Porting Batch Scripts from PBS/TORQUE

Converting a PBS/TORQUE script files to Slurm is simple because most of the commands have direct equivalents in Slurm. The shell commands and variables need to be changed but the application code such as compiling and copying of files can remain the same.

This page lists some ways to convert batch scripts from PBS/TORQUE to Slurm.

Shell Commands

Many PBS/TORQUE commands directly translate to a Slurm command. Here are some of the PBS/TORQUE commands with their Slurm counterparts.

Shell Commands	PBS/TORQUE	Slurm
Job submission	qsub <filename>	sbatch <filename>
Job deletion	qdel <job_id>	scancel <job_id>
Job status (by job)	qstat <job_id>	squeue –job <job_id>
Full job status (by job)	qstat -f <job_id>	scontrol show job <job_id>
Job status (by user)	qstat -u <username>	squeue –user=<username>

Environment variables

Environment variables	PBS/Torque	Slurm
Job ID	$PBS_JOBID	$SLURM_JOB_ID
Submit Directory	$PBS_O_WORKDIR	$SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR
Node List	$PBS_NODEFILE	$SLURM_JOB_NODELIST

Options and Settings

These are options that may be placed in the batch script or passed as arguments to sbatch.

Options	PBS/Torque	Slurm
Script directive	#PBS	#SBATCH
Job Name	-N <name>	–job-name=<name> OR -J <name>
Node Count	-l nodes=<count>	–nodes=<minnodes[-maxnodes]> OR -N <minnodes[-maxnodes]>
CPU Count	-l ppn=<count>	–ntasks-per-node=<count>
CPUs Per Task		–cpus-per-task=<count>
Memory Size	-l mem=<MB>	–mem=<MB> OR –mem-per-cpu=<MB>
Wall Clock Limit	-l walltime=<hh:mm:ss>	–time=<min> OR –time=<days-hh:mm:ss>
Standard Output File	-o <file_name>	–output=<file_name> OR -o <file_name>
Job Arrays	-t <array_spec>	–array=<array_spec> OR -a <array_spec>
Standard Error File	-e <file_name>	–error=<file_name> OR -e <file_name>
Combine stdout/stderr	-j oe (both to stdout)	(Default if you don’t specify –error)
Delay Job Start	-a <time>	–begin=<time>