Run time limits

Interactive jobs

The default runtime limit for interactivve jobs (qrsh and qlogin) is one hour. To request more than the default, use the option -l h_rt=hh:mm:ss where hh is hours, mm is minutes and ss is seconds. For example, to request a ten hour run time:

qrsh -l h_rt=10:00:00

The maximum run time for interactive jobs on all clusters is 12 hours.

Batch jobs

Batch jobs (submitted with qsub) have the the following run time limits.

• The “soft” run time limit (-l s_rt) is seven days. If a job reaches this limit, it is sent a SIGUSR1 signal.

• The “hard” run time limit (-l h_rt) is eight days. If a job reaches this limit, it is killed with signal SIGKILL.

The idea of s_rt is to warn jobs that the hard limit is coming. It is up to the job to correctly interpret SIGUSR1 as “Tidy up as you will be killed soon”. In reality, most software, including shells, exit when they are sent a SIGUSR1.