The main xpbs window is composed of 5 distinct areas (subwindows) arranged vertically (one on top of another) in the following order: 1) Menu region 2) Hosts region 3) Queues region 4) Jobs region 5) Info region =========== Menu region =========== The Menu area is composed of a row of command buttons that signal some action with a click of the left mouse button. The buttons are: Manual Update - to update the information on hosts, queues, and jobs. NOTE: choosing this option will automatically cancel any auto updates in progress. Auto Update - same as "Update Data Manually" except updating is done automatically every number of minutes. If currently enabled by user, the button will appear in a different color. Track Job - for periodically checking for returned output files of jobs. If currently enabled by user, the button will appear in a different color. Preferences - for setting certain parameters such as the list of server host(s) to query. Help - contains this help page. About - tells of the author and who to send comments, bugs, and suggestions to. Close - for exiting xpbs plus saving the current setup information in the user's $HOME/.xpbsrc file. Information saved include the selected host(s), queue(s), job(s), the different jobs listing criteria, the view states (i.e. minimized/maximized) of the Hosts Queues, Jobs, and INFO regions, and anything in the Preferences section. ============ Hosts region ============ The Hosts area is composed of a leading horizontal HOSTS bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The HOSTS bar contains a minimize/maximize button, identified by a dot or a rectangular image, for displaying or iconizing the Hosts region. The listbox displays information about "favorite" server host(s), and each entry is meant to be selected via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or cntrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The command buttons represent actions on selected host(s), and commonly found buttons are: detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected server host(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on an entry in the Hosts listbox. Submit - for submitting a job to any of the queues managed by the selected server host(s). terminate - for terminating PBS servers on selected host(s). (-admin only) The server hosts can be chosen by specifying in the $HOME/.xpbsrc file (or .Xdefaults) the resource: *serverHosts: hostname1 hostname2 ... Another way of specifying the host is to click on the Preferences button in the Menu region, and manipulate the server Hosts entry widget from the preferences dialog box. ============= Queues region ============= The Queues area is composed of a leading horizontal QUEUES bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The QUEUES bar lists the hosts that are consulted when listing queues; the bar also contains a minimize/maximize button for displaying or "iconizing" the Queues region. The listbox displays information about queues managed by the server host(s) selected from the Hosts listbox; each listbox entry is meant to be selected (highlighted) via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or cntrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The command buttons represent actions for operating on selected queue(s), and commonly found buttons are: detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected queue(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on a Queues listbox entry. stop - for stopping the selected queue(s). (-admin only) start - for starting the selected queue(s). (-admin only) disable - for disabling the selected queue(s). (-admin only) enable - for enabling the selected queue(s). (-admin only) =========== Jobs region =========== The Jobs area is composed of a leading horizontal JOBS bar, a listbox, and a set of command buttons. The JOBS bar lists the queues and other criteria that are consulted when listing jobs; the bar also contains a minimize/maximize button for displaying or "iconizing" the Jobs region. The listbox displays information about jobs that are found in the queue(s) that are selected from the Queues listbox; each listbox entry is meant to be selected (highlighted) via a single left mouse button click, shift key + mouse button 1 click for contiguous selection, or cntrl key + mouse button 1 click for non-contiguous selection. The "Other Criteria" drop-down menu describes selection criteria used for further filtering the contents of the Jobs listbox. The list of jobs can be selected according to the owner of jobs (Owners), job state (Job_States), name of the job (Job_Name), type of hold placed on the job (Hold_Types), the account name associated with the job (Account_Name), checkpoint attribute (Checkpoint), time the job is eligible for queueing/execution (Queue_Time), resources requested by the job (Resources), priority attached to the job (Priority), and whether or not the job is rerunnable (Rerunnable). The selection criteria can be modified by selecting the appropriate menu entry that would bring up a selection box. The menu is accompanied by a "Select Jobs" button, which when clicked, will update the contents of the Jobs listbox based on the new selection criteria. Finally, to the right of the listbox, the Jobs region is accompanied by the following command buttons, for operating on selected job(s): detail - for obtaining detailed information about selected job(s). This functionality can also be achieved by double clicking on a Jobs listbox entry. modify - for modifying attributes of the selected job(s). delete - for deleting the selected job(s). hold - for placing some type of hold on selected job(s). release - for releasing held job(s). signal - for sending signals to selected job(s) that are running. msg - for writing a message string into the output streams of the selected job(s). move - for moving selected job(s) into some specified destination queue. order - for exchanging order of two selected jobs in a queue. run - for running selected job(s). (-admin only) rerun - for requeueing selected job(s) that are running. (-admin only) =========== Info region =========== xpbs is a GUI front end to the PBS commands; it actually calls PBS commands after the user has set widget values. The Info Area shows the progress of the commands' executed by xpbs. Look into this box for errors. The INFO bar contains a minimize/maximize button for displaying or "iconizing" the Info region. ================ User