CONDOR_RUN(1)

NAME
condor_run - HTCondor Manual

Submit a shell command-line as an HTCondor job

SYNOPSIS

condor_run [-u universe] [-getenv] [-a submitcmd] "shell command"

DESCRIPTION

condor_run bundles a shell command line into an HTCondor job and submits the job. The condor_run command waits for the HTCondor job to complete, writes the job's output to the terminal, and exits with the exit status of the HTCondor job. No output appears until the job completes.

Enclose the shell command line in double quote marks, so it may be passed to condor_run without modification. condor_run will not read input from the terminal while the job executes. If the shell command line requires input, redirect the input from a file, as illustrated by the example

            $ condor_run "myprog < input.data"

condor_run jobs rely on a shared file system for access to any necessary input files. The current working directory of the job must be accessible to the machine within the HTCondor pool where the job runs.

Specialized environment variables may be used to specify requirements for the machine where the job may run.

            CONDOR_ARCH
                Specifies the architecture of the required platform. Values will be the same as the Arch <href="../classad-attributes/machine-classad-attributes.html#Arch"> machine ClassAd attribute.

            CONDOR_OPSYS
                Specifies the operating system of the required platform. Values will be the same as the OpSys <href="../classad-attributes/machine-classad-attributes.html#OpSys"> machine ClassAd attribute.

            CONDOR_REQUIREMENTS
                Specifies any additional requirements for the HTCondor job. It is recommended that the value defined for CONDOR_REQUIREMENTS be enclosed in parenthesis.

When one or more of these environment variables is specified, the job is submitted with:

            Requirements = $CONDOR_REQUIREMENTS && Arch == $CONDOR_ARCH && OpSys == $CONDOR_OPSYS

Without these environment variables, the job receives the default requirements expression, which requests a machine of the same platform as the machine on which condor_run is executed.

All environment variables set when condor_run is executed will be included in the environment of the HTCondor job.

condor_run removes the HTCondor job from the queue and deletes its temporary files, if condor_run is killed before the HTCondor job completes.

OPTIONS

            -u universe
                Submit the job under the specified universe. The default is vanilla. While any universe may be specified, only the vanilla, scheduler, and local universes result in a submit description file that may work properly.

            -a submitcmd
                Add the specified submit command to the implied submit description file for the job. To include spaces within submitcmd, enclose the submit command in double quote marks. And, to include double quote marks within submitcmd, enclose the submit command in single quote marks.

            -getenv
                Add the getenv = true to the generated submit description file.

EXAMPLES

condor_run may be used to compile an executable on a different platform. As an example, first set the environment variables for the required platform:

            $ export CONDOR_ARCH="SUN4u"
            $ export CONDOR_OPSYS="SOLARIS28"

Then, use condor_run to submit the compilation as in the following two examples.

            $ condor_run "f77 -O -o myprog myprog.f"

or

            $ condor_run "make"

FILES

condor_run creates the following temporary files in the user's working directory. The placeholder <pid> is replaced by the process id of condor_run.

    .condor_run.<pid>
        A shell script containing the shell command line.

    .condor_submit.<pid>
        The submit description file for the job.

    .condor_log.<pid>
        The HTCondor job's log file; it is monitored by condor_run, to determine when the job exits.

    .condor_out.<pid>
        The output of the HTCondor job before it is output to the terminal.

    .condor_error.<pid>
        Any error messages for the HTCondor job before they are output to the terminal.

condor_run removes these files when the job completes. However, if condor_run fails, it is possible that these files will remain in the user's working directory, and the HTCondor job may remain in the queue.

GENERAL REMARKS

condor_run is intended for submitting simple shell command lines to HTCondor. It does not provide the full functionality of condor_submit. Therefore, some condor_submit errors and system failures may not be handled correctly.

All processes specified within the single shell command line will be executed on the single machine matched with the job. HTCondor will not distribute multiple processes of a command line pipe across multiple machines.

condor_run will use the shell specified in the SHELL
  environment variable, if one exists. Otherwise, it will use /bin/sh to execute the shell command-line.

By default, condor_run expects Perl to be installed in /usr/bin/perl. If Perl is installed in another path, ask the Condor administrator to edit the path in the condor_run script, or explicitly call Perl from the command line:

            $ perl path-to-condor/bin/condor_run "shell-cmd"

EXIT STATUS

condor_run exits with a status value of 0 (zero) upon complete success. The exit status of condor_run will be non-zero upon failure. The exit status in the case of a single error due to a system call will be the error number (errno) of the failed call.

Author
HTCondor Team

Copyright
1990-2026, Center for High Throughput Computing, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, US. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.