Re: [Condor-users] Setting environment variable to hold remote working dir

[Brian Candler <B.Candler@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Aug 09, 2012 at 11:44:00AM +0200, Tomas Lid�n wrote:
>    I want to store the remote working directory in an environment variable
>    (for later access in a sub-program).

Do you mean a sub-program spawned as a child of the first program? Or a
separate job submitted by condor_dagman?  Or something else?

I'm a condor newbie, but I believe that when a job completes on a remote
node, its temporary directory is deleted. So you are only guaranteed that it
exists for as long as the first job is running.

>    universe = vanilla
>    should_transfer_files = yes
>    run_as_owner = true
>    environment = "MY_ENV_VAR=$$(RemoteIwd)"
>    queue

http://research.cs.wisc.edu/condor/manual/v7.8/11_Appendix_A.html#85394

RemoteIwd is an attribute of the Job ClassAd, whereas $$() accesses the
Machine ClassAd.

A quick test suggests you can set RemoteIwd to set the directory where you
*want* the job to excute:

cmd = /bin/pwd
output = bc.out.$(Process)
error = bc.err.$(Process)
log = bc.log
RemoteIwd = /tmp
queue 6

However, I don't know if it's also updated when the job runs, so that it
reflects the directory where it *is* running.

>    I can see that Condor sets a number of environment variables, such as
>    TMP, TEMP, TMPDIR, _CONDOR_JOB_IWD etc. But how do I transfer these to
>    MY_ENV_VAR?

Testing with a slightly different submit file:

cmd = /usr/bin/printenv
output = bc.out.$(Process)
error = bc.err.$(Process)
log = bc.log
queue 6

then I can see that the job itself receives these environment variables, at
the time it runs:

$ grep IWD bc.out.*
bc.out.0:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_2310
bc.out.1:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_38759
bc.out.2:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_2313
bc.out.3:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_38763
bc.out.4:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_2318
bc.out.5:_CONDOR_JOB_IWD=/var/lib/condor/execute/dir_38766

So if you want to pass this information to a sub-process of your job, it's
already in that job's environment.  Of course, the job could just do a "pwd"
to find out what directory it is running in.

Regards,

Brian.