Scroll to navigation

sacct(1) Slurm Commands sacct(1)

NAME

sacct - displays accounting data for all jobs and job steps in the Slurm job accounting log or Slurm database

SYNOPSIS

sacct [OPTIONS...]

DESCRIPTION

Accounting information for jobs invoked with Slurm are either logged in the job accounting log file or saved to the Slurm database.

The sacct command displays job accounting data stored in the job accounting log file or Slurm database in a variety of forms for your analysis. The sacct command displays information on jobs, job steps, status, and exitcodes by default. You can tailor the output with the use of the --format= option to specify the fields to be shown.

For the root user, the sacct command displays job accounting data for all users, although there are options to filter the output to report only the jobs from a specified user or group.

For the non-root user, the sacct command limits the display of job accounting data to jobs that were launched with their own user identifier (UID) by default. Data for other users can be displayed with the --allusers, --user, or --uid options.

Note: If designated, the slurmdbd.conf option PrivateData may further
restrict the accounting data visible to users which are not SlurmUser, root, or a user with AdminLevel=Admin. See the slurmdbd.conf man page for additional details on restricting access to accounting data.
Note: If the AccountingStorageType is set to "accounting_storage/filetxt",
space characters embedded within account names, job names, and step names will be replaced by underscores. If account names with embedded spaces are needed, it is recommended that a database type of accounting storage be configured.
Note: The content's of Slurm's database are maintained in lower case. This may
result in some sacct output differing from that of other Slurm commands.
Note: Much of the data reported by sacct has been generated by
the wait3() and getrusage() system calls. Some systems gather and report incomplete information for these calls; sacct reports values of 0 for this missing data. See your systems getrusage (3) man page for information about which data are actually available on your system.
Elapsed time fields are presented as [days-]hours:minutes:seconds[.microseconds]. Only 'CPU' fields will ever have microseconds.
The default input file is the file named in the AccountingStorageLoc parameter in slurm.conf.

OPTIONS

-a, --allusers
Displays all users jobs when run by user root or if PrivateData is not configured to jobs. Otherwise display the current user's jobs

-A account_list , --accounts =account_list
Displays jobs when a comma separated list of accounts are given as the argument.

-b, --brief
Displays a brief listing, which includes the following data:
jobid
status
exitcode

-c, --completion
Use job completion data instead of job accounting. The JobCompType parameter in the slurm.conf file must be defined to a non-none option. Does not support federated cluster information (local data only).

--delimiter=characters
ASCII characters used to separate the fields when specifying the -p or -P options. The default delimiter is a '|'. This options is ignored if -p or -P options are not specified.

-D, --duplicates
If Slurm job ids are reset, some job numbers will probably appear more than once in the accounting log file but refer to different jobs. Such jobs can be distinguished by the "submit" time stamp in the data records.

When data for specific jobs are requested with the --jobs option, sacct returns the most recent job with that number. This behavior can be overridden by specifying --duplicates, in which case all records that match the selection criteria will be returned.

NOTE: Revoked federated sibling jobs are hidden unless the --duplicates option is specified.

-e, --helpformat
Print a list of fields that can be specified with the --format option.

