How do I prevent a module from being loaded?

Question

I am developing a custom module, from this module im trying to disable other modules (for certain reasons).

Let's say I want to disable the search module, how would I do this?

Answer 1

You can actually prevent a module is enabled, implementing hook_system_info_alter() with code similar to the following one.

function mymodule_system_info_alter(&$info, $file, $type) {
  if ($file == 'search' && $type == 'module') {
    $info['dependencies'] = array('module_that_does_not_exist');
  }
}

Then, your module should use module_disable(array('search')) to disable the module.

In the case you need to dynamically disable modules basing on some conditions, you can verify those conditions in hook_system_info_alter(), but the modules must be disabled in another hook. The reason is that hook_system_info_alter() is (indirectly) called from system_rebuild_module_data(), and module_disable() calls system_rebuild_module_data(); that would cause a loop (system_rebuild_module_data() => hook_system_info_alter() => module_disable() => system_rebuild_module_data()).

hook_system_info_alter() is called for every module Drupal found.

 

As alternative, as Drupal 7 invokes hook_modules_enabled() when new modules are enabled, you can use the following code.

function mymodule_modules_enabled($modules) {
  if (in_array('search', $modules)) {
    drupal_set_message(t('mymodule is not compatible with the Search module'), 'error');
    module_disable(array('search'));
  }
}

Also in this case, if you need to dynamically disable modules basing on some conditions, you can verify those conditions are met in hook_modules_enabled().

Answer 2

See module_disable and the comments therein for how to place it within a profile.install or module.install file.