.. Copyright Spack Project Developers. See COPYRIGHT file for details.

   SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)

.. _spack-101:

===================
Tutorial: Spack 101
===================

This is an introduction to Spack with lectures and live demos.
It was last presented at the `The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC25) <https://sc25.conference-program.com/presentation/?id=tut176&sess=sess276>`_ November 17, 2025.
The event was full day in-person tutorial.

You can use these materials to teach a course on Spack at your own site, or you can just skip ahead and read the live demo scripts to see how Spack is used in practice.

.. _slides:

.. rubric:: Slides

.. image:: tutorial/images/sc25-tutorial-slide-preview.png
   :target: _static/slides/spack-sc25-tutorial-slides.pdf
   :height: 72px
   :align: left
   :alt: Slide Preview

:download:`Download Slides <_static/slides/spack-icpp25-tutorial-slides.pdf>`.

**Full citation:** Todd Gamblin, Greg Becker, Alec Scott, Kathleen Shea, Caetano Melone, Phil Sakievich.
Managing HPC Software Complexity with Spack.
The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC25), Saint Louis, Missouri, November 17, 2025.

.. _video:

.. rubric:: Video

For the last recorded video of this tutorial, see the `HPCIC Tutorial 2024 version <https://spack-tutorial.readthedocs.io/en/hpcic24/>`_.

.. _live-demos:

.. rubric:: Live Demos

We provide scripts that take you step-by-step through basic Spack tasks.
They correspond to sections in the slides above.

To run through the scripts, we provide the `spack/tutorial <https://ghcr.io/spack/tutorial>`_ container image.
You can invoke

.. code-block:: console

   $ docker pull ghcr.io/spack/tutorial:sc25
   $ docker run -it ghcr.io/spack/tutorial:sc25

to start using the container.
You should now be ready to run through our demo scripts:

#. :ref:`basics-tutorial`
#. :ref:`environments-tutorial`
#. :ref:`configs-tutorial`
#. :ref:`packaging-tutorial`
#. :ref:`stacks-tutorial`
#. :ref:`developer-workflows-tutorial`
#. :ref:`binary-cache-tutorial`
#. :ref:`spack-scripting-tutorial`

Other sections from past tutorials are also available, although they may not be kept up-to-date as frequently:

#. :ref:`modules-tutorial`
#. :ref:`build-systems-tutorial`
#. :ref:`advanced-packaging-tutorial`

Full contents:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Links

   Main Spack Documentation <https://spack.readthedocs.io>

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 3
   :caption: Tutorial

   tutorial_basics
   tutorial_environments
   tutorial_configuration
   tutorial_packaging
   tutorial_stacks
   tutorial_developer_workflows
   tutorial_binary_cache
   tutorial_scripting

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 3
   :caption: Additional sections

   tutorial_modules
   tutorial_buildsystems
   tutorial_advanced_packaging