Preferences ================ A global xpbs resources file (set by the administrator) is read first and then the user's preference file, $HOME/.xpbsrc is loaded. Keep in mind that within an Xresources file (Tk only), later entries take precedence. For example, suppose in your .xpbsrc file, the following entries appear in order: xpbsrc*backgroundColor: blue *backgroundColor: green The later entry "green" will take precedence even though the first one is more precise and longer matching. The things that can be set in the personal preferences file are fonts, colors, and favorite server host(s) to query. Ex. !!! FONTS !! Three fonts that can be configured: ! labelFont - font applied to text that appear in labels. ! fixlabelFont - font applied to text that label fixed-width widgets. ! NOTE: This MUST be a fixed-width font. ! textFont - font applied to a text widget. Keep this as fixed-width ! font. *labelFont: -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--12-120-75-75-m-70-iso8859-1 *fixlabelFont: 7x13bold *textFont: 7x13 !!! COLORS !! Six color resources that can be modified: ! ! backgroundColor - the color applied to background of frames, buttons, ! entries, scrollbar handles. ! foregroundColor - the color applied to text in any context (under \ ! selection, insertion, etc...). ! activeColor - the color applied to the background of a selection, ! a selected command button, or a select scroll bar ! handle. ! disabledColor - color applied to a disabled widget. ! signalColor - color applied to buttons that signal something to the ! user about a change of state. ! shadingColor - a color shading applied to some of the frames to ! emphasize focus as well as decoration. ! selectorColor - the color applied to the selector box of a radiobutton or ! checkbutton. *backgroundColor: #c8b9a6 *foregroundColor: #150567 *activeColor: #9db2ff *disabledColor: #8f8e8d *signalColor: #c11b17 *shadingColor: #c7af92 *selectorColor: #980517 !! OTHER OPTIONS ! serverHosts - the list of server hosts to be queried by xpbs. ! timeoutSecs - number of seconds before timing out waiting for a ! - connection to a server. ! xtermCmd - the xterm command to run when the PBS interactive feature ! is selected. *serverHosts: davinci *timeoutSecs: 30 *xtermCmd: xterm ===================== Xpbs and PBS commands ===================== Xpbs is a GUI front end to PBS commands. It calls the commands as follows: Command Button PBS Command -------------- ----------- detail (Hosts) qstat -B -f terminate qterm detail (Queues) qstat -Q -f stop qstop start qstart enable qenable disable qdisable detail (Jobs) qstat -f modify qalter delete qdel hold qhold release qrls run qrun rerun qrerun signal qsig msg qmsg move qmove order qorder ================================ Some Common Widgets Used in Xpbs ================================ Widgets are graphical controls that user manipulate to invoke some action. Some widgets used in xpbs are: 1. listbox - can be multi-selectable (a number of entries can be selected/ highlighted using a mouse click) or single-selectable (one entry can be highlighted at a time). For a multi-selectable listbox, the following operations are allowed: a. single click with mouse button 1 to select/highlight an entry. b. shift key + mouse button 1 to contiguously select more than one entry. c. cntrl key + mouse button 1 to non-contiguously select more than one entry. NOTE: For systems running Tk < 4.0, the newly selected item is reshuffled to appear next to already selected items. d. click the "Select All/Deselect All" button to select all entries or deselect all entries at once. e. double clicking an entry usually activates some action that uses the selected entry as a parameter. 2. scrollbar - usually appears either vertically or horizontally and contains 5 distinct areas that are mouse clicked to achieve different effects: top arrow Causes the view in the associated window to shift up by one unit (i.e. the object appears to move down one unit in its window). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat. top gap Causes the view in the associated window to shift up by one less than the number of units in the window (i.e. the portion of the object that used to appear at the very top of the window will now appear at the very bottom). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat. slider Pressing button 1 in this area has no immediate effect except to cause the slider to appear sunken rather than raised. However, if the mouse is moved with the button down then the slider will be dragged, adjusting the view as the mouse is moved. bottom gap Causes the view in the associated window to shift down by one less than the number of units in the window (i.e. the portion of the object that used to appear at the very bottom of the window will now appear at the very top). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat. bottom arrow Causes the view in the associated window to shift down by one unit (i.e. the object appears to move up one unit in its window). If the button is held down the action will auto-repeat. 3. entry - brought into focus with a click of the left mouse button. To manipulate this widget, simply type in the text value. Use of arrow keys, mouse selection of text for deletion or overwrite, copying and pasting with sole use of mouse buttons are permitted. This widget is usually accompanied by a scrollbar for horizontally scanning a long text entry string. 4. spin box - a combination of an entry widget and a horizontal scrollbar. The entry widget will only accept values that fall within a defined list of valid values, and incrementing through the valid values is done by clicking on the up/down arrows. 5. button - a rectangular region appearing either raised or pressed that invokes an action when clicked with the left mouse button. When the button appears pressed, then hitting the key will automatically select the button. 6. text - an editor like widget. This widget is brought into focus with a click of the left mouse button. To manipulate this widget, simply type in the text. Use of arrow keys, backspace/delete key, mouse selection of text for deletion or overwrite, copying and pasting with sole use of mouse buttons are permitted. To copy and paste text, drag the left mouse button to select text, click on the left button again to reposition the insertion cursor, and then click on the middle mouse button to paste. This widget is usually accompanied by a scrollbar for vertically scanning a long entry.