As we learned in the previous section, many prebuilt software packages exist on Frontera, and they are conveniently provided through the module system. Quite often, though, you will want to build software for yourself—and for that, you need a compiler.

The Intel compiler suite is the recommended and default choice for building C/C++ and Fortran codes on Frontera. Should the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) be required instead for some reason, it can be accessed by loading the appropriate environment module. Furthermore, various versions of these compiler suites are provided. The available versions are updated from time to time. The compiler versions currently (December, 2022) available on Frontera are:

• The default Intel version, which is loaded by modulefile intel/19.1.1
• Older Intel versions that may work better for your code, intel/19.0.5, intel/18.0.5
• Several versions of the GNU compilers: gcc/6.3.0, gcc/8.3.0, gcc/9.1.0 (default), gcc/12.2.0

All of the above are accessible from the compute nodes as well as the login nodes.