QDEL(1P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
qdel — delete batch jobs

SYNOPSIS

qdel job_identifier...

DESCRIPTION
A batch job is deleted by sending a request to the batch server that manages the batch job. A batch job that has been deleted is no longer subject to management by batch services.

The qdel utility is a user-accessible client of batch services that requests the deletion of one or more batch jobs.

The qdel utility shall request a batch server to delete those batch jobs for which a batch job_identifier is presented to the utility.

The qdel utility shall delete batch jobs in the order in which their batch job_identifiers are presented to the utility.

If the qdel utility fails to process any batch job_identifier successfully, the utility shall proceed to process the remaining batch job_identifiers, if any.

The qdel utility shall delete each batch job by sending a Delete Job Request to the batch server that manages the batch job.

The qdel utility shall not exit until the batch job corresponding to each successfully processed batch job_identifier has been deleted.

OPTIONS
None.

OPERANDS
The qdel utility shall accept one or more operands that conform to the syntax for a batch job_identifier (see Section 3.3.1, Batch Job Identifier).

STDIN
Not used.

INPUT FILES
None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of qdel:

LANG
    Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL
    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE
    Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES
    Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

LOGNAME
    Determine the login name of the user.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.

STDOUT
An implementation of the qdel utility may write informative messages to standard output.

STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.

EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:

0   Successful completion.

>0  An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
In addition to the default behavior, the qdel utility shall not be required to write a diagnostic message to standard error when the error reply received from a batch server indicates that the batch job_identifier does not exist on the server. Whether or not the qdel utility waits to output the diagnostic message while attempting to locate the job on other servers is implementation-defined.

The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
None.

EXAMPLES
None.

RATIONALE
The qdel utility allows users and administrators to delete jobs.

The qdel utility provides functionality that is not otherwise available. For example, the kill utility of the operating system does not suffice. First, to use the kill utility, the user might have to log in on a remote node, because the kill utility does not operate across the network. Second, unlike qdel, kill cannot remove jobs from queues. Lastly, the arguments of the qdel utility are job identifiers rather than process identifiers, and so this utility can be passed the output of the qselect utility, thus providing users with a means of deleting a list of jobs.

Because a set of jobs can be selected using the qselect utility, the qdel utility has not been complicated with options that provide for selection of jobs. Instead, the batch jobs to be deleted are identified individually by their job identifiers.

Historically, the qdel utility has been a component of NQS, the existing practice on which it is based. However, the qdel utility defined in this volume of POSIX.1-2017 does not provide an option for specifying a signal number to send to the batch job prior to the killing of the process; that capability has been subsumed by the qsig utility.

A discussion was held about the delays of networking and the possibility that the batch server may never respond, due to a down router, down batch server, or other network mishap. The DESCRIPTION records this under the words ``fails to process any job identifier''. In the broad sense, the network problem is also an error, which causes the failure to process the batch job identifier.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The qdel utility may be removed in a future version.

SEE ALSO
Chapter 3, Batch Environment Services, kill, qselect, qsig

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables

COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

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