MIGRATING

This document describes the major changes occurring between versions of Modules. It provides an overview of the new features and changed behaviors that will be encountered when upgrading.

Migrating from v4.1 to v4.2

This new version is backward-compatible with v4.1 and primarily fixes bugs and adds new features.

New features

Version 4.2 introduces new functionalities that are described in this section.

Modulefile conflict constraints consistency

With the conflict modulefile command, a given modulefile can list the other modulefiles it conflicts with. To load this modulefile, the modulefiles it conflicts with cannot be loaded.

This constraint was until now satisfied when loading the modulefile declaring the conflict but it vanished as soon as this modulefile was loaded. In the following example a modulefile declares a conflict with b:

$ module load b a
WARNING: a cannot be loaded due to a conflict.
HINT: Might try "module unload b" first.
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) b
$ module purge
$ module load a b
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a   2) b

Consistency of the declared conflict is now ensured to satisfy this constraint even after the load of the modulefile declaring it. This is achieved by keeping track of the conflict constraints of the loaded modulefiles in an environment variable called MODULES_LMCONFLICT:

$ module load a b
ERROR: WARNING: b cannot be loaded due to a conflict.
HINT: Might try "module unload a" first.
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a

An environment variable is used to keep track of this conflict information to proceed the same way than used to keep track of the loaded modulefiles with the LOADEDMODULES environment variable.

In case a conflict constraint toward a modulefile is set by an already loaded modulefile, loading the conflicting modulefile will lead to a load evaluation attempt in order for this modulefile to get the chance to solve the constraint violation. If at the end of the load evaluation, the conflict has not been solved, modulefile load will be discarded.

Warning

On versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1, a conflict constraint set by an already loaded modulefile forbade the load of the conflicting modulefile. This has been changed starting version 4.2.2 to better cope with behaviors of previous Modules version: an evaluation attempt of the conflicting modulefile is made to give it the opportunity to solve this conflict by using module unload modulefile command.

Modulefile prereq constraints consistency

With the prereq modulefile command, a given modulefile can list the other modulefiles it pre-requires. To load this modulefile, the modulefiles it pre-requires must be loaded prior its own load.

This constraint was until now satisfied when loading the modulefile declaring the prereq but, as for the declared conflict, it vanished as soon as this modulefile was loaded. In the following example c modulefile declares a prereq on a:

$ module load c
WARNING: c cannot be loaded due to missing prereq.
HINT: the following module must be loaded first: a
$ module list
No Modulefiles Currently Loaded.
$ module load a c
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a   2) c
$ module unload a
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) c

Consistency of the declared prereq is now ensured to satisfy this constraint even after the load of the modulefile declaring it. This is achieved, like for the conflict consistency, by keeping track of the prereq constraints of the loaded modulefiles in an environment variable called MODULES_LMPREREQ:

$ module load a c
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a   2) c
$ module unload a
ERROR: WARNING: a cannot be unloaded due to a prereq.
HINT: Might try "module unload c" first.
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a   2) c

By-passing module defined constraints

The ability to by-pass a conflict or a prereq constraint defined by modulefiles is introduced with the --force command line switch (-f for short notation) for the load, unload and switch sub-commands.

With this new command line switch, a given modulefile is loaded even if it conflicts with other loaded modulefiles or even if the modulefiles it pre-requires are not loaded. Some example reusing the same modulefiles a, b and c than above:

$ module load b
$ module load --force a
WARNING: a conflicts with b
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) b   2) a
$ module purge
$ module load --force c
WARNING: c requires a loaded
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) c

--force also enables to unload a modulefile required by another loaded modulefiles:

$ module load a c
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) a   2) c
$ module unload --force a
WARNING: a is required by c
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) c

In a situation where some of the loaded modulefiles have unsatisfied constraints corresponding to the prereq and conflict they declare, the save and reload sub-commands do not perform and return an error.

Automated module handling mode

An automatic management of the dependencies between modulefiles has been added and it is called automated module handling mode. This new mode consists in additional actions triggered when loading or unloading a modulefile to satisfy the constraints it declares.

When loading a modulefile, following actions are triggered:

  • Requirement Load (ReqLo): load of the modulefiles declared as a prereq of the loading modulefile.
  • Dependent Reload (DepRe): reload of the modulefiles declaring a prereq onto loaded modulefile or declaring a prereq onto a modulefile part of this reloading batch.

