Metadata-Version: 1.1
Name: fjd
Version: 0.1.24
Summary: File-based job distribution for everyone
Home-page: http://github.com/nhoening/fjd/
Author: Nicolas Höning
Author-email: iam@nicolashoening.de
License: Apache Software License
Description: fjd
        ===
        
        File-based distribution of jobs to CPUs on Unix-PCs (idle workers "pull" new jobs).
        As assignments works via files, the hurdle to install and use should be very low.
        Works under the assumption that all CPUs can access a shared home directory.
        
        
        Usage
        -------
        
        * Start one or more ``fjd-worker`` threads, like this::
        
            $ fjd-recruiter hire [<number of workers>]
        
          Per default, this starts n-1 worker threads, where n is the number of CPUs on your machine. 
        
        * Put jobs in the job queue. You do this by putting a configuration file per job in a designated directory (e.g. ``~/.fjd/default/jobqueue``, where 'default' could be changed to a specific project name). Here is an example job::
        
            [control]
            executable: python example/ajob.py
            logfile: logfiles/job0.dat 
        
            [params]
            param1: value0
        
          I'll talk about the details of these job files below and there is a full example as well. 
        
        * Then, start a dispatcher::
        
            $ fjd-dispatcher
        
        Now the ``fjd-dispatcher`` assigns jobs to ``fjd-worker`` threads who are currently not busy. This goes on until the job queue is empty.
        
        You can configure a number of hosts in your network and how many workers should be 
        running on each (see an example of this below).
        
        
        Installation
        -------------
        
        First, you need to have python 2.7 or above, which is the case on almost all systems these days. Then::
        
            $ pip install fjd
        
        If you do not have enough privileges (look for something like "Permission denied" in the output), install locally (for your user account only)::
        
            $ pip install fjd --user
            
        If you do not have ``pip`` installed (I can't wait for everyone running Python 3.4), I made a `small script <https://raw.github.com/nhoening/fjd/master/fjd/scripts/INSTALL>`_, which should help to install all needed things. Download it and make it executable::
            
            $ wget https://raw.github.com/nhoening/fjd/master/fjd/scripts/INSTALL
            $ chmod +x INSTALL
            
        Now you can install system-wide::
            
            $ ./INSTALL
        
        or, if you do not have enough privileges, you can also install locally::
            
            $ source INSTALL --user
        
        **Note** - If you installed locally, this should be added to your ``~/.bashrc`` or ``~/.profile`` file::
        
            export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH
        
        **Note** - Installing locally could be the better choice, actually, because it might save you
        from installing ``fjd`` on each machine you want to use.
        If they all share the home directory, they will all know about ``fjd`` once you are logged in. 
        
        
        How does fjd work, in a nutshell?
        -----------------------------------
        
        Small files in your home directory are used to indicate which jobs have to be done (these are created by you)
        and which workers are available (these are created automatically). Files are also used by ``fjd`` to assign workers
        to jobs.
        
        This simple file-based approach makes ``fjd`` very easy to use.
        
        For CPUs from several machines to work on your job queue, we make one necessary assumption: We assume that there 
        is a shared home directory for logged-in users, which all machines can access. This setting is very common now
        in universities and companies.
        
        A little bit more detail about the ``fjd`` internals: 
        The ``fjd-recruiter`` creates worker threads on one or more machines. The ``fjd-worker`` processes announce themselves in the
        ``workerqueue`` directory. The ``fjd-dispatcher`` finds your jobs in the ``jobqueue`` directory and pairs a job with an available worker.
        It then removes those entries from the ``jobqueue`` and ``workerqueue`` directories and creates a new entry in ``jobpods``, where workers will
        pick up their assignments. 
        
        All of these directories exist in ``~/.fjd`` and will of course be created if they do not yet exist.
        
        
        Job files
        ------------
        
        A job file should adhere to the general configuration file standard, where ``fjd``
        only has some requirements for the ``control`` section, where you specify which
        command to execute and where results should go. Here is an example::
        
            [control]
            executable: python example/ajob.py
            logfile: logfiles/job0.dat 
        
            [params]
            param1: value0
        
        Your executable (the "job") gets this configuration file passed as a command line argument.
        This way, it can see for itself in which logfile to write to.
        
        Take care to get the relative paths correct (or simply make them absolute):
        If the paths are relative, the path to the executable should be relative to the workers
        working directory, whereas the path to the logfile should be relative to the jobs
        working directory.
        
        In addition, you can put other job-specific configuration in there for the executable
        to see, as I did here in the ``[params]``-section (in fact, only the ``[control]``-section
        is ``fjd``-specific).
        
