= Single job submission =

BOINC is designed to handle streams of millions of jobs.
It takes some work to set up a stream: you need to fiddle around with
apps and app versions, WU and result templates, validators and assimilators, etc.

However, the '''single job submission''' system lets you run a job remotely without any of this hassle.
To do this, configure your BOINC server to handle single jobs (see below).
Set the environment variable BOINC_PROJECT_DIR to the root directory of the project.
'''cd''' into a directory containing a program and its input files.
Then type
{{{
~/boinc/tools/boinc_submit [boinc-options] program [program-options]
}}}
The boinc-options are:

 '''--infile name''':: specifies an input file.
 '''--stdin name''':: direct the given file to the program's stdin.
 '''--outfile name''':: specifies an output file.
 '''--stdout name''':: direct the program's stdout to the given file.
 '''--platform''':: the program is to be run on the given [[BoincPlatforms platform]] (default: i686-pc-linux-gnu).

You can include as many --infile and --outfile options as you want,
and at most one of others.

The '''program-options''' will be passed as command-line arguments to the program
when it runs on the remote machine.

If the program requires any non-standard libraries, link these statically.
Otherwise it will fail on machines that lack these libraries.

You can run '''boinc_submit''' from any host that NSF-mounts your project directory
and can access the MySQL database.

When the job is completed successfully, the output files will appear in the job directory.

== Monitoring jobs ==

The following options are available for monitoring jobs:
{{{
boinc_submit --jobs
}}}
Show a list of jobs, both in progress and completed.
{{{
boinc_submit --abort jobID
}}}
Abort the given job.

== Configuring BOINC for single jobs ==

Download the latest server code and upgrade your project.
The single-job mechanism uses the "wrapper" program
from boinc/samples/wrapper.
cd to your project's home directory and type
{{{
html/ops/single_job_setup.php path-to-boinc-samples
}}}
and follow the resulting instructions.

You should periodically update your boinc/ source code to get bug fixes for "wrapper".
After you do this, re-run the '''single_job_setup.php''' script as above.

== Notes ==

The single job submission system is a work in progress.
Various features haven't been implemented (let us know if you need them).

 * Platforms other than Linux/Intel32
 * Redundancy greater than 1 (could require homogeneous redundancy).
 * Control over job parameters such as deadline, FLOPS, disk, and memory limits.
 * Code-signing of the program file