README

Lmod 6.1:
Bug Fixes:
   a) The command module spider would fail to find a module if a
      site had the spider cache file dbT.lua files and a user
      had personal modulefiles. This is now fixed.
   b) Two or more .version files could confused Lmod.  This
      is now fixed.
   c) Lmod can now find UPPER CASE string when doing
      "module key ..."
   d) Lmod now ignore the value of PAGER, instead it uses
      LMOD_PAGER (default "less") and LMOD_PAGER_OPTS
      (default "-XqRMEF").  This allows for consistent behavior
      under systems like the Cray and Mac OS X.

Lmod 6.0.1:
Bug Fixes:
   a) This version now contains the contrib/tracking_module_usage
      directory.
   b) This version fixes a bug when trying to run module avail
      or module spider with an old cache file.


Lmod Version 6.0
Features:
   a) Full support for global RC files as well as .modulerc files.
      This means that $MODULERCFILE will be read along with
      ~/.modulerc. Also .modulerc files are read when they appear
      in the same directory and the version files (i.e. the same
      directory as 1.2 or 2.1.lua). One caveat, Setting the default
      module version in $MODULERCFILE or ~/.modulerc is not
      supported due Spider cache issues
   b) Instructions on how to save module usage data to a MySQL
      database along with scripts to analyze the usage are in
      contrib/tracking_module_usage/README.
   c) Adding an exit hook.  This makes for more accurate tracking of
      module usage. See README above as to why this is a good idea.
   d) Some minor speed-ups and minimizing of directory tree walking.


Lmod Version 5.9.3
Features:
   a) Lmod has been ported to Lua 5.3.
   b) Thanks to Kenneth Hoste, a parameterized script, called
      update_lmod_system_cache_files, to build system spider caches
      has been added as part of Lmod. There is no need to modify
      createSystemCacheFile.sh (in contrib/BuildSystemCacheFile)
      to suit your site.
   c) Sites and users now have a choice about restores from a
      saved collection. Normally Lmod will follow defaults when
      restoring.  That is if you saved a collection with a default
      module, Lmod will load the default upon restore, even if the
      default module has changed.  By configuring Lmod, you can
      keep the same versions.  Users can control this by setting
      LMOD_PIN_VERSIONS to true, or --pin_versions.

Lmod Version 5.9.1
Bug fixes
   a) The spider cache is now ignored on unloads, show as well as
      loads.
   b) Lmod treats symlink directories and files much more quickly.
      It also means that Lmod DOES NOT resolve two symlink
      directories pointing to the same place.  It is too expensive
      to resolve that on parallel file systems.
   c) Initialization with Csh now works even when $TERM is not
      set.
Features:
   a) Bash and Zsh tab-completion now support module restore <tab>
      with the savelist.
   b) The standard setup sets LMOD_VERSION as part of the startup
      procedure.

Lmod Version 5.9
Feature:
   a) Several changes to support faster avail with the spider cache.
      This change requires updating the way the system spider cache
      is built.  See contrib/BuildSystemCacheFile/README.txt.  On an
      ssd laptop "ml av" is twice as fast.  On two different HPC system
      I have seen 4 times speed improvement.

Bug Fixes:
   a) Fixed a bug where LUA_INCLUDE was not set.

Lmod Version 5.8.6
Bug Fixes:
   a) Fixed a bug several modulefiles where marked as default
   b) Two different fixes which will improve the speed of
      reading the the cache file.
   c) Configure will now abort if either tclsh or lua.h is
      required but not available.

Lmod Version 5.8.5
Features/Bug fixes:
   a) Fixed bug where the system spider cache was ignored.  This bug
      was introduced in 5.8.  It is fixed now.
   b) Support for disabling same name autoswapping added.  This is
      not active by default.
   c) Removed extra newlines when doing module list.
   d) Correctly handle symlink directories with MODULEPATH.
   e) Improved Spider support where module names have "-"
   f) Fixed problem where lmodrc.lua was left out in tar ball.
   g) Fixed problem where src/ignore_dirs_converter was left out
      in tar ball.

