Ubuntu Manpage: at, batch, atq, atrm - queue, examine, or delete jobs for later execution

NAME

       at, batch, atq, atrm - queue, examine, or delete jobs for later execution

SYNOPSIS

       at [-V] [-q queue] [-f file] [-mMlv] timespec ...
       at [-V] [-q queue] [-f file] [-mMkv] [-t time]
       at -c job [...]
       atq [-V] [-q queue]
       at [-rd] job [...]
       atrm [-V] job [...]
       batch
       at -b

DESCRIPTION

at and batch read commands from standard input or a specified file which are to be
executed at a later time, using /bin/sh.

at executes commands at a specified time.

atq lists the user's pending jobs, unless the user is the superuser; in that case,
everybody's jobs are listed. The format of the output lines (one for each job)
is: Job number, date, hour, queue, and username.

atrm deletes jobs, identified by their job number.

batch executes commands when system load levels permit; in other words, when the load
average drops below 1.5, or the value specified in the invocation of atd.

At allows fairly complex time specifications, extending the POSIX.2 standard. It accepts
times of the form HH:MM to run a job at a specific time of day. (If that time is already
past, the next day is assumed.) You may also specify midnight, noon, or teatime (4pm) and
you can have a time-of-day suffixed with AM or PM for running in the morning or the
evening. You can also say what day the job will be run, by giving a date in the form
month-name day with an optional year, or giving a date of the form MMDD[CC]YY,
MM/DD/[CC]YY, DD.MM.[CC]YY or [CC]YY-MM-DD. The specification of a date must follow the
specification of the time of day. You can also give times like now + count time-units,
where the time-units can be minutes, hours, days, or weeks and you can tell at to run the
job today by suffixing the time with today and to run the job tomorrow by suffixing the
time with tomorrow.

For example, to run a job at 4pm three days from now, you would do at 4pm + 3 days, to run
a job at 10:00am on July 31, you would do at 10am Jul 31 and to run a job at 1am tomorrow,
you would do at 1am tomorrow.

If you specify a job to absolutely run at a specific time and date in the past, the job
will run as soon as possible. For example, if it is 8pm and you do a at 6pm today, it
will run more likely at 8:05pm.

The definition of the time specification can be found in /usr/share/doc/at/timespec.

For both at and batch, commands are read from standard input or the file specified with
the -f option and executed. The working directory, the environment (except for the
variables BASH_VERSINFO, DISPLAY, EUID, GROUPS, SHELLOPTS, TERM, UID, and _) and the umask
are retained from the time of invocation.

As at is currently implemented as a setuid program, other environment variables (e.g.,
LD_LIBRARY_PATH or LD_PRELOAD) are also not exported. This may change in the future. As
a workaround, set these variables explicitly in your job.

An at - or batch - command invoked from a su(1) shell will retain the current userid. The
user will be mailed standard error and standard output from his commands, if any. Mail
will be sent using the command /usr/sbin/sendmail. If at is executed from a su(1) shell,
the owner of the login shell will receive the mail.

The superuser may use these commands in any case. For other users, permission to use at
is determined by the files /etc/at.allow and /etc/at.deny. See at.allow(5) for details.

OPTIONS

-V prints the version number to standard error and exit successfully.

-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.

If a job is submitted to a queue designated with an uppercase letter, the job is treated
as if it were submitted to batch at the time of the job. Once the time is reached, the
batch processing rules with respect to load average apply. If atq is given a specific
queue, it will only show jobs pending in that queue.

-m Send mail to the user when the job has completed even if there was no output.

-M Never send mail to the user.

-f file Reads the job from file rather than standard input.

-t time run the job at time, given in the format [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss]

-l Is an alias for atq.

-r Is an alias for atrm.

-d Is an alias for atrm.

-b is an alias for batch.

-v Shows the time the job will be executed before reading the job.

Times displayed will be in the format "Thu Feb 20 14:50:00 1997".

-c cats the jobs listed on the command line to standard output.

FILES

       /var/spool/cron/atjobs
       /var/spool/cron/atspool
       /proc/loadavg
       /var/run/utmp
       /etc/at.allow
       /etc/at.deny

BUGS

       The correct operation of batch for Linux depends on the presence of a proc- type directory
       mounted on /proc.

       If  the  file /var/run/utmp is not available or corrupted, or if the user is not logged on
       at the time at is invoked, the mail is  sent  to  the  userid  found  in  the  environment
       variable LOGNAME.  If that is undefined or empty, the current userid is assumed.

       At  and  batch  as  presently  implemented  are  not suitable when users are competing for
       resources.  If this is the case for your site, you might want to  consider  another  batch
       system, such as nqs.

AUTHOR

       At was mostly written by Thomas Koenig.

                                            2009-11-14                                      AT(1)