DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / environment-modules / module.1.en
MODULE(1) Modules MODULE(1)

module - command interface to the Modules package

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

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.

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.

A ml alias or function may also be defined at initialization time if enabled (see MODULES_ML section). ml is a handy frontend leveraging all module command capabilities with less character typed. See ml(1) for detailed information.

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`"


Upon invocation modulecmd.tcl sources a site-specific configuration script if it exists. The location for this script is /etc/environment-modules/siteconfig.tcl. An additional siteconfig script may be specified with the MODULES_SITECONFIG environment variable, if allowed by modulecmd.tcl configuration, and will be loaded if it exists after /etc/environment-modules/siteconfig.tcl. Siteconfig is a Tcl script that 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 variable or /etc/environment-modules/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.

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:

Include hidden modules in search performed with avail, aliases, search or whatis sub-commands. Hard-hidden modules are not affected by this option.

On load, unload and switch sub-commands, enable automated module handling mode. See also MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING section.

Colorize the output. WHEN defaults to always or can be never or auto. See also MODULES_COLOR section.

On avail sub-command, return modules whose fully qualified name contains search query string.

Debug mode. Causes module to print debugging messages about its progress. Multiple -D options increase the debug verbosity. The maximum is 2.

On avail sub-command, display only the default version of each module name. Default version is the explicitly set default version or also the implicit default version if the configuration option implicit_default is enabled (see Locating Modulefiles section in the modulefile(4) man page for further details on implicit default version).

On load, unload and switch sub-commands, by-pass any unsatisfied modulefile constraint corresponding to the declared prereq and conflict. Which means for instance that a modulefile will be loaded even if it comes in conflict with another loaded modulefile or that a modulefile will be unloaded even if it is required as a prereq by another modulefile.

On clear sub-command, skip the confirmation dialog and proceed.


Give some helpful usage information, and terminates the command.

Match module specification arguments in a case insensitive manner.

On avail sub-command, include in search results the matching modulefiles and directories and recursively the modulefiles and directories contained in these matching directories.

Display avail, list, savelist, whatis and search output in JSON format.

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).

Display avail, list and savelist output in long format.

On load, unload and switch sub-commands, disable automated module handling mode. See also MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING section.

On avail sub-command, limit search results to the matching modulefiles and directories found at the depth level expressed by the search query. Thus modulefiles contained in directories part of the result are excluded.

Do not pipe message output into a pager.

Pipe all message output into less (or if set, to the command referred in MODULES_PAGER variable) if error output stream is a terminal. See also MODULES_PAGER section.

Turn off error, warning and informational messages. module command output result is not affected by silent mode.

On avail sub-command, return modules whose name starts with search query string.

Display avail, list and savelist output in short format.

Trace mode. Report details on module searches, resolutions, selections and evaluations in addition to printing verbose messages.

Enable verbose messages during module command execution.

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

See load.

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.

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.

See search.

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.

When colored output is enabled and a specific graphical rendition is defined for module default version, the default symbol is omitted and instead the defined graphical rendition is applied to the relative modulefile. When colored output is enabled and a specific graphical rendition is defined for module alias, the @ symbol is omitted. The defined graphical rendition applies to the module alias name. See MODULES_COLOR and MODULES_COLORS sections for details on colored output.

The parameter path may also refer to a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


Force the Modules package to believe that no modules are currently loaded. A confirmation is requested if command-line switch -f (or --force) is not passed. Typed confirmation should equal to yes or y in order to proceed.

Gets or sets modulecmd.tcl options. Reports the currently set value of passed option name or all existing options if no name passed. If a name and a value are provided, the value of option name is set to value. If command-line switch --reset is passed in addition to a name, overridden value for option name is cleared.

When a reported option value differs from default value a mention is added to indicate whether the overridden value is coming from a command-line switch (cmd-line) or from an environment variable (env-var). When a reported option value is locked and cannot be altered a (locked) mention is added.

If no value is currently set for an option name, the mention <undef> is reported.

When command-line switch --dump-state is passed, current modulecmd.tcl state and Modules-related environment variables are reported in addition to currently set modulecmd.tcl options.

