The previous safe_system() is quite thorough, but much more than we
really need in this script. Use a far simpler version that is
significantly easier to maintain.
Also log some of the critical steps that a human can examine the
output upon a failure (e.g., when the failure happens when launched
via cron).
Finally, set the version number to not include "openmpi-", because
Coverity has a limited-width display of the version number.
b207736170