Fields available:
Account             AdminComment        AllocCPUS           AllocGRES
AllocNodes          AllocTRES           AssocID             AveCPU
AveCPUFreq          AveDiskRead         AveDiskWrite        AvePages
AveRSS              AveVMSize           BlockID             Cluster
Comment             ConsumedEnergy      ConsumedEnergyRaw   CPUTime
CPUTimeRAW          DerivedExitCode     Elapsed             ElapsedRaw
Eligible            End                 ExitCode            GID
Group               JobID               JobIDRaw            JobName
Layout              MaxDiskRead         MaxDiskReadNode     MaxDiskReadTask
MaxDiskWrite        MaxDiskWriteNode    MaxDiskWriteTask    MaxPages
MaxPagesNode        MaxPagesTask        MaxRSS              MaxRSSNode
MaxRSSTask          MaxVMSize           MaxVMSizeNode       MaxVMSizeTask
McsLabel            MinCPU              MinCPUNode          MinCPUTask
NCPUS               NNodes              NodeList            NTasks
Priority            Partition           QOS                 QOSRAW
ReqCPUFreq          ReqCPUFreqMin       ReqCPUFreqMax       ReqCPUFreqGov
ReqCPUS             ReqGRES             ReqMem              ReqNodes
ReqTRES             Reservation         ReservationId       Reserved
ResvCPU             ResvCPURAW          Start               State
Submit              Suspended           SystemCPU           SystemComment
Timelimit           TimelimitRaw        TotalCPU            TRESUsageInAve
TRESUsageInMax      TRESUsageInMaxNode  TRESUsageInMaxTask  TRESUsageInMin
TRESUsageInMinNode  TRESUsageInMinTask  TRESUsageInTot      TRESUsageOutAve
TRESUsageOutMax     TRESUsageOutMaxNode TRESUsageOutMaxTask TRESUsageOutMin
TRESUsageOutMinNode TRESUsageOutMinTask TRESUsageOutTot     UID
User                UserCPU             WCKey               WCKeyID
WorkDir
NOTE: When using with Ave[RSS|VM]Size or their values in
TRESUsageIn[Ave|Tot].  They represent the average/total of the highest
watermarks over all ranks in the step.  When using sstat they represent the
average/total at the moment the command was ran.
NOTE: TRESUsage*Min* values represent the lowest highwater mark in the step.
The section titled "Job Accounting Fields" describes these fields.

-E end_time, --endtime=end_time
Select eligible jobs in any state before the specified time. If states are given with the -s option return jobs in this state before this period.

Valid time formats are...

HH:MM[:SS] [AM|PM]
MMDD[YY] or MM/DD[/YY] or MM.DD[.YY]
MM/DD[/YY]-HH:MM[:SS]
YYYY-MM-DD[THH:MM[:SS]]

--federation
Show jobs from the federation if a member of one.

-f file, --file=file
Causes the sacct command to read job accounting data from the named file instead of the current Slurm job accounting log file. Only applicable when running the filetxt plugin.

-g gid_list, --gid=gid_list --group=group_list
Displays the statistics only for the jobs started with the GID or the GROUP specified by the gid_list or thegroup_list operand, which is a comma-separated list. Space characters are not allowed. Default is no restrictions..

-h, --help
Displays a general help message.

-i, --nnodes=N
Return jobs which ran on this many nodes (N = min[-max])

-j job(.step) , --jobs=job(.step)
Displays information about the specified job(.step) or list of job(.step)s.
The job(.step) parameter is a comma-separated list of jobs. Space characters are not permitted in this list. NOTE: A step id of 'batch' will display the information about the batch step. The batch step information is only available after the batch job is complete unlike regular steps which are available when they start.
The default is to display information on all jobs.

-k, --timelimit-min
Only send data about jobs with this timelimit. If used with timelimit_max this will be the minimum timelimit of the range. Default is no restriction.

-K, --timelimit-max
Ignored by itself, but if timelimit_min is set this will be the maximum timelimit of the range. Default is no restriction.

--local
Show only jobs local to this cluster. Ignore other clusters in this federation (if any). Overrides --federation.

-l, --long
Equivalent to specifying:
--format=jobid,jobname,partition,maxvmsize,maxvmsizenode,maxvmsizetask, avevmsize,maxrss,maxrssnode,maxrsstask,averss,maxpages,maxpagesnode, maxpagestask,avepages,mincpu,mincpunode,mincputask,avecpu,ntasks, alloccpus,elapsed,state,exitcode,maxdiskread,maxdiskreadnode,maxdiskreadtask, avediskread,maxdiskwrite,maxdiskwritenode,maxdiskwritetask,avediskwrite, allocgres,reqgres,avecpufreq,reqcpufreqmin,reqcpufreqmax,reqcpufreqgov, tresusageinmax,tresusageinmaxn,tresusageinmaxt,tresusageoutmax,tresusageoutmaxn, tresusageoutmaxt,tresusageoutave,tresusageinave

-L, --allclusters
Display jobs ran on all clusters. By default, only jobs ran on the cluster from where sacct is called are displayed.

