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[OCLUG-Tech] Simple Linux Batch Queuing Package

Hi,

Does anyone know of a simple, open, batch queuing package for Linux?
Something more featured than at and cron, but not so complex as the
clustering solutions?

Some background -

I am porting an application from UNIX to Linux (which is scary because I
am an expert in neither, but somehow the UNIX application has been going
for about 8 years now). I investigated various UNIX batch queuing packages
at the time, and found that most were very out of date and no longer
actively supported. People had moved on to clustering approaches, and the
old, simple solutions were left behind. So I wrapped *at* with a kludgy
mechanism to get what I wanted - a means of controlling the order and
number of executing jobs.

Now I find the Linux *at* to be lacking some of the UNIX's features, such
as no accompanying queuedefs file that limits the number of simultaneously
executing jobs, and the termination of job status on running jobs after
one hour.
(http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=150667)

I could wrap this again, but before doing that, I'm wondering if anyone
else has found a simple batch queuing package for Linux. I've looked at
various alternatives, such as:

GNU Queue
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnu-queue/
Being rewritten, not available for download
More of a load balancer

Generic NQS
http://www.gnqs.org/
Not maintained for 6 years.

Portable Batch System
http://www.openpbs.org/
Unsupported, old, unfriendly keepers

You get the picture!

Funnily enough, there IS a standard for a simple UNIX/Linux batch system.
It's called "Batch Environment Services" and it's part of the Open
Group/IEEE Single Unix Specification. To view it:

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/
Select a volume: Shell and utilities
Shell and utilities: 3. Batch environment services

It has all of the needed commands: qalter qdel qhold qstat qsub, etc.

But it's optional - you can be certified as compliant without implementing
Batch Environment Services, and to the best of my knowledge, no one has. I
guess there's just no demand for it.

Any comments appreciated.

Thank you!

Geoff Gigg