ReFrame missing in 2021.12 (was in 2021.06)

[hmeiland]

[EESSI pilot 2021.12] $ ls /cvmfs/pilot.eessi-hpc.org/versions/2021.06/software/linux/x86_64/intel/skylake_avx512/software/ReFrame
3.6.2
[EESSI pilot 2021.12] $ ls /cvmfs/pilot.eessi-hpc.org/versions/2021.12/software/linux/x86_64/intel/skylake_avx512/software/ReFrame
ls: cannot access '/cvmfs/pilot.eessi-hpc.org/versions/2021.12/software/linux/x86_64/intel/skylake_avx512/software/ReFrame': No such file or directory

[boegel]

This is largely due to #127: in 2021.12 we decided to only install ReFrame in the compat layer.

But we're having second thoughts there, since updated ReFrame in the compat layer is more painful, so we should probably have it (only) in the software layer instead (like EasyBuild).

Thoughts @bedroge, @casparvl?

[trz42]

How about having it in the compat layer (to test the compat layer), but in a location that is not in the PATH. For testing the software layer we could add it to the software layer as a normal module which can be more easily updated.

Alternatively we could see ReFrame as a "leaf" module (no other software modules depend on it), install it in a specific directory of the compat layer which allows us to more easily update this part of the compat layer ... one could even think of, that one never can ingest a tarball which includes files for both parts of the compat layer. Part 1: "normal" compat layer, Part 2: "common" modules in compat layer. The "common" modules can be used without the software layer, e.g., for ReFrame-testing the compat layer, and also in the software layer.

[bedroge]

I'm okay with dropping it from the compat layer (or installing it in a special directory, as @trz42 is suggesting). It should be possible to run the compat layer tests using a ReFrame from the software layer, except for the test run performed by the installation playbook, since there's no software layer yet at that stage. But we can easily work around that by adding an extra step to the playbook that installs ReFrame in a (temporary) virtual environment on the build host.