-M cluster_list, --clusters=cluster_list
Displays the statistics only for the jobs started on the clusters specified by the cluster_list operand, which is a comma-separated list of clusters. Space characters are not allowed in the cluster_list. A value of 'all' will query to run on all clusters. The default is current cluster you are executing the sacct command on or all clusters in the federation when executed on a federated cluster. This option implicitly sets the --local option.

-n, --noheader
No heading will be added to the output. The default action is to display a header.

--noconvert
Don't convert units from their original type (e.g. 2048M won't be converted to 2G).

-N node_list, --nodelist=node_list
Display jobs that ran on any of these node(s). node_list can be a ranged string.

--name=jobname_list
Display jobs that have any of these name(s).

-o, --format
Comma separated list of fields. (use "--helpformat" for a list of available fields).

NOTE: When using the format option for listing various fields you can put a %NUMBER afterwards to specify how many characters should be printed.

e.g. format=name%30 will print 30 characters of field name right justified. A %-30 will print 30 characters left justified.

When set, the SACCT_FORMAT environment variable will override the default format. For example:

SACCT_FORMAT="jobid,user,account,cluster"

-p, --parsable
output will be '|' delimited with a '|' at the end

-P, --parsable2
output will be '|' delimited without a '|' at the end

-q, --qos
Only send data about jobs using these qos. Default is all.

-r, --partition

Comma separated list of partitions to select jobs and job steps from. The default is all partitions.

-s state_list , --state=state_list
Selects jobs based on their state during the time period given. Unless otherwise specified, the start and end time will be the current time when the --state option is specified and only currently running jobs can be displayed. A start and/or end time must be specified to view information about jobs not currently running. See the JOB STATE CODES section below for a list of state designators. Multiple state names may be specified using comma separators. Either the short or long form of the state name may be used (e.g. CA or CANCELLED) and the name is case insensitive (e.g. ca and CA both work).

NOTE: Note for a job to be selected in the PENDING state it must have "EligibleTime" in the requested time interval or different from "Unknown". The "EligibleTime" is displayed by the "scontrol show job" command. For example jobs submitted with the "--hold" option will have "EligibleTime=Unknown" as they are pending indefinitely.

NOTE: When specifying states and no start time is given the default starttime is 'now'.

-S, --starttime
Select eligible jobs in any state after the specified time. Default is 00:00:00 of the current day, unless the '-s' or '-j' options are used. If the '-s' option is used, then the default is 'now'. If states are given with the '-s' option then only jobs in this state at this time will be returned. If the '-j' option is used, then the default time is Unix Epoch 0.

Valid time formats are...

HH:MM[:SS] [AM|PM]
MMDD[YY] or MM/DD[/YY] or MM.DD[.YY]
MM/DD[/YY]-HH:MM[:SS]
YYYY-MM-DD[THH:MM[:SS]]

-T, --truncate
Truncate time. So if a job started before --starttime the start time would be truncated to --starttime. The same for end time and --endtime.

-u uid_list, --uid=uid_list, --user=user_list
Use this comma separated list of uids or user names to select jobs to display. By default, the running user's uid is used.

--units=[KMGTP]
Display values in specified unit type. Takes precedence over --noconvert option.

--usage
Display a command usage summary.

-v, --verbose
Primarily for debugging purposes, report the state of various variables during processing.

-V, --version
Print version.

--whole-hetjob=[yes|no]
When querying heterogeneous jobs, Slurm by default retrieves the information about all the components of the job if the pack_job_id (leader) is selected. If a non-leader hetjob component is selected only that component is retrieved by default. This behavior can be changed by using this option. If set to 'yes' or no value is set, then information about all the components will be retrieved no matter which component is selected in the job filter. Otherwise, if set to 'no' then only the selected hetjob components will be retrieved, even when selecting the leader.

