1BATCH(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual BATCH(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
12 batch — schedule commands to be executed in a batch queue
13
15 batch
16
18 The batch utility shall read commands from standard input and schedule
19 them for execution in a batch queue. It shall be the equivalent of the
20 command:
21 at -q b -m now
24 where queue b is a special at queue, specifically for batch jobs. Batch
26 jobs shall be submitted to the batch queue with no time constraints and
27 shall be run by the system using algorithms, based on unspecified fac‐
28 tors, that may vary with each invocation of batch.
29 Users shall be permitted to use batch if their name appears in the file
31 at.allow which is located in an implementation-defined directory. If
32 that file does not exist, the file at.deny, which is located in an
33 implementation-defined directory, shall be checked to determine whether
34 the user shall be denied access to batch. If neither file exists, only
35 a process with appropriate privileges shall be allowed to submit a job.
36 If only at.deny exists and is empty, global usage shall be permitted.
37 The at.allow and at.deny files shall consist of one user name per line.
38
40 None.
41
43 None.
44
46 The standard input shall be a text file consisting of commands accept‐
47 able to the shell command language described in Chapter 2, Shell Com‐
48 mand Language.
49
51 The text files at.allow and at.deny, which are located in an implemen‐
52 tation-defined directory, shall contain zero or more user names, one
53 per line, of users who are, respectively, authorized or denied access
54 to the at and batch utilities.
55
57 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
58 batch:
59 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
61 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
62 ume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
63 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
64 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
65 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
67 all the other internationalization variables.
68 LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
70 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
71 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
72 files).
73 LC_MESSAGES
75 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
76 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error
77 and informative messages written to standard output.
78 LC_TIME Determine the format and contents for date and time strings
80 written by batch.
81 NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
83 of LC_MESSAGES.
84 SHELL Determine the name of a command interpreter to be used to
86 invoke the at-job. If the variable is unset or null, sh shall
87 be used. If it is set to a value other than a name for sh,
88 the implementation shall do one of the following: use that
89 shell; use sh; use the login shell from the user database;
90 any of the preceding accompanied by a warning diagnostic
91 about which was chosen.
92 TZ Determine the timezone. The job shall be submitted for execu‐
94 tion at the time specified by timespec or -t time relative to
95 the timezone specified by the TZ variable. If timespec speci‐
96 fies a timezone, it overrides TZ. If timespec does not spec‐
97 ify a timezone and TZ is unset or null, an unspecified
98 default timezone shall be used.
99
101 Default.
102
104 When standard input is a terminal, prompts of unspecified format for
105 each line of the user input described in the STDIN section may be writ‐
106 ten to standard output.
107
109 The following shall be written to standard error when a job has been
110 successfully submitted:
111 "job %s at %s\n", at_job_id, <date>
114 where date shall be equivalent in format to the output of:
116 date +"%a %b %e %T %Y"
119 The date and time written shall be adjusted so that they appear in the
121 timezone of the user (as determined by the TZ variable).
122 Neither this, nor warning messages concerning the selection of the com‐
124 mand interpreter, are considered a diagnostic that changes the exit
125 status.
126 Diagnostic messages, if any, shall be written to standard error.
128
130 None.
131
133 None.
134
136 The following exit values shall be returned:
137 0 Successful completion.
139 >0 An error occurred.
141
143 The job shall not be scheduled.
144 The following sections are informative.
146
148 It may be useful to redirect standard output within the specified com‐
149 mands.
150
152 1. This sequence can be used at a terminal:
153 batch
156 sort < file >outfile
157 EOT
158 2. This sequence, which demonstrates redirecting standard error to a
160 pipe, is useful in a command procedure (the sequence of output re‐
161 direction specifications is significant):
162 batch <<!
165 diff file1 file2 2>&1 >outfile | mailx mygroup
166 !
167
169 Early proposals described batch in a manner totally separated from at,
170 even though the historical model treated it almost as a synonym for at
171 -qb. A number of features were added to list and control batch work
172 separately from those in at. Upon further reflection, it was decided
173 that the benefit of this did not merit the change to the historical
174 interface.
175 The -m option was included on the equivalent at command because it is
177 historical practice to mail results to the submitter, even if all job-
178 produced output is redirected. As explained in the RATIONALE for at,
179 the now keyword submits the job for immediate execution (after schedul‐
180 ing delays), despite some historical systems where at now would have
181 been considered an error.
182
184 None.
185
187 at
188 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment
190 Variables
191
193 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
194 from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Por‐
195 table Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifi‐
196 cations Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
197 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
198 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
199 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
200 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
201 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
202 Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
204 most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
205 files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
206 nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
207IEEE/The Open Group 2017 BATCH(1P)