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The software pool is ready to be used under a version control system called environment modules. It is made for a user friendly activation and deactivation of software and allows to have several versions of the same software package installed in parallel at non-default places. "loading a module" is synonymous for "making software accessable". The most important commands to know are:
module avail module help <package>/<version> module load <package>/<version>
module unload <package>/<version>
Loading a module manipulates the shell environment to make software visible for shell commands. Note, these changes of environmental variables are fully reversible and are taken back, if a module is unloaded. Loading a module prepends the path to the binaries of a software package to environment variable PATH. This makes executables of software packages visible. For example, if you want to work with gcc, version 9,, load the appropriate module and the binary becomes visible for your shell.
module load gcc/9.3.0 gcc --version
Note, the system compiler gcc is invisible to your shell as long as the module gcc is loaded, but becomes available again, if the module gcc is unloaded.
To learn more, please read the Modules home page . There are also man-pages for module and modulefile.
Module commands
Module commands can be issued
- on the command line. This modifies the current shell environment, i.e., make selected binaries visible and defines environment variables to support compiling and linking.
- in batch scripts. This can be used to prepare the environment
Loading a module manipulates the shell environment to make software visible for shell commands. Note, these changes of environmental variables are fully reversible and are taken back, if a module is unloaded.
The modified environmental variables can be used by compilers, linkers, make, cmake or private software installation tools, to recognise details of installed libraries and link them accordingly. Typical examples are PATH, LD_RUNPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH or PKG_CONFIG_PATH.
To see, how a package is installed and which environmental variables are delivered, use
module show <package>/<version>
To learn more, please read the Modules home page .