-W wckey_list, --wckeys=wckey_list
Displays the statistics only for the jobs started on the wckeys specified by the wckey_list operand, which is a comma-separated list of wckey names. Space characters are not allowed in the wckey_list. Default is all wckeys.

-x associd_list, --associations=assoc_list
Displays the statistics only for the jobs running under the association ids specified by the assoc_list operand, which is a comma-separated list of association ids. Space characters are not allowed in the assoc_list. Default is all associations.

-X, --allocations
Only show statistics relevant to the job allocation itself, not taking steps into consideration.

Job Accounting Fields

The following describes each job accounting field:
ALL
Print all fields listed below.

AllocCPUs
Count of allocated CPUs. Equivalent to NCPUS.

AllocGRES
Names and counts of generic resources allocated.

AllocNodes
Number of nodes allocated to the job/step. 0 if the job is pending.

AllocTres
Trackable resources. These are the resources allocated to the job/step after the job started running. For pending jobs this should be blank. For more details see AccountingStorageTRES in slurm.conf.

Account
Account the job ran under.

AssocID
Reference to the association of user, account and cluster.

AveCPU
Average (system + user) CPU time of all tasks in job.

AveCPUFreq
Average weighted CPU frequency of all tasks in job, in kHz.

AveDiskRead
Average number of bytes read by all tasks in job.

AveDiskWrite
Average number of bytes written by all tasks in job.

AvePages
Average number of page faults of all tasks in job.

AveRSS
Average resident set size of all tasks in job.

AveVMSize
Average Virtual Memory size of all tasks in job.

Cluster
Cluster name.

Comment
The job's comment string when the AccountingStoreJobComment parameter in the slurm.conf file is set (or defaults) to YES. The Comment string can be modified by invoking sacctmgr modify job or the specialized sjobexitmod command.

ConsumedEnergy
Total energy consumed by all tasks in job, in joules. Note: Only in case of exclusive job allocation this value reflects the jobs' real energy consumption.

CPUTime
Formatted (Elapsed time * CPU) count used by a job or step.

CPUTimeRAW
Unlike above non formatted (Elapsed time * CPU) count for a job or step. Units are cpu-seconds.

DerivedExitCode
The highest exit code returned by the job's job steps (srun invocations). Following the colon is the signal that caused the process to terminate if it was terminated by a signal. The DerivedExitCode can be modified by invoking sacctmgr modify job or the specialized sjobexitmod command.

Elapsed
The jobs elapsed time.
The format of this fields output is as follows:

[DD-[HH:]]MM:SS

as defined by the following:
DD
days
hh
hours
mm
minutes
ss
seconds

Eligible
When the job became eligible to run.

End
Termination time of the job. Format output is, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS, unless changed through the SLURM_TIME_FORMAT environment variable.

ExitCode
The exit code returned by the job script or salloc, typically as set by the exit() function. Following the colon is the signal that caused the process to terminate if it was terminated by a signal.

GID
The group identifier of the user who ran the job.

Group
The group name of the user who ran the job.

JobID
The number of the job or job step. It is in the form: job.jobstep.

JobIDRaw
In case of job array print the JobId instead of the ArrayJobId. For non job arrays the output is the JobId in the format job.jobstep.

JobName
The name of the job or job step. The slurm_accounting.log file is a space delimited file. Because of this if a space is used in the jobname an underscore is substituted for the space before the record is written to the accounting file. So when the jobname is displayed by sacct the jobname that had a space in it will now have an underscore in place of the space.

Layout
What the layout of a step was when it was running. This can be used to give you an idea of which node ran which rank in your job.

MaxDiskRead
Maximum number of bytes read by all tasks in job.

MaxDiskReadNode
The node on which the maxdiskread occurred.

MaxDiskReadTask
The task ID where the maxdiskread occurred.

