Modules

Traditionally, the path and other variables needed for Thayer and CS applications on Linux systems was set at the system level. If users wanted to use other versions of programs or had other specialized needs, they would need to set paths and variables manually or put them in .bashrc or other startup scripts.

Beginning in Fall 2022, we are using Environment Modules to accomplish this. Modules allows users to easily switch between different versions of applications, create loadable "lists" of applications.

Using Modules

For ease of use, there is a default set of modules that are loaded for all users. To see what is loaded, use this command:

module list

To see all the available modules:

module avail

With Modules, you can load and unload application paths dynamically and automatically as needed. To load a non-default program, you just use the name of the module to get the default version (usually the latest):

module load totalview

If you need a specific version, add this to the module:

module load totalview/2017.3.8

If you need to use a different version of a program, you can "switch" to that version:

module switch matlab/R2021a

Useful module commands

module avail

This will show you all of the available modules for ThayerFS applications.
Anything that is underlined is the default version for that application.
Anything that is highlighted is currently loaded.

Once you close your session and log back in, all of your modules will reset back to the default. If you want to change your default module settings, load the modules you need, and then:

module save

This will make the current set of modules persist on each login.

You can also create specific groups of modules so that you can load and unload multiple modules at the same time to create a desired environment. You can do this by saving the current set of modules to a list:

module save-list <list name>

For example, you can purge all modules so that only the modules that you specify are loaded:

module purge
module load matlab/R2020b maya/2022 eclipse/2021-09
module save-list myCollection

To restore your saved modules list:

module restore myCollection

To remove a saved list:

module saverm <list name>

To find more information about modules, invoke the following:

module –-help

If you have any questions or problems with modules, please contact computing@thayer.dartmouth.edu