Repeat

It is sometimes useful to repeat the same task or family several times, looping on a specific value. You can do that by defining a repeat attribute. You can iterate over sequences of:

  • strings

  • integers

  • dates

  • time instants

A sequence of integers, dates or time instants is created by specifying the first and last element, with an optional increment (the default is 1 for integers, 1 day for dates, and 24:00:00 for time instants).

We can also loop over an arbitrary list of dates:

Listing 46 datelist
repeat datelist YMD 20130101 20130102 20130103 20200101 20190101

An ecFlow variable, whose name corresponds to the name of the repeat, will be generated. This can be used in scripts or trigger expressions.

Note

If repeat date, or repeat datelist are used in trigger expressions, they will use date arithmetic.

Repeat with day/date

Once the day monday is free on family f1, it stays free until the automatic re-queue caused by the parent repeat. The net effect being that task t2 will still run, even if we have strayed into Tuesday.

Listing 47 day/date remain free until re-queue
suite s1
  family f
    repeat integer rep 0 7
    family f1
       day monday
       time 23:00
       task t1
       task t2
            trigger t1 == complete
 ...

Repeat increment

A repeat under a family node will only increment when all the child nodes are complete. In the example above, once task t1, and t2 are complete, the repeat integer rep will increment to the next value.

Ecf Script

We will add a new task /test/f4/f5/t1. Create new ecf script file $HOME/course/test/f4/f5/t1.ecf to use these variables.

Listing 48 $HOME/course/test/f4/f5/t1.ecf
%include <head.h>
ecflow_client --label=info "My name is '%NAME%' " " My value is '%VALUE%' " " My date is '%DATE%' "
# Note the use of repeat date generated variables DATE_YYYY, DATE_MM, DATE_DD, DATE_DOW to automatically reference year,month,day of the month,day of the week
# These can also be used in trigger expression.
ecflow_client --label=date "year(%DATE_YYYY%) month(%DATE_MM%) day of month(%DATE_DD%) day of week(%DATE_DOW%)"
sleep %SLEEP%
%include <tail.h>

Text

Let us modify the suite definition file again:

# Definition of the suite test.
suite test
 edit ECF_INCLUDE "$HOME/course"
 edit ECF_HOME    "$HOME/course"
 family f4
     edit SLEEP 2
     repeat string NAME a b c d e f
     family f5
         repeat integer VALUE 1 10
         task t1
             repeat date DATE 20101230 20110105
             label info ""
             label date ""
     endfamily
 endfamily
endsuite

Python

Listing 49 $HOME/course/test.py
import os
from ecflow import (
    Defs,
    Suite,
    Family,
    Task,
    Edit,
    Trigger,
    Complete,
    Event,
    Meter,
    Time,
    Day,
    Date,
    Label,
    RepeatString,
    RepeatInteger,
    RepeatDate,
)


def create_family_f4():
    return Family(
        "f4",
        Edit(SLEEP=2),
        RepeatString("NAME", ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"]),
        Family(
            "f5",
            RepeatInteger("VALUE", 1, 10),
            Task(
                "t1",
                RepeatDate("DATE", 20101230, 20110105),
                Label("info", ""),
                Label("date", ""),
            ),
        ),
    )


print("Creating suite definition")
home = os.path.join(os.getenv("HOME"), "course")
defs = Defs(Suite("test", Edit(ECF_INCLUDE=home, ECF_HOME=home), create_family_f4()))
print(defs)
print("Checking job creation: .ecf -> .job0")
print(defs.check_job_creation())

print("Checking trigger expressions")
assert len(defs.check()) == 0, defs.check()

print("Saving definition to file 'test.def'")
defs.save_as_defs("test.def")

What to do

  1. Type in the changes

  2. Replace the suite definition

  3. How many times will /test/f4/f5/t1 run?

  4. In ecflow_ui, try to modify the values of a repeat

  5. Since we are using a 2-second delay, remember to use f5(refresh) to see the intermediate values. The default is to refresh every 60 seconds.