support for easyconfig files in new format (v2.0) (#810, #826, #827, #841)
        - requires --experimental to be able to experiment with format v2 easyconfig files
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix problems with use of new-style configuration file (#821)
    - fix removal of old build directories, unless cleanupoldbuild easyconfig parameter is set (#809)
    - fix support for different types of repository path specifications (#814)
    - fix unit tests sensitive to $MODULEPATH and available easyblocks (#845)

v1.10.0 (December 24th 2013)
----------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various enhancements, including:
    - set unique default temporary directory, add --tmpdir command line option (#695)
    - add support for computing and verifying source/patch file checksums (#774, #777, #779, #801, #802)
        - cfr. 'checksums' easyconfig parameter
    - add support for `eb --confighelp`, which prints out an example configuration file (#775)
    - add initial support for `eb` tab completion in bash shells (#775, #797, #798) 
        - see also https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/Setting-up-tab-completion-for-bash
        - note: may be quite slow for now
    - enhancements for using Lmod as modules tool (#780, #795, #796):
        - ignore Lmod spider cache by setting $LMOD_IGNORE_CACHE (requires Lmod 5.2)
        - bump required Lmod version to v5.2
        - get rid of slow workaround for detecting module directories (only required for older Lmod versions)
        - fix version parsing for Lmod release candidates (rc)
        - improve integration with `lmod spider` by adding 'Description: ' prefix to 'module-whatis' field of module
    - add --dry-short-short/-D and --search-short/-S command line options (#781)
    - add toolchain definition for 'gompic', intended for using with CUDA-aware OpenMPI (#783)
    - add support for specifying multiple robot paths (#786)
    - add various source URL constants, add support for '%(nameletter)s' and '%(nameletterlower)s' templates (#793)
    - add 'buildininstalldir' easyconfig parameter (#794)
    - add --ignore-osdeps command line option (#799, #802)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - enable -mt_mpi compiler flag if both usempi and openmp toolchain options are enabled (#771)
    - only use libmkl_solver* libraries for Intel MKL versions prior to 10.3 (#776)
    - fix toolchain support for recent Intel tools (#785)
    - code style fixes in main.py to adhere more to PEP8 (#789)
    - make sure 'easyblock' easyconfig parameter is listed in `eb -a` (#791)
    - fix error that may pop up when using skipsteps=source (#792)

v1.9.0 (November 17th 2013)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add support for Tcl environment modules (modulecmd.tcl) (#728, #729, #739)
    - special care was taken to make sure also the DEISA variant of modulecmd.tcl can be used
- code refactoring to prepare for supporting two formats for easyconfig files (#693, #750)
    - this prepares the codebase for supporting easyconfig format v2.0
    - some initial work on adding support for the new easyconfig format is included, but it's by no means complete yet
    - the current easyconfig format (now dubbed v1.0) is still the default and only supported format, for now
    - for more details, see https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/Easyconfig-format-two
- various other enhancements, including:
    - include a full version of vsc-base (see the 'vsc' subdirectory) (#740)
        - this is a first step towards switching to using vsc-base as a proper dependency
    - implement get_avail_core_count function in systemtools module that takes cpusets and co into account (#700)
        - the get_core_count function is now deprecated
    - add impmkl toolchain definition (#736)
    - make regtest more robust: put holds on jobs without dependencies, release holds once all jobs are submitted (#751)
    - add support for specifying multiple alternatives for sanity check paths (#753)
    - add get_software_libdir function to modules.py (along with unit tests) (#758)
    - add support for more file extensions and constants w.r.t. sources (#738, #760, #761)
    - add MPICH2 support in mpi_cmd_for function (#761)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix checking of OS dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu that have 'rpm' command available (#732)
    - make unit tests more robust w.r.t. non-writeabe /tmp and loaded modules prior to starting unit tests (#752, #756)
    - also call EasyBlock's sanity check in ExtensionEasyblock if paths/commands are specified in easyconfig (#757)
    - set compiler family for dummy compiler, add definition of toolchain constant for dummy (#759)
- other
    - add build status badges for master/develop branches to README (#742)
    - add scripts for installing EasyBuild develop version or setting up git development environment (#730, #755)

v1.8.2 (October 18th 2013)
--------------------------

bugfix release
- fix regular expression used for obtaining list of modules from 'module avail' (#724)
    - modules marked as default were being hidden from EasyBuild, causing problems when they are used as dependency

