Limit (Families)

The previous section has shown how to apply limit/inlimit to constraint task execution/submission.

This section shows how to apply similar constrains to how many suites/families are allowed to run in parallel. When a family is limited, the contained tasks are unconstrained. In the following eample, while only two families can run at a time, all the tasks in the family are allowed to start at once.

Modify the suite definition file, as follows:

# Definition of the suite test.
suite test
 edit ECF_INCLUDE "$HOME/course"
 edit ECF_HOME    "$HOME/course"
 edit SLEEP 20
 limit fam 2
 family lf1
     inlimit -n fam
     task t1 ;  task t2 ; task t3 ; task t4; task t5 ; task t6; task t7; task t8 ; task t9
 endfamily
 family lf2
     inlimit -n fam
     task t1 ;  task t2 ; task t3 ; task t4; task t5 ; task t6; task t7; task t8 ; task t9
 endfamily
 family lf3
     inlimit -n fam
     task t1 ;  task t2 ; task t3 ; task t4; task t5 ; task t6; task t7; task t8 ; task t9
 endfamily
endsuite

Listing 57 $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,
    InLimit,
    Limit,
)


def create_family(name):
    return Family(
        name,
        # limit_name(fam),limit_path(""),no_of_tokens_to_consume(1),limit node(True), limit submission(False)
        InLimit("fam", "", 1, True, False),
        [Task("t{}".format(i)) for i in range(1, 10)],
    )


print("Creating suite definition")
home = os.path.join(os.getenv("HOME"), "course")
defs = Defs(
    Suite(
        "test",
        Edit(ECF_INCLUDE=home, ECF_HOME=home, SLEEP=20),
        Limit("fam", 2),
        create_family("lf1"),
        create_family("lf2"),
        create_family("lf3"),
    )
)
print(defs)

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

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

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

What to do

Apply the changes to suite definition.
Copy the task script from the previous section example into the new families directories.
In ecflow_ui, observe the effects on the number of active families/submitted tasks.
How could the suive be updated to limit tasks as well as families (i.e. only allow 1 task to run in each family)?