boinc/doc/project_tasks.php

130 lines
3.8 KiB
PHP

<?php
require_once("docutil.php");
page_head("Periodic tasks");
echo "
<b>Periodic tasks</b> are programs that are run periodically.
They are executed by the <a href=tool_start.php>bin/start --cron</a> program,
which you should run from cron.
(To do this, run crontab and add a line of the form
<pre>
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * HOME/projects/PROJECT/bin/start --cron
</pre>
Periodic tasks are short-running, but in case they aren't,
the 'start' script detect when an instance is still running
and won't start another instance.
<p>
Your project's periodic tasks are described in its
<a href=configuration.php>config.xml</a> file,
with elements of the following form:
";
echo html_text("
<task>
<cmd> get_load </cmd>
<output> get_load.out </output>
<period> 5 min </period>
[ <host> host.ip </host> ]
[ <disabled> 1 </disabled> ]
[ <always_run> 1 </always_run> ]
</task>
<task>
<cmd> echo \"HI\" | mail root@example.com </cmd>
<output> /dev/null </output>
<period> 1 day </period>
</task>
<task>
...
</task>
");
list_start();
list_item(
"cmd",
"The command used to perform the task.
Must be a program in the project's /bin directory.
<p>
You can run PHP scripts as periodic tasks.
These scripts must be in the html/ops/ directory,
and can be run with a command of the form
<pre>run_in_ops scriptname</pre>
The script should be executable, and should have the form
<pre>
#! /usr/bin/env php
&lt;?php
...
?&gt;
You must specify the output file for such tasks
(otherwise it will go to run_in_ops.out).
"
);
list_item("host",
"Specifies where the daemon shoulr run.
The default is the project's main host,
as specified in config.xml."
);
list_item(
"period",
"The interval between executions,
expressed as a single number (in units of minutes)
or a number followed by 'seconds', 'minutes',
'hours', or 'days' (may be abbreviated to unique initial string)."
);
list_item(
"output",
"Specifies the output file to output;
and by default it is COMMAND_BASE_NAME.out.
Output files are in log_X/, where X is the host."
);
list_item(
"disabled",
"Ignore this entry"
);
list_item(
"always_run",
"Run this task regardless of whether or not the project is enabled
(for example, a script that logs the
current CPU load of the host machine)."
);
list_end();
echo "
A project newly created by <a href=make_project.php>make_project</a>
has no periodic tasks.
Here are some programs you might want to run as periodic tasks:
";
list_start();
list_item("db_dump",
"Write statistics data to XML files for export.
Details are <a href=db_dump.php>here</a>.
Recommended period: 7 days."
);
list_item("update_profile_pages.php",
"Generate HTML files with lists of links to user profiles,
organized alphabetically and by country.
Recommended period: a few days."
);
list_item("update_stats -update_teams -update_users -update_hosts",
"Update the recent average credit fields of
users, teams, and hosts.
This is important if you use send personalized
<a href=recruit.php>mass emails</a> or
<a href=reminder_email.php>reminder emails</a>,
or use recent credit to enable message-board posting.
Recommended period: every few days."
);
list_item("update_uotd.php",
"Select a new User of the Day.
Period: 1 day."
);
list_item("update_forum_activities.php",
"Recompute 'popularity' estimages for threads and posts
in the Questions and Answers message boards.
Recommended period: 1 hour."
);
list_end();
page_tail();
?>