Using xpbs

xpbs - Graphical Interface to PBS

The xpbs command provides a user-friendly point-and-click interface to PBS commands. Please see the sections below for a tour and tutorials. Also, within every dialog box, a Help button can be found for assistance.

Getting Started
Running xpbs
The xpbs Display
Widgets Used in xpbs
Submitting Jobs
Modifying Attributes of Jobs
Deleting Jobs
Tracking Returned Output Files
Leaving xpbs
Preferences

xpbs and PBS Commands

Getting Started

Running xpbs will initially load preference settings defined by the system administrator in the global .xpbsrc file. And then it checks the user's ~/.xpbsrc file. This file defines various X resources like fonts, colors, list of PBS hosts to query, criteria for listing queues and jobs, and various view states. See Preferences section below for a list of resources that can be set.

Running xpbs

To run xpbs as a regular, non-privileged user:


        setenv DISPLAY <display_host>:0
        xpbs

The xpbs Display

This section describes the main parts of the xpbs display:

xpbs Main Window

Click here to view a full-size image.

The main window is composed of 5 distinct areas (subwindows) arranged vertically (one on top of another) in the following order:

        1) Menu
        2) Hosts
        3) Queues
        4) Jobs
        5) Info

The Menu area is composed of a row of command buttons that signal some action with a click of the left mouse button. The buttons are:

Update Data Manually - to update the information on hosts, queues, and jobs.
Update Data Auto - same as "Update" except updating is done automatically every <some specified> number of minutes.
Submit - for submitting a job to any of the queues managed by the selected host(s).
Track Job - for periodically checking for returned output files of jobs.
Preferences - for setting certain parameters such as the list of server host(s) to query.
Close - for exiting xpbs plus saving the current setup information in the user's $HOME/.xpbsrc file. Information saved include the selected host(s), queue(s), job(s), the different jobs listing criteria, and the view states (i.e. minimized/maximized) of the Hosts, Queues, and Jobs regions.
Help - contains some help information.

The Hosts area is composed of a leading horizontal HOSTS bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The HOSTS bar contains a minimize/maximize button, identified by a dot or a rectangular image, for displaying or getting rid of the Hosts region. The listbox displays information about favorite server host(s), and each entry is meant to be selected via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or ctrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The command buttons represent actions on selected host(s), and commonly found buttons are:

detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected server host(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on an entry in the Hosts listbox.
terminate - for terminating PBS servers on selected host(s). (-admin only)

The server hosts can be chosen by specifying in the ~/.xpbsrc file (or .Xdefaults) the resource:

        *serverHosts:  hostname1 hostname2 ...

Another way of specifying the host is to click on the Preferences button in the Menu region, and manipulate the server Hosts entry widget from the preferences dialog box.

The Queues area is composed of a leading horizontal QUEUES bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The QUEUES bar lists the hosts that are consulted when listing queues; the bar also contains a minimize/maximize button for displaying or iconizing the Queues region. The listbox displays information about queues managed by the server host(s) selected from the Hosts listbox; each listbox entry is meant to be selected (highlighted) via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or ctrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The command buttons represent actions for operating on selected queue(s), and commonly found buttons are:

detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected queue(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on a Queues listbox entry.

The Jobs area is composed of a leading horizontal JOBS bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The JOBS bar lists the queues that are consulted when listing jobs; the bar also contains a minimize/maximize button for displaying or iconizing the Jobs region. The listbox displays information about jobs that are found in the queue(s) selected from the Queues listbox; each listbox entry is meant to be selected (highlighted) via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or ctrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The region just above the Jobs listbox shows a collection of command buttons whose labels describe a corresponding criteria used for filtering the Jobs listbox contents. The list of jobs can be selected according to the owner of jobs (Owners), job state (Job_States), name of the job (Job_Name), type of hold placed on the job (Hold_Types), the account name associated with the job (Account_Name), checkpoint attribute (Checkpoint), time the job is eligible for queueing/execution (Queue_Time), resources requested by the job (Resources), priority attached to the job (Priority), and whether or not the job is rerunnable (Rerunnable). The selection criteria can be modified by clicking on any of the appropriate command buttons to bring up a selection box. The criteria command buttons are accompanied by a "Select Jobs" button, which when clicked, will update the contents of the Jobs listbox based on the new selection criteria.

