Re: [Modules] Get list of available (virtual) modules from within .modulerc

[Bloecker, M. <Mar...@am...>]

Hi Xavier and Mailing List Members,

Following your advice I’m now trying to set up virtual modules for the two namespaces ‘vendor/software’ and ‘localized-software’. As mentioned earlier we want modules to be maintained in self-contained software-specific directories and thus would want to define these virtual modules in the same .modulerc file (e.g. $MODULEPATH/vendor/software/.modulerc). The example below demonstrates the current behavior. It references a copy of the ‘null’ module file that comes with the modules installation:

#%Module4.7
# vim: set tabstop=4 expandtab shiftwidth=4 textwidth=80 wrapmargin=5 :

# $MODULEPATH/vendor/software/.modulerc
                                                # module    module
                                                # avail?    loadable?   comment

module-virtual 1.0                      null    # no        no          no error message
module-virtual /2.0                     null    # yes       yes         loads vendor/software/2.0
module-virtual software/3.0             null    # no        no          no error message
module-virtual vendor/software/4.0      null    # yes       yes         no error message

module-virtual localized-software/5.0   null    # yes       no          no error message

# command below defines module 'localized-software/6.0'
set ref_module [file join [ file dirname [ file normalize [ info script ] ] ] null]
module-virtual localized-software/6.0   $ref_module
                                        null    # yes       no          no error message

The problem we encounter is that the virtual ‘localized-software’ modules are defined (i.e. are displayed by module avail) but cannot be loaded. In either case (relative or absolute module path definition) both
module load localized-software/5.0
and
module load localized-software/6.0
result in the error
ERROR: Unable to locate a modulefile for 'localized-software'

I know that this can be made to work when defining the virtual modules in the root .modulerc file but as mentioned above I’m looking for a ‘self-contained’ solution where all required module related code is under the same subdirectory. Is this possible somehow? If not: Shouldn’t parsing the .modulerc file issue a WARNING that virtual modules are being defined that later on will not/cannot be found?

Best Regards,

Martin