On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Andrew Mather via luv-main < luv-main@luv.asn.au> wrote:

We use the "modules" environment (TACC's lmod implementation specifically) for this type of thing.

https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/research-development/tacc-projects/lmod

It allows multiple versions of packages to exist without library collisions and so on. Loading the appropriate modules allows the user to set up the execution environment and even swap between versions if necessary.

I was a late conversion, but wouldn't be without now.

From Lev's talks, modules are used in most all the HPC environments so

that versions of compilers and other tools can remain stable. So introducing lmod modules to students early may be worthwhile.