Environment Modules Updates

Modules 4.5.3 released

2020-08-31T18:44:00.001Z

Version 4.5.3 of Modules has just been released. It provides fixes for the few issues recently spotted.

The changes introduced in this bugfix release are:

Install: take into account the --build, --host, --target, --enable-dependency-tracking and --disable-dependency-tracking configure options to transmit them to the configure scripts of Modules Tcl extension library and Modules compatibility version. (fix issue #354)
Install: ignore some regular options of an Autoconf configure script that are useless for this project but usually implied in build macros (like RPM %configure macro).
Install: ignore unsupported --enable-* and --with-* options on configure script rather raise an error and add support to define environment variable and build system type as configure script arguments to comply with GNU configuration recommendations.
Install: fix modulecmd pre-alternatives check in RPM spec file.
Install: use %make_build and %make_install macros in RPM spec file.
When module switch command is used in modulefile, do not state when processing it a conflict over switched-off module if its specification on the module switch command also matches switched-on module’s specification. Allow this way the replacement of any loaded version of a module for a specific one required by currently loading module. (fix issue #355)
Correctly report failed attempts to load module requirements expressed with advanced version specifiers. (fix issue #356)

The list of all changes made in this new version are described in the NEWS document. Details on the new features introduced in the 4.5 series are provided in the MIGRATING document.

http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/MIGRATING.html
http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/NEWS.html

The tarball of this new version can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.3.tar.gz

The zipball to install this new version on Windows platform can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.3-win.zip

If you encounter any issue, please let us know by creating a ticket on the project bug tracker at:

https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues

Special thanks to to all the people who reported issues.

Modules 4.5.2 released

2020-07-30T12:48:00.001Z

Version 4.5.2 of Modules has just been released. It provides fixes for the few issues recently spotted.

The changes introduced in this bugfix release are:

Init: list and source sub-commands do not take available modules as argument in fish completion script.
Init: fix option list for search sub-command in bash completion script.
Fix double error counter increase when modulefile evaluation breaks.
Install: adapt configure script to pass to the configure script of Modules compatibility version only a subset of the options it supports (most commonly used options).
Install: raise an error when an unknown option is passed to configure script rather silently ignore it. (fix issue #348)
Install: enable the definition of installation directory options of configure script with the --option value syntax in addition to the --option=value syntax. (fix issue #348)
Doc: alphabetically sort sub-commands of module-info modulefile Tcl command in modulefile(4) document.
Script: clean previously built environment-modules RPMs in mrel.
Clearly separate quarantine variable definition from tclsh binary on modulecmd.tcl evaluated command call in _module_raw function for sh, bash, ksh and zsh shells. (fix issue #350)
Doc: clarify in documentation index that Environment Modules should not be confused with language-specific modules. (contribution from Rob Hurt)
Adapt conflict detection tests to ensure a module loaded by its full pathname will not detect itself as a conflict when declaring a reflexive conflict. (fix issue #352)
Adapt the mrel and mpub commands to produce new Modules release from a vZ.Y.x git branch rather than from the repository main branch.

The list of all changes made in this new version are described in the NEWS document. Details on the new features introduced in the 4.5 series are provided in the MIGRATING document.

http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/MIGRATING.html
http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/NEWS.html

The tarball of this new version can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.2.tar.gz

The zipball to install this new version on Windows platform can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.2-win.zip

If you encounter any issue, please let us know by creating a ticket on the project bug tracker at:

https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues

Special thanks to Rob Hurt for his code contribution on this release and to all the people who reported issues.

Modules 4.5.1 released

2020-06-01T16:33:00.001Z

Version 4.5.1 of Modules has just been released. It provides fixes for the few issues recently spotted.

The changes introduced in this bugfix release are:

Install: consistently output Makefile warning messages on stderr.
Script: add the mrel script, that automates build of the Modules release files and performs tests over these distribution files to guaranty their correctness.
Script: add the mpub script, that automates Modules new release publishing over git repositories and websites.
Install: remove project-specific tools from git repository export thus from release distribution files.
Disable pager when clear sub-command is called from ml shortcut command. (fix issue #338)
In case a modulefile evaluation fails, environment context prior this failed evaluation is restored. Fix environment variable restoration mechanism to keep the link that monitors and updates environment variable array env in every Tcl sub-interpreters. (fix issue #340)
Ensure environment variable change at the Tcl interpreter level is propagated to every sub-interpreters used to evaluate modulefiles or modulercs. (fix issue #342)
Use absolute path to load Modules Tcl extension library. (fix issue #344 with contribution from Roy Storey)
Fix formatting of error stack trace not to look for internal commands to withdraw if start-up stack pattern cannot be matched.

The list of all changes made in this new version are described in the NEWS document. Details on the new features introduced in the 4.5 series are provided in the MIGRATING document.

http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/MIGRATING.html
http://modules.readthedocs.io/en/stable/NEWS.html

The tarball of this new version can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.1.tar.gz

The zipball to install this new version on Windows platform can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.1-win.zip

If you encounter any issue, please let us know by creating a ticket on the project bug tracker at:

https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues

Special thanks to Roy Storey for his code contribution on this release. Many thanks also to all of you who improve Modules by reporting bugs or sharing new ideas.

