Modules

Preliminaries

Modules are a powerful tool for specifying the environment used to build and run fds. You may change the environment dynamically by unloading one module and loading another. The most used module commands are:

• module avail - show all available modules
• module list - list all modules that are currently loaded
• module load modulename - load a module named module name
• module unload modulename - unload a module named module name

Using the installed FDS

add the following lines to your startup file

export MODULEPATH=$HOME/FDS/FDS6/bin/modules:$MODULEPATH
module load FDS6

change the MODULEPATH line to where you installed fds

Using the repo FDS

add the following lines to your startup file

module load openmpi/211_64ib

Change the module line to the openmpi module you want to use.

Setting up modules on a Mac

Installing the environment-modules package in your Mac through Homebrew

If you haven't already installed the Homebrew package manager on you system, go to https://brew.sh and follow their installation guidelines. You need to open a terminal and paste the Homebrew install line they provide (using ruby). Once Homebrew is installed, update, upgrade and install modules:

>>brew update
>>brew upgrade
>>brew install modules

Add the following source line to your ~/.bash_profile environment initialization file:

source /usr/local/opt/modules/Modules/init/bash

Save your changes on the ~/.bash_profile file and open a new terminal. You should be all set to use modules.

Loading the FDS6 bundle as a module in your Mac

Setting up modules on Ubuntu Linux

Installing the environment-modules package in Ubuntu

Open a Terminal and type:

>>sudo apt-get update
>>sudo apt-get upgrade
>>sudo apt-get install environment-modules*

Provide your super user password. This should install the latest environment modules package from external repository. Now you can check if the modules package initialization script has been installed in /usr/share/modules/init. Type:

>>test -e /usr/share/modules/init/bash && echo "bash found" || echo "bash not found" 

It should return bash found. Next, add the following line in your ~/.bashrc environment initialization file:

source /usr/share/modules/init/bash

This line will define the module procedure and make it available for use on your session. Note that the location on this line of modulecmd is the same as what was found previously. Save your changes on the ~/.bashrc file and open a new terminal. You should be all set to use modules.

Loading the FDS6 bundle as a module in Linux

Download and install the FDS-SMV bundle for linux in your computer. Suppose you install FDS in the directory /home/myuser. The install script for the bundle will tell you that if you use modules, add the lines defined in the "Using the installed FDS" section:

export MODULEPATH=/home/myuser/FDS/FDS6/bin/modules:$MODULEPATH
module load FDS6

at the end of your ~/.bashrc file. Add those lines, which will responsible to load the FDS6 module and all the environment variables you need to run the downloaded fds and smokeview. Save your changes and open another terminal. Type:

>>which fds

It should return the location of your just installed fds program:

/home/myuser/FDS/FDS6/bin/fds

Also type:

>>which mpirun

And it should return the location of the bundles openmpi run executable:

/home/myuser/FDS/FDS6/bin/openmpi_64/bin/mpirun

At this point you should be set to use fds.