When unloading a modulefile, following actions are triggered:

  • Dependent Unload (DepUn): unload of the modulefiles declaring a non-optional prereq onto unloaded modulefile or declaring a non-optional prereq onto a modulefile part of this unloading batch. A prereq modulefile is considered optional if the prereq definition order is made of multiple modulefiles and at least one alternative modulefile is loaded.
  • Useless Requirement Unload (UReqUn): unload of the prereq modulefiles that have been automatically loaded for either the unloaded modulefile, an unloaded dependent modulefile or a modulefile part of this useless requirement unloading batch. Modulefiles are added to this unloading batch only if they are not required by any other loaded modulefiles. MODULES_LMNOTUASKED environment variable helps to keep track of these automatically loaded modulefiles and to distinguish them from modulefiles asked by user.
  • Dependent Reload (DepRe): reload of the modulefiles declaring a conflict or an optional prereq onto either the unloaded modulefile, an unloaded dependent or an unloaded useless requirement or declaring a prereq onto a modulefile part of this reloading batch.

In case a loaded modulefile has some of its declared constraints unsatisfied (pre-required modulefile not loaded or conflicting modulefile loaded for instance), this loaded modulefile is excluded from the automatic reload actions described above.

For the specific case of the switch sub-command, where a modulefile is unloaded to then load another modulefile. Dependent modulefiles to Unload are merged into the Dependent modulefiles to Reload that are reloaded after the load of the switched-to modulefile.

This automated module handling mode integrates concepts (like the Dependent Reload mechanism) of the Flavours extension, which was designed for Modules compatibility version. As a whole, automated module handling mode can be seen as a generalization and as an expansion of the Flavours concepts.

This new feature can be controlled at build time with the --enable-auto-handling configure option. This default configuration can be superseded at run-time with the MODULES_AUTO_HANDLING environment variable or the command line switches --auto and --no-auto.

By default, automated module handling mode is disabled and will stay so until the next major release version (5.0) where it will be enabled by default. This new feature is currently considered experimental and the set of triggered actions will be refined over the next feature releases.

Consistency of module load/unload commands in modulefile

With the module load modulefile command, a given modulefile can automatically load a modulefile it pre-requires. Similarly with the module unload modulefile command, a given modulefile can automatically unload a modulefile it conflicts with.

Both commands imply additional actions on the loaded environment (loading or unloading extra modulefiles) that should cope with the constraints defined by the loaded environment.

Additionally module load and module unload modulefile commands express themselves constraints on loaded environment that should stay satisfied to ensure consistency.

To ensure the consistency of module load modulefile command once the modulefile defining it has been loaded, this command is assimilated to a prereq command. Thus the defined constraint is recorded in the MODULES_LMPREREQ environment variable. Same approach is used for module unload modulefile command which is assimilated to a conflict command. Thus the defined constraint is recorded in the MODULES_LMCONFLICT environment variable.

To ensure the consistency of the loaded environment, the additional actions of the module load and module unload modulefile commands have been adapted in particular situations:

  • When unloading modulefile, module load command will unload the modulefile it targets only if no other loaded modulefile requires it and if this target has not been explicitly loaded by user.
  • When unloading modulefile, module unload command does nothing as the relative conflict registered at load time ensure environment consistency and will forbid conflicting modulefile load.

Please note that loading and unloading results may differ than from previous Modules version now that consistency is checked:

  • Modulefile targeted by a module load modulefile command may not be able to load due to a registered conflict in the currently loaded environment. Which in turn will break the load of the modulefile declaring the module load command.
  • Modulefile targeted by a module unload modulefile command may not be able to unload due to a registered prereq in the loaded environment. Which in turn will break the load of the modulefile declaring the module unload command.
  • If automated module handling mode is enabled, module load modulefile command is interpreted when unloading modulefile as part of the Useless Requirement Unload (UReqUn) mechanism not through modulefile evaluation. As a consequence, an error occurring when unloading the modulefile targeted by the module load command does not break the unload of the modulefile declaring this command. Moreover unload of the module load targets is done in the reverse loaded order, not in the module load command definition order.

