How to install singularity on Linux

How to install singularity on Almalinux 9, Centos Stream 9 and Rocky Linux

Singularity is an open-source containerization framework for packaging and running portable and reproducible apps and workflows. It is especially beneficial in high-performance computing (HPC) contexts where users must run scientific programs on clusters, grids, and cloud infrastructures.

To install Singularity on Linux, you can follow these simple steps:

NOTE: These steps were tested on AlmaLinux 9. They might also work on version 8 and Centos 7.

1. First, make sure your system is up to date:

   # yum -y update

2. Install the necessary dependencies.

   # yum groupinstall -y 'Development Tools'
   # yum install -y openssl-devel libuuid-devel libseccomp-devel wget squashfs-tools cryptsetup

3. Install GO.

Go is required if you want to build Singularity from source.

To install GO, follow these simple steps:

a) Open the link below and download the latest version of GO:
https://go.dev/doc/install
This command will download go1.20.2

# wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.20.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

b) Extract the tar archive to /usr/local:

# tar xzf go1.20.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/

c) Edit /etc/profile file and add "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin" to the end of the file. To do this, simply run below command:

# echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin" >> /etc/profile

d) Logout, then login again.

e) Verify go is installed.

# go version

4. Install Singularity.
   The easiest way to install Singularity is to install it from the Epel Repository.

   
     # yum install -y epel-release
     # yum update -y
     # yum install -y singularity
     

5. Test Singularity by executing a simple container from the Sylabs Cloud library.

   
   [root@zmatech ~]# singularity exec library://alpine cat /etc/alpine-release
   INFO:    Downloading library image
   2.7MiB / 2.7MiB [=====================================================] 100 % 
   3.15.5
   

That's it, Singularity is installed.