{"id":4411,"date":"2012-07-19T14:41:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T13:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2017-01-08T20:03:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T19:03:57","slug":"lint-in-condor-submission-scripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/?p=4411","title":{"rendered":"Linting Condor Submission Scripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by colleague and friend, Ian Cottam of The University of Manchester<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I recently implemented a lint<\/a> program for Condor<\/a> (unsurprisingly called: condor_lint), analogous to the famous one for C of days of yore. That is, it points out the fluff in a Condor script and suggests improvements. It is based on our local knowledge of how our Condor Pool is set up, here in Manchester, and also reflects recent changes to Condor.<\/p>\n

Why I did it is interesting and may have wider applicability. Everything it reports is already written up on our extensive internal web site which users rarely read. I suspect the usual modus operandi of our users is to find, or be given, a Condor script, relevant to their domain, and make the minimum modifications to it that means it ‘works’. Subsequently, its basic structure is never updated (apart from referencing new data files, etc).<\/p>\n

To be fair, that’s what we all do — is it not?<\/p>\n

Ignoring our continually updated documentation means that a user’s job may make poor use of the Condor Pool, affecting others, and costing real money (in wasted energy) through such “bad throughput”.<\/p>\n

Now, although we always run the user’s job if Condor’s basic condor_submit command accepts it, we first automatically run condor_lint. This directly tells them any “bad news” and also, in many cases, gives them the link to the specific web page that explains the issue in detail.<\/p>\n

Clearly, even such “in your face” advice can still be ignored, but we are starting to see improvements.<\/p>\n

Obviously such an approach is not limited to Condor, and we would be interested in hearing of “lint approaches” with other systems.<\/p>\n

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n