[HTCondor-users] Failing Jobs on hold due to output missing

[Max Fischer <mfischer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have a problem with HTCondor's transfer_output_files and hold mechanic 
with failing jobs. We often have some very big temporary files in our 
jobs, so specifying the actual output files is a must for us in these 
cases. However, when a job fails before creating the output file, the 
STARTER subsequently fails to transfer the "requested" output file and 
as a result the job is put on hold. [1] I realize this is a documented 
behavior. [2]
As we have a multi-backend job manager wrapped around Condor, this is 
not exactly optimal for us. It masks what is an error in the job itself 
as an error of Condor. We could catch the error but this requires 
separate handling for jobs with transfer_output and those without it. It 
would be much easier if we could have Condor treat the job as Completed 
regardless of whether all files exist or define individual files as 
optional. Is there any way to do this?

Cheers,
Max


[1]
8928.89  mfischer        3/27 14:49 Error from [WORKERNODE]: STARTER at 
[WORKERNODE] failed to send file(s) to <[SCHEDD]:9615>: error reading 
from 
/home/cmsusr189/home_cream_084391945/glide_p21124/execute/dir_20515/cmssw.log.gz: 
(errno 2) No such file or directory; SHADOW failed to receive file(s) 
from <[WORKERNODE]:52719>

[2]
http://research.cs.wisc.edu/htcondor/manual/current/2_5Submitting_Job.html#SECTION00354200000000000000