Finally, to the right of the listbox, the Jobs region is accompanied by the following command buttons, for operating on selected job(s):

detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected job(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on a Jobs listbox entry.
modify - for modifying attributes of the selected job(s).
delete - for deleting the selected job(s).
hold - for placing some type of hold on selected job(s).
release - for releasing held job(s).
signal - for sending signals to selected job(s) that are running.
msg - for writing a message string into the output streams of the selected job(s).
move - for moving selected job(s) into some specified destination queue.
order - for exchanging order of two selected jobs in a queue.
run - for running selected job(s). (-admin only)
rerun - for requeueing selected job(s) that are running. (-admin only)

The Info Area shows the progress of the commands' executed by xpbs. Look into this box for errors.

Widgets Used in xpbs

Some of the widgets used in xpbs and how they are manipulated are described in the following:

listbox - can be multi-selectable (a number of entries can be selected/highlighted using a mouse click) or single-selectable (one entry can be highlighted at a time). For a multi-selectable listbox, the following operations are allowed:
- single click with mouse button 1 to select/highlight an entry.
- shift key + mouse button 1 to contiguously select more than one entry.
- ctrl key + mouse button 1 to non-contiguously select more than one entry. NOTE: For systems running Tk < 4.0, the newly selected item is reshuffled to appear next to already selected items.
- click the "Select All/Deselect All" button to select all entries or deselect all entries at once.
- double clicking an entry usually activates some action that uses the selected entry as a parameter.
scrollbar - usually appears either vertically or horizontally and contains 5 distinct areas that are mouse clicked to achieve different effects:
- top arrow - Causes the view in the associated widget to shift up by one unit (i.e. the object appears to move down one unit in its window). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat.
- top gap - Causes the view in the associated window to shift up by one less than the number of units in the window (i.e. the portion of the object that used to appear at the very top of the window will now appear at the very bottom). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat.
- slider - Pressing button 1 in this area has no immediate effect except to cause the slider to appear sunken rather than raised. However, if the mouse is moved with the button down then the slider will be dragged, adjusting the view as the mouse is moved.
- bottom gap - Causes the view in the associated window to shift down by one less than the number of units in the window (i.e. the portion of the object that used to appear at the very bottom of the window will now appear at the very top). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat.
- bottom arrow - Causes the view in the associated window to shift down by one unit (i.e. the object appears to move up one unit in its window). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat.
entry - brought into focus with a click of the left mouse button. To manipulate this widget, simply type in the text value. Use of arrow keys, mouse selection of text for deletion or overwrite, copying and pasting with sole use of mouse buttons are permitted. This widget is usually accompanied by a scrollbar for horizontally scanning a long text entry string.
matrix of entry boxes - usually shown as several rows of entry widgets where a number of entries (called fields) can be found per row. The matrix is accompanied by up/down arrow buttons for paging through the rows of data, and each group of fields gets one scrollbar for horizontally scanning long entry strings. Moving from field to field can be done using the <Tab>, <Ctrl-f>, or <Ctrl-b> (move backwards) keys.
spinbox - a combination of an entry widget and a horizontal scrollbar. The entry widget will only accept values that fall within a defined list of valid values, and incrementing through the valid values is done by clicking on the up/down arrows.
button - a rectangular region appearing either raised or pressed that invokes an action when clicked with the left mouse button. When the button appears pressed, then hitting the <RETURN> key will automatically select the button.
text - an editor like widget. This widget is brought into focus with a click of the left mouse button. To manipulate this widget, simply type in the text. Use of arrow keys, backspace/delete key, mouse selection of text for deletion or overwrite, copying and pasting with sole use of mouse buttons are permitted. This widget is usually accompanied by a scrollbar for vertically scanning a long entry.

Submitting Jobs

Submitting a PBS job requires only to manipulate the widgets found in the Submit window.

xpbs Main Window

Click here to view a full-size image.

To submit a job, do the following steps:

Select a host from the HOSTS listbox in the main xpbs display.

Click on the "Submit" button located in the Menu bar.

