What is User Environment Modules?

Taken from Environment Modules Project

The Environment Modules package provides for the dynamic modification of a user’s environment via modulefiles.

Each modulefile contains the information needed to configure the shell for an application. Once the Modules package is initialized, the environment can be modified on a per-module basis using the module command which interprets modulefiles. Typically modulefiles instruct the module command to alter or set shell environment variables such as PATH, MANPATH, etc. modulefiles may be shared by many users on a system and users may have their own collection to supplement or replace the shared modulefiles.

Step 1: Download the modules packages

Download the latest modules packages from Modules  Sourceforge Project Site.

Step 2: Download the dependencies tcl and tcl-devel

# yum install tcl tcl-devel

Step 3: Unpacked, Configure and Install

# tar -zxvf modules-3.2.9c.tar.gz

Go to the Modules folder ($ModuleHome)

# cd modules-3.2.9

I wanted to keep all my individual modules files at /usr/local/Modules/contents. You can keep module files anywhere you wish to keep.

# ./configure --with-module-path=/usr/local/Modules/contents

Make and install the configuration

# make && make install

Step 4:  Amend .modulefiles

Edit . modules to let Modules know where all the customized module files will be kept

# vim /usr/local/Modules/3.2.9/init/.modulespath

Comment out all the lines except the directory where all the customised modules files will be kept.

.....
.....
/usr/local/Modules/contents                             # General module files
.....
.....

Step 5: Update /etc/profile.d of the Servers

Copy the profile.modules from the $ModuleHome Directory

# cp /$ModuleHome/modules-3.2.9/etc/global/profile.modules /etc/profile.d/modules.sh

The content of modules.sh are as followed

#----------------------------------------------------------------------#
# system-wide profile.modules                                          #
# Initialize modules for all sh-derivative shells                      #
#----------------------------------------------------------------------#
trap "" 1 2 3

case "$0" in
-bash|bash|*/bash) . /usr/local/Modules/default/init/bash ;;
-ksh|ksh|*/ksh) . /usr/local/Modules/default/init/ksh ;;
-zsh|zsh|*/zsh) . /usr/local/Modules/default/init/zsh ;;
*) . /usr/local/Modules/default/init/sh ;; # sh and default for scripts
esac

trap 1 2 3

---

Sample Installation of an application using Modules (Intel Compilers)

Step 1: Create a Module File.

Place the Module File for Intel in /usr/local/Modules/contents

a. Create an Intel Folder inside /usr/local/Modules/contents

# mkdir /usr/local/Modules/intel

b. Create a module file for the version of Intel (In my case, “12.0.2”). To save some time, you can copy a “sample” file and you can edit

# cp $ModuleHome/modules-3.2.9/modulefiles/modulefile /usr/local/Modules/contents/intel/12.0.2

# vim /usr/local/Modules/contents/intel/12.0.2

#%Module1.0
proc ModulesHelp { } {
global version prefix

puts stderr "\tIntel XE 12.0.2 (icc, icpc, ifort)"
}

module-whatis   "Intel XE 12.0.2 (icc, icpc, ifort)"

prepend-path    PATH            /opt/intel/composerxe/bin
prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH    /opt/intel/composerxe/lib/intel64
prepend-path    LD_LIBRARY_PATH /opt/intel/composerxe/lib/intel64:/opt/intel/mkl/10.2.6.038/lib/em64t
prepend-path    MANPATH         /opt/intel/composerxe/man
prepend-path    MKL_HOME        /opt/intel/mkl/10.2.6.038

setenv CC       icc
setenv CXX      icpc
setenv FC       ifort
setenv F77      ifort
setenv F90      ifort

Step 2: Setting the Default versions of Intel.

If you have different version of software you wish to present to the users, do the following

# vim /usr/local/Modules/contents/intel/.version

#%Module1.0
set ModuleVersion "12.0.2"

More Information

1. Part 2 – Usage of Environment Modules on CentOS and in Cluster