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BATCH(1P)                  POSIX Programmer's Manual                 BATCH(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
       batch - schedule commands to be executed in a batch queue
SYNOPSIS
        batch
DESCRIPTION
       The batch utility shall read commands from standard input and  schedule
       them  for execution in a batch queue. It shall be the equivalent of the
       command:

              at -q b -m now
       where queue b is a special at queue, specifically for batch jobs. Batch
       jobs shall be submitted to the batch queue with no time constraints and
       shall be run by the system using algorithms, based on unspecified  fac-
       tors, that may vary with each invocation of batch.
       Users shall be permitted to use batch if their name appears in the file
       /usr/lib/cron/at.allow.  If  that  file  does  not  exist,   the   file
       /usr/lib/cron/at.deny  shall  be  checked to determine whether the user
       shall be denied access to  batch.   If  neither  file  exists,  only  a
       process  with  the  appropriate privileges shall be allowed to submit a
       job. If only at.deny exists and is empty, global usage shall be permit-
       ted.  The at.allow and at.deny files shall consist of one user name per
       line.
OPTIONS
       None.
OPERANDS
       None.
STDIN
       The standard input shall be a text file consisting of commands  accept-
       able  to the shell command language described in Shell Command Language
       .
INPUT FILES
       The text files /usr/lib/cron/at.allow and  /usr/lib/cron/at.deny  shall
       contain  zero  or  more  user  names,  one  per line, of users who are,
       respectively, authorized or denied access to the at  and  batch  utili-
       ties.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The  following  environment  variables  shall  affect  the execution of
       batch:
       LANG   Provide a default value for the  internationalization  variables
              that  are  unset  or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section  8.2,  Internationalization  Vari-
              ables  for the precedence of internationalization variables used
              to determine the values of locale categories.)
       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all
              the other internationalization variables.
       LC_CTYPE
              Determine  the  locale  for  the  interpretation of sequences of
              bytes of text data as characters (for  example,  single-byte  as
              opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine  the  locale  that should be used to affect the format
              and contents of diagnostic messages written  to  standard  error
              and informative messages written to standard output.
       LC_TIME
              Determine  the  format  and  contents  for date and time strings
              written by batch.
       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
              LC_MESSAGES .
       SHELL  Determine the name of a command interpreter to be used to invoke
              the at-job. If the variable is unset or null, sh shall be  used.
              If  it is set to a value other than a name for sh, the implemen-
              tation shall do one of the following: use that  shell;  use  sh;
              use the login shell from the user database; any of the preceding
              accompanied by a warning diagnostic about which was chosen.
       TZ     Determine the timezone. The job shall be submitted for execution
              at  the  time  specified  by timespec or -t time relative to the
              timezone specified by the TZ variable.  If timespec specifies  a
              timezone, it overrides TZ.  If timespec does not specify a time-
              zone and TZ is unset or null, an  unspecified  default  timezone
              shall be used.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.
STDOUT
       When  standard  input  is a terminal, prompts of unspecified format for
       each line of the user input described in the STDIN section may be writ-
       ten to standard output.
STDERR
       The  following  shall  be written to standard error when a job has been
       successfully submitted:

              "job %s at %s\n", at_job_id, <date>
       where date shall be equivalent in format to the output of:

              date +"%a %b %e %T %Y"
       The date and time written shall be adjusted so that they appear in  the
       timezone of the user (as determined by the TZ variable).
       Neither this, nor warning messages concerning the selection of the com-
       mand interpreter, are considered a diagnostic  that  changes  the  exit
       status.
       Diagnostic messages, if any, shall be written to standard error.
OUTPUT FILES
       None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.
EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:
        0     Successful completion.
       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       The job shall not be scheduled.
       The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
       It  may be useful to redirect standard output within the specified com-
       mands.
EXAMPLES
        1. This sequence can be used at a terminal:

           batch
           sort < file >outfile
           EOT
        2. This sequence, which demonstrates redirecting standard error  to  a
           pipe,  is useful in a command procedure (the sequence of output re-
           direction specifications is significant):

           batch <<
           ! diff file1 file2 2>&1 >outfile | mailx mygroup
           !
RATIONALE
       Early proposals described batch in a manner totally separated from  at,
       even  though the historical model treated it almost as a synonym for at
       -qb. A number of features were added to list  and  control  batch  work
       separately  from  those  in at. Upon further reflection, it was decided
       that the benefit of this did not merit the  change  to  the  historical
       interface.
       The  -m  option was included on the equivalent at command because it is
       historical practice to mail results to the submitter, even if all  job-
       produced  output  is  redirected. As explained in the RATIONALE for at,
       the now keyword submits the job for immediate execution (after schedul-
       ing  delays),  despite  some historical systems where at now would have
       been considered an error.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
SEE ALSO
       at
COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),  The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue  6,  Copyright  (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open  Group.  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                            BATCH(1P)