This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux
manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be
implemented on Linux.
batch — schedule commands to be executed in a batch queue
batch
The
batch utility shall read commands from standard input and schedule
them for execution in a batch queue. It shall be the equivalent of the
command:
where queue
b is a special
at queue, specifically for batch jobs.
Batch jobs shall be submitted to the batch queue with no time constraints and
shall be run by the system using algorithms, based on unspecified factors,
that may vary with each invocation of
batch.
Users shall be permitted to use
batch if their name appears in the file
at.allow which is located in an implementation-defined directory. If
that file does not exist, the file
at.deny, which is located in an
implementation-defined directory, shall be checked to determine whether the
user shall be denied access to
batch. If neither file exists, only a
process with appropriate privileges shall be allowed to submit a job. If only
at.deny exists and is empty, global usage shall be permitted. The
at.allow and
at.deny files shall consist of one user name per
line.
None.
None.
The standard input shall be a text file consisting of commands acceptable to the
shell command language described in
Chapter 2,
Shell Command
Language.
The text files
at.allow and
at.deny, which are located in an
implementation-defined directory, shall contain zero or more user names, one
per line, of users who are, respectively, authorized or denied access to the
at and
batch utilities.
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
batch:
- LANG
- Provide a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization
Variables for 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 and input files).
- LC_MESSAGES
-
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents
of diagnostic messages written to standard error and informative messages
written to standard output.
- LC_TIME
- Determine the format and contents for date and time strings
written by batch.
- NLSPATH
- Determine the location of message catalogs for the
processing of LC_MESSAGES.
- SHELL
- Determine the name of a command interpreter to be used to
invoke the at-job. If the variable is unset or null, sh shall be
used. If it is set to a value other than a name for sh, the
implementation shall do one of the following: use that shell; use
sh; use the login shell from the user database; any of the
preceding accompanied by a warning diagnostic about which was chosen.
- TZ
- Determine the timezone. The job shall be submitted for
execution at the time specified by timespec or -t
time relative to the timezone specified by the TZ variable.
If timespec specifies a timezone, it overrides TZ. If
timespec does not specify a timezone and TZ is unset or
null, an unspecified default timezone shall be used.
Default.
When standard input is a terminal, prompts of unspecified format for each line
of the user input described in the STDIN section may be written to standard
output.
The following shall be written to standard error when a job has been
successfully submitted:
"job %s at %s\n", at_job_id, <date>
where
date shall be equivalent in format to the output of:
The date and time written shall be adjusted so that they appear in the timezone
of the user (as determined by the
TZ variable).
Neither this, nor warning messages concerning the selection of the command
interpreter, are considered a diagnostic that changes the exit status.
Diagnostic messages, if any, shall be written to standard error.
None.
None.
The following exit values shall be returned:
- 0
- Successful completion.
- >0
- An error occurred.
The job shall not be scheduled.
The following sections are informative.
It may be useful to redirect standard output within the specified commands.
- 1.
- This sequence can be used at a terminal:
batch
sort < file >outfile
EOT
- 2.
- This sequence, which demonstrates redirecting standard
error to a pipe, is useful in a command procedure (the sequence of output
redirection specifications is significant):
batch <<!
diff file1 file2 2>&1 >outfile | mailx mygroup
!
Early proposals described
batch in a manner totally separated from
at, even though the historical model treated it almost as a synonym for
at -qb. A number of features were added to list and control
batch work separately from those in
at. Upon further reflection, it was
decided that the benefit of this did not merit the change to the historical
interface.
The
-m option was included on the equivalent
at command because it
is historical practice to mail results to the submitter, even if all
job-produced output is redirected. As explained in the RATIONALE for
at, the
now keyword submits the job for immediate execution
(after scheduling delays), despite some historical systems where
at
now would have been considered an error.
None.
at
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017,
Chapter 8,
Environment Variables
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE
Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating
System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018
Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between
this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original
Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
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