NAME

qdel - delete batch jobs

SYNOPSIS

[OB BE] qdel job_identifier...

DESCRIPTION

A batch job is deleted by sending a request to the batch server that manages the batch job. A batch job that has been deleted is no longer subject to management by batch services.

The qdel utility is a user-accessible client of batch services that requests the deletion of one or more batch jobs.

The qdel utility shall request a batch server to delete those batch jobs for which a batch job_identifier is presented to the utility.

The qdel utility shall delete batch jobs in the order in which their batch job_identifiers are presented to the utility.

If the qdel utility fails to process any batch job_identifier successfully, the utility shall proceed to process the remaining batch job_identifiers, if any.

The qdel utility shall delete each batch job by sending a Delete Job Request to the batch server that manages the batch job.

The qdel utility shall not exit until the batch job corresponding to each successfully processed batch job_identifier has been deleted.

OPTIONS

None.

OPERANDS

The qdel utility shall accept one or more operands that conform to the syntax for a batch job_identifier (see Batch Job Identifier).

STDIN

Not used.

INPUT FILES

None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of qdel:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See XBD Internationalization Variables the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

LOGNAME

Determine the login name of the user.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

STDOUT

An implementation of the qdel utility may write informative messages to standard output.

STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

None.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values shall be returned:

 0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

In addition to the default behavior, the qdel utility shall not be required to write a diagnostic message to standard error when the error reply received from a batch server indicates that the batch job_identifier does not exist on the server. Whether or not the qdel utility waits to output the diagnostic message while attempting to locate the job on other servers is implementation-defined.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

EXAMPLES

None.

RATIONALE

The qdel utility allows users and administrators to delete jobs.

The qdel utility provides functionality that is not otherwise available. For example, the kill utility of the operating system does not suffice. First, to use the kill utility, the user might have to log in on a remote node, because the kill utility does not operate across the network. Second, unlike qdel, kill cannot remove jobs from queues. Lastly, the arguments of the qdel utility are job identifiers rather than process identifiers, and so this utility can be passed the output of the qselect utility, thus providing users with a means of deleting a list of jobs.

Because a set of jobs can be selected using the qselect utility, the qdel utility has not been complicated with options that provide for selection of jobs. Instead, the batch jobs to be deleted are identified individually by their job identifiers.

Historically, the qdel utility has been a component of NQS, the existing practice on which it is based. However, the qdel utility defined in this volume of POSIX.1-2008 does not provide an option for specifying a signal number to send to the batch job prior to the killing of the process; that capability has been subsumed by the qsig utility.

A discussion was held about the delays of networking and the possibility that the batch server may never respond, due to a down router, down batch server, or other network mishap. The DESCRIPTION records this under the words "fails to process any job identifier". In the broad sense, the network problem is also an error, which causes the failure to process the batch job identifier.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The qdel utility may be removed in a future version.

SEE ALSO

Batch Environment Services, kill, qselect, qsig

XBD Environment Variables

CHANGE HISTORY

Derived from IEEE Std 1003.2d-1994.

Issue 6

The LC_TIME and TZ entries are removed from the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section.

Issue 7

The qdel utility is marked obsolescent.

SD5-XCU-ERN-97 is applied, updating the SYNOPSIS.