atq command output exclamation mark

Effendi · 06-27-2012, 02:46 AM

When I post the command atq as root I get this output:
220260 2012-06-27 08:46 a xxx
216129 2012-07-01 00:30 a yyy
219868 2012-06-16 14:31 ! yyy
220261 2012-06-27 08:52 a yyy
219869 2012-06-16 14:31 ! yyy
As I understand it is Job-number job-date job-time job-class and job-owner.
This is redhat rhel v. 6.2
What does the exclamation mark in job-class mean?

chrism01 · 06-27-2012, 08:46 PM

Ok according to man page that's the queue name field

Quote:

atq lists the userâs pending jobs, unless the user is the supe-
ruser; in that case, everybodyâs jobs are listed. The format
of the output lines (one for each job) is: Job number, date,
hour, queue, and username.

and goes on to say

Quote:

-q queue
uses the specified queue. A queue designation consists of a
single letter; valid queue designations range from a to z. and
A to Z. The a queue is the default for at and the b queue for
batch. Queues with higher letters run with increased niceness.
The special queue "=" is reserved for jobs which are currently
running.

I'm wondering if that's a locale issue and '!' should actually be '=' as per the above.

Effendi · 06-28-2012, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

Ok according to man page that's the queue name field

and goes on to say

I'm wondering if that's a locale issue and '!' should actually be '=' as per the above.

Thanks for looking into this Chris, I asssume the exclamation mark means that the job was left out for some reason, where as the equal sign means its happening right now. To underline my belief is that both those jobs with the exclamation mark were due 2 weeks ago. I have not found an answer in the man pages nor searching the internet and am looking for conformation to my assumption.