MaxDiskWrite
Maximum number of bytes written by all tasks in job.

MaxDiskWriteNode
The node on which the maxdiskwrite occurred.

MaxDiskWriteTask
The task ID where the maxdiskwrite occurred.

MaxPages
Maximum number of page faults of all tasks in job.

MaxPagesNode
The node on which the maxpages occurred.

MaxPagesTask
The task ID where the maxpages occurred.

MaxRSS
Maximum resident set size of all tasks in job.

MaxRSSNode
The node on which the maxrss occurred.

MaxRSSTask
The task ID where the maxrss occurred.

MaxVMSize
Maximum Virtual Memory size of all tasks in job.

MaxVMSizeNode
The node on which the maxvmsize occurred.

MaxVMSizeTask
The task ID where the maxvmsize occurred.

MinCPU
Minimum (system + user) CPU time of all tasks in job.

MinCPUNode
The node on which the mincpu occurred.

MinCPUTask
The task ID where the mincpu occurred.

NCPUS
Count of allocated CPUs. Equivalent to AllocCPUS

Total number of CPUs allocated to the job.

NodeList
List of nodes in job/step.

NNodes
Number of nodes in a job or step. If the job is running, or ran, this count will be the number allocated, else the number will be the number requested.

NTasks
Total number of tasks in a job or step.

Priority
Slurm priority.

Partition
Identifies the partition on which the job ran.

QOS
Name of Quality of Service.

QOSRAW
Id of Quality of Service.

ReqCPUFreq
Requested CPU frequency for the step, in kHz. Note: This value applies only to a job step. No value is reported for the job.

ReqCPUS
Required CPUs.

ReqGRES
Names and counts of generic resources requested.

ReqMem
Minimum required memory for the job, in MB. A 'c' at the end of number represents Memory Per CPU, a 'n' represents Memory Per Node. Note: This value is only from the job allocation, not the step.

ReqNodes
Requested minimum Node count for the job/step.

ReqTres
Trackable resources. These are the minimum resource counts requested by the job/step at submission time. For more details see AccountingStorageTRES in slurm.conf.

Reservation
Reservation Name.

ReservationId
Reservation Id.

Reserved
How much wall clock time was used as reserved time for this job. This is derived from how long a job was waiting from eligible time to when it actually started.

ResvCPU
Formatted time for how long (cpu secs) a job was reserved for.

ResvCPURAW
Reserved CPUs in second format, not formatted.

Start
Initiation time of the job in the same format as End.

State
Displays the job status, or state. See the JOB STATE CODES section below for a list of possible states.

If more information is available on the job state than will fit into the current field width (for example, the uid that CANCELLED a job) the state will be followed by a "+". You can increase the size of the displayed state using the "%NUMBER" format modifier described earlier.

NOTE: The RUNNING state will return suspended jobs as well. In order to print suspended jobs you must request SUSPENDED at a different call from RUNNING.

NOTE: The RUNNING state will return any jobs completed (cancelled or otherwise) in the time period requested as the job was also RUNNING durning that time. If you are only looking for job that finished please choose the appropriate state(s) without the RUNNING state.

Submit
The time and date stamp (in localtime) the job was submitted. The format of the output is identical to that of the End field.

NOTE: If a job is requeued, the submit time is reset. To obtain the original submit time it is necessary to use the -D or --duplicate option to display all duplicate entries for a job.

Suspended
How long the job was suspended for.

SystemCPU
The amount of system CPU time used by the job or job step. The format of the output is identical to that of the Elapsed field.

NOTE: SystemCPU provides a measure of the task's parent process and does not include CPU time of child processes.

Timelimit
What the timelimit was/is for the job.

TimelimitRaw
What the timelimit was/is for the job, not formatted.

TotalCPU
The sum of the SystemCPU and UserCPU time used by the job or job step. The total CPU time of the job may exceed the job's elapsed time for jobs that include multiple job steps. The format of the output is identical to that of the Elapsed field.

