BwUniCluster2.0/Software Modules
Introduction
Environment Modules, or short Modules are the means by which most of the installed scientific software is provided on bwUniCluster 2.0.
The use of different compilers, libraries and software packages requires users to set up a specific session environment suited for the program they want to run. bwUniCluster 2.0 provides users with the possibility to load and unload complete environments for compilers, libraries and software packages by a single command.
Description
The Environment Modules package enables dynamic modification of your environment by the
use of so-called modulefiles. A modulefile contains information to configure the shell
for a program/software . Typically, a modulefile contains instructions that alter or set shell
environment variables, such as PATH and MANPATH, to enable access to various installed
software.
One of the key features of using the Environment Modules software is to allow multiple versions of the same software to be used in your environment in a controlled manner.
For example, two different versions of the Intel C compiler can be installed on the system at the same time - the version used is based upon which Intel C compiler modulefile is loaded.
The software stack of bwUniCluster 2.0 provides a number of modulefiles. You can also
create your own modulefiles. Modulefiles may be shared by many users on a system, and
users may have their own collection of modulefiles to supplement or replace the shared
modulefiles.
A modulefile does not provide configuration of your environment until it is explicitly loaded,
i.e., the specific modulefile for a software product or application must be loaded in your environment before the configuration information in the modulefile is effective.
If you want to see which modules are loaded you must execute
'module list'.
$ module list Currently Loaded Modules: 1) compiler/intel/19.1 2) mpi/impi/2019 3) numlib/mkl/2019
Usage
Lmod on bwUniCluster 2.0: A New Environment Module System from http://lmod.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ is installed.
Documentation
Execute 'module help' or 'man module' for help on how to use Modules software.
$ module help Usage: module [options] sub-command [args ...] Options: -h -? -H --help This help message -s availStyle --style=availStyle Site controlled avail style: system (default: system) --regression_testing Lmod regression testing -D Program tracing written to stderr --debug=dbglvl Program tracing written to stderr (where dbglvl is a number 1,2,3) --pin_versions=pinVersions When doing a restore use specified version, do not follow defaults -d --default List default modules only when used with avail -q --quiet Do not print out warnings --expert Expert mode -t --terse Write out in machine readable format for commands: list, avail, spider, savelist --initial_load loading Lmod for first time in a user shell --latest Load latest (ignore default) --ignore_cache Treat the cache file(s) as out-of-date --novice Turn off expert and quiet flag --raw Print modulefile in raw output when used with show -w twidth --width=twidth Use this as max term width -v --version Print version info and quit -r --regexp use regular expression match --gitversion Dump git version in a machine readable way and quit --dumpversion Dump version in a machine readable way and quit --check_syntax --checkSyntax Checking module command syntax: do not load --config Report Lmod Configuration --config_json Report Lmod Configuration in json format --mt Report Module Table State --timer report run times --force force removal of a sticky module or save an empty collection --redirect Send the output of list, avail, spider to stdout (not stderr) --no_redirect Force output of list, avail and spider to stderr --show_hidden Avail and spider will report hidden modules --spider_timeout=timeout a timeout for spider -T --trace module [options] sub-command [args ...] Help sub-commands: ------------------ help prints this message help module [...] print help message from module(s) Loading/Unloading sub-commands: ------------------------------- load | add module [...] load module(s) try-load | try-add module [...] Add module(s), do not complain if not found del | unload module [...] Remove module(s), do not complain if not found swap | sw | switch m1 m2 unload m1 and load m2 purge unload all modules refresh reload aliases from current list of modules. update reload all currently loaded modules. Listing / Searching sub-commands: --------------------------------- list List loaded modules list s1 s2 ... List loaded modules that match the pattern avail | av List available modules avail | av string List available modules that contain "string". spider List all possible modules spider module List all possible version of that module file spider string List all module that contain the "string". spider name/version Detailed information about that version of the module. whatis module Print whatis information about module keyword | key string Search all name and whatis that contain "string". Searching with Lmod: -------------------- All searching (spider, list, avail, keyword) support regular expressions: -r spider '^p' Finds all the modules that start with `p' or `P' -r spider mpi Finds all modules that have "mpi" in their name. -r spider 'mpi$ Finds all modules that end with "mpi" in their name. Handling a collection of modules: -------------------------------- save | s Save the current list of modules to a user defined "default" collection. save | s name Save the current list of modules to "name" collection. reset The same as "restore system" restore | r Restore modules from the user's "default" or system default. restore | r name Restore modules from "name" collection. restore system Restore module state to system defaults. savelist List of saved collections. describe | mcc name Describe the contents of a module collection. disable name Disable (i.e. remove) a collection. Deprecated commands: -------------------- getdefault [name] load name collection of modules or user's "default" if no name given. ===> Use "restore" instead <==== setdefault [name] Save current list of modules to name if given, otherwise save as the default list for you the user. ===> Use "save" instead. <==== Miscellaneous sub-commands: --------------------------- is-loaded modulefile return a true status if module is loaded is-avail modulefile return a true status if module can be loaded show modulefile show the commands in the module file. use [-a] path Prepend or Append path to MODULEPATH. unuse path remove path from MODULEPATH. tablelist output list of active modules as a lua table. Important Environment Variables: -------------------------------- LMOD_COLORIZE If defined to be "YES" then Lmod prints properties and warning in color. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lmod Web Sites Documentation: http://lmod.readthedocs.org Github: https://github.com/TACC/Lmod Sourceforge: https://lmod.sf.net TACC Homepage: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/research-development/tacc-projects/lmod To report a bug please read http://lmod.readthedocs.io/en/latest/075_bug_reporting.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modules based on Lua: Version 8.2 (8.2-1-g9c98036c) 2019-10-30 11:17 -05:00 by Robert McLay mclay@tacc.utexas.edu
For help on particular version of Module, e.g. Intel default compiler version, execute 'module help compiler/intel'.
$ module help compiler/intel ---------------------- Module Specific Help for "compiler/intel/19.1" ---------------------- Intel(R) Compilers 19.1 for Linux* For details see: https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-compilers In case of problems, please contact: Hartmut Häfner <hartmut.haefner@kit.edu> SCC support end: 2022-12-31
Online Documentation
Lmod: A New Environment Module System
Display all available Modules
Available Module are modulefiles that can be loaded by the user. A Module must be loaded before it provides changes to your environment, as described in the introduction to this section. You can display all available Modules on the system by executing:
$ module avail
The short form the command is:
$ module av
Available Modules can be also displayed in different modes, such as
- each Module per one line
$ module -t avail
Some modules may not be available right now, because their requirements are not met. To get a complete list of all possible modules use the module spider command.
Module categories, versions and defaults
The ForHLR clusters traditionally provide a large variety of software and software versions. Therefore Module are divided in category folders containing subfolders of modulefiles again containing modulefile versions, and must be addressed as follows:
category/softwarename/version
For instance all versions of the Intel compiler belong to the category of compilers, thus the corresponding modulefiles are placed under the category compiler and intel.
In case of multiple software versions, one version will be always defined as the default
version. The Module of the default can be addressed by simply omitting the version number:
category/softwarename
Finding software Modules
Currently all bwUniCluster 2.0 software packages are assigned to the following Module categories (???):
- bio
- cae
- chem
- compiler
- devel
- math
- mpi
- numlib
- phys
- system
- vis
You can selectively list software in one of those categories using, e.g. for the category "compiler"
$ module avail compiler/
Searches are looking for a substring starting at the begin of the name, so this would list all software in categories starting with a "c"
$ module avail c
while this would find nothing
$ module avail hem
Loading Modules
You can load a Module software in to your environment to enable easier access to software that you want to use by executing:
$ module load category/softwarename/version
or
$ module add category/softwarename/version
Loading a Module in this manner affects ONLY your environment for the current session.
Loading conflicts
You can not load different versions of the same software at the same time! Loading the Intel compiler in version X while Intel compiler in version Y is loaded leads to an automatic unloading of Intel compiler in version Y.