v1.8.1 (October 14th 2013)
--------------------------

bugfix release
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fix bugs in regtest procedure (#713)
        - force 2nd and 3rd attempt of build in case 1st attempt failed
    - fix copying of install log to install directory (#716)
    - only create first source path if multiple paths are specified (#718)
    - detect failed PBS job submission by checking obtained job ID for None value (#713, #717, #719, #720)

v1.8.0 (October 4th 2013)
-------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- add support for using alternative module naming schemes (#679, #696, #705, #706, #707)
    - see https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/Using-a-custom-module-naming-scheme for documentation
    - module naming scheme classes that derive from the 'abstract' ModuleNamingScheme class can be provided to EasyBuild
        - the Python module providing the class must be available in the easybuild.tools.module_naming_scheme namespace
        - a function named 'det_full_module_name' must be implemented, that determines the module name
          in the form of an string based on the supplied dictionary(-like) argument
    - the active module naming scheme is determined by EasyBuild configuration option 'module_naming_scheme'
    - for now, only the name/version/versionsuffix/toolchain easyconfig parameters are guaranteed to be provided
        - consistently providing all easyconfig parameters (i.e., also for dependencies) requires more work (see #687)
    - implementing this involved a number of intrusive changes:
        - the API of the modules.py module needed to be changed, breaking backward compatibility
            - the function for which the signatures were modified are considered to be internal to the framework,
              so this should have very minor impact w.r.t. easyblocks not included with EasyBuild
            - affected functions include: available, exists, show, modulefile_path, dependencies_for
        - the format for specifying dependencies was extended, to allow for specifying a custom toolchain
            - this allows to fix inaccurate dependency specifications,
              like "('OpenMPI', '1.6.4-GCC-4.7.2')" to "('OpenMPI', '1.6.4', '', ('GCC', '4.7.2'))"
            - see also https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyconfigs/pull/431
        - the recommended version for Lmod was bumped to v5.1.5
            - using earlier 5.x version still works, but may be very slow when 'available' is used,
              due to bugs and a missing feature in Lmod versions prior to v5.1.5 on which we rely
- various other enhancements, including:
    - only (try to) change group id if it is different from what is wanted (#685)
    - added toy build unit test (#688)
    - support for specifying a list of source paths in EasyBuild configuration (#690, #702)
    - add function to determine CPU clock speed in systemtools.py (#694, #699)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - avoid importing toolchain modules over and over again to make toolchain constants available in toolchain module (#679)
    - only change the group id if current gid is different from what we want in adjust_permissions function (#685)
    - restore original environment after running 'module purge' (#698)
        - important sidenote: this results in resetting the entire environment, and has impact on the sanity check step;
          any environment variables that are set before the EasyBlock.sanity_check_step method fires, are no longer there
          when the sanity check commands are run (cfr. https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild-easyblocks/pull/268)

v1.7.0 (September 2nd 2013)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various enhancements, including:
    - also search for patch files in directory where easyconfig file is located (#667)
    - reduce false positives in reporting of possible errors messages (#669)
    - make module update $ACLOCAL if a share/aclocal subdir is found (#670)
    - add 'unwanted_env_vars' easyconfig parameter to list environment variables to unset during install procedure (#673)
    - add support for updating list easyconfig values (next to string values) (#676)
    - add --dry-run command line option which prints installation overview for specified easyconfig files (#677)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - ensure that all extensions are listed in $EBEXTSLISTX set by module, also when using --skip (#671)
    - report reason for failed sanity check for extensions (#672, #678)
    - fix --list-toolchains command line option (#675)

v1.6.0 (July 11th 2013)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- added support for using Lmod as module tool (refs #645)
- various other enhancements, including:
    - allow prepending to/appending to/overwriting list easyconfig parameters using --try-amend-X (refs #658, #664)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - add salt to temporary log file name (refs #656, #665)
    - fix determining CPU architecture on Rasberry Pi (ARM) systems (refs #655, #662)
    - fix support for determining base path of tarballs containing a single file (refs #660)

