This package aims to mimic some of the functionality provided by the Tcl modules program, which can be used to set up a shell environment as desired. So called module files contain information on e.g. PATH or LD_LIBRARY_PATH settings and modify these environment variables accordingly.

Although the name implies that this program can do everything that the original modules can but better, this is not exactly true. The main goal is to provide some functions of the original modules, but without the hassle of installing Tcl or modules itself, or handling Tcl code.

• Completely written in Python
• Installation-free
• Built-in documentation for commands
• Partial commands
• Module file syntax:
  • Append/prepend environment variables of path and string type
  • Set environment variables while preserving previous values
  • Print messages on loading/unloading
• Nicely formatted and colorized output
• Modules organized by categories
• Built-in documentation for modules
• Bash autocomplete for subcommands

Planned (in a land far, far away):

• Support other shells than bash
• Support a richer modulefile syntax

• Python (>= 2.6)
• Bash (>= 4.1)
• any Unix-like OS that
  • uses \n as the newline separator

In order to obtain Modm, just clone the repository into a directory of your choice, e.g.

git clone https://github.com/sloede/modm.git path/to/modm

This will get you the latest and coolest version of Modm. Note that the current repository HEAD might contain experimental changes that will disappear later on, also it might have the odd unresolved bug in it (although I try not to push to GitHub if there is still something wrong).

If you need to be sure that the Modm version you get is stable, check out the latest tagged version of Modm. The repository is tagged from time to time when a stable version of Modm has been reached, thus the tagged commits should be error-free.

If you want the latest stable version, list all available tags using

git tag

in your cloned repository. Then scroll down for the highest version number (e.g. v1.0) and check it out with

git checkout tags/v1.0

Alternatively, have a look at the Releases tab on the GitHub website: https://github.com/sloede/modm

Wait a minute! Installation-free it says up there! What the hell?

Well, the things you have to do are so minuscule, it is ridiculous. You only need to edit one file to adapt Modm to your needs:

Set the correct path to your modm.py file and your default modules path. Users can override the default path or add their own modules by prepending to the path, just like it works with the Bash PATH variable. You can also set an admin email variable so that users know who to ask if they encounter internal errors (oops...).

You need to do this only once per installation.

In one of the Bash configuration files that are sourced at startup/login, modm-init.sh must be sourced, i.e. like so:

source path/to/modm/installation/modm-init.sh

This makes the modm command available in the shell.

You need to do this for each users that wishes to use modm. Alternatively, if you have access to it, you could also put this in /etc/profile so that it is sourced for all users. And don't worry - sourcing modm-init.sh multiple times does not create any problems.

After installation, make sure that the modm-init.sh is sourced properly, e.g. by logging out and in again. Then just execute modm in the shell and let the built-in documentation take it from there.

Note: If you want to know how you can further tweak your installation of Modm (either as the admin or a normal user), run modm config and check the environment variables listed there.

This project was heavily influenced by the modules package developed by John L. Furlani and Peter W. Osel (see http://modules.sourceforge.net). In fact, the initial intent was to create a simple replacement for modules that provides the same key commands but without the hassle of installing Tcl. Many commands have the same name in Modm and modules and the overall user interface was inspired by the ease of use that comes with the original tool.