Backing up of existing modules¶
While regenerating existing module files, you may want to preserve the existing module files to compare and assess that the changes in the newly generated module file match expectations.
Backing up of existing modules can be enabled with --backup-modules.
Backups are stored in the same directory as where the module file was
located, and the files are given an additional extension of the form
.bak_<year><month><day><hour><min><sec>.
- With module files in Tcl syntax, the backup module file is hidden by
adding a leading dot to the filename; this is done to avoid that it
is displayed as a normal module in
module avail. - With module files in Lua syntax, the backup module file is not made
hidden (unless Lmod 6.x is used), since the additional
.bak_*extension prevents from picking it up as a valid module file; only files ending in.luaare considered to be module files by Lmod 7+.
The location of the backed up module file will be printed, as well as a
"unified diff" comparison (very similar to what diff -u produces)
between the backed up module file and the newly generated module file
(or a message mentioning that no differences were found).
Disabling automatic backup of modules¶
When --skip or --module-only is used, backing up of existing modules
is enabled automatically.
This can be disabled with --disable-backup-modules.
Example¶
Suppose existing modules in both Tcl & Lua syntax are present
(bzip2/1.0.6).
Both these module files are missing an update statement for $PATH
because the /bin subdirectory was missing in the installation, for the
purpose of this example:
$ ls -la $EASYBUILD_PREFIX/modules/all/bzip2
drwxrwsr-x 2 example example 4096 May 9 09:12 .
drwxrwsr-x 17 example example 4096 May 9 09:12 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 example example 1637 May 9 09:12 1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua
Using --force and --backup-modules, we can reinstall the
bzip2/1.0.6 modules and get a clear view on what has changed.
To reinstall the bzip2/1.0.6 module in Lua syntax while retaining a
backup of the existing module:
$ eb bzip2-1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.eb --module-syntax=Lua --force --backup-modules
...
== creating build dir, resetting environment...
== backup of existing module file stored at /example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua.bak_20230509091972_3578923
...
== creating module...
>> generating module file @ /example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua
== comparing module file with backup /example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua.bak_20230509091972_3578923; diff is:
--- /example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua.bak_20230509091972_3578923
+++ /example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua
@@ -25,9 +25,10 @@
prepend_path("LD_LIBRARY_PATH", pathJoin(root, "lib"))
prepend_path("LIBRARY_PATH", pathJoin(root, "lib"))
prepend_path("MANPATH", pathJoin(root, "man"))
+prepend_path("PATH", pathJoin(root, "bin"))
setenv("EBROOTBZIP2", root)
setenv("EBVERSIONBZIP2", "1.0.8")
setenv("EBDEVELBZIP2", pathJoin(root, "easybuild/bzip2-1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0-easybuild-devel"))
...
Equivalently, we can reinstall the module in Tcl syntax using:
eb bzip2-1.0.6.eb --module-syntax=Tcl --force --backup-modules
Afterwards, both the newly generated modules and the backups are in place:
$ ls -la $EASYBUILD_PREFIX/modules/all/bzip2
total 4
drwxrwsr-x 2 example example 4096 May 9 09:29 .
drwxrwsr-x 17 example example 4096 May 9 09:12 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 example example 1559 May 9 09:29 1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 example example 1637 May 9 09:12 1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.bak_20230509091754_3383740
-rw-rw-r-- 1 example example 1681 May 9 09:18 1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua
-rw-rw-r-- 1 example example 1637 May 9 09:12 1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua.bak_20230509091972_3578923
Cleaning up the backup module files can be done with the following command (for example):
$ find $EASYBUILD_PREFIX/modules/all/bzip2 -name '*.bak*' | xargs rm -v
removed 'example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.bak_20230509091754_3383740'
removed 'example/modules/all/bzip2/1.0.8-GCCcore-12.2.0.lua.bak_20230509091972_3578923'