Attention

Following the recent operating system upgrade, software listings and module load commands now reflect the upgraded system. Some examples and notices are still being updated and may contain outdated guidance.

UDUNITS

Guidance last updated: 18 October 2026

The UDUNITS package supports units of physical quantities. Its C library provides for arithmetic manipulation of units and for conversion of numeric values between compatible units. The package contains an extensive unit database, which is in XML format and user-extendable. The package also contains a command-line utility for investigating units and converting values.

Caution

When compiling R packages that use UDUNITS, choose R and UDUNITS modules with compatible compiler toolchains.

Usage

After connecting to Stanage (see Establishing a SSH connection), start an interactive session with the following command:

srun --pty bash -i

You can load a specific version of UDUNITS with the following command:

module load UDUNITS/2.2.28-GCCcore-14.3.0
module load UDUNITS/2.2.28-GCCcore-13.3.0

Unit conversion example

Within an interactive allocation, load UDUNITS/2.2.28-GCCcore-14.3.0 and run udunits2. Enter 5km at the first prompt and miles at the second:

You have: 5km
You want: miles
5 km = 3.10686 miles
x/miles = 0.621371*(x/km)

Press Ctrl+D to exit. You can also supply the conversion on the command line without answering prompts:

udunits2 -H '5 km' -W miles

For other options, see the UDUNITS program guide.

Installation notes

UDUNITS was installed using Easybuild, build details can be found in $EBROOTUDUNITS/easybuild with a given module loaded.

Direct dependencies for latest version of UDUNITS