.\" Copyright (C) 1994-2018 Altair Engineering, Inc. .\" For more information, contact Altair at www.altair.com. .\" .\" This file is part of the PBS Professional ("PBS Pro") software. .\" .\" Open Source License Information: .\" .\" PBS Pro is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the .\" terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free .\" Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any .\" later version. .\" .\" PBS Pro is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY .\" WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS .\" FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. .\" See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details. .\" .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License .\" along with this program. If not, see . .\" .\" Commercial License Information: .\" .\" For a copy of the commercial license terms and conditions, .\" go to: (http://www.pbspro.com/UserArea/agreement.html) .\" or contact the Altair Legal Department. .\" .\" Altair’s dual-license business model allows companies, individuals, and .\" organizations to create proprietary derivative works of PBS Pro and .\" distribute them - whether embedded or bundled with other software - .\" under a commercial license agreement. .\" .\" Use of Altair’s trademarks, including but not limited to "PBS™", .\" "PBS Professional®", and "PBS Pro™" and Altair’s logos is subject to Altair's .\" trademark licensing policies. .\" .TH qalter 1B "29 November 2017" Local "PBS Professional" .SH NAME .B qalter \- alter PBS job .SH SYNOPSIS .B qalter [-a ] [-A ] .RS 7 [-c ] [-e ] [-h ] [-j ] [-k ] [-l ] [-m ] [-M ] [-N ] [-o ] [-p ] [-P ] [-r ] [-S ] [-u ] [-W ] [ ...] .RE .B qalter --version .SH DESCRIPTION The .B qalter command is used to alter one or more PBS batch jobs. Each of certain job attributes can be modified using the .B qalter option for that attribute. .B Required Privilege .br A non-privileged user can alter their own jobs, whether they are queued or running. An Operator or Manager can alter any job, whether it is queued or running. A non-privileged user can only lower resource requests. A Manager or Operator can raise or lower resource requests. .B Modifying resources and job placement .br A Manager or Operator may lower or raise requested resource limits, except for per-process limits such as .I pcput and .I pmem, because these are set when the process starts, and enforced by the kernel. A non-privileged user can only lower resource requests. The .B qalter command cannot be used by a non-privileged user to alter a custom resource which has been created to be invisible or read-only for users. If a job is running, the only resources that can be modified are .I mppnodes, mppt, cput, walltime, min_walltime, and .I max_walltime. If a job is queued, any resource mentioned in the options to the .B qalter command can be modified, but requested modifications must fit within the limits set at the server and queue for the amount of each resource allocated for queued jobs. If a requested modification does not fit within these limits, the modification is rejected. A job's resource request must fit within the queue's and server's resource run limits. If a modification to a resource exceeds the amount of the resource allowed by the queue or server to be used by running jobs, the job is never run. Requesting resources includes setting limits on resource usage and controlling how the job is placed on vnodes. .B Syntax for Modifying Resources and Job Placement .br Resources are modified by using the .I -l option, either in .I chunks inside of .I selection statements, or in job-wide requests using .I = pairs. The .I selection statement is of the form: .IP .I -l select=[:][+[:] ...] .LP where .I N specifies how many of that chunk, and a .I chunk is of the form: .IP .I =[:= ...] .LP Job-wide .I = requests are of the form: .IP .I -l =[,= ...] .LP .B The Place Statement .br You choose how your chunks are placed using the .I place statement. The .I place statement can contain the following elements, in any order: .IP .I -l place=[][:][:] .LP where .br .I \ \ \ arrangement .RS 13 Whether this chunk is willing to share this vnode or host with other chunks from the same job. One of .I free | pack | scatter | vscatter .RE .LP .I \ \ \ sharing .RS 13 Whether this chunk is willing to share this vnode or host with other jobs. One of .I excl | shared | exclhost .RE .LP .I \ \ \ grouping .RS 13 Whether the chunks from this job should be placed on vnodes that all have the same value for a resource. Can have only one instance of .I group= .