A quick start

Let’s create a simple “Hello world” Python script:

$ mkdir proj1
$ cd proj1
$ echo 'print("Hello world")' > hello.py

and submit it:

$ mq submit hello.py
1 ./ hello.py 1:10m
1 task submitted

The list command shows that the job is done:

$ mq ls
id folder name     res.   age state time
── ────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ────
1  ./     hello.py 1:10m 0:00 done  0:00
── ────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ────
done: 1, total: 1

The 1:10m means that 1 core and 10 minutes was reserved for the task. There is now an output file and an empty error file in the folder:

$ ls -l
total 8
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jensj jensj 21 Oct 28 10:46 hello.py
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jensj jensj  0 Oct 28 10:46 hello.py.1.err
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jensj jensj 12 Oct 28 10:46 hello.py.1.out
$ cat hello.py.1.out
Hello world

Now we run some calculations in another folder:

$ cd ..
$ mkdir proj2
$ cd proj2
$ mq submit -R 1:10s "math@sin 3.14"
2 ./ math@sin 3.14 +1 1:10s
1 task submitted

This will call the sin() function from the Python math module with an argument of 3.14 and we ask for 10 seconds on 1 core. Let’s also submit a task that will fail:

$ mq submit "math@sin hello"
3 ./ math@sin hello +1 1:10m
1 task submitted

The list command shows the status of the two tasks in the current folder:

$ mq ls
id folder name     args  info res.   age state  time error
── ────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ──── ────── ──── ───────────────────────────────────────
2  ./     math@sin 3.14  +1   1:10s 0:00 done   0:00
3  ./     math@sin hello +1   1:10m 0:00 FAILED 0:00 TypeError: must be real number, not str
── ────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ──── ────── ──── ───────────────────────────────────────
done: 1, FAILED: 1, total: 2

To see the status of both the proj1 and proj2 folders, do this:

$ cd ..
$ mq ls
id folder   name     args  info res.   age state  time error
── ──────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ──── ────── ──── ───────────────────────────────────────
1  ./proj1/ hello.py            1:10m 0:00 done   0:00
2  ./proj2/ math@sin 3.14  +1   1:10s 0:00 done   0:00
3  ./proj2/ math@sin hello +1   1:10m 0:00 FAILED 0:00 TypeError: must be real number, not str
── ──────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ──── ────── ──── ───────────────────────────────────────
done: 2, FAILED: 1, total: 3

See status of the proj1 folder only:

$ mq ls proj1
id folder   name     res.   age state time
── ──────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ────
1  ./proj1/ hello.py 1:10m 0:00 done  0:00
── ──────── ──────── ───── ──── ───── ────
done: 1, total: 1

Once you have seen that your tasks have finished, you will typically remove them so that only queued and failed tasks are left:

$ mq rm -s d proj*
1 ./proj1/ hello.py         1:10m 0:00 done 0:00
2 ./proj2/ math@sin 3.14 +1 1:10s 0:00 done 0:00
2 tasks removed

Tip

Use mq ls ~ to see all your tasks.