Existing option names are:

  • advanced_version_spec: advanced module version specification to finely select modulefiles (defines environment variable MODULES_ADVANCED_VERSION_SPEC when set
  • auto_handling: automated module handling mode (defines MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING)
  • avail_indepth: avail sub-command in depth search mode (defines MODULES_AVAIL_INDEPTH)
  • avail_report_dir_sym: display symbolic versions targeting directories on avail sub-command
  • avail_report_mfile_sym: display symbolic versions targeting modulefiles on avail sub-command
  • collection_pin_version: register exact modulefile version in collection (defines MODULES_COLLECTION_PIN_VERSION)
  • collection_target: collection target which is valid for current system (defines MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET)
  • color: colored output mode (defines MODULES_COLOR)
  • colors: chosen colors to highlight output items (defines MODULES_COLORS)
  • contact: modulefile contact address (defines MODULECONTACT)
  • extended_default: allow partial module version specification (defines MODULES_EXTENDED_DEFAULT)
  • extra_siteconfig: additional site-specific configuration script location (defines MODULES_SITECONFIG)
  • home: location of Modules package main directory (defines MODULESHOME)
  • icase: enable case insensitive match (defines MODULES_ICASE)
  • ignored_dirs: directories ignored when looking for modulefiles
  • implicit_default: set an implicit default version for modules (defines MODULES_IMPLICIT_DEFAULT)
  • locked_configs: configuration options that cannot be superseded
  • ml: define ml command at initialization time (defines MODULES_ML)
  • nearly_forbidden_days: set the number of days a module should be considered nearly forbidden prior reaching its expiry date (defines MODULES_NEARLY_FORBIDDEN_DAYS)
  • pager: text viewer to paginate message output (defines MODULES_PAGER)
  • rcfile: global run-command file location (defines MODULERCFILE)
  • run_quarantine: environment variables to indirectly pass to modulecmd.tcl (defines MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE)
  • silent_shell_debug: disablement of shell debugging property for the module command (defines MODULES_SILENT_SHELL_DEBUG)
  • search_match: module search match style (defines MODULES_SEARCH_MATCH)
  • set_shell_startup: ensure module command definition by setting shell startup file (defines MODULES_SET_SHELL_STARTUP)
  • siteconfig: primary site-specific configuration script location
  • tcl_ext_lib: Modules Tcl extension library location
  • term_background: terminal background color kind (defines MODULES_TERM_BACKGROUND)
  • unload_match_order: unload firstly loaded or lastly loaded module matching request (defines MODULES_UNLOAD_MATCH_ORDER)
  • verbosity: module command verbosity level (defines MODULES_VERBOSITY)
  • wa_277: workaround for Tcsh history issue (defines MODULES_WA_277)

The options avail_report_dir_sym, avail_report_mfile_sym, ignored_dirs, locked_configs, siteconfig and tcl_ext_lib cannot be altered. Moreover all options referred in locked_configs value are locked, thus they cannot be altered.


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.)

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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.

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.


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

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

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

Remove modulefile from the shell's initialization files.

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

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

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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 otherwise. See is-loaded in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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 otherwise. See is-saved in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

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 otherwise. See is-used in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

See search.

List loaded modules.

Load modulefile into the shell environment.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


Print path to modulefile.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


Print path of available modulefiles matching argument.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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.

Unload all loaded modulefiles.

See reload.

Unload then load all loaded modulefiles.

No unload then load is performed and an error is returned if the loaded modulefiles have unsatisfied constraint corresponding to the prereq and conflict they declare.


Remove value from the colon, or delimiter, separated list in environment variable. See remove-path in the modulefile(4) man page for further explanation.

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.

If a module, without a default version explicitly defined, is recorded in a collection by its bare name: loading this module when restoring the collection will fail if the configuration option implicit_default is disabled.


See unload.

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 a loaded modulefile corresponds to the explicitly defined default module version, the bare module name is recorded. If the configuration option implicit_default is enabled, the bare module name is also recorded for the implicit default module version. If MODULES_COLLECTION_PIN_VERSION is set to 1, module version is always recorded even if it is the default version.

No collection is recorded and an error is returned if the loaded modulefiles have unsatisfied constraint corresponding to the prereq and conflict they declare.


