Software

Whenever you want to perform more complex computational tasks, you might use already existing pieces of software. These are essentially bundles of scripts carrying out a series of computational tasks with many dependencies. In order to install these pieces of software, you could (from easiest to hardest):

• Ask your friendly sysadmin to install it for you

• Use a docker or singularity image

• Install it using Conda

• Install it from scratch, including libraries, dependencies and ensuring that it does not clash with any existing installations

As these installation processes can be time consuming and tedious, we have a well-maintained module system with pre-installed and continuously updated versions of software which is commonly used. This pre-installed software automatically loads the required libraries and dependencies and thereby avoids clashes.

# Commands for using the module system
ml or module                base command; list loaded modules
ml avail                    list available modules
ml <name> or ml load <name> load named module
ml unload <name>            unload named module; after use
ml purge                    unload all loaded modules
ml spider <name>            search modules for name