Implementation plan for scientific software distribution for SRCNet v0.1

In PI-22 (feature SP-4193), we have made recommendations for how scientific software (such as LOFAR pipielines) should be distributed throughout the SRCNet in a process we have, for the time being, termed "CI/CD/CM" (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment/Continuous Management). See [TAN-220] Recommendations for CI/CD/CM for Software Distribution on Confluence.

The preliminary conclusion of the recommendations is that containers should be the format in which software is distributed, and container registries combined with CVMFS should be used as the distribution technology.
For software compilation, we recommend creating an EESSI-like environment in which the containers are built on a variety of hardware architectures.

A diagram of the recommended pipeline (still work in progress):

In this feature, we want to create an implementation plan for SRCNet v0.1 in which these recommendations are worked out to a technical degree that they can be implemented in PI-24 and PI–25. 

In addition, the plan should specify how to deal with the publication of software metadata, which so far has not been addressed conclusively. Concretely, we would like to test whether codemeta as used in Escape OSSR would be sufficient for astronomy software.

We will also follow up with EESSI/UGent to get a status update on the software discovery mechanism  they are developing.