Loading environment modules within a python script

Question

Is there a way for a python script to load and use environment modules? os.system('module load xxx') doesn't work since it executes them in a subshell (at least, I think that's what's happening).

Answer 1

I know this question's kind of old but it's still relevant enough that I was looking for the answer, so I'm posting what I found that works as well:

At least in the 3.2.9+ sources, you can include the python "init" file to get a python function version of module:

>>> exec(open('/usr/local/Modules/default/init/python.py').read())
>>> module('list')
No Modulefiles Currently Loaded.
>>> module('load','foo')
>>> module('list')
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
  1) foo/1.0

I've been told earlier versions can do the same without the .py extension, but that's second hand, so ymmv.

Alternative "init" file location (from comment by @lib): /usr/share/Modules/init/python.py

To use with Python 3, version 4.0 or later of Environment Modules is required, as that is the first version to have a bug-free Python3-compliant version of the Python init file.

Answer 2

One of our admins was able to solve the problem for me using os.popen() calls to modulecmd:

cmd = os.popen('/path/to/modulecmd python load my-module')
exec(cmd)

Answer 3

Not directly, but here's one possible workaround, depending on your environment. Assuming you can preface your system command with ENVVAR=value, you can do something along these lines:

import os
os.environ['EDITOR'] = 'vi'
cmd = "EDITOR=%(EDITOR)s $EDITOR" % os.environ
os.system(cmd)

The code assigns vi to your EDITOR environment variable, then passes it on the command line and runs the command, which (in this case) is EDITOR.