        
        An example (on your local machine)
        ------------------------------------
        
        You can see how it all comes together by looking at the simple example in the ``example``
        directory where there is one script that represents a job (`example/ajob.py <https://raw.github.com/nhoening/fjd/master/fjd/example/ajob.py>`_) 
        and one that creates ten jobs similar to the one we saw above and puts them in
        the queue (`example/create_jobs.py <https://raw.github.com/nhoening/fjd/master/fjd/example/create_jobs.py>`_).
        
        To run this example, create jobs using the second script, recruit some workers 
        and start a dispatcher. Then, lean back and observe. We have a script that does
        all of this in ``run-example.sh``::
        
            #/bin/bash
        
            python create_jobs.py
            fjd-recruiter hire 4
            fjd-dispatcher
        
        And this is output similar to what you should see::
        
            $ cd fjd/example
            $ ./run-example.sh 
            [fjd-recruiter] Hired 4 workers in project "default".
            [fjd-dispatcher] Started on project "default"
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 10 job(s) and 4 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 6 job(s) and 1 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 5 job(s) and 2 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 3 job(s) and 1 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 2 job(s) and 3 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] No (more) jobs.
            [fjd-recruiter] Fired 4 workers in project "default".
        
        
        Note that ``fjd-dispatcher`` is started after jobs are created because per default, 
        it will fire workers (kill screen sessions) and terminate itself once it finds 
        the queue of jobs being empty. This behaviour can be overwritten with a parameter
        if needed and then you could have the dispacther running and push jobs in the 
        queue whenever you like.
        
        And you'll see the results, the log files written by our example jobs::
        
            $ ls logfiles/
            job0.dat	job2.dat	job4.dat	job6.dat	job8.dat
            job1.dat	job3.dat	job5.dat	job7.dat	job9.dat
        
        Workers are Unix screen sessions, you can see them by typing::
        
            $ screen -ls
        
        and inspect them if you want (a feature is planned to give easy access to 
        log output from the screen sessions).
        
        Here is the log from a screen session of a worker if you're interested::
        
            $ fjd-worker --project default
            [fjd-worker] Started with ID nics-macbook.fritz.box_1382522062.31.
            [fjd-worker] Worker nics-macbook.fritz.box_1382522062.31: I found a job.
            [fjd-worker] Worker nics-macbook.fritz.box_1382522062.31: Finished my job.
            [fjd-worker] Worker nics-macbook.fritz.box_1382522062.31: I found a job.
            [fjd-worker] Worker nics-macbook.fritz.box_1382522062.31: Finished my job.
        
        By the way, if screen sessions are running and you want them to stop (maybe
        because you aborted the dispatcher before he could tell the recruiter to clean
        up), then you can always fire workers by hand::
        
            $ fjd-recruiter fire
        
        
        
        Another example (using several machines in your network and a custom project name)
        ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
        We can tell ``fjd`` about other machines in the network and how many workers we'd like
        to employ on them. To do that, we place a file called ``remote.conf`` in the project's
        directory. Here is my file ``example/remote.conf``: If you run this example, 
        you'll have to fill in names of machines in your particular network, of course::
        
            [host1]
            name: localhost
            workers: 3
        
            [host2]
            name: hyuga.sen.cwi.nl
            workers: 5
        
        
        Normally, that directory is ``~/.fjd/default``. In this example, we tell ``fjd`` to
        use a different project identifier (this way, you could have several projects
        running without them getting into each other's way, i.e. stopping one project 
        wouldn't stop the workers of the other and you wouldn't override the first project 
        if you start another). Here is the content of ``run-remote-example.sh``, using the project
        identifier ``remote-example``::
        
            #/bin/bash
        
            python create_jobs.py remote-example
            cp remote.conf ~/.fjd/remote-example/remote.conf
            fjd-recruiter --project remote-example hire
            fjd-dispatcher --project remote-example 
         
        If you run this example, the output you'll see should be similar to this::
         
            $ cd fjd/example
            $ ./run-remote-example.sh 
            [fjd-recruiter] Hired 3 workers in project "remote-example".
            [fjd-recruiter] Host hyuga.sen.cwi.nl: [fjd-recruiter] Hired 5 workers in project "remote-example".
            [fjd-dispatcher] Started on project "remote-example"
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 10 job(s) and 8 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] Found 2 job(s) and 4 worker(s)...
            [fjd-dispatcher] No (more) jobs.
            [fjd-recruiter] Fired 3 workers in project "remote-example".
            [fjd-recruiter] Host hyuga.sen.cwi.nl: [fjd-recruiter] Fired 5 workers in project "remote-example".
        
        **Note** - If you normally have to type in a password to login to a remote machine via SSH,
        you'll have to do this here, as well. Some SSH configuration can go a long way to ease your life,
        e.g. by key management or the ControlAuto option. Ask your local IT guy. 
        
Platform: Unix
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Development Status :: 4 - Beta
Classifier: Natural Language :: English
Classifier: Environment :: Console
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX
Classifier: Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules
Classifier: Topic :: System :: Distributed Computing
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
