[comp.unix.ultrix] DECsystem 3100 at atrun batch problem

tmorris@athena.sph.unc.edu (Thomas P. Morris) (06/27/90)

Hi. We have a DECsystem 3100 running Ultrix 3.1 (Rev. 14), and
I've run into a problem with at, atrun, and batch.

The atrun command is set up within /etc/crontab to be run every
5 minutes. Perusing the accounting with the 'lastcomm' command
shows that atrun is indeed being run every 5 minutes.

Jobs submitted via the batch command do not appear to be getting
released.  Load average on this machine almost =never= exceeds
something like "load average: 1.05, 0.80, 0.20" or something like
that, and is often something like "0.06, 0.00, 0.00". And =still=
jobs submitted via 'batch' are not getting released.

Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? Patches? Bug fixes?

Thanks in advance.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Morris                             BITNET: TOM@UNCSPHVX
UNC School of Public Health          Internet: tmorris@athena.sph.unc.edu
Computing and Information Services   Internet: tom@zeus.sph.unc.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

jwe@ut-emx.UUCP (John W. Eaton) (06/28/90)

In article <439@beguine.UUCP> tmorris@athena.sph.unc.edu
(Thomas P. Morris) writes: 
: We have a DECsystem 3100 running Ultrix 3.1 (Rev. 14), and
: I've run into a problem with at, atrun, and batch.
:
: The atrun command is set up within /etc/crontab to be run every 5
: minutes. Perusing the accounting with the 'lastcomm' command shows
: that atrun is indeed being run every 5 minutes.

: Jobs submitted via the batch command do not appear to be getting
: released.  Load average on this machine [is small].

Take a look at the Ultrix version of the man page for at(1) and look
for the comments about the files /usr/lib/cron/at.{deny,allow}.

Apparently DEC wants you to be able control the use of this utility on
a user by user basis, with the default set so that only root has
access.

--
John Eaton
jwe@emx.utexas.edu
Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas  78712

diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa) (06/28/90)

In article <32670@ut-emx.UUCP> jwe@emx.utexas.edu (John W. Eaton) writes:
>In article <439@beguine.UUCP> tmorris@athena.sph.unc.edu
>(Thomas P. Morris) writes: 
>: Jobs submitted via the batch command do not appear to be getting
>: released.  Load average on this machine [is small].
>Take a look at the Ultrix version of the man page for at(1) and look
>for the comments about the files /usr/lib/cron/at.{deny,allow}.

That "answer" does not answer the problem.  If the deny (and/or allow)
lists are not suitably established, then an ordinary user is prevented
from even submitting a batch/at job.  This "feature" seems to work on
the systems our group uses.  (I'm still not sure of the purpose though,
since a user could always "nohup" anything that he can't "batch".)

The problem is that jobs in the batch/at queue do not get executed.
Even when we use "at" instead of "batch", they don't get executed.
The "atrun" command is more like an "atnoop".  At least, this is the
problem our group has.  We don't have sources here.  I plan to submit
an SPR eventually.  However, if anyone else knows the solution, I'd be
glad to be corrected.
-- 
Norman Diamond, Nihon DEC     diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com
This is me speaking.  If you want to hear the company speak, you need DECtalk.

tmorris@athena.sph.unc.edu (Thomas P. Morris) (06/28/90)

In my original posting, I wrote:
     Jobs subsmitted via the batch command do not appear to be getting
     released.  Load average on this machine [is small].

In article <32670@ut-emx.UUCP> jwe@emx.utexas.edu (John W. Eaton) writes:
>Take a look at the Ultrix version of the man page for at(1) and look
>for the comments about the files /usr/lib/cron/at.{deny,allow}.


I should have mentioned in my original posting that I =have= an empty
at.deny file, and do =not= have an at.allow file, which according to 
the man page will allow all accounts/users to use batch. Hmmmm. 
Maybe I ought to try to use the explicit at.allow entries.

Anybody else have any suggestions? Thanks in Advance.

Tom Morris

jwe@ut-emx.UUCP (John W. Eaton) (06/28/90)

In article <32670@ut-emx.UUCP>, about jobs not being executed by the
Ultrix version of at(1), I wrote:

: Take a look at the Ultrix version of the man page for at(1) and look
: for the comments about the files /usr/lib/cron/at.{deny,allow}.

In article <1818@tkou02.enet.dec.com> diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com
Norman Diamond replied:

> That "answer" does not answer the problem.  If the deny (and/or
> allow) lists are not suitably established, then an ordinary user is
> prevented from even submitting a batch/at job.

Ooops, You're right.  Requests are met with a message something like
`at: Privilege denied'.

In any case, is this a DECsystem specific bug?  We are running Ultrix
3.1 (Rev. 11) on a VAXstation 3200 and `at' works as advertised.  It
seems very odd that it would somehow be machine specific...

Also, as someone else mentioned, the at.{deny,allow} are really in
/var/spool/at and not /usr/lib/cron.  (On our system, /usr/lib/cron is
just a symbolic link to /var/spool/at.)

> (I'm still not sure of the purpose though, since a user could always
> "nohup" anything that he can't "batch".)

I suppose it just makes it possible for cranky sysadmins to make it
slightly more difficult for users to create jobs that execute at
regular intervals...

--
John Eaton
jwe@emx.utexas.edu
Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas  78712

riley@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley) (06/28/90)

In article <1818@tkou02.enet.dec.com> diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa) writes:
>The problem is that jobs in the batch/at queue do not get executed.
>Even when we use "at" instead of "batch", they don't get executed.
>The "atrun" command is more like an "atnoop".

Sounds like you're missing the "atrun" entry in crontab.  Look at
/etc/crontab...there should be an entry something like 

0,15,30,45 * * * * /usr/lib/atrun

If that's not there, then both at and batch will do nothing.

at works fine for me on our DECstation 3100's.  On the other hand, I just
tried batch and it doesn't seem to be doing anything (I did remember to
wait for atrun to run).

-Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
-Wilson Lab, Cornell  University