Re: [Modules] unload/load versus switch

[Laurent B. <lau...@ea...>]

Maybe documentation could be more clear on what is actually a « root name ».

From my initial understanding, when I source the following lines :

module switch others/texlive/2022
module switch others/nodejs/16.17.1

I was expexting the root name of these two modules to be respectively :

others/texlive
others/nodejs

So the second « module switch others/nodejs/16.17.1» command was not supposed to « unload » the first module « others/texlive/2022 » as they do not share the same « root name »

Apparently, I’m wrong. What is the real algorithm to define the « root name » of a module ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

De : Xavier Delaruelle <xav...@gm...>
Envoyé : mardi 18 novembre 2025 17:28
À : Environment Modules usage and discussion. <mod...@li...>
Objet : Re: [Modules] unload/load versus switch

Hello Laurent

This is due to the fact that your modules share same apps or others root name.

If you enable the new conflict_unload option you may simply module loaded the target module.

Cheers,
Xavier

Le mar. 18 nov. 2025, 10:16, Laurent BESSON <lau...@ea...<mailto:lau...@ea...>> a écrit :
Hello dear Modules community,

Naively, I thought « module switch » would be a nice , more compact, way of writing « module unload / module load ». But either I stumbled on a bug or Modules does not work as I expected 😊

Here is the context. I was previously sourcing this script :

module unload  others/texlive
module load others/texlive

module unload apps/python
module load apps/python/3.9.6

module unload apps/fltExport
module load apps/fltExport/v2.017

module unload others/nodejs
module load others/nodejs/16.17 .1

So I thought it would be nice, more readable, to write it this way :

module switch others/texlive/2022
module switch apps/python/3.9.6
module switch apps/fltExport/v2.017
module switch others/nodejs/16.17.1

But, when starting from a fresh terminal where no tool has been set, It ends up with these 2 modules only:

… 1) apps/fltExport/v2.017   2) others/nodejs/16.17.1

I was expecting to have loaded also « others/texlive » and « apps/python/3.9.6 ».

So I read the documentation with more attention on the « switch » command. It says :

Switch loaded modulefile1 with modulefile2. If modulefile1 is not specified, then it is assumed to be the currently loaded module with the same root name as modulefile2.

So it seems that when I run « module switch apps/fltExport/v2.017 », it unload the first module that match the « root name »and it unloads« apps » thus unload « apps/python/3.9.6 »

Do I understand it correctly ? Is it the expected behavior ?
In fact, I thought Modules would try to unload « apps/fltExport/<any version> » when running « module switch apps/fltExport/v2.017 ».

What do you think ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

PS : I found an intermediate syntax that works :

module switch others/texlive others/texlive/2022
module switch apps/python    apps/python/3.9.6
module switch apps/fltExport apps/fltExport/v2.017
module switch others/nodejs  others/nodejs/16.17.1
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