Modulefile alias and symbolic modulefile name consistency

With the module-alias and module-version modulefile commands, alternative names can be given to a modulefile. When these names are used to load for instance a modulefile, they are resolved to the modulefile they target which is then processed for the load action.

Until now, the alias and symbolic version names were correctly resolved for the load and unload actions and also for the querying sub-commands (like avail or whatis). However this alternative name information vanishes once the modulefile it resolves to is loaded. As a consequence there was no consistency over these alternative designations. In the following example f modulefile declares a conflict on e alias which resolves to d modulefile:

$ module load e
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) d
$ module info-loaded e
$ module load f
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) d   2) f

Consistency of the alternative names set on a modulefile with module-alias and module-version commands is now ensured to enable modulefile commands prereq, conflict, is-loaded and module-info loaded using these alternative designations as argument. This consistency is achieved, like for the conflict and prereq consistencies, by keeping track of the alternative names of the loaded modulefiles in an environment variable called MODULES_LMALTNAME:

$ module load e
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) d
$ module info-loaded e
d
$ module load f
WARNING: f cannot be loaded due to a conflict.
HINT: Might try "module unload e" first.
$ module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
 1) d

Environment variable change through modulefile evaluation context

All environment variable edition commands (setenv, unsetenv, append-path, prepend-path and remove-path) have been updated to:

  • Reflect environment variable value change on the environment of the current modulefile Tcl interpreter. So using $env(VAR) will return the currently defined value for environment variable VAR, not the one found prior modulefile evaluation.
  • Clear environment variable content instead of unsetting it on the environment of the current modulefile Tcl interpreter to avoid raising error about accessing an undefined element in $env(). Code is still produced to purely unset environment variable in shell environment.

Exception is made for the whatis evaluation mode: environment variables targeted by variable edition commands are not set to the defined value in the evaluation context during this whatis evaluation. These variables are only initialized to an empty value if undefined. This exception is made to save performances on this global evaluation mode.

Improved module message report

Module sub-commands like load, unload or switch, may perform multiple load or unload modulefile evaluations in a row. Also these kind of evaluation modes may sometimes trigger additional load or unload evaluations, when for instance a modulefile contains a module load command.

To improve the readability of the module messages produced relatively to a load or an unload evaluation, these messages are now stacked under a Loading or an Unloading message block that gathers all the messages produced for a given modulefile evaluation:

$ module load --no-auto foo
Loading foo/1.2
  ERROR: foo/1.2 cannot be loaded due to missing prereq.
    HINT: the following module must be loaded first: bar/4.5

In addition, foreground load, unload, switch and restore actions (ie. asked on the command-line) now report a summary of the additional load and unload evaluations that were eventually triggered in the process:

$ module load --auto foo
Loading foo/1.2
  Loading requirement: bar/4.5

New modulefile commands

2 new modulefile Tcl commands have been introduced:

  • set-function: define a shell function on sh-kind and fish shells.
  • unset-function: unset a shell function on sh-kind and fish shells.

Further reading

To get a complete list of the changes between Modules v4.1 and v4.2, please read the Release notes document.

Migrating from v4.0 to v4.1

This new version is backward-compatible with v4.0 and primarily fixes bugs and adds new features.

New features

Version 4.1 introduces a bunch of new functionalities. These major new features are described in this section.

Virtual modules

A virtual module stands for a module name associated to a modulefile. The modulefile is the script interpreted when loading or unloading the virtual module which appears or can be found with its virtual name.

The module-virtual modulefile command is introduced to give the ability to define these virtual modules. This new command takes a module name as first argument and a modulefile location as second argument:

module-virtual app/1.2.3 /path/to/virtualmod/app

With this feature it is now possible to dynamically define modulefiles depending on the context.

Extend module command with site-specific Tcl code

module command can now be extended with site-specific Tcl code. modulecmd.tcl now looks at a siteconfig.tcl file in an etcdir defined at configure time (by default $prefix/etc). If it finds this Tcl script file, it is sourced within modulecmd.tcl at the beginning of the main procedure code.

siteconfig.tcl enables to supersede any global variable or procedure definitions made in modulecmd.tcl with site-specific code. A module sub-command can for instance be redefined to make it fit local needs without having to touch the main modulecmd.tcl.

