Installing IDL

IDL should be installed manually - there is a Spack package, but it is a placeholder package designed purely for modulefile generation.

The IDL license is managed by Garth D'Attilo out of ACOM. Therefore, you will need to access IDL downloads via this ACOM page:

https://www.acom.ucar.edu/idl/IDL86/

You will need to be on the UCAR VPN to access this page. If you encounter any difficulties, contact NRIT.

In the etc/installers directory of this repository, you will find a sample build script for IDL. Modify this script for the version of IDL you wish to install, and then run it as csgteam. This script will perform the following actions:

  1. Install IDL into the desired prefix
  2. Set up the license to use NRIT's server
  3. Ensure that license data are not dumped to GLADE but rather /tmp
  4. Add geography data from geov-4.8f.tar.gz

Adding to Spack

Once IDL is installed, it can be added to Spack as an external via the constraints.cfg file and then "installed" into the cluster. By "installing" it in Spack, we motivate Spack to generate a module for that IDL version.

IDL should require no other customizations of note.