Disable modules output Magento

Question

So, there is a tool at Magento's admin backend which allows "Disable modules output". This tool has a completely weird logic. I can't find anywhere what means "Disable modules output".. I thought it should disable module, but.. If you have custom module, for example "custmodule". This module have some rewrites in config.xml and custom template layout for create/remove some blocks (custmodule.xml).

After "Disable modules output" rewrites still works, but not exactly correct. Also "custmodule.xml" (template layout) still loads. For example, if you have

<remove name="account.links"/>

or something like this in custom module template layout file - it continues work after "Disable modules output".

Completely confused.. Can anyone tell me about logic of "Disable modules output"..?

Thanks!

Answer 1

"Disable modules output" does not disable your extension but rather disables the display block output defined/outputted by extension.

If no blocks are used by extension (for example: extension is directly called from template) then this option is useless (and so is activation option as this is called directly). If you need to disable some extension then remove or set active flag to false from

app/etc/modules/Your_Extension.xml