Batch Job Translation Guide

Translation Tables

The table below contains command translation that would be run from the login nodes of the cluster for job control and monitoring purposes.

User Commands	LSF	Slurm	PBS/Torque
Job submission	bsub [script_file]	sbatch [script_file]	qsub [script_file]
Job deletion	bkill [job_id]	scancel [job_id]	qdel [job_id]
Job status (by job)	bjobs [job_id]	squeue --job [job_id]	qstat [job_id]
Job status (by user)	bjobs -u [user_name]	squeue -u [user_name]	qstat -u [user_name]
Queue list	bqueues	squeue	qstat -Q

The table below lists environment variables translations that can be useful in a job file.

Environment Variables	LSF	Slurm	PBS/Torque
Job ID	$LSB_JOBID	$SLURM_JOBID	$PBS_JOBID
Submit Directory	$LSB_SUBCWD	SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR	$PBS_O_WORKDIR

The table below lists translations for various directives that set characteristics and resources requirements for jobs.

Job Specification	LSF	Slurm	PBS/Torque
Script directive	#BSUB	#SBATCH	#PBS
Node Count	N/A ( Calculated from: CPUs/CPUs_per_node )	-N [min[-max]]	-l nodes=[count]
CPUs Per Node	-R "span[ptile=count]"	--ntasks-per-node=[count]	-l ppn=[count]
CPU Count	-n [count]	-n [count]	N/A ( Calculated from: CPUs_per_node * Nodes )
Wall Clock Limit	-W [hh:mm]	-t [min] or -t[days-hh:mm:ss]	-l walltime=[hh:mm:ss]
Memory Per Core	-M [mm] AND -R "rusage[mem=mm]" * Where mm is in MB	--mem-per-cpu=mem[M/G/T]	-l mem=[mm] * Where mm is in MB
Standard Output File	-o [file_name]	-o [file_name]	-o [file_name]
Standard Error File	-e [file_name]	-e [file_name]	-e [file_name]
Combine stdout/err	(use -o without -e)	(use -o without -e)	-j oe (both to stdout) OR -j eo (both to stderr)
Event Notification	-B and/or -N * For Begin and/or End	--mail-type=[ALL/END] * See 'man sbatch' for all types	-m [a/b/e] * For Abort, Begin, and/or End
Email Address	-u [address]	--mail-user=[address]	-M [address]
Job Name	-J [name]	--job-name=[name]	-N [name]
Account to charge	-P [account]	-account=[account]	-l billto=[account]
Queue	-q [queue]	-q [queue]	-p [queue]

This guide only covers the most commonly used options and useful commands.

For more information on Slurm batch options: Official Slurm Documentation

For more information on LSF batch options: Official LSF Documentation

For more information on PBS batch options: Official Altair Documentation