Introduction

BatchQ is a set of classes written in Python which aim toward automating all kinds of task. BatchQ was designed for interacting with terminal application including Bash, SSH, SFTP, Maple, Mathematica, Octave, Python and more. If for one or another reason your favorite application is not supported BatchQ is easily extended to support more programs.

Dependencies and compatibility

Currently BatchQ only depends on the libraries shipped with Python. It should therefore work out of the box.

Please note that at the present moment BatchQ has only been tested with Python 2.7 on Mac OS X 10.6 and with Python 2.6.5 on Ubuntu 10.10.

Installation

There are currently two ways of installing BatchQ. Either you use setup tools in which case you write

easy_install batchq

Alternatively you can download the latest version from GitHub (.zip,`.tar.gz`_) and install using setup.py

cd [location/of/source]
python setup.py install [ --user | --home=~ ]

The --user and --home flags are optional and are intended for users who do not have write access to the global system. More information can be found the Python install page.

To test your installation type:

q help

If a help message is displayed you are ready to go on and submit your first job.

Manual installation from GitHub

The manual installation is intended for development purposes and for persons who do not want to rely on the install script:

export INSTALL_DIR=~/Documents       # Change if you want another install location
cd $INSTALL_DIR
git clone https://github.com/troelsfr/BatchQ.git
echo export PYTHONPATH=\$PYTHONPATH:$INSTALL_DIR/BatchQ/ >> ~/.profile
echo export PATH=\$PATH:$INSTALL_DIR/BatchQ/batchq/bin >> ~/.profile

Note that .profile may be named differently on your system, i.e. .bashrc or .profilerc. Start a new session of bash and write

q list

If a list of available commands is displayed, you have successfully installed BatchQ.

Note for Windows users

This version of BatchQ is not yet supported on Windows platforms. Developers are encouraged to extend the Process module. Unfortunately, it seems that it is not possible to create a pure Python solution and a terminal module should be written in C/C++.

For information on the structure of the code please consult the developers introduction.