Lmod Version 5.8
Features/Bug fixes:
   a) Lmod support auto swapping instead of producing an error.
   b) The init/bash.in and init/cshrc add a trailing colon to
      MANPATH if it is empty
   c) Fixes bug in ml tab completion for zsh.
   d) setenv, prepend_path, etc now trim any leading or trailing
      blanks around name: prepend_path(" MANPATH ","/opt/apps/...")
      is now the same as prepend_path("MANPATH","/opt/apps/...")
   e) The module command (and not ml) support combining of single
      letter options.  "module -dw=60 avail" is the same as
      "module -d -w=60 avail".
   f) If a module collection file gets corrupted, Lmod now reports
      that the collection file is corrupted and tells the user to
      remove it.
   g) Lmod now support "module swap <name>" which is exactly the
      same as "module load <name>".  The module <name> is unloaded
      and then reloaded.
   h) Sites can configure for exporting the module shell function
      in bash or not.


Lmod Version 5.7.5:
Features/Bug fixes:
   a) "module use" and "ml use" now will work with tab completion
      under bash. (It worked before for zsh).
   b) New option, --spider_timeout sec is added.  Reason: When
      Lmod can not load a module, it does a module spider to
      see if the module exists but isn't loadable.  Now Lmod
      doesn't do the spider when in LMOD_EXPERT mode.  It also
      times out after 2 seconds.  If Lmod can't tell you quickly
      if a module exists, why do it.
   c) New configuration option --with-ignoreDirs.  By default
      Lmod will ignore directories named .svn, .git, .hg and .bzr
      in the Module directories. If you use CVS, RCS or SCCS to
      source control your modulefiles, you will need configure
      Lmod to know about those directories.
   d) New avail hook added.  You can regroup the output of avail.
      The avail hook gets a table of current directories that avail
      will list.  Your routine can relabel them.  The input looks
      like this:

         t = {
	    ['/path/to/IntelCmp/mfiles'] = "/path/to/IntelCmp/mfiles"
	    ['/path/to/core/mfiles']     = "/path/to/core/mfiles"
	 }
	
      Your routine can relabel and change the labels

         t = {
	    ['/path/to/IntelCmp/mfiles'] = "Compiler Dependent"
	    ['/path/to/core/mfiles']     = "Core Modules"
	 }
      You can also group them
         t = {
	    ['/path/to/IntelCmp/mfiles'] = "Modules"
	    ['/path/to/core/mfiles']     = "Modules"
	 }
      In the last case intel modules and core modules will be
      grouped together.
   e) Better handling of zsh tab completion files.  Lmod will
      continue to install even when a site's zsh setup is
      broken.
   f) New option, --show_hidden, has been added. This is used
      with avail to show "hidden" modulefiles.  That is module
      files that start with a "."

Lmod Version 5.7.4
Features/Bug fixes:
   a) Improved support for redirecting output to stdout.  Now show,
      and help will write to stdout if LMOD_REDIRECT=yes.
   b) module show unknown will set the return error code if "unknown"
      doesn't exist.
   c) "module --terse spider phdf5" will now produce a terse output.
   d) a module file can do setenv("FOO","") and set the env.var to an
      empty string.
   e) Support for empty strings "" in paths are better supported.

Lmod Version 5.7.2
Features:
   a) This version supports (an optional) sending the output of avail, list,
      spider and keyword stdout instead of stderr.  This available as a
      configure option, an environment variable (LMOD_REDIRECT=yes) or
      module --redirect avail.

      Note that if you use this option the internal pager is off.


Lmod Version 5.7
Features:
   a) Lmod is now more efficient when loading and unloading
      modulefiles that modify MODULEPATH when there is no
      cache file.
   b) Lmod now reports that lua-term is active or not when
      "module --config". This is there so that if Lmod is
      built on a system that as a system lua-term on one and
      is installed on a different system that doesn't.
   c) module spider now reports module version in "parseVersion"
      order. (i.e 0.7.10 is newer than 0.7.2)
   d) Internally Lmod sets LC_ALL=C so that a user's Locale does
      not effect its behavior.