Showing the changes introduced by a Module
Loading a Module will change the environment of the current shell session. For instance the $PATH variable will be expanded by the software's binary directory. Other Module variables may even change the behavior of the current shell session or the software program(s) in a more drastic way.
All the changes to the current shell session to be invoked by loading the Module can be reviewed using
'module show category/softwarename/version'.
Example (Intel compiler)
$ module show compiler/intel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /opt/bwhpc/common/modulefiles/Core/compiler/intel/19.1.lua: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- setenv("INTEL_LICENSE_FILE","28518@scclic1.scc.kit.edu") setenv("AR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64/xiar") setenv("CC","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64/icc") setenv("CXX","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64/icpc") setenv("F77","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64/ifort") setenv("FC","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64/ifort") setenv("CFLAGS","-O2 -xCORE-AVX2") setenv("CXXFLAGS","-O2 -xCORE-AVX2") setenv("FFLAGS","-O2 -xCORE-AVX2") setenv("FCFLAGS","-O2 -xCORE-AVX2") setenv("INTEL_VERSION","19.1.0.166") setenv("INTEL_HOME","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux") setenv("INTEL_BIN_DIR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64") setenv("INTEL_LIB_DIR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/lib/intel64") setenv("INTEL_INC_DIR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/include") setenv("INTEL_MAN_DIR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/man/common") setenv("INTEL_DOC_DIR","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/documentation/en") setenv("GDB_VERSION","19.1.0.166") setenv("GDB_HOME","/opt/intel/debugger_2020/gdb/intel64") setenv("GDB_BIN_DIR","/opt/intel/debugger_2020/gdb/intel64/bin") setenv("GDB_LIB_DIR","/opt/intel/debugger_2020/libipt/intel64/lib") setenv("GDB_INC_DIR","/opt/intel/debugger_2020/gdb/intel64/include") setenv("GDB_INF_DIR","/opt/intel/documentation_2020/en/debugger/gdb-ia/info") setenv("GDB_MAN_DIR","/opt/intel/documentation_2020/en/debugger/gdb-ia/man") setenv("KMP_AFFINITY","noverbose,granularity=core,respect,warnings,compact,1") prepend_path("PATH","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/bin/intel64") prepend_path("MANPATH","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/man/common") prepend_path("LD_LIBRARY_PATH","/opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2020/linux/lib/intel64") whatis("Sets up Intel C/C++ and Fortran compiler version 19.1 (Intel(R) Compilers 19.1 for Linux*) - supported by SCC till 2022-12-31!") help([[Intel(R) Compilers 19.1 for Linux* For details see: https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-compilers In case of problems, please contact: Hartmut Häfner <hartmut.haefner@kit.edu> SCC support end: 2022-12-31]]) prepend_path("MODULEPATH","/software/bwhpc/common/modulefiles/Compiler/intel/19.1") family("compiler")
Modules depending on Modules
Some program Modules depend on libraries to be loaded to the user environment. Therefore the
corresponding Modules of the software must be loaded together with the Modules of
the libraries.
By default such software Modules try to load required Modules and corresponding versions automatically.
Unloading Modules
To unload or remove a software Module execute:
$ module unload category/softwarename/version
or
$ module remove category/softwarename/version
Unloading all loaded modules
Purge
Unloading a Module that has been loaded by default makes it inactive for the current session only - it will be reloaded the next time you log in.
In order to remove all previously loaded software modules from your environment issue the command 'module purge'.
Example
$ module list Currently Loaded Modules: 1) compiler/intel/19.1 2) mpi/impi/2019 3) numlib/mkl/2019 $ $ module purge $ module list No modules loaded $
Beware!
'module purge' is working without any further inquiry.
Display your loaded Modules
All Modules that are currently loaded for you can be displayed by the
command 'module list'. See example above.
Note: You only have to load further Modules, if you want to use additional software
packages or to change the version of an already loaded software.