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ free .RS 15 Place job on any vnodes. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ pack .RS 15 All chunks are taken from one host. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ scatter .RS 15 Only one chunk with any MPI processes is taken from a host. A chunk with no MPI processes may be taken from the same vnode as another chunk. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ vscatter .RS 15 Only one chunk is taken from any vnode. Each chunk must fit on a vnode. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ excl .RS 15 Only this job uses the vnodes chosen. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ shared .RS 15 This job can share the vnodes chosen. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ exclhost .RS 15 The entire host is allocated to the job. .RE .LP .I \ \ \ \ \ group= .RS 15 Chunks are grouped according to a resource. All vnodes in the group must have a common value for .I resource, which can be either the built-in resource .I host or a custom vnode-level resource. The .I resource name must be a string or a string array. .RE .LP The .I place statement cannot begin with a colon. Colons are delimiters; use them only to separate parts of a place statement, unless they are quoted inside resource values. For more on resource requests, usage limits and job placement, see .B pbs_resources(7B). .B Modifying Attributes .br The user alters job attributes via options to the .B qalter command. Each .B qalter option changes a job attribute. See the .B PBS Professional User's Guide and .B pbs_job_attributes(7B). The behavior of the .B qalter command may be affected by any site hooks. Site hooks can modify the job's attributes, change its routing, etc. .SH Caveats and Restrictions for Altering Jobs When you lengthen the .I walltime of a running job, make sure that the new .I walltime will not interfere with any existing reservations etc. If any of the modifications to a job fails, none of the job's attributes is modified. A job that is in the process of provisioning cannot be altered. .SH OPTIONS .IP "-a " 8 Changes the point in time after which the job is eligible for execution. Given in pairs of digits. Sets job's .I Execution_Time attribute to .I date and time. Format: .RS 13 .I "[[[[CC]YY]MM]DD]hhmm[.SS]" .RE .IP where CC is the century, YY is the year, MM is the month, DD is the day of the month, hh is the hour, mm is the minute, and SS is the seconds. Each portion of the date defaults to the current date, as long as the next-smaller portion is in the future. For example, if today is the 3rd of the month and the specified day .I DD is the 5th, the month .I MM is set to the current month. If a specified portion has already passed, the next-larger portion is set to one after the current date. For example, if the day .I DD is not specified, but the hour .I hh is specified to be 10:00 a.m. and the current time is 11:00 a.m., the day .I DD is set to tomorrow. The job's .I Execution_Time attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case it will not take effect until the job is rerun. .IP "-A " 8 Replaces the accounting string associated with the job. Used for labeling accounting data. Sets job's .I Account_Name attribute to .I account string. This attribute cannot be altered once the job has begun execution. .br Format: .I String .IP "-c " Changes when the job will be checkpointed. Sets job's .I Checkpoint attribute. An .I $action script is required to checkpoint the job. See the .B pbs_mom(8B) man page. This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. .IP The argument .I checkpoint spec can take one of the following values: .RS .IP c 5 Checkpoint at intervals, measured in CPU time, set on job's execution queue. If no interval set at queue, job is not checkpointed. .IP "c=" 5 Checkpoint at intervals of specified number of minutes of job CPU time. This value must be greater than zero. If interval specified is less that that set on job's execution queue, queue's interval is used. .br Format: .I Integer .IP w 5 Checkpoint at intervals, measured in walltime, set on job's execution queue. If no interval set at queue, job is not checkpointed. .IP "w=" 5 Checkpoint at intervals of the specified number of minutes of job walltime. This value must be greater than zero. If the interval specified is less than that set on the job's execution queue, the queue's interval is used. .br Format: .I Integer .IP n 5 No checkpointing. .IP s 5 Checkpoint only when the server is shut down. .IP u 5 Unset. Defaults to behavior when .I interval argument is set to .I s. .I .LP Default: .I u .br Format: .I String .RE .RE .IP "-e " 8 Replaces the path to be used for the job's standard error stream. Sets job's .I Error_Path attribute to .I error path. Overridden by .I -k option. .br Format: .RS 13 .I [:] .RE .RS The .I error path is interpreted as follows: .IP path 5 If .I path is relative, it is taken to be relative to the current working directory of the .B qalter command, where it is executing on the current host. If .I path is absolute, then it is taken to be an absolute path on the current host where the .B qalter command is executing. .IP hostname:path If .I path is relative, it is taken to be relative to the user's home directory on the host named .I hostname. If .I path is absolute, it is the absolute path on the host named .I hostname. .LP If .I path does not include a filename, the default filename is .RS .ER .RE If the .I -e option is not specified, PBS writes standard error to the default filename, which has this form: .RS .I .e .RE This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. If you use a UNC path, the hostname is optional. If you use a non-UNC path, the hostname is required. .RE .IP "-h " 8 Updates the job's hold list. Adds .I hold list to the job's .I Hold_Types attribute. The .I hold list is a string of one or more characters. The following table shows the holds and the privilege required to set each: .RS Hold Meaning Who Can Set .br -------------------------------------------------------------- .IP u 6 User Job owner, Operator, Manager, .br administrator, root .IP o 6 Other Operator, Manager, administrator, root .IP s 6 System Manager, administrator, root, .br PBS (dependency) .IP n 6 None Job owner, Operator, Manager, .br administrator, root .IP p 6 Bad password Administrator, root .LP This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. .RE .IP "-j " 8 Changes whether and how to join the job's standard error and standard output streams. Sets job's .I Join_Path attribute to .I join. .br This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. The .I join argument can take the following values: .RS .IP oe 5 Standard error and standard output are merged into standard output. .IP eo 5 Standard error and standard output are merged into standard error. .IP n 5 Standard error and standard output are not merged. .RE .IP Default: .I n; not merged .LP .IP "-k " 8 Changes whether and which of the standard output and standard error streams is left behind on the execution host, and whether they are written to their final destinations. Sets the job's .I Keep_Files attribute to .I discard. This attribute cannot be altered once the job has begun execution. In the case where output and/or error is retained on the execution host in a job-specific staging and execution directory created by PBS, these files are deleted when PBS deletes the directory. Default: .I n; neither is retained, and files are not written to final destinations The .I discard argument can take the following values: .RS .IP e 5 The standard error stream is retained on the execution host, in the job's staging and execution directory. The filename is: .RS .RS 5 .e .RE .RE .IP o 5 The standard output stream is retained on the execution host, in the job's staging and execution directory. The filename is: .RS .RS 5 .o .RE .RE .IP "eo, oe" 5 Both standard output and standard error streams are retained on the execution host, in the job's staging and execution directory. .IP d 5 Output and/or error are written directly to their final destination. Overrides the action of leaving files behind on the execution host. .IP n 5 Neither stream is retained. .RE .IP "-l " 8 .RS Allows the user to change requested resources and job placement. Sets job's .I Resource_list attribute to .I resource list. Uses resource request syntax. Requesting a resource places a limit on its usage. Users without manager or operator privilege cannot alter a custom resource which was created to be invisible or read-only for users. For syntax, see .B "Syntax for Modifying Resources and Job Placement" above. If a requested modification to a resource would exceed the server's or job queue's limits, the resource request is rejected. Which resources can be altered is system-dependent. If the job was submitted with an explicit "-l select=", vnode-level resources must be qaltered using the "-l select=" form. In this case a vnode level resource cannot be qaltered with the "-l " form. The place statement cannot begin with a colon. For example: .RS Submit the job: .br % qsub -l select=1:ncpus=2:mem=512mb jobscript .br Job's ID is 230 qalter the job using "-l " form: .br % qalter -l ncpus=4 230 .br Error reported by qalter: .br qalter: Resource