[help-gnubatch] GNUbatch Version 2

[John M Collins]

I plan to start working again on the next version of GNUbatch in the next few months.

This is a ground-up rewrite and is already about 6 times bigger than the original.

Main features are:

• Job hierarchy - "super-jobs" contain lists of jobs to any level - and a super-job can act as a batch scheduler on its own
• Each level of the job hierarchy contains its own namespace of variables so my variable "X" won't conflict with yours. However you can explicitly go up and down the hierarchy by name or using "relative references".
• All the "bits" of time constraints and repeats, conditions and assignments are broken off into separate elements which you can combine arbitrarily into "condition structures" with no limits on the number of conditions.
• The condition structures can be combined with "AND" "OR" and "NOT" so you can do things like "9 to 17 hours and not 13 to 14".
• You can put "standard" conditions in a labelled structure and refer to that name like "working_hours" "holidays" rather than having the whole condition structure in each job. You can extend and override bits of it to say things like "working_hours but we go home at 16:45 on Fridays".
• Conditions and assignments can involve arbitrary expressions and attributes of jobs including their history. Using relative references you can make an assignment, for example, set a variable to the name of the next job in the list of jobs - and use that same assignment in each job, so each job has a condition that "next_job = (myname)" and an assignment of "next_job=(next job's name)".
• All sorts of things like assignments on "skip" and "catch up" and "force run".

Key internal changes are:

• Saved jobs and such are in XML and XML is used to speak between machines so we don't have these binary messages with lots of padding in to cater for alignment differences.
• Stop using the message queue - use sockets including UNIX domain sockets on the local host which makes waiting for a message and setting an alarm possible using select. It also removes the need for the "xbnetserv" process to handle API requests. And it reduces the messages flying about as a client can say what changes it wants directly to the host holding the job rather than have to go to its own scheduler which in turn speaks over the network to its counterpart on the hosting machine etc.

If anyone is interested in participating in getting it completed and tested please join the gnubatch-2 mailing list.

Thanks.

John Collins address@hidden Skype: toadwarbler

xisoftware
Xi Software Ltd www.xisl.com 

Tel: +44 (0)1707 886110 (Direct) +44 (0)7799 113162 (Mobile)

Registered in England & Wales Company Number 1977148 VAT: GB 403 9239 64

Trading Address: 3 Mandeville Rise, Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL8 7JT, UK
Reg Office: 2 Mill Road, Haverhill, Suffolk, CB9 8BD, UK