Conference notes for 2026 03 03 - TACC/Lmod GitHub Wiki

Lmod Meeting 03/03/2026

Attendees

  • Robert McLay (TACC, Retired)
  • Matthew Cawood (TACC)
  • Taylor Ishisaka (TACC)
  • Ake Sandgren
  • Kurt Lust (UAntwerp)

Agenda

Development since last group meeting

  • Issue #805: Load failure suggestion improvements (merged)

    • Follow-up to #804 (“show command to load module on failure”)
    • Fix incorrect suggestions when loading multiple modules with disjoint toolchain hierarchies
    • Key changes:
      • Filter suggestions by toolchain compatibility
      • Respect pre-loaded environment (avoid conflicting toolchains)
      • Spider cache: merge only paths in MODULEPATH or hierarchy children
      • Clear messaging for incompatible combinations:
        • “These modules cannot be loaded together”
        • “...require a toolchain incompatible with the currently loaded environment.”
    • Test: rt/load_suggest_cmd_805/

  • Issue #806: Fix installed library files duplication (merged)

    • Install Lua libs (luafilesystem, lua-term) as symlinks vs duplicate copies
    • Improves make install idempotency and packaging correctness

  • Issue #807: Lua 5.5 support (merged, CI adjustment)

    • Lmod supports Lua 5.5 for local builds (e.g., Fedora rawhide)
    • CI notes:
      • gh-actions-lua requires full Lua version string
      • LuaRocks version update needed for 5.5
      • Lua 5.5 currently excluded from CI due to missing rock ecosystem support (luaposix/lua-term)
    • Discussion: criteria/timeline to re-enable 5.5 in CI

  • Issue #808: module describe support for collections (merged)

    • When describing a collection, show module use paths for modules in that collection

  • main: Multi-module load hint for unknown-module errors (merged)

    • When multiple modules requested and at least one fails as “unknown”, append prereq-load hint: “If this module depends on others you loaded, try loading prerequisites first, then this module in a separate command.”

  • Version

    • Current: TAG_VERSION 9.1.2

Discussion / action items

  • Issue #805: post GitHub follow-up (summary of fix + pointer to new test)
  • Lua 5.5 CI: track upstream rock support and define re-enable trigger
  • Any new issues/PRs to prioritize before next meeting
  • Robert McLay is presenting at HPSF (via Xavier)
  • Robert McLay will be presenting at EUM '26 in Portugal.

Next meeting

  • April 7th at 9:30 (Central) (14:30 UTC)