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                                                        The Florida SunFlash
                  Batch job control under UNIX
   
SunFLASH Vol 24 #7					       December 1990 
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This is from an article posted to comp.sys.sun. -johnj
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From: 		xphyhofu@ddathd21.bitnet (Joachim Holzfuss)
Newsgroups: 	comp.sys.sun
Subject: 	Re: Batch job control under unix

> I am trying to find information about batch job systems which are
> available for SunOS 4.1. Can anyone recommend any systems? I have been
> told of a freeware system called condor but have not been able to find the
> source.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So here are some offers:

1. batch

   Has been posted to net.sources in 1985, but has been updated since.  Has
   n-queues n-jobs open, max cpu, queue status files, priorities.  and a
   bunch of neat control stuff. Runs on SUNOS4.x and probably 3.x.  (needs
   the automounter patch below) ftp'able from pub/batch.tar.Z on
   neat.cs.toronto.edu [128.100.1.65].

2. MDQS

   A general queuing system, that also has a batch part in it.
   Contact: bcst@BRL.MIL
   Ftp it from vgr.brl.mil (128.63.16.6.) in /arch.

3. Condor

   Is much more than just a batchqueue. It runs the same job on several idle
   workstations (runs also with different operating systems).  It switches
   the machine, if the old one is getting a higher load.  Ftp it from
   shorty.cs.wisc.edu (128.105.2.8).

4) sun's batch

   Is controlable. I never recognized this , I didn't find the hint in the
   man pages. But %man 5 queuedefs shows you how to do it. Queuing has a bug
   in 4.0.3, is it fixed in 4.1?

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PS: diff for batch.c to run on automounted (/tmp_mnt) directories
(see #1 above):

% diff batch.c batch.c.prehofu
61d60
<       char *cwdirp;
331,338c330
<       /*
<        * if dir is /tmp_mnt/..... chop it off so automount for the sun's will
<        * work!
<        */
<       cwdirp = cwdirectory;
<       if(strncmp(cwdirectory, "/tmp_mnt/", 9) == 0) cwdirp += 8;
<       sprintf(cwdirectory, "%s", cwdirp);
<       fprintf(tf, "# directory: %s\n", cwdirectory );
---
>       fprintf(tf, "# directory: %s\n", cwdirectory );

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[[ extract from the queuedefs(5) man page  - johnj ]]
QUEUEDEFS(5)              FILE FORMATS               QUEUEDEFS(5)

NAME
     queuedefs - queue description file for at, batch, and cron

SYNOPSIS
     /var/spool/cron/queuedefs

DESCRIPTION
     The queuedefs file  describes  the  characteristics  of  the
     queues  managed  by  cron(8).  Each non-comment line in this
     file describes one queue.  The format of the  lines  are  as
     follows:

          q.[njobj][nicen][nwaitw]

     The fields in this line are:

     q    The name of the queue.  a is the default queue for jobs
          started  by  at(1);  b  is  the  default queue for jobs
          started by batch (see at(1)); c is  the  default  queue
          for jobs run from a crontab(5) file.

     njob The maximum number of jobs that can be  run  simultane-
          ously  in  that queue; if more than njob jobs are ready
          to run, only the first njob jobs will be run,  and  the
          others  will  be run as jobs that are currently running
          terminate.  The default value is 100.

     nice The nice(1) value to give to all  jobs  in  that  queue
          that  are  not  run  with a user ID of super-user.  The
          default value is 2.

     nwait
          The number of seconds to wait before rescheduling a job
          that was deferred because more than njob jobs were run-
          ning in that job's queue, or because more than 25  jobs
          were  running  in all the queues.  The default value is
          60.

     Lines beginning with # are comments, and are ignored.
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