Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute

TLDR

Singularity is designed to bring container-based reproducibility and mobility of compute to scientific research, enabling secure capture and distribution of software environments. It achieves this by providing an open‑source container platform that lets developers build reproducible environments that can be copied and executed on any platform while integrating seamlessly into existing workflows. The resulting ability to create and deploy portable, reproducible environments across HPC centers fulfills a previously unmet need and represents a game‑changing advance for computational science.

Abstract

Here we present Singularity, software developed to bring containers and reproducibility to scientific computing. Using Singularity containers, developers can work in reproducible environments of their choosing and design, and these complete environments can easily be copied and executed on other platforms. Singularity is an open source initiative that harnesses the expertise of system and software engineers and researchers alike, and integrates seamlessly into common workflows for both of these groups. As its primary use case, Singularity brings mobility of computing to both users and HPC centers, providing a secure means to capture and distribute software and compute environments. This ability to create and deploy reproducible environments across these centers, a previously unmet need, makes Singularity a game changing development for computational science.