Quarantine mechanism to protect module execution

To protect the module command run-time environment from side effect coming from the current environment definition a quarantine mechanism is introduced. This mechanism, sets within module function definition and shell initialization script, modifies the modulecmd.tcl run-time environment to sanitize it.

The mechanism is piloted by environment variables. First of all MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE, a space-separated list of environment variable names. Every variable found in MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE will be set in quarantine during the modulecmd.tcl run-time. Their value will be set empty or set to the value of the corresponding MODULES_RUNENV_<VAR> environment variable if defined. Once modulecmd.tcl is started it restores quarantine variables to their original values.

MODULES_RUN_QUARANTINE and MODULES_RUNENV_<VAR> environment variables can be defined at build time by using the following configure option:

--with-quarantine-vars='VARNAME[=VALUE] ...'

Quarantine mechanism is available for all supported shells except csh and tcsh.

Pager support

The informational messages Modules sends on the stderr channel may sometimes be quite long. This is especially the case for the avail sub-command when hundreds of modulefiles are handled. To improve the readability of those messages, stderr output can now be piped into a paging command.

This new feature can be controlled at build time with the --with-pager and --with-pager-opts configure options. Default pager command is set to less and its relative options are by default -eFKRX. Default configuration can be supersedes at run-time with MODULES_PAGER environment variables or command-line switches (--no-pager, --paginate).

Warning

On version 4.1.0, the PAGER environment variable was taken in consideration to supersede pager configuration at run-time. Since version 4.1.1, PAGER environment variable is ignored to avoid side effects coming from the system general pager configuration.

Module function to return value in scripting languages

On Tcl, Perl, Python, Ruby, CMake and R scripting shells, module function was not returning value and until now an occurred error led to raising a fatal exception.

To make module function more friendly to use on these scripting shells it now returns a value. False in case of error, true if everything goes well.

As a consequence, returned value of a module sub-command can be checked. For instance in Python:

if module('load', 'foo'):
  # success
else:
  # failure

New modulefile commands

4 new modulefile Tcl commands have been introduced:

  • is-saved: returns true or false whether a collection, corresponding to currently set collection target, exists or not.
  • is-used: returns true or false whether a given directory is currently enabled in MODULEPATH.
  • is-avail: returns true or false whether a given modulefile exists in currently enabled module paths.
  • module-info loaded: returns the exact name of the modulefile currently loaded corresponding to the name argument.

Multiple collections, paths or modulefiles can be passed respectively to is-saved, is-used and is-avail in which case true is returned if at least one argument matches condition (acts as a OR boolean operation). No argument may be passed to is-loaded, is-saved and is-used commands to return if anything is respectively loaded, saved or used.

If no loaded modulefile matches the module-info loaded query, an empty string is returned.

New module sub-commands

Modulefile-specific commands are sometimes wished to be used outside of a modulefile context. Especially for the commands managing path variables or commands querying current environment context. So the following modulefile-specific commands have been made reachable as module sub-commands with same arguments and properties as if called from within a modulefile:

  • append-path
  • prepend-path
  • remove-path
  • is-loaded
  • info-loaded

The is-loaded sub-command returns a boolean value. Small Python example:

if module('is-loaded', 'app'):
  print 'app is loaded'
else:
  print 'app not loaded'

info-loaded returns a string value and is the sub-command counterpart of the module-info loaded modulefile command:

$ module load app/0.8
$ module info-loaded app
app/0.8

Further reading

To get a complete list of the changes between Modules v4.0 and v4.1, please read the Release notes document.

Migrating from v3.2 to v4.0

Major evolution occurs with this v4.0 release as the traditional module command implemented in C is replaced by the native Tcl version. This full Tcl rewrite of the Modules package was started in 2002 and has now reached maturity to take over the binary version. This flavor change enables to refine and push forward the module concept.

This document provides an outlook of what is changing when migrating from v3.2 to v4.0 by first describing the introduced new features. Both v3.2 and v4.0 are quite similar and transition to the new major version should be smooth. Slights differences may be noticed in a few use-cases. So the second part of the document will help to learn about them by listing the features that have been discontinued in this new major release or the features where a behavior change can be noticed.

New features

On its overall this major release brings a lot more robustness to the module command with now more than 4000 non-regression tests crafted to ensure correct operations over the time. This version 4.0 also comes with fair amount of improved functionalities. The major new features are described in this section.

