Default and latest version specifiers¶

Configuration¶

Rely on advanced_version_spec option
- No need for an extra configuration option
- When option is on it automatically enables use of these two new version specifiers
- When advanced_version_spec is off, mod@latest is considered as a modulefile name to find
- in case implicit_default is disabled
  - means a default symbol or a latest symbol should be found defined to respectively make use of the @default or @latest specifiers
  - a not found error is otherwise raised, as specified version does not exist

Specification¶

When a default or a latest symbol is defined
- @default or respectively @latest will resolve to the symbol target
When no default or latest symbol is defined
- @default and @latest point to the highest existing version (also called the implicit default)
- note that if a default symbol is defined but not a latest symbol, @default points to the defined default and @latest points to the highest version that exists
default or latest version specifiers can be employed:
- in single version specification: @default or @latest
- in version list: @vers1,default or @latest,default,vers2
default or latest version specifiers cannot be employed in version range
- otherwise an error is raised
default or latest version specifiers can also be specified with the traditional mod/version syntax
- for instance mod/default or mod/latest
When a default or latest modulefile exists
- @default or respectively @latest will resolve to the existing modulefile
- no automatic symbol will be recorded in this case as default or latest are regular versions
To be included in module search result, the version specifiers should fully match search query or search query should not target a specific module version
- the automatically defined symbolic versions are included in results for queries like mod@latest or mod
- but not for queries like mod@la, mod@def, mod@lat*, mod@def??lt
Automatically defined default and latest version specifiers are not displayed to avoid overloading output:
- on module list output
- on module avail output
- those two sub-commands only display symbolic versions manually defined
Alternative module names deduced from the automatically defined version specifiers need to be tracked
- in loaded environment for each targeted module loaded
- to keep track loaded module is default or latest version
- thus keeping ability to answer queries like is-loaded mod@latest from further modulefile evaluation or module command-line
- this information is kept in the __MODULES_LMALTNAME environment variable, along other alternative names
- Auto symbols in this variable are recorded with a as| prefix to distinguish them from other alternative names
  - for instance mod/1.2&mod/regular_symbol&as|mod/latest
  - it helps to filter auto symbols from regular symbols that need to be displayed