Environment Setup

This guide walks you through preparing your machine to build and develop ChronoLog. Choose the method that best fits your workflow:

Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Operating System: Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, CentOS 7+, or equivalent)
• C++17 Compiler: GCC 9+ or Clang 10+
• Git: 2.x+
• Python: 3.6+ (required by Spack)

Spack

ChronoLog requires various packages managed by Spack. We recommend using Spack version v0.21.2 (2024-03-01):

info

Spack v0.21.2 is required due to an incompatibility between newer Spack versions and spdlog. This will be resolved in a future release.

Clone Spack at the required version:

git clone --branch v0.21.2 https://github.com/spack/spack.git

Load Spack into your shell environment:

source /path-to-where-spack-was-cloned/spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh

tip

Add the source command to your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc) so Spack is available in every new shell session.

Checkout ChronoLog

Clone the ChronoLog repository:

git clone https://github.com/grc-iit/ChronoLog.git

Installing Dependencies

Enter the repository and check out the development branch:

cd ChronoLog

git checkout develop

note

The develop branch contains the latest in-progress work. Use main for the current stable release.

Activate the Spack environment defined in the repository:

spack env activate -p .

Install all required dependencies:

spack install -v

info

Installation can take more than 30 minutes. All dependencies are defined in the repository's spack.yaml.

Verify the Environment

Confirm that Spack installed the dependencies and that CMake is available:

spack find
which cmake

spack find should list all installed packages. which cmake should point to the Spack-installed CMake inside the environment view.

IDE Setup (Optional)

CLion

1. Open the ChronoLog directory as a CMake project.
2. Go to Settings → Build, Execution, Deployment → CMake.
3. Set CMake options to:

   -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(spack location -i cmake)/..

   Alternatively, launch CLion from a terminal where the Spack environment is already activated — CLion will inherit the environment variables and find all dependencies automatically.

VS Code

1. Install the CMake Tools extension.
2. Open the ChronoLog directory.
3. In .vscode/settings.json, add:

   {
     "cmake.configureArgs": [
       "-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=${env:SPACK_ENV}/.spack-env/view"
     ]
   }

   Or simply open VS Code from a terminal with the Spack environment activated.

Docker

Prerequisites

Ensure Docker is installed and the Docker daemon is running:

docker --version

Pull the ChronoLog Dev Image

docker pull ghcr.io/grc-iit/chronolog-dev:develop

The image is automatically published on every push to the develop branch by the CI pipeline. It comes with:

• All Spack dependencies pre-installed
• A Debug build of ChronoLog compiled and installed at /home/grc-iit/chronolog-install/chronolog
• The full source tree at /home/grc-iit/chronolog-src
• PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and CHRONOLOG_HOME already configured

No additional setup is required to start building or running.

Run the Container

docker run -it --rm ghcr.io/grc-iit/chronolog-dev:develop bash

This opens an interactive shell as the grc-iit user, starting in /home/grc-iit/chronolog-src with ChronoLog already built and installed.

Mount Local Source (Recommended for Active Development)

To develop with your own local edits — edit on the host, build inside the container — bind-mount your local ChronoLog checkout over the baked-in source:

docker run -it --rm \
  -v $(pwd):/home/grc-iit/chronolog-src \
  ghcr.io/grc-iit/chronolog-dev:develop bash

Run this from the root of your cloned ChronoLog repository. Your local changes are immediately visible inside the container. After editing, run the build and install scripts to apply them (see Building for Development).

Next Steps

Your environment is ready. Head to Building for Development for build, install, and run instructions.