v1.5.0 (June 1st 2013)
----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- various enhancements, including:
    - define SHLIB_EXT constant for shared library extension (.so, .dylib), deprecate shared_lib_ext global var (#630)
    - enhance support for sanity checking extensions (#632, #649)
    - add support for modextrapaths easyconfig parameter (#634, #637)
    - allow source_urls to be templated for extensions (#639, #646, #647)
    - set OMPI_* environment variables for OpenMPI (#640)
    - make BLACS optional as toolchain element, depending on ScaLAPACK version (#638)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fixed --list-toolchains, avoid listing toolchains multiple times (#628)
    - fix templating dictionary after parsing easyconfig file (#633)
    - fix support for ACML as compiler toolchain element (#632)
    - make unit tests clean up after themselves more thoroughly (#641, #642, #643)

v1.4.0 (May 2nd 2013)
---------------------

feature + bugfix release
- the unit tests for easybuild-framework were moved to test/framework,
  to make things consistent with easybuild-easyblocks and easybuild-easyconfigs (#611, #613, #624)
    - running the framework unit tests should now be using 'python -n test.framework.suite'
- various other enhancements, including:
    - extend unit test suite (#593, #599, #603, #618, #620, #622, #624, ...)
    - extended list of constants and templates that can be used in easyconfig files (#566)
    - add support for additional compiler toolchains
        - CUDA-enabled toolchain: goolfc (#603, #624)
        - Clang(+GCC)-based toolchains: cgoolf, cgmpolf, cgmvolf (#593, #598, #600)
        - gmvolf (GCC+MVAPICH2+...) (#585)
    - properly decode easyblock to module name using decode_* functions (#618)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - fixed default value for --stop (#601)
    - remove useless sleep() calls in run_cmd, run_cmd_qa (#599)
    - determine module path based on class name, not software name (#606)
    - remove unwanted characters in build dirs (#591, #607)
    - ignore some error codes spit out by modulecmd that are actually warnings (#609)
    - fix agithub.py w.r.t. changes in GitHub API (user-agent string is now obligatory for non-authenticated connections) (#617)
    - fix typo breaking the adjust_cmd decorator on SuSE (#615)
    - fix prepending paths with absolute paths in module file (#621)
    - clean up open file handles properly (#620, #624)
    - fix --search help and implementation (#622)

v1.3.0 (April 1st 2013)
-----------------------

feature + bugfix release
- added script to bootstrap EasyBuild with EasyBuild, see https://github.com/hpcugent/easybuild/wiki/Bootstrapping-EasyBuild (#531)
- reorganize framework/easyconfig.py module into framework/easyconfig package with modules (#574, #580)
- support EasyBuild configuration via command line, environment variables and configuration files (#529, #552, #556, #558, #559)
- various other enhancements, including:
    - extended set of unit tests for eb command line options and EasyBuild configuration (#517, #556, #559, #571)
    - made --search also useful when easybuild-easyconfigs package is not installed (#524)
    - extended set of default module classes (#525)
    - add support for license easyconfig parameter (which will be mandatory in v2.x) (#526, #569)
    - added setup.cfg for setup.py to allow creating RPMs (#528)
    - added support for obtaining system information, see get_os_* functions in easybuild/tools/systemtools.py (#543, #546, #547)
    - added support for iterated builds that require cycling over multiple sets of configure/build/install options, e.g. FFTW (#549)
    - added support for OpenBLAS as toolchain lib for linear algebra (#537, #565)
    - added support for tweaking prefix and separator for library toolchain variables (LIB*) (#572, #576)
    - skip already built modules in regression testing mode, to ease regression testing (#582)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - added zip_safe flag to setup.py, to silence multitude of warnings (#521)
    - only define LIBFFT for Intel MKL if FFTW interface libraries are available (#518, #567, #579)
    - set POSIX group early in build process, make EasyBuild aware of consistent chmod/chown failures (#527)
    - properly order the name/version keys for the toolchain easyconfig parameter when using --try-toolchain (#563)
    - take the 'skipsteps' easyconfig parameter into account in regression testing mode as well (#583)