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.

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.

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.

Seeks through the module-whatis informations of all modulefiles for the specified string. All module-whatis informations matching the string in a case insensitive manner will be displayed. string may contain wildcard characters.

Evaluate with shell the designated script with defined arguments to find out the environment changes it does. Environment prior and after script evaluation are compared to determine these changes. They are translated into modulefile commands to output the modulefile content equivalent to the evaluation of shell script.

Changes on environment variables, shell aliases, shell functions and current working directory are tracked.

Shell could be specified as a command name or a fully qualified pathname. The following shells are supported: sh, dash, csh, tcsh, bash, ksh, ksh93, zsh and fish.


See display.

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

See switch.

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.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


Remove modulefile from the shell environment.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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. Otherwise directory is kept and reference counter is decreased by 1.


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.


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.

The parameter modulefile may also be a symbolic modulefile name or a modulefile alias. It may also leverage a specific syntax to finely select module version (see Advanced module version specifiers section below).


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.

When the advanced module version specifiers mechanism is enabled (see MODULES_ADVANCED_VERSION_SPEC), the specification of modulefile passed on Modules sub-commands changes. After the module name a version constraint prefixed by the @ character may be added. It could be directly appended to the module name or separated from it with a space character.

Constraints can be expressed to refine the selection of module version to:

  • a single version with the @version syntax, for instance foo@1.2.3 syntax will select module foo/1.2.3
  • a list of versions with the @version1,version2,... syntax, for instance foo@1.2.3,1.10 will match modules foo/1.2.3 and foo/1.10
  • a range of versions with the @version1:, @:version2 and @version1:version2 syntaxes, for instance foo@1.2: will select all versions of module foo greater than or equal to 1.2, foo@:1.3 will select all versions less than or equal to 1.3 and foo@1.2:1.3 matches all versions between 1.2 and 1.3 including 1.2 and 1.3 versions

Advanced specification of single version or list of versions may benefit from the activation of the extended default mechanism (see MODULES_EXTENDED_DEFAULT) to use an abbreviated notation like @1 to refer to more precise version numbers like 1.2.3. Range of versions on its side natively handles abbreviated versions.

In order to be specified in a range of versions or compared to a range of versions, the version major element should corresponds to a number. For instance 10a, 1.2.3, 1.foo are versions valid for range comparison whereas default or foo.2 versions are invalid for range comparison.

If the implicit default mechanism is also enabled (see MODULES_IMPLICIT_DEFAULT), a default and latest symbolic versions are automatically defined for each module name (also at each directory level for deep modulefiles). These automatic version symbols are defined unless a symbolic version, alias, or regular module version already exists for these default or latest version names. Using the mod@latest (or mod/latest) syntax ensures highest available version will be selected.

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).

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

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

A colon separated list of all loaded modulefiles.

Email address to contact in case any issue occurs during the interpretation of modulefiles.

The path that the module command searches when looking for modulefiles. Typically, it is set to the main 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 main 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.


The location of a global run-command file containing modulefile specific setup. See Modulecmd startup section for detailed information.

If set to 1, enable advanced module version specifiers (see Advanced module version specifiers section). If set to 0, disable advanced module version specifiers.

Advanced module version specifiers enablement is defined in the following order of preference: MODULES_ADVANCED_VERSION_SPEC environment variable then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_ADVANCED_VERSION_SPEC overrides default configuration.


If set to 1, enable automated module handling mode. If set to 0 disable automated module handling mode. Other values are ignored.

Automated module handling mode consists in additional actions triggered when loading or unloading a modulefile to satisfy the constraints it declares. When loading a modulefile, following actions are triggered:

  • Requirement Load: load of the modulefiles declared as a prereq of the loading modulefile.
  • Dependent Reload: reload of the modulefiles declaring a prereq onto loaded modulefile or declaring a prereq onto a modulefile part of this reloading batch.

