Software

The Linux environment includes a range of system-installed and site-managed software packages. Commonly-used graphical applications are available directly from the Applications menu on the remote desktop system.

Site-managed packages (software not provided as part of the Linux distribution) are available through environmental modules.

Environment modules

This is a system for managing environmental variables in the command-line shell in order to make specific packages (or versions of packages) accessible to the user.

List packages

To see the list of available packages on the system run

module avail

which will show a table of all modules and the available versions. Currently loaded modules are highlighted and the default version for a given package (if defined) is also indicated.

To view the list of currently loaded packages run

module list

Load and unload packages

To load a module run

module load <package-name>[/version]

The addition of the version is optional. If not specified, the latest version of a package will be loaded, or the default version (if it has been defined).

To unload a package, use the command

module unload <package-name>[/version]

Available packages

The following software packages are available on the departmental Linux environment.