Bug Fixes:
   a) Lmod can now handle TCL modulefiles that use
      "puts --nonewline ..."
   b) TCL whatis with multiple arguments is now correctly handled.
   c) Changed require("posix")  to local posix=require("posix")

Lmod Version 5.6.3
Bug Fixes:
   a) Lmod now correctly handles prepending multiple directories to
      MODULEPATH in one prepend_path.

Lmod Version 5.6.2
Bug Fixes:
   a) LMOD_EXPERT is now also turns on quiet mode.  It was removed
      accidently in 5.6.1 and is now restored.
   b) Lmod had a bug where it tracked prereq, conflict and family
      commands in module collections where it didn't need to.
      This means that some users will have to rebuild their module
      collections when they shouldn't have to.

Lmod Version 5.6.1
Features:
   a) The environment variable LMOD_OPTIONS can be use to specify
      command line options to LMOD:  export LMOD_OPTIONS="--quiet"
   b) The environment variable LMOD_PAGER can use to specify the pager
      that Lmod will use, otherwise PAGER is used or "more"
   c) the -q or --quiet option suppresses messages and warnings (but not
      errors).
Bug Fix:
   a) Executing "module list" when there no modules loaded is a message
      and not a warning.

Lmod Version 5.6
Major Bug Fix:
   Two bugs I have un-earthed cancelled each other all related to saved
   collections.  The upshot is that many users will have get a message
   that they have to rebuild their collection because the modules have
   changed.  This isn't true but they will have to anyway.  I now have
   tests which will guard against this from happening  again.  I
   apologize  for this bug.


Bug Fixes:
   a) Lmod is supposed to error out if the modules in a named
      collection changed in a way such that the loaded modules would be
      different from loading directly.  This is fixed.
   b) This version correctly handles prepending to the MODULEPATH outside
      of Lmod
   c) Lmod now correctly handles symlinks to a template in the same
      directory.  Lmod also support the three ways to mark a default
      with this setup as well.
   d) Lmod now correctly handles "module-info mode" command in tcl
      modulefiles.
   e) tcl2lua.sh improvements to supports Cray modules.

Feature:
   a) Support for .modulerc in modulefile directory only.  This file can
      be used to specify the default module only.  No support for System
      .modulerc or user ~/.modulerc

Lmod Version 5.5.1:
Bug Fixes:
   a) Fixed bug where setting the priority twice caused an error. This is now
      fixed.
   b) A meta module that starts with "." will not seen by avail and spider.

Lmod Version 5.5:
Feature:
   a) priorities can now be used with "module use":
      $ module use --priority 100 /path/to/modulefiles


Bug Fixes:
   a) Configuring on a system where tclsh is not found is handled better.
   b) When doing module avail where MODULEPATH points only to non-existant
      path it now reports that Lmod can not do a module avail.


Lmod Version 5.4.2:
Feature:
   a) Sites with common home file system can use named collections that are
      differentiated by LMOD_SYSTEM_NAME.   This means that if the environment
      variable LMOD_SYSTEM_NAME is set to "foo" then the default collection will
      be saved to and restored from "default.foo".  Other named collections work
      the same way.

Bug Fix:
   a) TCL modules can now have:
        puts "message"
      as well.


Lmod Version 5.4.1:
   Added License file to tar ball.

Lmod Version 5.4:
Features:
   a) prepend_path now supports a priority.  This means that no matter when
      a module is loaded a path will pushed to be first:

      	 prepend_path{"PATH","/first",priority=100}  -- lua
      	 prepend-path  PATH   /first           100   #  tcl