NOTE: TotalCPU provides a measure of the task's parent process and does not include CPU time of child processes.

TresUsageInAve
Tres average usage in by all tasks in job. NOTE: If corresponding TresUsageInMaxTask is -1 the metric is node centric instead of task.

TresUsageInMax
Tres maximum usage in by all tasks in job. NOTE: If corresponding TresUsageInMaxTask is -1 the metric is node centric instead of task.

TresUsageInMaxNode
Node for which each maximum TRES usage out occurred.

TresUsageInMaxTask
Task for which each maximum TRES usage out occurred.

TresUsageOutAve
Tres average usage out by all tasks in job. NOTE: If corresponding TresUsageOutMaxTask is -1 the metric is node centric instead of task.

TresUsageOutMax
Tres maximum usage out by all tasks in job. NOTE: If corresponding TresUsageOutMaxTask is -1 the metric is node centric instead of task.

TresUsageOutMaxNode
Node for which each maximum TRES usage out occurred.

TresUsageOutMaxTask
Task for which each maximum TRES usage out occurred.

UID
The user identifier of the user who ran the job.

User
The user name of the user who ran the job.

UserCPU
The amount of user CPU time used by the job or job step. The format of the output is identical to that of the Elapsed field.

NOTE: UserCPU provides a measure of the task's parent process and does not include CPU time of child processes.

WCKey
Workload Characterization Key. Arbitrary string for grouping orthogonal accounts together.

WCKeyID
Reference to the wckey.

JOB STATE CODES

BF BOOT_FAIL
Job terminated due to launch failure, typically due to a hardware failure (e.g. unable to boot the node or block and the job can not be requeued).
CA CANCELLED
Job was explicitly cancelled by the user or system administrator. The job may or may not have been initiated.
CD COMPLETED
Job has terminated all processes on all nodes with an exit code of zero.
DL DEADLINE
Job terminated on deadline.
F FAILED
Job terminated with non-zero exit code or other failure condition.
NF NODE_FAIL
Job terminated due to failure of one or more allocated nodes.
OOM OUT_OF_MEMORY
Job experienced out of memory error.
PD PENDING
Job is awaiting resource allocation.
PR PREEMPTED
Job terminated due to preemption.
R RUNNING
Job currently has an allocation.
RQ REQUEUED
Job was requeued.
RS RESIZING
Job is about to change size.
RV REVOKED
Sibling was removed from cluster due to other cluster starting the job.
S SUSPENDED
Job has an allocation, but execution has been suspended and CPUs have been released for other jobs.
TO TIMEOUT
Job terminated upon reaching its time limit.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

Some sacct options may be set via environment variables. These environment variables, along with their corresponding options, are listed below. (Note: Commandline options will always override these settings.)
SACCT_FEDERATION
Same as --federation
SACCT_LOCAL
Same as --local
SLURM_CONF
The location of the Slurm configuration file.
SLURM_TIME_FORMAT
Specify the format used to report time stamps. A value of standard, the default value, generates output in the form "year-month-dateThour:minute:second". A value of relative returns only "hour:minute:second" if the current day. For other dates in the current year it prints the "hour:minute" preceded by "Tomorr" (tomorrow), "Ystday" (yesterday), the name of the day for the coming week (e.g. "Mon", "Tue", etc.), otherwise the date (e.g. "25 Apr"). For other years it returns a date month and year without a time (e.g. "6 Jun 2012"). All of the time stamps use a 24 hour format.

A valid strftime() format can also be specified. For example, a value of "%a %T" will report the day of the week and a time stamp (e.g. "Mon 12:34:56").

EXAMPLES

This example illustrates the default invocation of the sacct command:

# sacct
Jobid      Jobname    Partition    Account AllocCPUS State     ExitCode
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --------
2          script01   srun       acct1               1 RUNNING           0
3          script02   srun       acct1               1 RUNNING           0
4          endscript  srun       acct1               1 RUNNING           0
4.0                   srun       acct1               1 COMPLETED         0

This example shows the same job accounting information with the brief option.

