Using Modules

Software on our Linux systems is available via a system called “modules” which makes available multiple versions of each program.  This is a brief overview of how to use the modules system to load and run software. For a more indepth look at using modules, please see HowTo: Environment Modules

Below are shown some common commands using the program ‘fsl’ as an example.

This command will give you a list of available modules and below is a shortened list of what you’ll see.

c5:~> module avail

fsl/5.0.4 fsl/4.1.0
fsl/5.0.8 fsl/4.1.9(default)
matlab/r2015a R/3.1.2
matlab/r2015b(default) R/3.2.3(default)
ompi/1.10.1(default) stata/12.1
python/canopy/2.7 stata/13.1(default)

The following command loads fsl version 4.1.9 as it’s the default in the above list:

c5:~> module load fsl

To load the fsl 5.0.8 module, specify the version in the command:

c5:~> module load fsl/5.0.8
FSL 5.0.8: loaded
 
 This command will tell you which version of fsl is currently loaded
c5:~> which fsl
/pkg/software_depot/bliss/fsl-5.0.8/bin/fsl
 

Run the Program

Once the module has been loaded, run it as normal.

c5:~> fsl
 

Optionally, if you want to keep the terminal available to run additional programs, add an ampersand

c5:~> fsl &

Exit

c5:~> exit
compute:~> exit
 
A complete list of module commands is available at http://modules.sourceforge.net/man/module.html