Access to installed software using Environment Modules

Applications, software, compilers, tools, communications libraries and math libraries of the cluster system are being keep up-to-date. HPC2021 uses the Environment Modules to dynamically set up environments for different applications. Module commands set, change, or delete environment variables that are needed for a particular application. The ‘module load‘ command will set PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and other environment variables such that user may choose a desired version of applications or libraries more easily. More details can be found here.

Module manipulation commands

Command Description
module avail  or  ml avail Show the available modules ready for loading
module keyword [word1] [word2] Search for available modules matching the keyword(s)
module spider word Show the details of any modules matching the keyword(s)
module whatis [mod]  or  module help [mod] Show description of a module
module load [mod]  or  ml [mod] Load the environment for the default version of the modulefile
module load [modA] [modB] [modC] Load the environment for the default version of modules named modA, modB and modC in corresponding order
module load [mod]/[version] Load the environment for the specified version of module
module unload [mod]  or  module unload [modA] [modB] Roll back configuration performed by the modulefile(s)
module swap [modA] [modB] Unload modulefile A and load modulefile B
module list  or  ml List any currently loaded module(s)
module purge Unload all modules currently loaded

Module interoperability and dependency

When one module is in conflict with another (e.g different MPI libraries), the conflicting module may have to be unloaded before a desired one is loaded. Besides, some modules may depend on one another and hence they may be loaded/unloaded as a consequence of a subsequent module command in a dynamic fashion.

To achieve automatic loading of a set of commonly used modules upon system login, user may add the module command in the shell profile (.bashrc for bash users, .cshrc for C shell users).

When caching error occurs while listing/loading modules, a user may delete the cache file and run the module command again.

/usr/bin/lua: /home/[user]/.lmod.d/.cache/moduleT.x86_64_Linux.lua:function expression ...
$ rm -f /home/[user]/.lmod.d/.cache/*.lua