Ubuntu Manpage: module - command interface to the Modules package

Provided by: environment-modules_4.1.1-1_amd64

NAME

       module - command interface to the Modules package

SYNOPSIS

       module [switches] [sub-command [sub-command-args]]

DESCRIPTION

module is a user interface to the Modules package. The Modules package provides for the
dynamic modification of the user's environment via modulefiles.

Each modulefile contains the information needed to configure the shell for an application.
Once the Modules package is initialized, the environment can be modified on a per-module
basis using the module command which interprets modulefiles. Typically modulefiles
instruct the module command to alter or set shell environment variables such as PATH,
MANPATH, etc. Modulefiles may be shared by many users on a system and users may have their
own set to supplement or replace the shared modulefiles.

The modulefiles are added to and removed from the current environment by the user. The
environment changes contained in a modulefile can be summarized through the module command
as well. If no arguments are given, a summary of the module usage and sub-commands are
shown.

The action for the module command to take is described by the sub-command and its
associated arguments.

Package Initialization
The Modules package and the module command are initialized when a shell-specific
initialization script is sourced into the shell. The script creates the module command as
either an alias or function and creates Modules environment variables.

The module alias or function executes the modulecmd.tcl program located in
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu and has the shell evaluate the command's output. The first
argument to modulecmd.tcl specifies the type of shell.

The initialization scripts are kept in /usr/share/modules/init/<shell> where <shell> is
the name of the sourcing shell. For example, a C Shell user sources the
/usr/share/modules/init/csh script. The sh, csh, tcsh, bash, ksh, zsh and fish shells are
supported by modulecmd.tcl. In addition, python, perl, ruby, tcl, cmake, r and lisp
"shells" are supported which writes the environment changes to stdout as python, perl,
ruby, tcl, lisp, r or cmake code.

Initialization may also be performed by calling the autoinit sub-command of the
modulecmd.tcl program. Evaluation into the shell of the result of this command defines the
module alias or function.

Examples of initialization
C Shell initialization (and derivatives):

source /usr/share/modules/init/csh
module load modulefile modulefile ...

Bourne Shell (sh) (and derivatives):

. /usr/share/modules/init/sh
module load modulefile modulefile ...

Perl:

require "/usr/share/modules/init/perl.pm";
&module("load modulefile modulefile ...");

Python:

import os
exec(open('/usr/share/modules/init/python.py').read())
module('load modulefile modulefile ...')

Bourne Shell (sh) (and derivatives) with autoinit sub-command:

eval `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/modulecmd.tcl sh autoinit`

Modulecmd startup
Upon invocation modulecmd.tcl sources if it exists a site-specific configuration script
located in /etc/environment-modules/siteconfig.tcl. This Tcl script enables to supersede
any global variable or procedure definition of modulecmd.tcl.

Afterward, modulecmd.tcl sources rc files which contain global, user and modulefile
specific setups. These files are interpreted as modulefiles. See modulefile(4) for
detailed information.

Upon invocation of modulecmd.tcl module run-command files are sourced in the following
order:

1. Global RC file as specified by $MODULERCFILE or /usr/share/modules/etc/rc. If
$MODULERCFILE points to a directory, the modulerc file in this directory is used as
global RC file.

2. User specific module RC file $HOME/.modulerc

3. All .modulerc and .version files found during modulefile seeking.

Command line switches
The module command accepts command line switches as its first parameter. These may be
used to control output format of all information displayed and the module behavior in case
of locating and interpreting modulefiles.

All switches may be entered either in short or long notation. The following switches are
accepted:

--help, -h
Give some helpful usage information, and terminates the command.

--version, -V
Lists the current version of the module command. The command then terminates without
further processing.

--debug, -D
Debug mode. Causes module to print debugging messages about its progress.

--paginate
Pipe all message output into less (or if set, $MODULES_PAGER) if error output stream is
a terminal. See also MODULES_PAGER section.

--no-pager
Do not pipe message output into a pager.

--terse, -t
Display avail, list and savelist output in short format.

--long, -l
Display avail, list and savelist output in long format.

--default, -d
On avail sub-command, display only the default version of each module name. Default
version is either the explicitly set default version or the highest numerically sorted
modulefile if no default version set (see Locating Modulefiles section in the
modulefile(4) man page).

--latest, -L
On avail sub-command, display only the highest numerically sorted version of each
module name (see Locating Modulefiles section in the modulefile(4) man page).