Additional shells supported

Modules v4 introduces support for fish, lisp, tcl and R code output.

Non-zero exit code in case of error

All module sub-commands will now return a non-zero exit code in case of error whereas Modules v3.2 always returned zero exit code even if issue occurred.

Output redirect

Traditionally the module command output text that should be seen by the user on stderr since shell commands are output to stdout to change shell's environment. Now on sh, bash, ksh, zsh and fish shells, output text is redirected to stdout after shell command evaluation if shell is in interactive mode.

Filtering avail output

Results obtained from the avail sub-command can now be filtered to only get the default version of each module name with use of the --default or -d command line switch. Default version is either the explicitly set default version or the highest numerically sorted modulefile or module alias if no default version set.

It is also possible to filter results to only get the highest numerically sorted version of each module name with use of the --latest or -L command line switch.

Extended support for module alias and symbolic version

Module aliases are now included in the result of the avail, whatis and apropos sub-commands. They are displayed in the module path section where they are defined or in a global/user modulerc section for aliases set in user's or global modulerc file. A @ symbol is added in parenthesis next to their name to distinguish them from modulefiles.

Search may be performed with an alias or a symbolic version-name passed as argument on avail, whatis and apropos sub-commands.

Modules v4 resolves module alias or symbolic version passed to unload command to then remove the loaded modulefile pointed by the mentioned alias or symbolic version.

A symbolic version sets on a module alias is now propagated toward the resolution path to also apply to the relative modulefile if it still correspond to the same module name.

Hiding modulefiles

Visibility of modulefiles can be adapted by use of file mode bits or file ownership. If a modulefile should only be used by a given subset of persons, its mode an ownership can be tailored to provide read rights to this group of people only. In this situation, module only reports the modulefile, during an avail command for instance, if this modulefile can be read by the current user.

These hidden modulefiles are simply ignored when walking through the modulepath content. Access issues (permission denied) occur only when trying to access directly a hidden modulefile or when accessing a symbol or an alias targeting a hidden modulefile.

Improved modulefiles location

When looking for an implicit default in a modulefile directory, aliases are now taken into account in addition to modulefiles and directories to determine the highest numerically sorted element.

Modules v4 resolves module alias or symbolic version when it points to a modulefile located in another modulepath.

Access issues (permission denied) are now distinguished from find issues (cannot locate) when trying to access directly a directory or a modulefile as done on load, display or whatis commands. In addition, on this kind of access not readable .modulerc or .version files are ignored rather producing a missing magic cookie error.

Module collection

Modules v4 introduces support for module collections. Collections describe a sequence of module use then module load commands that are interpreted by Modules to set the user environment as described by this sequence. When a collection is activated, with the restore sub-command, modulepaths and loaded modules are unused or unloaded if they are not part or if they are not ordered the same way as in the collection.

Collections are generated by the save sub-command that dumps the current user environment state in terms of modulepaths and loaded modules. By default collections are saved under the $HOME/.module directory. Collections can be listed with savelist sub-command, displayed with saveshow and removed with saverm.

Collections may be valid for a given target if they are suffixed. In this case these collections can only be restored if their suffix correspond to the current value of the MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET environment variable. Saving collection registers the target footprint by suffixing the collection filename with .$MODULES_COLLECTION_TARGET.

Path variable element counter

Modules 4 provides path element counting feature which increases a reference counter each time a given path entry is added to a given path-like environment variable. As consequence a path entry element is removed from a path-like variable only if the related element counter is equal to 1. If this counter is greater than 1, path element is kept in variable and reference counter is decreased by 1.

This feature allows shared usage of particular path elements. For instance, modulefiles can append /usr/local/bin to PATH, which is not unloaded until all the modulefiles that loaded it unload too.

Optimized I/O operations

Substantial work has been done to reduce the number of I/O operations done during global modulefile analysis commands like avail or whatis. stat, open, read and close I/O operations have been cut down to the minimum required when walking through the modulepath directories to check if files are modulefiles or to resolve module aliases.

Interpretation of modulefiles and modulerc are handled by the minimum required Tcl interpreters. Which means a configured Tcl interpreter is reused as much as possible between each modulefile interpretation or between each modulerc interpretation.

