[torqueusers] Run a job in foreground mode ?

[Lennart Karlsson]

Dear Mathieu Oudart,

To get your "foreground mode" I propose that you implement
a simple "qwait" command that waits for any job that you
give as a parameter to it.

E.g. if you want to run a job A, rename its output directory
and run a job B, you could make a script like this:

	qsub A > A.jobname
	qwait `cat A.jobname`
	mv A.results B.input
	qsub B > B.jobname
	qwait `cat B.jobname`

It is the same way you construct depend chains, but allowing
other types of actions between.

The qwait command could easily be constructed as a script that
goes in a loop, mostly sleeping and now and then checking for completion
by using the "qstat" command.

I prefer this method compared to adding a waiting option to "qsub", because a
waiting option might make a system user believe that she/he could
abort the batch job by hitting a control-C on her/his keyboard, the way it
works with interactive jobs and the "qsub -I" command.

Best regards,
-- Lennart Karlsson <Lennart.Karlsson at nsc.liu.se>
   National Supercomputer Centre in Linkoping, Sweden
   http://www.nsc.liu.se


> -----Original Message-----
> From: torqueusers-bounces at supercluster.org 
> [mailto:torqueusers-bounces at supercluster.org] On Behalf Of 
> Mathieu OUDART
> Sent: dinsdag 2 augustus 2005 9:34
> To: torqueusers at supercluster.org
> Subject: [torqueusers] Run a job in foreground mode ?
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm actually testing Torque on a Linux cluster and I have a 
> question to 
> submit you :
> 
> Is there a simple way to run a batch job in "foreground mode" ?
> 
> for example, an option to "qsub" that makes it waiting for the job to 
> complete before exiting.
> 
> It would be useful for some scripts that launch batchs and other 
> sequential opérations.
> 
> I saw the extended attributes for qsub (-W depend=...) but it only 
> synchronizes jobs between them.
> 
> I'd prefer a blocking mecanism, so I could launch everything in a raw.
> 
> Regards.
> 
> -- 
> Mathieu OUDART