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3.6) Module: Switching


In certain situations, a module will refuse to be added, since it conflicts with another already part of your environment. For instance this will occur if:

  • an attempt is made to load a different version of an already loaded module
  • a module providing some functionality (e.g. Fortran/C/C++ compilers, is already loaded, and an attempt is made to load another module providing similar functionality

For example, with the Intel compilers loaded an attempt to load the GNU compilers will give:

$ module add gnu

gnu/native conflicts with loaded module ‘intel/13.1.3.192'’I

As there may be software packages depending on the compilers being present, using module rm intel, will not resolve the issue. Instead use the command:

$ module switch <old_mod> <new_mod>

For example:

$ module switch intel gnu