Module Sub-Commands
help [modulefile...]
Print the usage of each sub-command. If an argument is given, print the Module-specific
help information for the modulefile.

add modulefile...
See load.

load modulefile...
Load modulefile into the shell environment.

rm modulefile...
See unload.

unload modulefile...
Remove modulefile from the shell environment.

swap [modulefile1] modulefile2
See switch.

switch [modulefile1] modulefile2
Switch loaded modulefile1 with modulefile2. If modulefile1 is not specified, then it is
assumed to be the currently loaded module with the same root name as modulefile2.

show modulefile...
See display.

display modulefile...
Display information about one or more modulefiles. The display sub-command will list
the full path of the modulefile and the environment changes the modulefile will make if
loaded. (Note: It will not display any environment changes found within conditional
statements.)

list [-t|-l]
List loaded modules.

avail [-d|-L] [-t|-l] [path...]
List all available modulefiles in the current MODULEPATH. All directories in the
MODULEPATH are recursively searched for files containing the modulefile magic cookie.
If an argument is given, then each directory in the MODULEPATH is searched for
modulefiles whose pathname, symbolic version-name or alias match the argument. Argument
may contain wildcard characters. Multiple versions of an application can be supported
by creating a subdirectory for the application containing modulefiles for each version.

Symbolic version-names and aliases found in the search are displayed in the result of
this sub-command. Symbolic version-names are displayed next to the modulefile they are
assigned to within parenthesis. Aliases are listed in the MODULEPATH section where they
have been defined. To distinguish aliases from modulefiles a @ symbol is added within
parenthesis next to their name. Aliases defined through a global or user specific
module RC file are listed under the global/user modulerc section.

aliases
List all available symbolic version-names and aliases in the current MODULEPATH. All
directories in the MODULEPATH are recursively searched in the same manner than for the
avail sub-command. Only the symbolic version-names and aliases found in the search are
displayed.

use [-a|--append] directory...
Prepend one or more directories to the MODULEPATH environment variable. The --append
flag will append the directory to MODULEPATH.

Reference counter environment variable MODULEPATH_modshare is also set to increase the
number of times directory has been added to MODULEPATH.

unuse directory...
Remove one or more directories from the MODULEPATH environment variable if reference
counter of these directories is equal to 1 or unknown.

Reference counter of directory in MODULEPATH denotes the number of times directory has
been enabled. When attempting to remove directory from MODULEPATH, reference counter
variable MODULEPATH_modshare is checked and directory is removed only if its relative
counter is equal to 1 or not defined. Elsewhere directory is kept and reference counter
is decreased by 1.

refresh
See reload.

reload
Unload then load all loaded modulefiles.

purge
Unload all loaded modulefiles.

source modulefile...
Execute modulefile into the shell environment. modulefile must be specified with a
fully qualified path. Once executed modulefile is not marked loaded in shell
environment which differ from load sub-command.

whatis [modulefile...]
Display the information set up by the module-whatis commands inside the specified
modulefiles. These specified modulefiles may be expressed using wildcard characters. If
no modulefile is specified, all module-whatis lines will be shown.

apropos string
See search.

keyword string
See search.

search string
Seeks through the module-whatis informations of all modulefiles for the specified
string. All module-whatis informations matching the string will be displayed. string
may contain wildcard characters.

test modulefile...
Execute and display results of the Module-specific tests for the modulefile.

save [collection]
Record the currently set MODULEPATH directory list and the currently loaded modulefiles
in a collection file under the user's collection directory $HOME/.module. If collection
name is not specified, then it is assumed to be the default collection. If collection
is a fully qualified path, it is saved at this location rather than under the user's
collection directory.

If MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET is set, a suffix equivalent to the value of this variable
will be appended to the collection file name.

By default, if loaded modulefile corresponds to the default module version, the bare
module name is recorded. If MODULES_COLLECTION_PIN_VERSION is set to 1, module version
is always recorded even if it is the default version.

restore [collection]
Restore the environment state as defined in collection. If collection name is not
specified, then it is assumed to be the default collection. If collection is a fully
qualified path, it is restored from this location rather than from a file under the
user's collection directory. If MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET is set, a suffix equivalent
to the value of this variable is appended to the collection file name to restore.

