Defining a new suite

There are several ways of defining the suite definition.
This tutorial will give examples for both the plain text and Python methods.

Text Method

Create a file called test.def,using your favourite text editor, with the following contents:

Listing 1 $HOME/course/test.def
suite test
   edit ECF_HOME "$HOME/course"  # replace '$HOME' with the path to your home directory
   task t1
endsuite
This file contains the suite definition of a suite called test.
This suite contains a single task called t1.
Let us go through the lines one by one:

  1. This line is a comment line. Any characters between the # and the end of line are ignored

  2. The second line is empty

  3. This line defines a new suite by the name of test.

  4. Here we define a ecFlow variable called ECF_HOME. This variable defines the directory where all the unix files that will be used by the suite test will reside. For the rest of the course all file names will be given relative to this directory.

    Warning

    Be sure to replace $HOME with the path to your home directory

  5. This defines a task named t1

  6. The endsuite finishes the definition of the suite test

Python Method

Enter the following python code into a file, i.e test.py :

Listing 2 $HOME/course/test.py
import os
from ecflow import Defs, Suite, Task, Edit

print("Creating suite definition")
home = os.path.join(os.getenv("HOME"), "course")
defs = Defs(Suite("test", Edit(ECF_HOME=home), Task("t1")))
print(defs)

print("Checking job creation: .ecf -> .job0")
print(defs.check_job_creation())

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

# To restore the definition from file 'test.def' we can use:
# restored_defs = ecflow.Defs("test.def")

Then run as a python script:

python test.py

Alternatively add the following as the first line in test.py:

Listing 3 $HOME/course/test.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
...

chmod +x test.py
./test.py  # this uses shebang, see below, searches for specified python variant in $PATH

You should see the text “Creating suite definition” and then your definition as your output.

What to do:

  1. Initially try both plain text and python examples. Later examples are only in python.

  2. Type in the suite definition file.

  3. Choose python invocation. i.e. python3 test.py | ./test.py.