Supply job environment variables at submission?

[nrusch]

Is it possible to pass in arbitrary environment variables and set the “Only Use Job Environment Variables When Rendering” option at job submission, or would this require manually updating the job settings in the database after submission? I’m looking to do it programmatically…

Thanks,

-Nathan

[rrussell]

Yup! Check out the beta 10 release notes:
viewtopic.php?f=84&t=8866

Scroll down to the Job Environment Variables section. It shows how to set the environment variables for the job in the job info file.

[nrusch]

Ah, perfect. Thanks.

For the jobInfo and pluginInfo files, does Deadline interpret ‘True’ and ‘true’ identically for boolean values? The D5 submission docs use true/false, and the B10 release notes reference True/False…

[nrusch]

Also, the language in the B10 release notes is a little ambiguous concerning the IncludeEnvironment and UseJobEnvironmentOnly options:

There is also an “IncludeEnvironment” option that takes either True or False (False is the default). If set to True, then the current environment variables will automatically be set for the job

Normally, the job’s environment variables will be merged with the current environment on the rendering machine (with the job’s variables taking precendence). However, if UseJobEnvironmentOnly is set to True, then ONLY the job’s environment variables will be used.

The first indicates that the environment the plugin runs in is not passed to the job process by default, while the second indicates exactly the opposite.

And perhaps more importantly, aren’t these two different ways of saying the same thing?

[rrussell]

For the jobInfo and pluginInfo files, does Deadline interpret ‘True’ and ‘true’ identically for boolean values? The D5 submission docs use true/false, and the B10 release notes reference True/False…

It’s case insensitive, so both will work. Using 1/0 for true/false would work as well.

Also, the language in the B10 release notes is a little ambiguous concerning the IncludeEnvironment and UseJobEnvironmentOnly options:

That’s bad wording on our part. When IncludeEnvironment is set to True, Deadline will automatically grab all the environment variables from the submitter’s environment and set them in the job’s environment variables. This is done as part of the submission process. After the job has been submitted, you can check the Environment settings in the job properties to see the environment of the user that submitted it.

The UseJobEnvironmentOnly setting controls how those variables are applied to the rendering environment. If True, ONLY the job’s environment variables will be used. If False, the job’s environment variables will be merged with the slave’s current environment, with the job’s variables overwriting any existing ones with the same name.

I hope that clears it up. Let me know if anything is still unclear.

Cheers,

• Ryan

[nrusch]

Nope that’s perfect. IncludeEnvironment is the one that was confusing me, and that clears it right up.

Thanks

[nrusch]

Actually one more question: How sensitive is the formatting in the jobInfo and pluginInfo files in terms of casing (both for keys and values), spacing, and ordering?

[rrussell]

The keys are case sensitive.

For the values, case sensitivity only applies to boolean or sting values. For boolean values, it’s not case sensitive. For strings that are keywords (ie: InitialStatus=Active), they are not case sensitive either.

For spacing, keys and values are trimmed of all leading and trailing whitespace. So something like " Pool = mypool " would be the same as “Pool=mypool”.

Cheers,

• Ryan