Interface SoftwarePackageProperties

For example, the IRI https://packages.debian.org/bowtie could be resolved with apt-get install bowtie. The IRI https://anaconda.org/bioconda/bowtie could be resolved with conda install -c bioconda bowtie.

IRIs can also be system independent and used to map to a specific software installation or selection mechanism. Using RRID as an example: https://identifiers.org/rrid/RRID:SCR_005476 could be fulfilled using the above mentioned Debian or bioconda package, a local installation managed by Environment Modules, or any other mechanism the platform chooses. IRIs can also be from identifer sources that are discipline specific yet still system independent. As an example, the equivalent ELIXIR Tools and Data Service Registry IRI to the previous RRID example is https://bio.tools/tool/bowtie2/version/2.2.8. If supported by a given registry, implementations are encouraged to query these system independent sofware identifier IRIs directly for links to packaging systems.

A site specific IRI can be listed as well. For example, an academic computing cluster using Environment Modules could list the IRI https://hpc.example.edu/modules/bowtie-tbb/1.22 to indicate that module load bowtie-tbb/1.1.2 should be executed to make available bowtie version 1.1.2 compiled with the TBB library prior to running the accompanying Workflow or CommandLineTool. Note that the example IRI is specific to a particular institution and computing environment as the Environment Modules system does not have a common namespace or standardized naming convention.

This last example is the least portable and should only be used if mechanisms based off of the package field or more generic IRIs are unavailable or unsuitable. While harmless to other sites, site specific software IRIs should be left out of shared CWL descriptions to avoid clutter.