Display all possible Modules
Modulefiles can be searched by the user. You can dipslay all possible modules by executing:
$ module spider ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of the modules and extensions currently available: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cae/abaqus: cae/abaqus/2018, cae/abaqus/2019 cae/adina: cae/adina/9.1.2 cae/ansys: cae/ansys/19.2, cae/ansys/2019R3, cae/ansys/2020R1 cae/comsol: cae/comsol/5.4, cae/comsol/5.5 cae/cst: cae/cst/2018 cae/lsdyna: cae/lsdyna/901 cae/openfoam: cae/openfoam/v1912, cae/openfoam/2.4.x, cae/openfoam/6, cae/openfoam/7 cae/paraview: cae/paraview/5.8 cae/starccm+: cae/starccm+/14.02.010, cae/starccm+/2019.2.1 cae/starcd: cae/starcd/4.28 compiler/clang: compiler/clang/9.0 compiler/gnu: compiler/gnu/9.2 compiler/intel: compiler/intel/18.0, compiler/intel/19.0, compiler/intel/19.1 compiler/pgi: compiler/pgi/2019 devel/cmake: devel/cmake/3.16 devel/cuda: devel/cuda/9.2, devel/cuda/10.0, devel/cuda/10.2 devel/gdb: devel/gdb/9.1 devel/python: devel/python/3.7.4_gnu_9.2, devel/python/3.8.1_gnu_9.2, devel/python/3.8.1_intel_19.1 math/R: math/R/3.6.3 math/julia: math/julia/1.3.1 mpi/impi: mpi/impi/2018, mpi/impi/2019, mpi/impi/2020 mpi/openmpi: mpi/openmpi/4.0 numlib/mkl: numlib/mkl/2018, numlib/mkl/2019, numlib/mkl/2020 numlib/python_numpy: numlib/python_numpy/1.17.2_python_3.7.4_gnu_9.2 numlib/python_scipy: numlib/python_scipy/1.3.1_numpy_1.17.2_python_3.7.4_gnu_9.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To learn more about a package execute: $ module spider Foo where "Foo" is the name of a module. To find detailed information about a particular package you must specify the version if there is more than one version: $ module spider Foo/11.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'module spider name/version' : If you search the full name and version of the module, the search gives detailed information about that module version.
$ module spider devel/netbeans/8.2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- devel/netbeans: devel/netbeans/8.2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This module can be loaded directly: module load devel/netbeans/8.2 Help: The NetBeans IDE is a world-class development environment written in Java. It can be used to develop code in Java, HTML, XML, JSP, C/C++, and other languages. The IDE is modular and there is a huge variety of commercial and free extensions for it that support various technologies.
Moreover, you can see the dependencies of the module with using the same command. For example, if the following is executed, you can see which modules need to be loaded before loading the module mpi/openmpi/1.10
$ module spider mpi/openmpi/1.10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- mpi/openmpi: mpi/openmpi/1.10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will need to load all module(s) on any one of the lines below before the "mpi/openmpi/1.10" module is available to load. compiler/clang/7.0 compiler/gnu/4.8 compiler/gnu/4.8.5 compiler/gnu/6 compiler/gnu/7 compiler/gnu/8 compiler/intel/17.0 compiler/intel/18.0 compiler/intel/19.0 Help: Open MPI (http://www.openmpi.org) is an open source implementation of the Message Passing Interface specification (http://www.mpi-forum.org/) developed and maintained by a consortium of research, academic, and industry partners. [...]
How do Modules work?
The default shell on the bwHPC clusters is bash, so explanations and examples will be shown for bash. In general, programs cannot modify the environment of the shell they are being run from, so how can the module command do exactly that?
The module command is not a program, but a bash-function.
You can view its content using:
$ type module
and you will get the following result:
$ type module module is a function module () { eval $($LMOD_CMD bash "$@"); [ $? = 0 ] && eval $(${LMOD_SETTARG_CMD:-:} -s sh) }
In this function, lmod is called. Its output to stdout is then executed inside your current shell using the bash-internal eval command. As a consequence, all output that you see from the module is transmitted via stderr (output handle 2) or in some cases even stdin (output handle 0).