When restoring a collection, the currently set MODULEPATH directory list and the
currently loaded modulefiles are unused and unloaded then used and loaded to exactly
match the MODULEPATH and loaded modulefiles lists saved in this collection file. The
order of the paths and modulefiles set in collection is preserved when restoring. It
means that currently loaded modules are unloaded to get the same LOADEDMODULES root
than collection and currently used module paths are unused to get the same MODULEPATH
root. Then missing module paths are used and missing modulefiles are loaded.

saverm [collection]
Delete the collection file under the user's collection directory. If collection name is
not specified, then it is assumed to be the default collection. If
MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET is set, a suffix equivalent to the value of this variable
will be appended to the collection file name.

saveshow [collection]
Display the content of collection. If collection name is not specified, then it is
assumed to be the default collection. If collection is a fully qualified path, this
location is displayed rather than a collection file under the user's collection
directory. If MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET is set, a suffix equivalent to the value of
this variable will be appended to the collection file name.

savelist [-t|-l]
List collections that are currently saved under the user's collection directory. If
MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET is set, only collections matching the target suffix will be
displayed.

initadd modulefile...
Add modulefile to the shell's initialization file in the user's home directory. The
startup files checked (in order) are:

C Shell
.modules, .cshrc, .csh_variables and .login

TENEX C Shell
.modules, .tcshrc, .cshrc, .csh_variables and .login

Bourne and Korn Shells
.modules, .profile

GNU Bourne Again Shell
.modules, .bash_profile, .bash_login, .profile and .bashrc

Z Shell
.modules, .zshrc, .zshenv and .zlogin

Friendly Interactive Shell
.modules, .config/fish/config.fish

If a module load line is found in any of these files, the modulefiles are appended to
any existing list of modulefiles. The module load line must be located in at least one
of the files listed above for any of the init sub-commands to work properly. If the
module load line is found in multiple shell initialization files, all of the lines are
changed.

initprepend modulefile...
Does the same as initadd but prepends the given modules to the beginning of the list.

initrm modulefile...
Remove modulefile from the shell's initialization files.

initswitch modulefile1 modulefile2
Switch modulefile1 with modulefile2 in the shell's initialization files.

initlist
List all of the modulefiles loaded from the shell's initialization file.

initclear
Clear all of the modulefiles from the shell's initialization files.

path modulefile
Print path to modulefile.

paths modulefile
Print path of available modulefiles matching argument.

append-path [-d C|--delim C|--delim=C] [--duplicates] variable value...
Append value to environment variable. The variable is a colon, or delimiter, separated
list. See append-path in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

prepend-path [-d C|--delim C|--delim=C] [--duplicates] variable value...
Prepend value to environment variable. The variable is a colon, or delimiter, separated
list. See prepend-path in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

remove-path [-d C|--delim C|--delim=C] [--index] variable value...
Remove value from the colon, or delimiter, separated list in environment variable. See
remove-path in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

is-loaded [modulefile...]
Returns a true value if any of the listed modulefiles has been loaded or if any
modulefile is loaded in case no argument is provided. Returns a false value elsewhere.
See is-loaded in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

is-saved [collection...]
Returns a true value if any of the listed collections exists or if any collection
exists in case no argument is provided. Returns a false value elsewhere. See is-saved
in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

is-used [directory...]
Returns a true value if any of the listed directories has been enabled in MODULEPATH or
if any directory is enabled in case no argument is provided. Returns a false value
elsewhere. See is-used in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

is-avail modulefile...
Returns a true value if any of the listed modulefiles exists in enabled MODULEPATH.
Returns a false value elsewhere. See is-avail in the modulefile(4) man page for further
explanation.

info-loaded modulefile
Returns the names of currently loaded modules matching passed modulefile. Returns an
empty string if passed modulefile does not match any loaded modules. See module-info
loaded in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

Modulefiles
modulefiles are written in the Tool Command Language (Tcl) and are interpreted by
modulecmd.tcl. modulefiles can use conditional statements. Thus the effect a modulefile
will have on the environment may change depending upon the current state of the
environment.

Environment variables are unset when unloading a modulefile. Thus, it is possible to load
a modulefile and then unload it without having the environment variables return to their
prior state.

Collections
Collections describe a sequence of module use then module load commands that are
interpreted by modulecmd.tcl to set the user environment as described by this sequence.
When a collection is activated, with the restore sub-command, module paths and loaded
modules are unused or unloaded if they are not part or if they are not ordered the same
way as in the collection.

Collections are generated by the save sub-command that dumps the current user environment
state in terms of module paths and loaded modules. By default collections are saved under
the $HOME/.module directory.

Collections may be valid for a given target if they are suffixed. In this case these
collections can only be restored if their suffix correspond to the current value of the
MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET environment variable (see the dedicated section of this topic
below).

EXIT STATUS

       The module command exits with 0 if its execution succeed. Elsewhere 1 is returned.

ENVIRONMENT

LOADEDMODULES
A colon separated list of all loaded modulefiles.

