interactive.md

Usage Instructions for interactive() Bash Function

The interactive() bash function is designed to simplify the submission of interactive jobs using salloc. It provides default arguments for common resource requests and allows for customization through additional parameters.

Function Definition

interactive ()
{ 
    local DEFAULT_ARGS=(--account="$1" --partition="$2" --nodes=1 --ntasks-per-node=1 --cpus-per-task=4 --mem=64G --time="$3" --gres=gpu:1);
    local EXTRA_ARGS=();
    local DO_NOTIFY=0;
    local num_fixed_args=3;
    local args_copy=("$@");
    local extra_args_start_index=-1;
    local i=0;
    while (( i < ${#args_copy[@]} )); do
        if [[ "${args_copy[$i]}" == "--notify" ]]; then
            DO_NOTIFY=1;
            unset 'args_copy[i]';
            args_copy=("${args_copy[@]}");
            continue;
        fi;
        if [[ "${args_copy[$i]}" == "--" ]]; then
            extra_args_start_index=$((i + 1));
            break;
        fi;
        i=$((i + 1));
    done;
    if [[ $extra_args_start_index -ne -1 ]]; then
        EXTRA_ARGS=("${args_copy[@]:$extra_args_start_index}");
    fi;
    declare -A arg_map;
    for arg in "${DEFAULT_ARGS[@]}";
    do
        key="${arg%%=*}";
        arg_map["$key"]="$arg";
    done;
    for extra_arg in "${EXTRA_ARGS[@]}";
    do
        key="${extra_arg%%=*}";
        arg_map["$key"]="$extra_arg";
    done;
    if [[ -v arg_map["--gres"] ]]; then
        local gres_value="${arg_map["--gres"]}";
        if [[ "$gres_value" == "--gres" || "$gres_value" == "--gres=" ]]; then
            unset arg_map["--gres"];
        fi;
    fi;
    local final_args=();
    for key in "${!arg_map[@]}";
    do
        final_args+=("${arg_map[$key]}");
    done;
    local remote_command="";
    if (( DO_NOTIFY == 1 )); then
        remote_command="push_to_mobile 'chpc-notification' 'Interactive Queue Ready' & ";
    fi;
    remote_command+="exec bash";
    if [ -z "${DEBUG+x}" ]; then
        salloc "${final_args[@]}" srun --pty /bin/bash -l -c "${remote_command}";
    else
        echo "salloc ${final_args[@]} srun --pty /bin/bash -l -c \"${remote_command}\"";
    fi
}

Usage

Basic Usage

To use the interactive() function, call it with the required three arguments:

interactive <account> <partition> <time>

• <account>: Your account or project ID.
• <partition>: The partition (queue) to submit the job to.
• <time>: The requested walltime in the format HH:MM:SS.

Example:

interactive my_account main_partition 01:00:00

This will allocate an interactive session with the default resource settings:

• 1 node
• 1 task per node
• 4 CPUs per task
• 64G of memory
• 1 GPU of any available

Customizing Resource Requests

You can override the default arguments by adding additional parameters after the first three. You must separate the parameters from the first 3 with a --. The new parameters should also start with --.

interactive <account> <partition> <time> -- [--nodes=<num_nodes>] [--ntasks-per-node=<num_tasks>] [--cpus-per-task=<num_cpus>] [--mem=<memory>] [--gres=<resource:type:count>]

Example:

interactive my_account main_partition 01:00:00 -- --nodes=2 --mem=128G

This will allocate an interactive session with:

• 2 nodes
• 128G of memory per node
• Other default settings remain unchanged.

Debug Mode

To see the generated salloc command without executing it, set the DEBUG variable:

DEBUG=true interactive my_account main_partition 01:00:00

This will print the command to the console instead of executing it.

---

Notes

• The function merges default arguments with any additional arguments you provide.
• If you specify an argument that is already in the defaults (e.g., --nodes), your custom value will override the default.
• The function assumes you have salloc in your PATH. (If running on the CHPC you do)

This function is particularly useful for quickly submitting interactive jobs to a scheduler while allowing flexibility for custom resource requests.