Sourcing modulefiles

Modules 4 introduces the possibility to source a modulefile rather loading it. When it is sourced, a modulefile is interpreted into the shell environment but then it is not marked loaded in shell environment which differ from load sub-command.

This functionality is used in shell initialization scripts once module function is defined. There the etc/modulerc modulefile is sourced to setup the initial state of the environment, composed of module use and module load commands.

Removed features and substantial behavior changes

Following sections provide list of Modules v3.2 features that are discontinued on Modules v4 or features with a substantial behavior change that should be taken in consideration when migrating to v4.

Package initialization

MODULESBEGINENV environment snapshot functionality is not supported anymore on Modules v4. Modules collection mechanism should be used instead to save and restore sets of enabled modulepaths and loaded modulefiles.

Command line switches

Some command line switches are not supported anymore on v4.0. When still using them, a warning message is displayed and the command is ran with these unsupported switches ignored. Following command line switches are concerned:

  • --force, -f
  • --human
  • --verbose, -v
  • --silent, -s
  • --create, -c
  • --icase, -i
  • --userlvl lvl, -u lvl

Module sub-commands

During an help sub-command, Modules v4 does not redirect output made on stdout in ModulesHelp Tcl procedure to stderr. Moreover when running help, version 4 interprets all the content of the modulefile, then call the ModulesHelp procedure if it exists, whereas Modules 3.2 only interprets the ModulesHelp procedure and not the rest of the modulefile content.

When load is asked on an already loaded modulefiles, Modules v4 ignores this new load order whereas v3.2 refreshed shell alias definitions found in this modulefile.

When switching on version 4 an old modulefile by a new one, no error is raised if old modulefile is not currently loaded. In this situation v3.2 threw an error and abort switch action. Additionally on switch sub-command, new modulefile does not keep the position held by old modulefile in loaded modules list on Modules v4 as it was the case on v3.2. Same goes for path-like environment variables: replaced path component is appended to the end or prepended to the beginning of the relative path-like variable, not appended or prepended relatively to the position hold by the swapped path component.

During a switch command, version 4 interprets the swapped-out modulefile in unload mode, so the sub-modulefiles loaded, with module load order in the swapped-out modulefile are also unloaded during the switch.

Modules 4 provides path element counting feature which increases a reference counter each time a given path entry is added to a given environment variable. This feature also applies to the MODULEPATH environment variable. As consequence a modulepath entry element is removed from the modulepath enabled list only if the related element counter is equal to 1. When unusing a modulepath if its reference counter is greater than 1, modulepath is kept enabled and reference counter is decreased by 1.

On Modules 3.2 paths composing the MODULEPATH environment variable may contain reference to environment variable. These variable references are resolved dynamically when MODULEPATH is looked at during module sub-command action. This feature has been discontinued on Modules v4.

Following Modules sub-commands are not supported anymore on v4.0:

  • clear
  • update

Modules specific Tcl commands

Modules v4 provides path element counting feature which increases a reference counter each time a given path entry is added to a given environment variable. As a consequence a path entry element is not always removed from a path-like variable when calling to remove-path or calling to append-path or append-path at unloading time. The path element is removed only if its related element counter is equal to 1. If this counter is greater than 1, path element is kept in variable and reference counter is decreased by 1.

On Modules v4, module-info mode returns during an unload sub-command the unload value instead of remove on Modules v3.2. However if mode is tested against remove value, true will be returned. During a switch sub-command on Modules v4, unload then load is returned instead of switch1 then switch2 then switch3 on Modules v3.2. However if mode is tested against switch value, true will be returned.

When using set-alias, Modules v3.2 defines a shell function when variables are in use in alias value on Bourne shell derivatives, Modules 4 always defines a shell alias never a shell function.

Some Modules specific Tcl commands are not supported anymore on v4.0. When still using them, a warning message is displayed and these unsupported Tcl commands are ignored. Following Modules specific Tcl commands are concerned:

  • module-info flags
  • module-info trace
  • module-info tracepat
  • module-info user
  • module-log
  • module-trace
  • module-user
  • module-verbosity

Further reading

To get a complete list of the differences between Modules v3.2 and v4, please read the Differences between versions 3.2 and 4 document.

A significant number of issues reported for v3.2 have been closed on v4. List of these closed issues can be found at:

https://github.com/cea-hpc/modules/milestone/1?closed=1