# sacct --brief
     Jobid     State  ExitCode
---------- ---------- --------
2          RUNNING           0
3          RUNNING           0
4          RUNNING           0
4.0        COMPLETED         0

# sacct --allocations
Jobid      Jobname    Partition Account    AllocCPUS  State     ExitCode
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ------- ---------- --------
3          sja_init   andy       acct1            1 COMPLETED         0
4          sjaload    andy       acct1            2 COMPLETED         0
5          sja_scr1   andy       acct1            1 COMPLETED         0
6          sja_scr2   andy       acct1           18 COMPLETED         2
7          sja_scr3   andy       acct1           18 COMPLETED         0
8          sja_scr5   andy       acct1            2 COMPLETED         0
9          sja_scr7   andy       acct1           90 COMPLETED         1
10         endscript  andy       acct1          186 COMPLETED         0

This example demonstrates the ability to customize the output of the sacct command. The fields are displayed in the order designated on the command line.

# sacct --format=jobid,elapsed,ncpus,ntasks,state
     Jobid    Elapsed      Ncpus   Ntasks     State
---------- ---------- ---------- -------- ----------
3            00:01:30          2        1 COMPLETED
3.0          00:01:30          2        1 COMPLETED
4            00:00:00          2        2 COMPLETED
4.0          00:00:01          2        2 COMPLETED
5            00:01:23          2        1 COMPLETED
5.0          00:01:31          2        1 COMPLETED

This example demonstrates the use of the -T (--truncate) option when used with -S (--starttime) and -E (--endtime). When the -T option is used, the start time of the job will be the specified -S value if the job was started before the specified time, otherwise the time will be the job's start time. The end time will be the specified -E option if the job ends after the specified time, otherwise it will be the jobs end time.

NOTE: If no -s (--state) option is given sacct will display jobs that ran during the specified time, otherwise it returns jobs that were in the state requested during that period of time.

Without -T (normal operation) sacct output would be like this.

# sacct -S2014-07-03-11:40 -E2014-07-03-12:00 -X -ojobid,start,end,state
    JobID                 Start                  End        State
--------- --------------------- -------------------- ------------
2         2014-07-03T11:33:16   2014-07-03T11:59:01   COMPLETED
3         2014-07-03T11:35:21   Unknown               RUNNING
4         2014-07-03T11:35:21   2014-07-03T11:45:21   COMPLETED
5         2014-07-03T11:41:01   Unknown               RUNNING

By adding the -T option the job's start and end times are truncated to reflect only the time requested. If a job started after the start time requested or finished before the end time requested those times are not altered. The -T option is useful when determining exact run times during any given period.

# sacct -T -S2014-07-03-11:40 -E2014-07-03-12:00 -X -ojobid,jobname,user,start,end,state
    JobID                 Start                  End        State
--------- --------------------- -------------------- ------------
2         2014-07-03T11:40:00   2014-07-03T11:59:01   COMPLETED
3         2014-07-03T11:40:00   2014-07-03T12:00:00   RUNNING
4         2014-07-03T11:40:00   2014-07-03T11:45:21   COMPLETED
5         2014-07-03T11:41:01   2014-07-03T12:00:00   RUNNING

COPYING

Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Copyright Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.
Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Lawrence Livermore National Security. Produced at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (cf, DISCLAIMER).
Copyright (C) 2010-2014 SchedMD LLC.

This file is part of Slurm, a resource management program. For details, see <https://slurm.schedmd.com/>.

Slurm is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Slurm 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 General Public License for more details.

FILES

/etc/slurm.conf
Entries to this file enable job accounting and designate the job accounting log file that collects system job accounting.
/var/log/slurm_accounting.log
The default job accounting log file. By default, this file is set to read and write permission for root only.

SEE ALSO

sstat(1), ps (1), srun(1), squeue(1), getrusage (2), time (2)
Slurm Commands June 2018