v1.2.0 (February 28th 2013)
---------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- new backend module for option parsing: generaloption
- support for using constants and string templates in easyconfig files
    - currently disabled for 'exts_filter' and 'exts_list' easyconfog parameters, for backward compatibility
- various other enhancements, including:
    - support for iqacml and iiqmpi toolchains (Intel compilers + QLogic MPI based)
    - clearer errors messages when sanity check failed
    - unit tests for (about half of) the 'eb' command line options
    - support for specifying build/install steps to skip in easyconfig file ('skipsteps')
    - support for allowing certain dependencies to be resolved by the system instead of modules ('allow_system_deps')
    - cache ppn value required by regtest, clean up temporary files let behind by --regtest/--job
    - make sure MPD is used as process manager for Intel MPI (required for impi v4.1 and later)
    - rename template names 'name' and 'version' used in exts_filter to 'ext_name', 'ext_version'
        - 'name' and 'version' are still supported for legacy reasons
    - cleaned up module docstrings w.r.t. list of authors
- various bug fixes, including:
    - print correct (lowercase) toolchain names with --list-toolchains
    - correct easyconfig parameter name 'license_server_port'
    - fix string quoting in develop modules
    - ensure modulecmd is run with original LD_LIBRARY_PATH value
        - to avoid breaking modulecmd, see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=719785
    - remove use of hardcoded files/dirs in unit tests
    - fix various inconsistencies w.r.t. paths considered with --robot
    - various cleanup and fixes w.r.t. logging
        - use correct logger instance in main script
        - stop passing logger instances around
        - make module logging variables private
    - get rid of ModuleGenerator deconstructor, clean up via EasyBlock.clean_up_fake_module
    - fix disabling of 'optarch' toolchain option (and extend unit tests to check on this)

v1.1.0 (January 27th 2013)
--------------------------

feature + bugfix release
- improvements w.r.t. support for software extensions (tested on Python and R, see easyblocks package)
    - cleaned up support for building/installing extensions
    - define ExtensionEasyblock class that implements support for installing extensions as stand-alone module as well
    - return to build dir before building/installing each extension
    - define EBEXTSLIST<NAME> environment variable in module if exts_list was defined
    - make sure sanity check for extensions results in an error if it fails
- various enhancements, including:
    - log both framework and easyblocks versions
    - add support for gimkl, gmacml, iccifort, iomkl, and ismkl toolchains
    - define *_SEQ compiler variables for sequential compilers
    - add --list-toolchains command line option for listing supported toolchains
    - add support for customizing software and modules install path suffixes
    - support both setuptools and distutils installation methods for finding installed easyconfigs
    - also consider robot path in list of paths searched for patch files
    - allow skipping of default extension sanity check (by setting 'modulename' to False in options)
- various bug fixes, including:
    - typos in toolchain Python modules w.r.t. imkl support, handling of i8/optarch/unroll options
    - purge before loading 'fake' module, unload 'fake' module before removing it, use original MODULEPATH
    - restore environment after unloading fake module, set variables that were incorrectly unset, i.e., that were defined before as well
    - unset TMPDIR for builds submitted as jobs (required by IntelBase easyblock)
    - correctly track easyconfig parse error
    - always run all jobs in regtest, also if dependency jobs failed
    - cosmetic adjustments to default EasyBuild configuration file to avoid confusion between e.g. build_dir and build_path (only latter matters)
    - fix SuSe hack, only prefix command with sourcing of /etc/profile.d/modules.sh if it is there
    - leave build directory before it is removed during cleanup step
    - load generated module file before running test cases

v1.0.2 (December 8th 2012)
--------------------------

bugfix release
- properly catch failing sanity check commands
- fix bug in toolchain support which cause linking environment variables set by toolchain to include too many libraries
    - elements in toolchain variables were being passed by reference instead of by value
- fix selecting a compiler toolchain for a specified software package (--software-name) if only a template is a viable option
- fix passing command line parameters with --job
- fix list of valid stops (-s/--stop)
- fix minor issues in help messages (-h/--help)

v1.0.1 (November 24th 2012)
---------------------------

bugfix release
- fix support for installing easybuild-framework with distutils (broken import in setup.py)
- fix support for ACML as a toolchain element (toolchains/linalg/acml.py)
- add name to aggregated regtest XML so that is parsed correctly by Jenkins
- reorder code in main.py so that regtest also works with incomplete easyconfig paths
- add bash script for running regression test and sending a trigger to Jenkins to pull in the XML with results
- get rid of assumption that loaded modules should have name like 'foo/bar', make it more flexible
- retry failed builds in regtest twice to ignore fluke errors
- report leaf nodes in dependency graph when regtest is submitted
    - this is required for setting job dependencies in the regtest script for the Jenkins trigger job
- implement and use rmtree2 as more (NFS) robust replacement for shutil.rmtree
- bump max hit count for run_cmd_qa from 20 to 50, to make false positives of unasnwered questions less likely

