Disable plugin executable check?

Deadline
1

Is there a way to disable to plugin executable path check that happens before a job can run on a machine?

Context

We use rez to provision the render nodes with software. Each job includes a list of the packages that are needed for the job as a ‘Job Extra Info’ key, value pair. A DeadlineEventListener plugin picks that list during an OnSlaveStartingJob event and caches the packages (software) needed for the job on the render node. A GlobalJobPreLoad script is used to rewrite the command line to use rez, so the executable that Deadline expects to use isn’t relevant.

This “just works” except for the point that the jobs won’t run unless the Tools > Configure Plugins… > MayaBatch > Maya 20XX Render Executable field has been updated to include the path where the software is installed. If we apply a patch or have some other minor update, we have to go back into the dialog to add the new path. It’s not a huge inconvenience, but it would be nice if a job could just disable the Executable path check, with all the usual caveats that you’re taking your own life in your hand, etc.

2

You could make a custom version of the plugin by making a copy of the (in this case) MayaBatch folder under /custom/plugins/ and editing the RenderExecutable function to either not check if the executable is there or be smarter about where the executable should be.

In the second case you’d replace the call to GetConfigEntry to something that doesn’t hinge off of the plugin config. I’ll leave you to the details as rez might have something helpful there.

3

We’d have to do that for every plugin / app that we use with Deadline. MayaBatch was only on example. We would rather not take on ownership of every one of those plugins.

Given that GlobalJobPreload is there pretty explicitly to change the command line / path to the executable, it would be great to be able to turn off this check.

4

Just raising this again. The issue hasn’t gone away for us. We’ve prototyped a few workarounds, but nothing great has come to the fore.