Private Modules

Users on Tufts HPC cluster can create their own module files and load their own private modules to make using locally installed software easier.

1. Install your software

After installation, make sure you know the path to the software. Especially thebin lib or lib64 include and man if there are any.

2. Create your module file

The location of the module file is very important! If it’s misplaced, your module won’t show up.

Please put your own module file in your home directory, under privatemodules

Each software should have its own directory, such as mysoftware

And for each version of the software, there should be a module file, such as v1.0.0

The overall structure should be:

/cluster/home/$USER/privatemodules/mysoftware/v1.0.0

Now let’s work on the content of the file.

You can reference/borrow existing module files on the cluster

For simple software, you can use “cmake/3.18” as a template

$ module av cmake

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ /opt/shared/Modules/modulefiles-rhel6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cmake/2.8      cmake/2.8.11.2 cmake/3.2.1    cmake/3.4.3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /cluster/tufts/hpc/tools/module ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cmake/3.18     cmake/3.23_gui

To take a look at the module file:

$ cat /cluster/tufts/hpc/tools/module/cmake/3.18

#%Module -*- tcl -*-
#
# cmake 3.18
# 
#

set ver 3.18

proc ModulesHelp { } {
  global ver
  puts stderr "\tThis module sets up the cmake 3.18 environment installed by DM in hpc_tools, version $ver "
}

module-whatis   "load cmake 3.18"


prepend-path PATH /cluster/tufts/hpc/tools/spack/linux-rhel7-ivybridge/gcc-8.4.0/cmake-3.18.2-r2hx6rewcozqvda5gfo7rouhzlqy2k6t/bin

#
# appended log section
# 

if {[module-info mode "load"]} {
  global env
  if {[info exists env(USER)]} {
    set the_user [lindex [array get env USER] 1]
  } else {
    set the_user "foo"
  }
  system [concat "logger environment-modules" [module-info name] $the_user ]
}

Most of the content is informational.

The most important function part of the module file would be the prepend-path line, it adds the cmake bin directory path to the environment variable PATH so that the system will be able to find the cmake executables.

If your software requires other environment variables such as LD_LIBRARY_PATH or CPATH to be set to function, then you should prepend-path those variables as well with the appropriate directories.

Once your module file is ready. Save it.

3. Load Your Own Module

In order to enable the usage of private module, use.own module needs to be loaded first:

$ module load use.own

Now you can check your own module

$ module av mysoftware

And it should show up as:

------------- /cluster/home/$USER/privatemodules ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mysoftware/v1.0.0   

You can load it just like other modules on the cluster:

$ module load my software/v1.0.0

:)