MODULEPATH
The path that the module command searches when looking for modulefiles. Typically, it
is set to the master modulefiles directory, /usr/share/modules/modulefiles, by the
initialization script. MODULEPATH can be set using module use or by the module
initialization script to search group or personal modulefile directories before or
after the master modulefile directory.

Path elements registered in the MODULEPATH environment variable may contain reference
to environment variables which are converted to their corresponding value by module
command each time it looks at the MODULEPATH value. If an environment variable referred
in a path element is not defined, its reference is converted to an empty string.

MODULESHOME
The location of the master Modules package file directory containing module command
initialization scripts, the executable program modulecmd.tcl, and a directory
containing a collection of master modulefiles.

MODULES_CMD
The location of the active module command script.

MODULES_COLLECTION_PIN_VERSION
If set to 1, register exact version number of modulefiles when saving a collection.
Elsewhere modulefile version number is omitted if it corresponds to the implicit or
explicitly set default version.

MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET
The collection target that determines what collections are valid thus reachable on the
current system.

Collection directory may sometimes be shared on multiple machines which may use
different modules setup. For instance modules users may access with the same HOME
directory multiple systems using different OS versions. When it happens a collection
made on machine 1 may be erroneous on machine 2.

When a target is set, only the collections made for that target are available to the
restore, savelist, saveshow and saverm sub-commands. Saving collection registers the
target footprint by suffixing the collection filename with .$MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET.
Collection target is not involved when collection is specified as file path on the
saveshow, restore and save sub-commands.

For example, the MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET variable may be set with results from
commands like lsb_release, hostname, dnsdomainname, etc.

MODULES_PAGER
Text viewer for use to paginate message output if error output stream is attached to a
terminal. The value of this variable is composed of a pager command name or path
eventually followed by command-line options.

Paging command and options are defined for Modules in the following order of
preference: MODULES_PAGER environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl
script configuration. Which means MODULES_PAGER overrides default configuration.

If MODULES_PAGER variable is set to an empty string or to the value cat, pager will not
be launched.

MODULES_RUNENV_<VAR>
Value to set to environment variable <VAR> for modulecmd.tcl run-time execution if
<VAR> is referred in MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE.

MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE
A space separated list of environment variable names that should be passed indirectly
to modulecmd.tcl to protect its run-time environment from side-effect coming from their
current definition.

Each variable found in MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE will have its value emptied or set to the
value of the corresponding MODULES_RUNENV_<VAR> variable when defining modulecmd.tcl
run-time environment.

Original values of these environment variables set in quarantine are passed to
modulecmd.tcl via <VAR>_modquar variables.

MODULES_SILENT_SHELL_DEBUG
If set to 1, disable any xtrace or verbose debugging property set on current shell
session for the duration of either the module command or the module shell
initialization script. Only applies to Bourne Shell (sh) and its derivatives.

MODULES_USE_COMPAT_VERSION
If set to 1 prior to Modules package initialization, enable Modules compatibility
version (3.2 release branch) rather main version at initialization scripts running
time. Modules package compatibility version should be installed along with main version
for this environment variable to have any effect.

_LMFILES_
A colon separated list of the full pathname for all loaded modulefiles.

<VAR>_modquar
Value of environment variable <VAR> passed to modulecmd.tcl in order to restore <VAR>
to this value once started.

<VAR>_modshare
Reference counter variable for path-like variable <VAR>. A colon separated list
containing pairs of elements. A pair is formed by a path element followed its usage
counter which represents the number of times this path has been enabled in variable
<VAR>. A colon separates the two parts of the pair.

FILES

       /usr/share/modules
          The MODULESHOME directory.

       /usr/share/modules/etc/rc
          The  system-wide  modules  rc  file. The location of this file can be changed using the
          MODULERCFILE environment variable as described above.

       $HOME/.modulerc
          The user specific modules rc file.

       $HOME/.module
          The user specific collection directory.

       /usr/share/modules/modulefiles
          The directory for system-wide modulefiles. The location of the directory can be changed
          using the MODULEPATH environment variable as described above.

       /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/modulecmd.tcl
          The modulefile interpreter that gets executed upon each invocation of module.

       /usr/share/modules/init/<shell>
          The Modules package initialization file sourced into the user's environment.

COPYRIGHT

       1996-1999  John  L.  Furlani  &  Peter W. Osel, 1998-2017 R.K.Owen, 2002-2004 Mark Lakata,
       2004-2017 Kent Mein, 2016-2018 Xavier Delaruelle