; BATCH ;--------------------------------------------------------------- ;! starts entry of commands into batch-job work file ;# Verb Batch ;----------------------------------------------------------------------- ;; Copyright (C) 1995 ;; Associated Universities, Inc. Washington DC, USA. ;; ;; This program 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. ;; ;; This program 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. ;; ;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public ;; License along with this program; if not, write to the Free ;; Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, ;; MA 02139, USA. ;; ;; Correspondence concerning AIPS should be addressed as follows: ;; Internet email: aipsmail@nrao.edu. ;; Postal address: AIPS Project Office ;; National Radio Astronomy Observatory ;; 520 Edgemont Road ;; Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA ;----------------------------------------------------------------------- ;--------------------------------------------------------------- BATCH LLLLLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUU CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC BATCH: Verb used to enter a batch work file BATQUE 1.0 2.0 Batch work file ---------------------------------------------------------------- BATCH Type: verb (acts somewhat like a pseudoverb since remainder of input line will not be executed) Use: Causes the input mode to be changed to batch (prompt symbol <). All following lines are placed in the specified batch work file until the string ENDBATCH is found in the input. The lines are placed at the start of the work file if the file is empty or if it was last used by someone other than the current logged-on user. Otherwise the lines go after the previously entered text. Adverbs: BATQUE The number of the work file for which the text is being prepared (1 or 2). ---------------------------------------------------------------- BATCH Verb to cause following text to be added to a batch job. Documentor: Eric W. Greisen Related programs: BATEDIT, BAMODIFY, BATLIST, etc. PURPOSE In order to run a job using the AIPS batch system a text file of commands must be prepared and submitted to it. BATCH is the first verb used in preparing a file of this type. It causes the AIPS program to read all following lines and place them in a "work file" for later submission. The reading of the input text continues until the EXACT string ENDBATCH is encountered in the input. Then AIPS returns to normal mode. The prompt symbol during batch preparation mode is "<" rather than the usual ">". The first time BATCH is used by a user on a particular work file, the text goes at the beginning of the file. Thereafter, BATCH append the text at the end of the previous text. Verbs BATEDIT and BAMODIFY may be used to edit the contents of the work file and BATLIST to list the contents. Batch is used in AIPS for several purposes. It allows repetitive work to go on in the background without tying up a terminal. It also allows long jobs to be run later when the computer is less busy. There are usually two queues in an AIPS batch system. The first is for smaller jobs and will not run tasks which require the array processor. The second is for longer jobs and will run AP tasks, but will run them only during evening hours. Currently those hours are 6 pm to 8 am weekdays and 4 pm to 9:30 am weekends. These hours may vary at various AIPS installations. COMMENTS The editors provided for batch jobs are fairly primitive. For this reason, we recommend two methods for reducing the amount of text actually in a batch work file. You can prepare a POPS environment for a particular job or portion of a job (e.g. a task) interactively and then SAVE it under some name. This environment may then be recovered intact in the batch job. For example, assume that you have a set of line maps to be cleaned. Prepare the adverbs for cleaning and try them on the first map interactively. When you are satisfied, the do >SAVE CLEANTHEM >BATCH ... Note that AIPS batch runs tasks sequentially. Thus, it was not necessary to specify DOWAIT TRUE or to issue a WAITTASK. When using this shortcut, be careful not to change your SAVE file(s) before the batch job has finished. The second shortcut is to use RUN files. These files are prepared using your local text editor which should have all sorts of nice facilities. Then the batch job work file would be prepared using, for example, >BATCLEAR (clear out last job) >BATCH RUN files are expanded when the job is submitted. Thus, they may be modified as soon as a job is successfully in the queue. Be sure to list the batch work file with BATLIST before issuing the verb SUBMIT. That verb submits the work file to a checking program (AIPSC) which tests the POPS grammar. Should it pass the test, the job is submitted to the batch AIPS called AIPSB which will run it eventually. Use the verb QUEUES to list the current queue and note particularly the "submit time" assigned to your job. It will be after the actual submission time by at least a few minutes. This delay is inserted to allow you to reconsider and to remove the job from the queue using the verb UNQUEUE. When UNQUEUEd, a job is returned to the work file - for additional editing presumably. A job which is not yet running may be listed with JOBLIST. Additional help may be found in the HELP file called BATCHJOB and in the HELP files for the various verbs.