%appinstall <app> -c /bin/bash is maybe not like %post -c /bin/bash

[Phylloxera]

Type of issue unsure: syntax or version or incompatibility or environment

Description of issue I'm trying to integrate virtual environments (like here) with SCI-F Apps as suggested here). SingularityCE version 3.10 doesn't seem to like the syntax:

%appinstall cge -c /bin/bash
  pip3 install virtualenv && mkdir /venv && virtualenv /venv/testing && source /venv/testing/bin/activate

in my definition file. since sudo singularity build ... indicates that the -c /bin/bash is not being applied. The relevant console output is "/.post.script: 10: source: not found"

[dtrudg]

The %appinstall doesn't support specifying shell args like %post because it is part of the implementation of SCIF:

https://sci-f.github.io/spec-v1

SCIF isn't specific to Singularity... you can create SCIF recipes to build Docker containers too. We don't want to add handling that isn't part of the spec, to avoid incompatibility with other tools implementing it.

You may want to ask on the SCIF repository if there is interest in the SCIF specification supporting a shell argument for the %appinstall syntax.