SGE: Whats the difference between -hold_jid_ad and -hold_jid

Question

When qsub-ing a job I want one job to wait to execute until the first one has succeeded. I've been looking at the options -hold_jid_ad and -hold_jid to do this, but can't see a difference in them.

Answer 1

Lets say you have jobs A and B, and A depends on B. That is you want to run something like qsub --hold_jid[_ad] B A.sh

--hold_jid_ad

This is for array jobs only. Use it if:

• A and B are both array jobs,
• A and B has the same range of tasts (i.e. not qsub -t 1-3 A.sh and qsub -t 2-4 B.sh),
• A[i] depends on B[i], AND
• A[i] does not depend on B[j] for i != j

--hold_jid

Use this is any other situation. When in doubt use this.

This is based on a diff the documentation and a few tries on our engine.

Answer 2

Difference in man page is subtle. It appears that -hold_jid_ad is for job array, whereas -hold_jid is for a regular job type.