The submit dialog box is composed of 4 distinct regions:
```
      (1) Job Script
      (2) OPTIONS
      (3) OTHER OPTIONS
      (4) Command Buttons
```
The Job Script file region is at the upper left, the OPTIONS region containing various widgets for setting job attributes is scattered all over the dialog box, the OTHER OPTIONS is located just below the Job Script file region, and Command Buttons region is at the bottom.
The job script region is composed of a header box, the text box, FILE entry box, and a couple of buttons labeled "load" and "save". If you have a script file containing PBS options and executable lines, then type the name of the file on the FILE entry box, and then click on the "load" button. The various widgets in the Submit window will get loaded with values found in the script file. The script file text box will only be loaded with executable lines (non-PBS) found in the script. The job script header box has a "Prefix" entry box that can be modified to specify the PBS directive to look for when parsing a script file for PBS options.
If you don't have a script file, you can start typing the executable lines of the job in the file text box.
Start manipulating the various widgets in the Submit window. Particularly, pay close attention to the Destination listbox. This box lists all the queues found in the host that you selected. A special entry called "@host" refers to the default queue at host. Select appropriately the destination queue of the job. More options can be found by clicking the OTHER OPTIONS buttons.
At the bottom of the Submit window, click "confirm submit". You can also click on "interactive" to run the job interactively. Running a job interactively will open an xterm window to your display host containing the session.
NOTE: The script FILE entry box is accompanied by a "save" button that you click to save the current widget values to the specified file in a form that can later be read by xpbs or by the qsub command.

Modifying Attributes of Jobs

Modifying a PBS job requires only to manipulate the widgets found in the Modify window. To modify a job or jobs, do the following steps:

Select one or more jobs from the JOBS listbox in the main xpbs display.
Click on the "modify" button located to the right of the listbox.
The Modify window is structured similarly to the Submit window. Simply manipulate the widgets to specify replacement or additional values of job attributes.
Click on the "confirm modify" button located at the bottom of the dialog box.

Deleting Jobs

Deleting a PBS job requires only to manipulate the widgets found in the Delete window. To delete a job or jobs, do the following steps:

Select one or more jobs from the JOBS listbox in the main xpbs display.
Click on the "delete" button located to the right of the listbox.
Manipulate the spinbox widget to set the kill delay signal interval.
Click on the "delete" button located at the bottom of the dialog box.

Tracking Returned Output Files

If you want to be informed of returned output files of current jobs, and be able to quickly see the contents of those files, then enable the "track job" feature as follows:

Submit all the jobs that you want monitored.

Click on the "Track Job" button located in the Menu bar to bring up the Track Job dialog box.

Specify the list of user names, whose jobs are to be monitored for returned output files, in the matrix located at the upper left of the dialog box.

Manipulate the minutes spinbox, located just below the user names matrix, to specify the interval value when output files will be periodically checked.

Specify the location of job output files (whether locally or remotely) by clicking on one of the radio buttons located at the upper right of the dialog box. If the output files are returned to some remote host, then xpbs will execute an "RSH <remote_host> test -f <output_files>" to test the existence of the files.

NOTE: Be sure the files are accessible from the host where xpbs was run (i.e. .rhosts appropriately set).

Click "start tracking" button located at the bottom of the dialog box to:

      - cancel any previous tracking
      - build a new list of jobs to be monitored for returned
        output files based on currently queued jobs.
      - start periodic tracking.

Click on "close window" button.

When an output file for a job being monitored is found, then the "Track Job" button (the one that originally invoked the Track Job dialog box) will turn into a different color, and the "Jobs Found Completed" listbox, located in the Track Job dialog box, is then loaded with the corresponding job id(s). Then click on a job id to see the contents of the output file and the error file. Click "stop tracking" if you want to cancel tracking.

Leaving xpbs

Click on the Close button located in the Menu bar to leave xpbs. It will bring up a dialog box asking for a confirmation in regards to saving state information like the view states (minimize/maximize) of the HOSTS, QUEUES, and JOBS subwindows, and various criteria for listing queues and jobs. The information is saved in ~/.xpbsrc file.

Preferences

The resources that can be set in the X resources file, ~/.xpbsrc, are:

   *serverHosts
        list of server hosts (space separated) to query by
        xpbs.

