Re: [Taskforest-discuss] Some additional questions about TaskForest

[Aijaz A. <en...@us...>]

Lana:

GMT ISSUES
As of version 1.24, there's an undocumented way to fool taskforest into
thinking the current time is whatever you tell it.  I use it for testing.
I'll test out your GMT questions, but I'm almost certain that GMT is immune
to any DST issues, since it doesn't have DST.  This also means that you'll
have exactly 24 hours in every day, and not 23 hours 1 day a year and 25
another day.  I'm 99% sure, but I'll run tests and let you know.  Thanks for
bringing this up.  This should be a test.

CALENDARS
The calendar code is currently in Dev.  I hope to have it released in
version 1.25 on May 17.  Because I want the code to be backward compatible
with older family files, Family files will accept either the current "days
=> 'Mon,Tue'" format or the new "calendar => CAL_NAME" format.
CAL_NAME is a name of a calendar that will be defined in the config file.
A calendar is basically a set of instructions that include or exclude days.
Here are some examples:

Example 1)
+ 2009/04/24

Familes that use this calendar will run only once. On Apr 24, 2009 only.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example 2)
+ 2009/*/*
- 2009/01/01

Families that use this calendar will run every day in 2009, except for New
Years Day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example 3)
+ */*/*
- fourth Thu */11

Families that use this calendar will run every day of every month of every
year, except for the fourth Thursday of November of each year (U.S.
Thanksgiving day)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example 4)
+ second last Sunday */*/*

Families that use this calendar will run on the second-to-last Sunday of
every month.

Using calendars like this might be the better than relying on cron's
scheduling. It depends on what exactly you're trying to do.  If you have
specific scheduling needs, let me know, and I'll tell you if and how you
could configure taskforest to meet that schedule.

Again, I expect this to be in version 1.25 in mid-May.

MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF JOBS IN THE FAMILY FILE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, you can have multiple instances of jobs in a family file, to check on
status.  There are certain cases, where you *cannot* properly model
dependencies unless you have multiple instances like this.  One of the test
Family files that's included in the distribution (the one wrongly named
"t/family_archive/SIMPLE") has this scenario.  Look at job J4.  It shows up
twice. I'm copying the Family file here for your reference:

start => '00:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days =>
'Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat,Sun'
J2()  J3()
  J1()
  J4()
J12()   J13()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  J6()    J7()
    J5()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  J5()    J4()
    J8()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 J9()
 J10()
 J11()

So yes, you can, and in many cases should repeat job names in the family
file.   I hope I've answered your questions well.  Pls let me know if you
have any other questions.

Thanks,

Aijaz.


On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Svetlana Lemeshov <lem...@mi...> wrote:

> Hello Aijaz,
>
> ...
> So, I wonder how TaskForest handles time changes with GMT option.
>
> Aijaz, can you please give me some information about implementation of
> the Calendars in the future releases of the TaskForest?
>
> When do you anticipate it to be in production?
>
> Here are some questions (if you don't mind):
> - Is there a way to turn off 'Days of the week' from the Family all
> together?
> I am contemplating to run TaskForest from the crontab to have more control
> and
> flexibility with the schedule.
>
> - What happens when the same job gets called within a family multiple
> times? I
> DO understand that it will get executed only once, but after that, can I
> keep
> calling the same job from different parts of the Family just to check its
> status? I can see it to be useful in cases when a chain of dependant jobs
> can't be easily layed out with a straightforward top down design.
>
> ...
>
>