Time Dependencies

                
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Sometimes you want a task to run at a given time, or to run every three hours,
or to run only on the first of the month, or on Mondays,...
For that ecFlow supports date and time dependencies.

time

time dependencies can be absolute, i.e. they will run at the exact time.
They can also be relative; in this case we provide the time from the moment the suite is begun.
Time dependencies can be repeated at regular intervals.  The nodes stays complete once all time instances have run.
 

time 23:00                  # at next 23:00
time 10:00 20:00 01:00      # every hour from 10am to 8pm
time +00:01                 # one minute after the suite has begun
time +00:10 01:00 00:05     # 10 to 60 minutes after begin every 5 minutes
 

In the last example we have task that runs every five minutes, however what happens if the task takes longer ?

When this happens, the time slot, is missed.

cron

Cron dependencies can be specified using the cron keyword. Cron differs from time as when the node is complete it queues again immediately. Cron also only works with a real time clock (not a hybrid clock).

cron 23:00                  # every day at 23:00
cron 08:00 12:00 01:00      # every hour between 8 and 12
cron -w 0,2   11:00         # every sunday and tuesday at 11 am
cron -d 1,15   02:00        # every 1st and 15th of each month at 2 am
cron -m 1 -d 1  14:00       # every first of January at 2 pm

Time,Today,Cron

When a time has expired, the associated node is free to run. The time will stay expired, until the node is re-queued.

date or day

Date dependencies can be specified using the date or the day keyword.

Date dependencies are always absolute, but wild cards can be used.

date 31.12.2012             # the 31st of December 2012
date 01.*.*                 # every first of the month
date *.10.*                 # every day in October
date 1.*.2008               # every first of the month, but only in 2008
day monday                  # every monday

Mixing time dependencies on the same node

A task can have several time and date dependencies. For example:

task tt
   day monday
   time 10:00   # run on Monday at 10:00.  Here Day/date acts like a guard over the time.

task tt
   day sunday
   day wednesday
   date 01.*.*                 # The first of every month and year
   date 10.*.*                 # The tenth of every month and year
   time 01:00
   time 16:00

The task will run on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s at 1am and 4pm, but only if the day is the 1st or the 10th of the month.

It can be seen that when we have multiple time dependencies on the same node, then time dependencies of the same type are or'ed together, and then and'ed with the different types.

Mixing time dependencies on different nodes

When time dependencies are placed on different nodes in the hierarchy, the results may seem surprising.

family fam
   day monday
   task tt
      time 10:00    # This will run on Monday at midnight, and Monday at 10 am ?

family fam2
   time 10:00
   task tt
       day monday # This will run on Monday at midnight, and Monday at 10 am ?

The example above assume we have suite, with an infinite repeat loop. So why does the task run on Monday at midnight?

This is because time dependencies on different nodes act independently of each other. In this case time attribute was set free, on Sunday at 10 am. Hence at for task tt its free to run at Monday at midnight. After task has run and re-queued. It will then run on Monday at 10 am.

Like trigger‘s, date and time dependencies can be set for a family. In this case, the tasks of this family will only run according to these dependencies.

All time related dependencies(like cron, time, today, date and day) are relative to the clock of the suite.

For more information, see Dates and Clocks

Text

Let us modify the definition file to add a family f2.
For brevity we have omitted the previous family f1
 

# Definition of the suite test
suite test
 edit ECF_INCLUDE "$HOME/course"  # replace '$HOME' with the path to your home directory
 edit ECF_HOME    "$HOME/course"

 family f2
     edit SLEEP 20
     task t1
         time 00:30 23:30 00:30
     task t2
         day sunday
     task t3
         date 01.*.*
         time 12:00
     task t4
         time +00:02
     task t5
         time 00:02
 endfamily
endsuite
 

Python

For brevity we have left out family f1. In python this would be:

#!/usr/bin/env python2.7
import os
import ecflow  

def create_family_f2():
    f2 = ecflow.Family("f2")
    f2.add_variable("SLEEP", 20)
    f2.add_task("t1").add_time( "00:30 23:30 00:30" ) # start(hh:mm) end(hh:mm) increment(hh:mm)
    f2.add_task("t2").add_day( "sunday" )
   
    # for add_date(): day,month,year; here 0 means every month, and every year
    t3 = f2.add_task("t3")
    t3.add_date(1, 0, 0)           # day month year, first of every month or every year
    t3.add_time( 12, 0 )           # hour, minutes at 12 o'clock
   
    f2.add_task("t4").add_time( 0, 2, True ) # hour, minutes, relative to suite start
                                             # 2 minutes after family f2 start
    f2.add_task("t5").add_time( 0, 2 )       # hour, minutes suite site
                                             # 2 minutes past midnight
    return f2
            
print "Creating suite definition"   
defs = ecflow.Defs()
suite = defs.add_suite("test")
suite.add_variable("ECF_INCLUDE", os.path.join(os.getenv("HOME"),  "course"))
suite.add_variable("ECF_HOME",    os.path.join(os.getenv("HOME"),  "course"))

suite.add_family( create_family_f1() )
suite.add_family( create_family_f2() )
print defs

print "Checking job creation: .ecf -> .job0"   
print defs.check_job_creation()

print "Checking trigger expressions"
print defs.check()

print "Saving definition to file 'test.def'"
defs.save_as_defs("test.def")

What to do

Make the changes to the suite definition file
Create all the necessary ecf script‘s by copying the one from /test/f1/t7
Load and begin the suite
ecflow_ui has a special window to explain why a task is queued. Select a queued task and press the icon

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