   *xtermCmd
        the xterm command to run driving an interactive PBS
        session.

   *labelFont
        font applied to text appearing in labels.

   *fixlabelFont
        font applied to text that label fixed-width widgets
        such as listbox labels. This must be a fixed-width
        font.

   *textFont
        font applied to a text widget. Keep this as fixed-width
        font.

   *backgroundColor
        the color applied to background of frames, buttons,
        entries, scrollbar handles.

   *foregroundColor
        the color applied to text in any context (under
        selection, insertion, etc...).

   *activeColor
        the color applied to the background of a selection, a
        selected command button, or a selected scroll bar
        handle.

   *disabledColor
        color applied to a disabled widget.

   *signalColor
        color applied to buttons that signal something to the
        user about a change of state. For example, the color of
        the "Track Job" button when returned output files are
        detected.

   *shadingColor
        a color shading applied to some of the frames to
        emphasize focus as well as decoration.

   *selectorColor
        the color applied to the selector box of a radiobutton
        or checkbutton.

   *selectHosts
        list of hosts (space separated) to automatically
        select/highlight in the HOSTS listbox.

   *selectQueues
        list of queues (space separated) to automatically
        select/highlight in the QUEUES listbox.

   *selectJobs
        list of jobs (space separated) to automatically
        select/highlight in the JOBS listbox.

   *selectOwners
        list of owners (space separated) checked when limiting
        the jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the main xpbs
        window. See -j option in qselect(1B) for format.

   *selectStates
        list of job states to look for (do not space separate)
        when limiting the jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in
        the main xpbs window.  See -s option in qselect(1B) for
        format.

   *selectRes
        list of resource amounts (space separated) to consult
        when limiting the jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in
        the main xpbs window.  See -l option in qselect(1B) for
        format.

   *selectExecTime
        the Execution Time attribute to consult when limiting
        the list of jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the
        main xpbs window.  See -a option in qselect(1B) for
        format.

   *selectAcctName
        the name of the account that will be checked when
        limiting the jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the
        main xpbs window.  See -A option in qselect(1B) for
        format.

   *selectCheckpoint
        the checkpoint attribute relationship (including the
        logical operator) to consult when limiting the list of
        jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the main xpbs
        window. See -c option in qselect(1B) for format.

   *selectHold
        the hold types string to look for in a job when
        limiting the jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the
        main xpbs window.  See -h option in qselect(1B) for
        format.

   *selectPriority
        the priority relationship (including the logical
        operator) to consult when limiting the list of jobs
        appearing on the Jobs listbox in the main xpbs window.
        See -p option in qselect(1B) for format.

   *selectRerun
        the rerunnable attribute to consult when limiting the
        list of jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the main
        xpbs window.  See -r option in qselect(1B) for format.

   *selectJobName
        name of the job that will be checked when limiting the
        jobs appearing on the Jobs listbox in the main xpbs
        window. See -N option in qselect(1B) for format.

   *iconizeHostsView
        a boolean value (true or false) indicating whether or
        not to iconize the HOSTS region.

   *iconizeQueuesView
        a boolean value (true or false) indicating whether or
        not to iconize the QUEUES region.

   *iconizeJobsView
        a boolean value (true or false) indicating whether or
        not to iconize the JOBS region.

xpbs and PBS Commands

xpbs calls PBS commands as follows:


   Command Button    PBS Command
   --------------    -----------

   detail (Hosts)    qstat -B -f <selected server_host(s)>
   terminate         qterm <selected server_host(s)>
   detail (Queues)   qstat -Q -f <selected queue(s)>
   stop              qstop <selected queue(s)>
   start             qstart <selected queue(s)>
   enable            qenable <selected queue(s)&g
   disable           qdisable <selected queue(s)>
   detail (Jobs)     qstat -f <selected job(s)>
   modify            qalter <selected job(s)>
   delete            qdel <selected job(s)>
   hold              qhold <selected job(s)>
   release           qrls <selected job(s)>
   run               qrun <selected job(s)>
   rerun             qrerun  <selected job(s)>
   signal            qsig <selected job(s)>
   msg               qmsg <selected job(s)>
   move              qmove <selected job(s)>
   order             qorder <selected job(s)>

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