[DRMAA-WG] Blocking drmaa_run_job()

[Daniel Templeton]

This is another case where the intent is perfectly clear if you're one 
of the five authors, but for anyone else it's not so clear.  One could 
infer from the fact that there are explicit synchronization routines 
that the job submission routines should be non-blocking, but I could 
also make a pretty good argument in the other direction as well.  There 
is no clear statement in the spec as to the intended behavior of the job 
submission routines.  A new DRMAA implementation could make 
drmaa_run_job() blocking and drmaa_run_bulk_jobs() non-blocking and 
still be compliant with the DRMAA specification.

I recommend that we add, as Roger said, a single sentence to the spec(s) 
saying explicitly that the job submission routines must return as soon 
as the job *submission* is complete.  Or maybe we could state it in the 
negative: the job submission routines must not block waiting for the 
submitted job(s) to end.  Either way, explicit is better than implied.

Daniel

Rajic, Hrabri wrote:
> Changing the semantics of the DRMAA API via native_specification!?!
>
> Quite interesting.  
>
> Hrabri
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: drmaa-wg-bounces at ogf.org [mailto:drmaa-wg-bounces at ogf.org] On
>>     
> Behalf
>   
>> Of Roger Brobst
>> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 10:52 AM
>> To: Daniel Templeton
>> Cc: DRMAA Working Group
>> Subject: Re: [DRMAA-WG] Blocking drmaa_run_job()
>>
>>
>> If the intent of the DRMAA API was unclear,
>> we should add a sentence.
>>
>> My suspicion is that intent was clear, but the
>> DRMAA(SGE) user was confused why "-sync y"
>> didn't work.
>>
>> -Roger
>>
>> ----Original Message----
>> From: Daniel Templeton <Dan.Templeton at Sun.COM>
>> Sender: drmaa-wg-bounces at ogf.org
>> To: DRMAA Working Group <drmaa-wg at gridforum.org>
>> Subject: [DRMAA-WG] Blocking drmaa_run_job()
>> Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 23:24:12 -0700
>>
>> All,
>>
>> I just had a discussion on the SGE mailing list that should probably be
>> a tracker for the IDL spec.  A user attempted to use the "-sync y"
>> option in the DRMAA native specification attribute, and was confused as
>> to why it didn't work.  -sync tells the SGE qsub command to block until
>> the job finishes.  The user wanted to bypass the drmaa_wait() call by
>> doing a blocking drmaa_run_job() call.  I looked through the DRMAA spec
>> and the IDL spec, and neither actually declares whether the job
>> submission routines should return before the job completes or not.
>> That's probably an important detail that should be included.
>>
>> Daniel
>> --
>>  drmaa-wg mailing list
>>  drmaa-wg at ogf.org
>>  http://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo/drmaa-wg
>>     
> --
>   drmaa-wg mailing list
>   drmaa-wg at ogf.org
>   http://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo/drmaa-wg
>