When unloading a modulefile, following actions are triggered:

  • Dependent Unload: unload of the modulefiles declaring a non-optional prereq onto unloaded modulefile or declaring a non-optional prereq onto a modulefile part of this unloading batch. A prereq modulefile is considered optional if the prereq definition order is made of multiple modulefiles and at least one alternative modulefile is loaded.
  • Useless Requirement Unload: unload of the prereq modulefiles that have been automatically loaded for either the unloaded modulefile, an unloaded dependent modulefile or a modulefile part of this useless requirement unloading batch. Modulefiles are added to this unloading batch only if they are not required by any other loaded modulefiles.
  • Dependent Reload: reload of the modulefiles declaring a conflict or an optional prereq onto either the unloaded modulefile, an unloaded dependent or an unloaded useless requirement or declaring a prereq onto a modulefile part of this reloading batch.

In case a loaded modulefile has some of its declared constraints unsatisfied (pre-required modulefile not loaded or conflicting modulefile loaded for instance), this loaded modulefile is excluded from the automatic reload actions described above.

For the specific case of the switch sub-command, where a modulefile is unloaded to then load another modulefile. Dependent modulefiles to Unload are merged into the Dependent modulefiles to Reload that are reloaded after the load of the switched-to modulefile.

Automated module handling mode enablement is defined in the following order of preference: --auto/--no-auto command line switches, then MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING overrides default configuration and --auto/--no-auto command line switches override every other ways to enable or disable this mode.


If set to 1, enable in depth search results for avail sub-command. If set to 0 disable avail sub-command in depth mode. Other values are ignored.

When in depth mode is enabled, modulefiles and directories contained in directories matching search query are also included in search results. When disabled these modulefiles and directories contained in matching directories are excluded.

avail sub-command in depth mode enablement is defined in the following order of preference: --indepth/--no-indepth command line switches, then MODULES_AVAIL_INDEPTH environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_AVAIL_INDEPTH overrides default configuration and --indepth/--no-indepth command line switches override every other ways to enable or disable this mode.


The location of the active module command script.

If set to 1, register exact version number of modulefiles when saving a collection. Otherwise modulefile version number is omitted if it corresponds to the explicitly set default version and also to the implicit default when the configuration option implicit_default is enabled.

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 a collection registers the target footprint by suffixing the collection filename with .$MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET. The 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.


Defines if output should be colored or not. Accepted values are never, auto and always.

When color mode is set to auto, output is colored only if the standard error output channel is attached to a terminal.

Colored output enablement is defined in the following order of preference: --color command line switch, then MODULES_COLOR environment variable, then NO_COLOR, CLICOLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variables, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_COLOR overrides default configuration and the NO_COLOR and CLICOLOR/CLICOLOR_FORCE variables. --color command line switch overrides every other ways to enable or disable this mode.

NO_COLOR, CLICOLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variables are also honored to define color mode. The never mode is set if NO_COLOR is defined (regardless of its value) or if CLICOLOR equals to 0. If CLICOLOR is set to another value, it corresponds to the auto mode. The always mode is set if CLICOLOR_FORCE is set to a value different than 0. NO_COLOR variable prevails over CLICOLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE. Color mode set with these three variables is superseded by mode set with MODULES_COLOR environment variable.


Specifies the colors and other attributes used to highlight various parts of the output. Its value is a colon-separated list of output items associated to a Select Graphic Rendition (SGR) code. It follows the same syntax than LS_COLORS.

Output items are designated by keys. Items able to be colorized are: highlighted element (hi), debug information (db), trace information (tr), tag separator (se); Error (er), warning (wa), module error (me) and info (in) message prefixes; Modulepath (mp), directory (di), module alias (al), module symbolic version (sy), module default version (de) and modulefile command (cm).

See the Select Graphic Rendition (SGR) section in the documentation of the text terminal that is used for permitted values and their meaning as character attributes. These substring values are integers in decimal representation and can be concatenated with semicolons. Modules takes care of assembling the result into a complete SGR sequence (\33[...m). Common values to concatenate include 1 for bold, 4 for underline, 30 to 37 for foreground colors and 90 to 97 for 16-color mode foreground colors. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#SGR_(Select_Graphic_Rendition)_parameters for a complete SGR code reference.

No graphical rendition will be applied to an output item that could normaly be colored but which is not defined in the color set. Thus if MODULES_COLORS is defined empty, no output will be colored at all.