      Note the use of {} braces for lua. The braces are only required when
      specifying the priority, otherwise parens work fine.  Priority works
      for append_path as well.  It just pushes paths to the right end.  By
      default, a path has a priority of zero.  Paths will a priority of 100
      are grouped together. Paths with a priority of 1000 are grouped
      together to the left of the paths with a priority of 100.  The priority
      for prepend_path are useful for wrappers.  The priority for append_path
      is great for catch-alls.
   b) Lmod now generates "LOADEDMODULES" and "_LMFILES_" to match TCL/C env.
      modules.
   c) Lmod now purges modules in reverse order that the module were loaded.
      This helps when reading Cray modulefiles.
   d) Lmod ships with lua-term and JSON4lua but will use the system lua-term
      and lua-json if available.
   e) added "--raw" to "module --raw show module".  This just prints out the
      "raw" modulefile.
   f) Lmod now adds the env. var LMOD_SYSTEM_NAME to the user cache file. So
      if LMOD_SYSTEM_NAME is Bar and on a intel system the cache file will be
      ~/.lmod.d/.cache/moduleT.Bar_x86_64.lua
   g) To match TCL/C modules, the reverse of the module file commands
      remove_path, unload, etc now does nothing rather-than producing an
      error.
   h) Support for a .version file with time to change the default:

           #%Module1.0##################################################
           set ModulesVersion        "1.4.3"
           set NewModulesVersion     "1.6.5"
           set NewModulesVersionDate "2014/04/25"

      Note that the date is in yyyy/mm/dd format. This way it is neither an
      American or European format.
   i) To support both rpm and debian package rules, the system .settarg.lua
      file is renamed to settarg_rc.lua.  The .lmodrc.lua file has been
      renamed to lmodrc.lua.   User versions of these files remains the same:
      ".settarg.lua" and ".lmodrc.lua".

Bug Fixes:
   a) There was a bug with avail and spider where it would not find modules
      with a dash.  This was fixed between version 5.2.3 and now.
   b) There was a bug with "module -r spider "^phdf5/1.8.12$" where it would
      say that the module wasn't there and yet it was.  This has been fixed.
   c) Improved the wording of "module load foo/1.2" when foo/1.2 existed and
      when it didn't.  (Thanks to Alex Moskalenko for the fix)
   d) Lmod would do wrong when "module unload gcc mpich".  It would make
      mpich inactive.  This is fixed.
   e) Fixed bug where if there is a symbolic link to the modulefile it wouldn't
      mark the default module correctly.

Lmod Version 5.3.2:
Bug Fix:
   a) Fixed problem with symlink directories and picking the right default.
   b) Fixed a bug where .version did not find the right default.

Lmod Version 5.3.1:
Feature:
   a) added tool "sh_to_modulefile" to convert a bash shell script into
      a lua based shell script.:

   $ sh_to_modulefile -o intel-14.0.2.lua  /a/intel/bin/iccvars.sh intel64

   note that you can give argument to the shell script.


Lmod Version 5.3:
Features:
   a) Searching for avail, spider and list are case-insensitive.
      Lua regexp searching now requires a "-r" option
   b) The modulefile function isloaded() takes atleast, between and latest:
        isloaded(atleast("Foo","1.2"))
   c) Spider searching improved.  When an exact match is found Lmod reports
      other possible matches:

     R: R/2.1.5
       Other possible modules matches:
          PrgEnv, greenlet, parmetis, r


Bug Fix:
   a) Quotes inside a whatis or help message are properly escaped.
   b) Better handling of nested modules by fixing load order.

Lmod Version 5.2.4:
Feature:
  a) Lmod can be configured to ignore TCL module files.

Lmod Version 5.2.3:
Bug Fixes:
  a) Prereq now works with a version.
  b) The function "always_load" works with show.
  c) The "make install" now works and doesn't complain about not being a
     git repository.

Lmod Version 5.2:
Features:
  a) Modulefiles can mix load commands and setenv's and still be saved and restored.
  b) In Lua modulefiles you can modify load function behavior:
        load(atleast("a","1.2"))       -- load module "a" with version 1.2
                                       -- or higher.
        load(between("b","1.2","1.4")  -- load module "b" with version between
                                       -- 1.2 and 1.4.
        load(latest("c"))              -- load latest version of "c", ignore
                                       -- marked default.

