QMSG(1P)                                            POSIX Programmer's Manual                                           QMSG(1P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       qmsg - send message to batch jobs

SYNOPSIS
       qmsg [-E][-O] message_string job_identifier ...

DESCRIPTION
       To  send a message to a batch job is to request that a server write a message string into one or more output files of the
       batch job. A message is sent to a batch job by a request to the batch server that manages the batch job. The qmsg utility
       is a user-accessible batch client that requests the sending of messages to one or more batch jobs.

       The  qmsg  utility shall write messages into the files of batch jobs by sending a Job Message Request to the batch server
       that manages the batch job. The qmsg utility shall not directly write the message into the files of the batch job.

       The qmsg utility shall send a Job Message Request for those batch jobs, and only those batch  jobs,  for  which  a  batch
       job_identifier is presented to the utility.

       The  qmsg  utility  shall  send Job Message Requests for batch jobs in the order in which their batch job_identifiers are
       presented to the utility.

       If the qmsg utility fails to process any batch job_identifier successfully, the utility  shall  proceed  to  process  the
       remaining batch job_identifiers, if any.

       The  qmsg utility shall not exit before a Job Message Request has been sent to the server that manages the batch job that
       corresponds to each successfully processed batch job_identifier.

OPTIONS
       The qmsg utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  12.2,  Utility  Syntax
       Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported by the implementation:

       -E     Specify that the message is written to the standard error of each batch job.

       The qmsg utility shall write the message into the standard error of the batch job.

       -O     Specify that the message is written to the standard output of each batch job.

       The qmsg utility shall write the message into the standard output of the batch job.


       If  neither the -O nor the -E option is presented to the qmsg utility, the utility shall write the message into an imple-
       mentation-defined file. The conformance document for the implementation shall describe  the  name  and  location  of  the
       implementation-defined  file. If both the -O and the -E options are presented to the qmsg utility, then the utility shall
       write the messages to both standard output and standard error.

OPERANDS
       The qmsg utility shall accept a minimum of two operands, message_string and one or more batch job_identifiers.

       The message_string operand shall be the string to be written to one or more output files of the batch job followed  by  a
       <newline>.  If  the  string  contains  <blank>s,  then  the  application shall ensure that the string is quoted. The mes-
       sage_string shall be encoded in the portable character set (see the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Sec-
       tion 6.1, Portable Character Set).

       All  remaining  operands  are  batch job_identifiers that conform to the syntax for a batch job_identifier (see Batch Job
       Identifier ).

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of qmsg:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the  Base  Definitions
              volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of international-
              ization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-
              byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to stan-
              dard error.

       LOGNAME
              Determine the login name of the user.


ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       None.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.


CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       In addition to the default behavior, the qmsg utility shall not be required to write a  diagnostic  message  to  standard
       error  when  the  error  reply received from a batch server indicates that the batch job_identifier does not exist on the
       server. Whether or not the qmsg utility waits to output the diagnostic message while attempting  to  locate  the  job  on
       other servers is implementation-defined.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

EXAMPLES
       None.

RATIONALE
       The  qmsg  utility  allows  users to write messages into the output files of running jobs. Users, including operators and
       administrators, have a number of occasions when they want to place messages in the output files of a batch job. For exam-
       ple,  if  a  disk that is being used by a batch job is showing errors, the operator might note this in the standard error
       stream of the batch job.

       The options of the qmsg utility provide users with the means of placing the message in the output stream of their choice.
       The  default  output  stream  for  the message-if the user does not designate an output stream-is implementation-defined,
       since many implementations will provide, as an extension to this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, a log  file  that  shows
       the history of utility execution.

       If  users  wish  to  send  a  message to a set of jobs that meet a selection criteria, the qselect utility can be used to
       acquire the appropriate list of job identifiers.

       The -E option allows users to place the message in the standard error stream of the batch job.

       The -O option allows users to place the message in the standard output stream of the batch job.

       Historically, the qmsg utility is an existing practice in the offerings of one or more  implementors  of  an  NQS-derived
       batch  system.  The  utility  has  been  found  to  be  useful  enough  that it deserves to be included in this volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       Batch Environment Services, qselect

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003  Edition,  Standard  for
       Information  Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
       discrepancy  between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard  is  the  referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained   online   at   http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                      QMSG(1P)