The color set is defined for Modules in the following order of preference: MODULES_COLORS environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_COLORS overrides default configuration.


If set to 1, a specified module version is matched against starting portion of existing module versions, where portion is a substring separated from the rest of the version string by a . character. For example specified modules mod/1 and mod/1.2 will match existing modulefile mod/1.2.3.

In case multiple modulefiles match the specified module version and a single module has to be selected, the explicitly set default version is returned if it is part of matching modulefiles. Otherwise the implicit default among matching modulefiles is returned if defined (see MODULES_IMPLICIT_DEFAULT section)

This environment variable supersedes the value of the configuration option extended_default set in modulecmd.tcl script.


When module specification are passed as argument to module sub-commands or modulefile Tcl commands, defines the case sensitiveness to apply to match them. When MODULES_ICASE is set to never, a case sensitive match is applied in any cases. When set to search, a case insensitive match is applied to the avail, whatis and paths sub-commands. When set to always, a case insensitive match is also applied to the other module sub-commands and modulefile Tcl commands for the module specification they receive as argument.

Case sensitiveness behavior is defined in the following order of preference: --icase command line switch, which corresponds to the always mode, then MODULES_ICASE environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_ICASE overrides default configuration and --icase command line switch overrides every other ways to set case sensitiveness behavior.


Defines (if set to 1) or not (if set to 0) an implicit default version for modules without a default version explicitly defined (see Locating Modulefiles section in the modulefile(4) man page).

Without either an explicit or implicit default version defined a module must be fully qualified (version should be specified in addition to its name) to get:

  • targeted by module load, switch, display, help, test and path sub-commands.
  • restored from a collection, unless already loaded in collection-specified order.
  • automatically loaded by automated module handling mechanisms (see MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING section) when declared as module requirement, with prereq or module load modulefile commands.

An error is returned in the above situations if either no explicit or implicit default version is defined.

This environment variable supersedes the value of the configuration option implicit_default set in modulecmd.tcl script. This environment variable is ignored if implicit_default has been declared locked in locked_configs configuration option.


A colon separated list of the alternative names set through module-version and module-alias statements corresponding to all loaded modulefiles. Each element in this list starts by the name of the loaded modulefile followed by all alternative names resolving to it. The loaded modulefile and its alternative names are separated by the ampersand character.

This environment variable is intended for module command internal use to get knowledge of the alternative names matching loaded modulefiles in order to keep environment consistent when conflicts or pre-requirements are set over these alternative designations. It also helps to find a match after modulefiles being loaded when unload, is-loaded or info-loaded actions are run over these names.


A colon separated list of the conflict statements defined by all loaded modulefiles. Each element in this list starts by the name of the loaded modulefile declaring the conflict followed by the name of all modulefiles it declares a conflict with. These loaded modulefiles and conflicting modulefile names are separated by the ampersand character.

This environment variable is intended for module command internal use to get knowledge of the conflicts declared by the loaded modulefiles in order to keep environment consistent when a conflicting module is asked for load afterward.


A colon separated list of all loaded modulefiles that were not explicitly asked for load from the command-line.

This environment variable is intended for module command internal use to distinguish the modulefiles that have been loaded automatically from modulefiles that have been asked by users.


A colon separated list of the prereq statements defined by all loaded modulefiles. Each element in this list starts by the name of the loaded modulefile declaring the pre-requirement followed by the name of all modulefiles it declares a prereq with. These loaded modulefiles and pre-required modulefile names are separated by the ampersand character. When a prereq statement is composed of multiple modulefiles, these modulefile names are separated by the pipe character.

This environment variable is intended for module command internal use to get knowledge of the pre-requirement declared by the loaded modulefiles in order to keep environment consistent when a pre-required module is asked for unload afterward.


A colon separated list of the source-sh statements defined by all loaded modulefiles. Each element in this list starts by the name of the loaded modulefile declaring the environment changes made by the evaluation of source-sh scripts. This name is followed by each source-sh statement call and corresponding result achieved in modulefile. The loaded modulefile name and each source-sh statement description are separated by the ampersand character. The source-sh statement call and each resulting modulefile command (corresponding to the environment changes done by sourced script) are separated by the pipe character.

