New RFC: Migrate Subworkflows and Template boilerplate to nf-core-utils plugin

[edmundmiller]

Have you read the RFC docs?

• Yes, I have read and understood the RFC docs

Summary

I've ported nearly all of the logic over to nf-utils, a Nextflow plugin. This will replace the subworkflows/nf-core/utils_* set of workflows that then replaced the lib/. I think a plugin will significantly improve the casual nf-core developer and user and allow people to pick and choose features.

Champion

@edmundmiller

Background & Motivation

I was just waiting on the 3.3.0 tools release to come out, and now I think we're finally ready to start migrating to a plugin to reduce the boilerplate of the subworkflows, etc.

New users found lib/ and then subworkflow/nf-core/utils* particularly confusing, and there's a lot of old and maybe undocumented reasoning behind some of these things. @vdauwera has even been working on a training module going over these.

Goals

• Migrate boilerplate to a Nextflow plugin
• Improve the experience for small Nextflow pipelines

Non-Goals

• Add new functionality

References

• https://github.com/nf-core/nf-utils
• fetchNGS PoC

[nf-core-bot]

RFC approval status: ✅ Approved

RFC has approvals from 9/7 required @core-team quorum.

Review Status	Core Team members
✅ Approved	@maxulysse, @mashehu, @kenibrewer, @jfy133, @nvnieuwk, @FriederikeHanssen, @JoseEspinosa, @ewels, @mirpedrol
🕐 Pending	@mribeirodantas, @edmundmiller, @sateeshperi, @FranBonath, @christopher-hakkaart

[maxulysse]

/approve

[maxulysse]

That's what I wanted to do for a while, thank you so much for leading this @edmundmiller

[mashehu]

/approve

[kenibrewer]

/approve

[jfy133]

/approve

[bentsherman]

My only comment is to give it a more specific name like nf-core-utils. I find nf-utils too vague. Consider it a strong suggestion from someone who guards the plugin registry 😄