must only appear in "select" specification when select is used: ncpus 230 .br qalter the job using the "-l select=" form: .br % qalter -l select=1:ncpus=4:mem=512mb 230 .br No error reported by qalter: .br % .RE For more on resource requests, usage limits and job placement, see .B pbs_resources(7B). .RE .IP "-m " 8 Changes the set of conditions under which mail about the job is sent. Sets job's .I Mail_Points attribute to .I mail events. The .I mail events argument can be either "n" or any combination of "a", "b", and "e". .RS .IP n 5 No mail is sent .IP a 5 Mail is sent when the job is aborted by the batch system .IP b 5 Mail is sent when the job begins execution .IP e 5 Mail is sent when the job terminates .RE .IP Format: .I String .br Default: .I "a" .IP "-M " 8 Alters list of users to whom mail about the job is sent. Sets job's .I Mail_Users attribute to .I user list. .br Format: .br .I \ \ \ [@][,[@],...] .br Default: job owner .IP "-N " 8 Renames the job. Sets job's .I Job_Name attribute to .I name. .br Format: .I Job Name (See .I Formats in the .I PBS Professional Reference Guide. ) .br Default: if a script is used to submit the job, the job's name is the name of the script. If no script is used, the job's name is .I "STDIN". .IP "-o " 8 Alters path to be used for the job's standard output stream. Sets job's .I Output_Path attribute to .I output path. Overridden by .I -k option. Format: .RS 13 .I [:] .RE .RS The .I output path is interpreted as follows: .IP path 5 If .I path is relative, it is taken to be relative to the current working directory of the command, where it is executing on the current host. If .I path is absolute, it is taken to be an absolute path on the current host where the command is executing. .IP hostname:path If .I path is relative, it is taken to be relative to the user's home directory on the host named .I hostname. If .I path is absolute, it is the absolute path on the host named .I hostname. If .I path does not include a filename, the default filename is .RS .OU .LP .RE If the .I -o option is not specified, PBS writes standard output to the default filename, which has this form: .RS .I .o .RE This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. If you use a UNC path, the hostname is optional. If you use a non-UNC path, the hostname is required. .RE .IP "-p " 8 Alters priority of the job. Sets job's .I Priority attribute to .I priority. This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. Format: .I Host-dependent integer .br Range: [-1024, +1023] inclusive .br Default: .I Zero .IP "-P " 8 Specifies a project for the job. Sets job's .I project attribute to specified value. Format: .I Project Name (See .I Formats in the .I PBS Professional Reference Guide. ) .br Default: .I "_pbs_project_default" .IP "-r " 8 Changes whether the job is rerunnable. Sets job's .I Rerunable attribute to the argument. Does not affect how the job is handled when the job is unable to begin execution. .br See the .B qrerun(1B) command. .br Format: Single character, .I "y" or .I "n" .br .RS .IP y 5 Job is rerunnable. .IP n 5 Job is not rerunnable. .LP Default: .I "y" Interactive jobs are not rerunnable. Job arrays are always rerunnable. .RE .LP .IP "R " 8 Changes whether standard output and/or standard error files are automatically removed upon job completion. Sets job's .I Remove_Files attribute to .I remove options. Overrides default path names for these streams. Overrides .I -o and .I -e options. This attribute cannot be altered once the job has begun execution. Default: .I Unset; neither is removed The .I remove options argument can take the following values: .RS .IP e The standard error stream is removed (deleted) upon job completion .IP o The standard output stream is removed (deleted) upon job completion .IP "eo, oe" Both standard error and standard output streams are removed (deleted) upon job completion .IP unset Neither stream is removed .RE .IP "-S " 8 Specifies the interpreter or shell path for the job script. Sets job's .I Shell_Path_List attribute to .I path list. The .I path_list argument is the full path to the interpreter or shell including the executable name. Only one path may be specified without a hostname. Only one path may be specified per named host. The path selected is the one whose hostname is that of the server on which the job resides. This attribute can be altered after the job has begun execution, in which case the new value will not take effect until the job is rerun. Format: .RS .IP .I [@][,@ ...] .LP If the path contains spaces, it must be quoted, for example: .IP qsub -S "C:\Program Files\\PBS Pro\\bin\\pbs_python.exe"