This environment variable is intended for module command internal use to get knowledge of the modulefile commands applied for each source-sh command when loading the modulefile. In order to reverse these modulefile commands when modulefile is unloaded to undo the environment changes.


If set to 1, define ml command when initializing Modules (see Package Initialization section). If set to 0, ml command is not defined.

ml command enablement is defined in the following order of preference: MODULES_ML environment variable then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_ML overrides default configuration.


Number of days a module is considered nearly forbidden prior reaching its expiry date set by module-forbid modulefile command. When a nearly forbidden module is evaluated a warning message is issued to inform module will soon be forbidden. If set to 0, modules will never be considered nearly forbidden. Accepted values are integers.

This configuration is defined in the following order of preference: MODULES_NEARLY_FORBIDDEN_DAYS environment variable then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_NEARLY_FORBIDDEN_DAYS overrides default configuration.


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.


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.


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

When searching for modules with avail sub-command, defines the way query string should match against available module names. With starts_with value, returned modules are those whose name begins by search query string. When set to contains, any modules whose fully qualified name contains search query string are returned.

Module search match style is defined in the following order of preference: --starts-with and --contains command line switches, then MODULES_SEARCH_MATCH environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_SEARCH_MATCH overrides default configuration and --starts-with/--contains command line switches override every other ways to set search match style.


If set to 1, defines when module command initializes the shell startup file to ensure that the module command is still defined in sub-shells. Setting shell startup file means defining the ENV and BASH_ENV environment variable to the Modules bourne shell initialization script. If set to 0, shell startup file is not defined.

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.

Location of a site-specific configuration script to source into modulecmd.tcl. See also Modulecmd startup section.

This environment variable is ignored if extra_siteconfig has been declared locked in locked_configs configuration option.


Inform Modules of the terminal background color to determine if the color set for dark background or the color set for light background should be used to color output in case no specific color set is defined with the MODULES_COLORS variable. Accepted values are dark and light.

When a module unload request matches multiple loaded modules, unload firstly loaded module or lastly loaded module. Accepted values are returnfirst and returnlast.

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.

Defines the verbosity level of the module command. Available verbosity levels from the least to the most verbose are:
  • silent: turn off error, warning and informational messages but does not affect module command output result.
  • concise: enable error and warning messages but disable informational messages.
  • normal: turn on informational messages, like a report of the additional module evaluations triggered by loading or unloading modules, aborted evaluation issues or a report of each module evaluation occurring during a restore or source sub-commands.
  • verbose: add additional informational messages, like a systematic report of the loading or unloading module evaluations.
  • trace: provide details on module searches, resolutions, selections and evaluations.
  • debug: print debugging messages about module command execution.
  • debug2: report modulecmd.tcl procedure calls in addition to printing debug messages.

Module command verbosity is defined in the following order of preference: --silent, --verbose, --debug and --trace command line switches, then MODULES_VERBOSITY environment variable, then the default set in modulecmd.tcl script configuration. Which means MODULES_VERBOSITY overrides default configuration and --silent/--verbose/--debug/--trace command line switches overrides every other ways to set verbosity level.


If set to 1 prior to Modules package initialization, enables workaround for Tcsh history issue (see https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues/277). This issue leads to erroneous history entries under Tcsh shell. When workaround is enabled, an alternative module alias is defined which fixes the history mechanism issue. However the alternative definition of the module alias weakens shell evaluation of the code produced by modulefiles. Characters with a special meaning for Tcsh shell (like { and }) may not be used anymore in shell alias definition otherwise the evaluation of the code produced by modulefiles will return a syntax error.

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

/usr/share/modules

The MODULESHOME directory.


/etc/environment-modules/siteconfig.tcl

The site-specific configuration script of modulecmd.tcl. An additional configuration script could be defined using the MODULES_SITECONFIG environment variable.


/etc/environment-modules/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.


ml(1), modulefile(4)

1996-1999 John L. Furlani & Peter W. Osel, 1998-2017 R.K.Owen, 2002-2004 Mark Lakata, 2004-2017 Kent Mein, 2016-2020 Xavier Delaruelle

2020-11-14 4.6.1