More frequent build failures due to failed downloads

[adammccartney]

hi there, we've recently started generating failed builds due to missing downloads much more frequently.
e.g.:

== building and installing Miniforge3/25.3.0-3...
  >> installation prefix: /home/admccartney/eessi/versions/2025.06/software/linux/x86_64/amd/zen4/software/Miniforge3/25.3.0-3
== fetching files and verifying checksums...
== Running pre-fetch hook...
  >> download failed: https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/download/25.3.0-3/Miniforge3-25.3.0-3-Linux-x86_64.sh
  >> download failed: https://sources.easybuild.io/m/Miniforge3/Miniforge3-25.3.0-3-Linux-x86_64.sh
== ... (took < 1 sec)
== FAILED: Installation ended unsuccessfully: Couldn't find file Miniforge3-25.3.0-3-Linux-x86_64.sh anywhere, and downloading it didn't work either... Paths attempted (in order):

The workaround that we're using is to manually download the files with curl or wget, then using the --sourcepath option with easybuild.

I'm pretty sure it's something to do with our environment setup (rather than an easybuild issue), but posting here anyway in the hope to gain some insight into how easybuild is doing the https calls, so we can make sure our environment is set up accordingly.

[adammccartney]

so copilot was quite helpful here, I thought it was something like this, but couldn't remember exactly what variable to set -> https://github.com/copilot/share/ca42401e-0a04-8cd1-a810-344120a0291f

The working solution is:

> export SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
admccartney@login01 ~
> python3 -c "
import urllib.request
import sys
try:
    url = 'https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/download/25.3.0-3/Miniforge3-25.3.0-3-Linux-x86_64.sh'
    resp = urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=30)
    print(f'Success: {resp.getcode()}')
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Failed: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
"
Success: 200

Then running export SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt && eb Miniforge3-25.3.0-3.eb succeeds

[ocaisa]

FYI, this variable is now set by defaultfor EESSI (as long as you use an EESSI module): EESSI/software-layer-scripts#199