v1.0 (November 13th 2012)
-------------------------

- split up EasyBuild across three repositories: framework, easyblocks and easyconfigs
- packaged EasyBuild, different parts can now be installed easily using easy_install
- various changes to both internal and external API:
    - renamed main script to main.py (from build.py)
    - file and directory organisation
    - module, class, function and function argument renaming and reorganisation
    - split up Application into EasyBlock and ConfigureMake (see easybuild-easyblocks for the latter)
    - created EasyConfig class for handling easyconfig files
    - renaming of EasyBuild configuration parameters (non-camelCase)
    - renaming of various easyconfig parameters (non-camelCase)
    - rename SOFTROOT and SOFTVERSION environment variables set in generated module files to EBROOT and EBVERSION
    - use 'extension' as generic terminology for Python packages, R libraries, Perl modules, ...
- added support for building software packages in parallel via PBS jobs
- added unit testing framework and initial set of unit tests for basic functionality
    - and run them in Jenkins continuous integration service, see https://jenkins1.ugent.be/view/EasyBuild/
- implement single-command regression test (e.g. to test building all supported software)
    - eb --regtest --robot
- switch to new style Python classes
- replaced toolkit module with toolchain package (total rewrite), providing modular support for toolchains
- adjust default EasyBuild configuration to only use $HOME/.local/easybuild by default
- added support for running EasyBuild without supplying an easyconfig file
    - make EasyBuild search for a matching easyconfig file
    - support automatic rewriting of an existing partially-matching easyconfig file (use this with care!)
    - support for automatically generating an easyconfig file according to given specifications (best effort!)
- add support for looking for easyconfig file in Python search path if it can't be found on specified (relative) path
    (that way, easyconfig files available in the easybuild-easyconfigs package can be used easily)
- various other enhancements and bug fixes, e.g.:
    - extended sanity check capabilities
    - cleaned up logging
    - creating of devel module which allows to mimic environment that was used by EasyBuild to build the software
    - support for creating dependency graphs for a set of easyconfig files
    - grouped options in help output and categorised available easyconfig parameters
    - more consistent code style

v0.8 (June 29th 2012)
---------------------

- added support for building/installing 17 additional software packages:
    - BEAGLE, Doxygen, g2clib, g2lib, HDF, HDF5, JasPer, libpng, Maple, 
      MrBayes, NCL, netCDF, netCDF-Fortran, Szip, WPS, WRF, zlib
- the build procedure for WRF and WPS includes running the tests available for these packages
- various bug fixes and enhancements:
    - made support for interactive installers (run_cmd_qa) more robust
    - fixed Python git package check
    - implemented toolkit functions for determine compiler family, MPI type, MPI run command, ...

v0.7 (June 18th 2012)
---------------------

- fixed BLACS build
    - diagnostic tools to determine INTERFACE and TRANSCOMM values are now used
- added support for building Bison, CP2K, flex
    - with regression test enabled for CP2K as part of build process
    - note: BLACS built with EasyBuild prior to v0.7 needs to be rebuilt for CP2K to work correctly
- added --enable-mpi-threads to OpenMPI example easyconfigs
    - required for correct CP2K psmp build
- adjusted libsmm example easyconfig for lower build time
    - to make the full regression test finish in a reasonable amount of time
- added script to make porting of easyblocks from old to new EasyBuild codebase easier
    - takes care of refactoring, checks for PyLint warnings/errors, ...
- fixed several small bugs
- prefixed EasyBuild messages with "=="
- full regression test passed (58 easyconfigs tested)

v0.6 (May 11th 2012)
---------------------

- added support for Intel compiler toolkit (ictce)
    - which included the Intel compilers, Intel Math Kernel Library (imkl) and Intel MPI library (impi)
- added support for building Python with nose/numpy/scipy packages
- added simple regression test
- this version is able to build all supplied example easyconfigs

v0.5 (April 6th 2012)
----------------------

- first public release of EasyBuild
    - after a thorough cleanup of the EasyBuild framework of the in-house version
- supports building HPL with goalf compiler toolkit
    - the goalf toolkit consists of the GCC compilers, and the OpenMPI, ATLAS, LAPACK, FFTW and ScaLAPACK libraries
- also support build and installation of MVAPICH2