Modules

Create module files to set environment variables for various compilers and libraries.

Install Environment modules in Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends environment-modules

source following script so that module command is available. You may include in your .bashrc as well.

source /etc/profile.d/modules.sh

Here we will try to create a module for GCC. Download GCC source code and build:

wget https://mirror.freedif.org/GNU/gcc/gcc-12.3.0/gcc-12.3.0.tar.gz
tar zxf gcc-12.3.0.tar.gz
cd gcc-12.3.0
./contrib/download_prerequisites
cd ..
mkdir objdir
cd objdir
${PWD}/../gcc-12.3.0/configure --prefix=/workspaces/compilers/gcc-12.3.0 --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,go --disable-multilib
make -j16  # time consuming task, parallelize on large number of processors
make install

cd ..
rm gcc-12.3.0.tar.gz
rm -rf gcc-12.3.0
rm -rf objdir

Here is our modulefile:

src/modulefiles/gcc-12.3.0
#%Module 1.0
## module gcc-12.3.0
## /workspaces/linux/src/modulefiles/gcc-12.3.0
## Author: Pranab Das

proc ModulesHelp { } {
  global version modroot
  puts stderr "gcc-12.3.0 - sets the Environment for gcc-12.3.0"
}

module-whatis "Sets the Environment for gcc-12.3.0"

set             topdir          /workspaces/compilers/gcc-12.3.0
set             version         12.3.0

setenv          CC              ${topdir}/bin/gcc
setenv          GCC             ${topdir}/bin/gcc
setenv          FC              ${topdir}/bin/gfortran
setenv          F77             ${topdir}/bin/gfortran
setenv          F90             ${topdir}/bin/gfortran

prepend-path    PATH            ${topdir}/include
prepend-path    PATH            ${topdir}/bin
prepend-path    MANPATH         ${topdir}/man
prepend-path    LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${topdir}/lib

We will store our module files under /workspaces/linux/src/modulefiles.

export MODULEPATH=${MODULEPATH}:/workspaces/linux/src/modulefiles

Now we can test our module:

gcc --version
module --help
module avail
module load gcc-12.3.0  # module add gcc-12.3.0
gcc --version
module list
module purge  # module remove gcc-12.3.0
gcc --version

Useful commands to use in module file:

Command	Description
setenv	set the specified environment variable to the supplied value.
unsetenv	unset the specified environment variable. If an argument is supplied, then, while unloading the module, the variable will be re-set, to that argument.
append-path	put the supplied argument on the end of the specified variable. The variable should be a list of colon-separated entries. PATH is one such variable.
prepend-path	put the supplied argument at the start of the specified variable.
remove-path	remove the supplied argument from the specified variable, wherever along its length it might be.
prereq	insist that the specified module be loaded before loading the current module. (Note: Usually, it's easier to just put a "module load" in to get the dependency.)
conflict	insist that the specified module not be loaded.
module load	load the specified module.
module-whatis	follow with a help string, to be printed whenever the user issues the "module whatis" command on this module. It should briefly describe the software loaded by this module.

Resources

https://www.prl.res.in/prl-eng/hpc/getting_started/creating_custom_modules

Resources​

Resources