Modules@latest (aka 4.5.0) released

2020-04-08T05:02:00.001Z

This is it. After 3 months of development, version 4.5.0 of Modules is available. It is as always backward-compatible with previous version 4 releases and primarily adds features and fixes bugs. Major new features introduced in v4.5.0 since v4.4 are:

Details on these features included in this new release are provided in the MIGRATING document. The list of all changes made in this new version are described in the NEWS document.

The tarball of this new version can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.0.tar.gz

NEW The zipball to install this new version on Windows platform can be downloaded at:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/modules/modules-4.5.0-win.zip

If you encounter any issue, please let us know by creating a ticket on the project bug tracker at:

https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues

Special thanks to Colin Marquardt, Jacques Raphanel, Andrey Portnoy, Armin Wehrfritz, Tom Payerle, Adrien Cotte, Dominique Martinet and Martin Schuster for their code contribution on this release. Many thanks also to all of you who improve Modules by reporting bugs or sharing new ideas.

Automatic default and latest symbolic versions

2020-04-07T07:39:00.001Z

When the implicit default mechanism and the advanced module version specifiers are both enabled, a default and a latest symbolic versions are automatically defined for each module name.

This new feature gives the ability to select the highest version available for a module, without knowing beforehand this version name:

$ module load -v foo@latest
Loading foo/1.10

The symbolic versions are automatically defined unless a symbolic version, an alias or a regular module version already exists for these default or latest version names.

Error stack trace

2020-03-31T13:20:00.001Z

Error messages will now embed a stack trace for unknown errors to help localize the root cause of issues. This change applies to modulefile evaluation:

Loading foo/1.2
Module ERROR: add-path cannot handle path equals to separator string
while executing
"append-path PATH :"
(file "/path/to/modulefiles/foo/1.2" line 24)
Please contact <root@localhost>

A stack trace is also returned when an unknown error occurs in modulecmd.tcl script, which facilitates issue report and analysis:

$ module load bar
ERROR: invalid command name "badcommand"
while executing
"badcommand"
(procedure "module" line 14)
invoked from within
"module load bar"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval $execcmdlist"
Please report this issue at https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/issues

This new feature is available in git repository and will be included into the upcoming v4.5 release.

Improved Windows support

2020-03-10T05:23:00.001Z

A new option to the ./configure script named --enable-windows-support is introduced to install additional files relative to the enablement of Modules on the Windows platform. When set, this option installs module.cmd, ml.cmd and envml.cmd scripts in bindir and initialization script cmd.cmd in initdir. With these four files the Modules installation may be used from either a Unix or a Windows platform.

module.cmd, ml.cmd and envml.cmd scripts respectively provide the module, ml and envml commands for Windows cmd terminal shell, relying on modulecmd.tcl script which was already able to produce shell code for this Windows shell. Initialization script cmd.cmd adds the directory of module.cmd, ml.cmd and envml.cmd to PATH.

These Windows-specific files are relocatable: module.cmd, ml.cmd and envml.cmd scripts expect to find initialization script cmd.cmd in the init directory next to them (to setup Modules-specific variables in current environment) and cmd.cmd expects modulecmd.tcl to be found in libexec directory and the 2 commands in bin directory next to it.

Starting from this 4.5 release a distribution zipball will be published to install Modules on Windows. This zip archive ships an install and an uninstall scripts (INSTALL.bat and UNINSTALL.bat). The zipball can be built locally from Modules sources by running make dist-win.

The Installing Modules on Windows document is provided to guide you to install Modules from the distribution zipball.

All of this is already available in git repository and will be shipped into the upcoming v4.5 release.

JSON format output

2020-01-29T07:46:00.001Z

The -j and --json command line switches are added for the avail, list, savelist, whatis and search module sub-commands. When set, the output result of these sub-commands is rendered in JSON format:

$ module avail --json bar | python -mjson.tool
{
"/path/to/modulefiles": {
"bar/2.3": {
"name": "bar/2.3",
"pathname": "/path/to/modulefiles/bar/2.3",
"symbols": [
"default"
],
"type": "modulefile"
},
"bar/3.4": {
"name": "bar/3.4",
"pathname": "/path/to/modulefiles/bar/3.4",
"symbols": [],
"type": "modulefile"
}
}
}
$ ml whatis -j foo/1.2.3 | python -mjson.tool
{
"/path/to/modulefiles": {
"foo/1.2.3": {
"name": "foo/1.2.3",
"whatis": [
"The foo/1.2.3 modulefile"
]
}
}
}

This new feature is available in git repository and will be included into the upcoming v4.5 release.

ml command

2020-01-16T06:55:00.001Z

The ml command is added to Modules. ml is a frontend to the module command that reduces the number of characters to type to trigger module actions.

With no argument provided ml is equivalent to module list, ml foo corresponds to module load foo and ml -foo means module unload foo:

$ ml foo
$ ml
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
1) foo/2
$ ml -foo
$ ml
No Modulefiles Currently Loaded.

Multiple modules to either load or unload can be combined on a single command. The unloads are first processed then the loads.

ml accepts all command-line switches and sub-commands accepted by module command:

$ ml avail -t foo
foo/1
foo/2

This handy interface has been originally developed by the Lmod project. Having this command line interface also supported on Modules helps to provide a similar user experience whatever the module implementation used.

This new feature is available in git repository and will be included into the upcoming v4.5 release.