     This only works in Lua module files, and works on all load functions:
     load, always_load.
  c) In Lua modulefiles you can modify prereq function behavior:
        prereq(atleast("a","1.2"))      -- Module "a" must be version 1.2
                                        -- or higher.
        prereq(between("b","1.2","1.4") -- Module "b" must be version between
                                        -- 1.2 and 1.4.
        prereq(latest("c"))             -- Module "c" must be latest possible

     This only works in Lua module files, and works on all prereq functions:
     prereq, prereq_any.


Lmod Version 5.1.5:
Bug Fixes:
  a) Changes in the terse output for avail and spider.  A directory
     that contains module versions has a trailing "/"
  b) The environment that a module sees (and only in that environment).
     Lmod defines the following variables shown with their current values:
        LMOD_VERSION:          5.1.5
        LMOD_VERSION_MAJOR:    5
        LMOD_VERSION_MINOR:    1
        LMOD_VERSION_SUBMINOR: 5

  c) Module function to do version comparison (only for lua based modulefiles):

       if (convertToCanonical(LmodVersion()) > convertToCanonical("5.0")) then
          -- Do something that is only valid for Lmod 5.0 or greater
       end

    The function convertToCanonical() knows how to deal with alpha, beta,
    and rc version and the function LmodVersion() returns the current
    version of Lmod.


Lmod Version 5.1.1:
Bug Fixes and internal improvements
  a) Lmod can now find all the dot module files.
  b) Fixed bug with inherit()
  c) Settarg nolonger tries to control all TARG_* variables.
  d) Better handling of "Rebuild cache ..." line.
  e) Improvements to the execute function.
  f) "module --mt" prints the module table
  g) "settarg --stt" prints the settarg table.

Lmod Version 5.1.0:

Version 5.1.0 now supports the following new features:

a) module --ignore_cache which tells Lmod to ignore the cache even if it
   exists.

b) module --config reports how lmod was configured.

c) Lmod no longer walks the directory tree on command like list and
   unload.

d) The pager is now used only when TERM is defined and stderr is
   connected to a tty (this includes a pty: pseudo tty).

e) The system startup scripts (init/profile, and init/cshrc) that
   are usually linked to modules.sh and modules.csh in /etc/profile.d
   contains now modulefiles: lmod and settarg.  Please consider using
   this as defined or moving these module files into your normal
   MODULEPATH.

f) Support for settarg has been added for Bash, Zsh and Tcsh users.

g) See README.old for features added in earlier versions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is Settarg?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Settarg is new module that accesses a new tool to dynamically and
automatically updates "$TARG" and a host of other environment
variables. These new environment variables encapsulate the state of
the modules loaded.

                        *** NOTE ****

Please note that settarg feature is optional and is implemented as a
module.  If and only if the settarg module is loaded you get the new
behavior.  You can load and unload the settarg module at will to turn
on and off these new features.  Settarg does work for tcsh users as
well a feat not to be scoffed at! Unfortunately regular csh is
missing necessary features for it to work.

                        *** NOTE ****


For example, if I have the gcc/4.7.2 module loaded
and the new settarg module loaded I get the following variables
defined in my environment.


   TARG=OBJ/_x86_64_06_1a_gcc-4.7.3
   TARG_COMPILER=gcc-4.7.3
   TARG_COMPILER_FAMILY=gcc
   TARG_MACH=x86_64_06_1a

If I change my compiler to intel/13.1.0, these variables change to:

   TARG=OBJ/_x86_64_06_1a_intel-13.1.0
   TARG_COMPILER=intel-13.1.0
   TARG_COMPILER_FAMILY=intel
   TARG_MACH=x86_64_06_1a

This was designed to help me as a developer of software applications
where I am constantly changing compilers, mpi stacks and other
modules. These variable are used to set the compiler flags and other
things in my Makefiles to control how my application is built. In my
case $TARG the directory is where the the objects, libraries and
executables are placed during the build process. It easy to have the
title bar reflect the dynamic state of your modules. You can
abbreviate items mentioned in the titlebar.  I have found this
combination of settarg and Lmod to be a powerful development
tool. Even if this workflow is not yours, you may find parts of this
useful.

For a more complete tour of settargs features see:
contrib/settarg/Settarg.txt and the Make example in
contrib/settarg/make_example.