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


NAME
       batch — schedule commands to be executed in a batch queue


SYNOPSIS
       batch


DESCRIPTION
       The  batch  utility  shall  read  commands from standard input and schedule them for execution in a batch
       queue. It shall be the equivalent of the command:

           at −q b −m now

       where queue b is a special at queue, specifically for batch jobs. Batch jobs shall be  submitted  to  the
       batch  queue  with  no  time  constraints  and  shall  be  run  by  the system using algorithms, based on
       unspecified factors, that may vary with each invocation of batch.

       Users shall be permitted to use batch if their name appears in the file at.allow which is located  in  an
       implementation-defined  directory.  If that file does not exist, the file at.deny, which is located in an
       implementation-defined directory, shall be checked to determine whether the user shall be  denied  access
       to  batch.  If neither file exists, only a process with appropriate privileges shall be allowed to submit
       a job. If only at.deny exists and is empty, global usage shall be permitted.  The  at.allow  and  at.deny
       files shall consist of one user name per line.


OPTIONS
       None.


OPERANDS
       None.


STDIN
       The  standard  input shall be a text file consisting of commands acceptable to the shell command language
       described in Chapter 2, Shell Command Language.


INPUT FILES
       The text files at.allow and at.deny, which are located  in  an  implementation-defined  directory,  shall
       contain  zero  or  more  user  names,  one per line, of users who are, respectively, authorized or denied
       access to the at and batch utilities.


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

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
                 Base  Definitions  volume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
                 precedence  of  internationalization  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 and input files).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine  the  locale  that  should  be  used  to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
                 messages written to standard error and informative messages written to standard output.

       LC_TIME   Determine the format and contents for date and time strings written by batch.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

       SHELL     Determine the name of a command interpreter to be used to invoke the at-job. If the variable is
                 unset  or  null,  sh  shall  be  used.  If  it  is set to a value other than a name for sh, the
                 implementation shall do one of the following: use that shell; use sh; use the login shell  from
                 the  user  database;  any  of the preceding accompanied by a warning diagnostic about which was
                 chosen.

       TZ        Determine the timezone. The job shall be submitted for  execution  at  the  time  specified  by
                 timespec  or  −t  time  relative  to  the  timezone  specified  by the TZ variable. If timespec
                 specifies a timezone, it overrides TZ.  If timespec does not specify a timezone and TZ is unset
                 or null, an unspecified default timezone shall be used.


ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.


STDOUT
       When  standard  input  is  a  terminal,  prompts  of  unspecified  format for each line of the user input
       described in the STDIN section may be written to standard output.


STDERR
       The following shall be written to standard error when a job has been successfully submitted:

           "job %s at %s\n", at_job_id, <date>

       where date shall be equivalent in format to the output of:

           date +"%a %b %e %T %Y"

       The date and time written shall be adjusted so  that  they  appear  in  the  timezone  of  the  user  (as
       determined by the TZ variable).

       Neither  this, nor warning messages concerning the selection of the command interpreter, are considered a
       diagnostic that changes the exit status.

       Diagnostic messages, if any, shall be written to standard error.


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
       The job shall not be scheduled.

       The following sections are informative.


APPLICATION USAGE
       It may be useful to redirect standard output within the specified commands.


EXAMPLES
        1. This sequence can be used at a terminal:

               batch
               sort < file >outfile
               EOT

        2. This sequence, which demonstrates redirecting standard error to  a  pipe,  is  useful  in  a  command
           procedure (the sequence of output redirection specifications is significant):

               batch <<!
               diff file1 file2 2>&1 >outfile | mailx mygroup
               !


RATIONALE
       Early  proposals  described batch in a manner totally separated from at, even though the historical model
       treated it almost as a synonym for at −qb.  A number of features were added to  list  and  control  batch
       work  separately  from those in at.  Upon further reflection, it was decided that the benefit of this did
       not merit the change to the historical interface.

       The −m option was included on the equivalent at command because it is historical practice to mail results
       to  the  submitter,  even if all job-produced output is redirected. As explained in the RATIONALE for at,
       the now keyword submits  the  job  for  immediate  execution  (after  scheduling  delays),  despite  some
       historical systems where at now would have been considered an error.


FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.


SEE ALSO
       at

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables


COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
       Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
       and The Open Group.  (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/online.html .

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