NAME¶
pbs - general information on pbs
DESCRIPTION¶
PBS stands for
Portable Batch System. It is a networked subsystem for
submitting, monitoring, and controlling a work load of batch jobs on one or
more systems. More information about PBS is available in the PBS Users Guide.
Batch means that the job will be scheduled for execution at a time chosen
by the subsystem according to a defined policy and the availability of
resources. For a normal batch job, the standard output and standard error of
the job will be returned to files available to the user when the job is
complete. This differs from an interactive session where commands are executed
when entered via the terminal and output is returned directly to the terminal.
PBS also supports an
interactive batch mode where the input and output
is connected to the user's terminal, but the scheduling of the job is still
under control of the batch system.
A
job is typically a shell script and a set of attributes which provide
resource and control information about the job. A job does not have to be
submitted on the system where it will run, tt can be submitted on any system
with the PBS commands and access to the execution system, see
qsub(1B).
Output will be returned to the system from which the job was submitted unless
directed otherwise.
Attributes offer control over when a job is eligible to be run, what happens to
the output when it is completed and how the user is notified when it
completes. The attributes of the job may be specified on the command line or
in the job script when the job is submitted. For information about job
attributes, see qsub(1B) and
pbs_job_attributes(7B).
One important attribute is the
resource list. The list specifies the
amount and type of resources needed by the job in order to execute. The list
also implies a hard upper limit on usage of those resources. When the limit is
reached, the job is terminated. The types of resources available to a job vary
with the system architecture. For a list of resources supported on the default
system, see
pbs_resources(7B). There are man pages for other systems
types as well, see
pbs_resources_aix4(7B),
pbs_resources_fujitsu(7B), pbs_resources_irix5(7B),
pbs_resources_solaris5(7B), pbs_resources_sp2(7B),
pbs_resources_sunos4(7B), or
pbs_resources_unicos8(7B).
Once a job has been submitted, it may be monitored by use of the
qstat(1B) command. Two forms of output are available with the qstat
command. The default form is the short display. Information about a job is
limited to a single line. Complete information about the job or jobs is
available through qstat with the -f option. Information will be given about
all jobs in the system, all jobs in specified queues, or only specified jobs.
When displaying status of jobs, you will see in which queue the job resides. In
PBS a queue is just a collection point for jobs, it does not imply any
execution ordering. That ordering is determined by a scheduling policy
implemented by the system administration.
Other commands of interest which have man pages of their own are:
- qalter
- Alter a job's attributes.
- qdel
- Delete a job.
- qhold
- Place a hold on a job to keep it from being scheduled for
running.
- qmove
- Move a job to a different queue or server.
- qmsg
- Append a message to the output of an executing job.
- qrerun
- Terminate an executing job and return it to a queue.
- qrls
- Remove a hold from a job.
- qselect
- Obtain a list of jobs that met certain criteria.
- qsig
- Send a signal to an executing job.
SEE ALSO¶
qalter(1B), qdel(1B), qhold(1B), qmove(1B), qmsg(1B), qrerun(1B), qrls(1B),
qselect(1B), qsig(1B), qsub(1B) and the PBS User Guide. Starting with
qsub(1B), you can find all other available PBS man pages by following
references in the "See Also" section.