[SOLVED] Singularity v3.9.4 Installation - mconfig not inside a git repository and no VERSION file found

Issue

I'm trying to install Singularity after installing Go. I've confirmed that Go has been installed successfully:

$ go version
go version go1.17.6 linux/amd64

After that, I run the following commands:

$ export VERSION=3.9.4
$ wget https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/archive/refs/tags/v${VERSION}.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf v${VERSION}.tar.gz
$ cd singularity-${VERSION}

$ ./mconfig # This is where it fails
E: Not inside a git repository and no VERSION file found. Abort.

Solution

The tarball you are downloading is the one generated automatically for a tag, not the release tarball. From the release page:

Source Code

Please use the singularity-ce-3.9.4.tar.gz download below to obtain and install SingularityCE 3.9.4. The GitHub auto-generated 'Source Code' downloads do not include required dependencies etc.

Working snippet using the correct url:

export VERSION=3.9.4
wget https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/releases/download/v${VERSION}/singularity-ce-${VERSION}.tar.gz && \
    tar xf singularity-ce-${VERSION}.tar.gz && \
    cd singularity-ce-${VERSION} && \
    ./mconfig

Answered By - tsnowlan

Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (WPSolving Volunteer)