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Writing Your Job Script

The job script is the shell code your job runs on the compute node. Paste it into the Script / Command field on the submission form — commands only, nothing else.

What PowerPortal adds automatically

The submit form shows two read-only lines above the editor:

#!/bin/bash
source ~/.bashrc

These are prepended to every job before submission. You do not need to type them. PowerPortal also sources the module system on the backend, so module load works inside your job without any extra setup.

Do not use #SBATCH directives in the script

All resource settings (partition, CPUs, memory, time limit, etc.) are set via the form fields — not via #SBATCH lines in the script. If you paste a script that contains #SBATCH directives, PowerPortal will strip them automatically and show a warning. Use the form fields instead.

A minimal example

module load python/3.11
python my_analysis.py --input data.csv --output results/

A more complete example

module load openmpi/openmpi-5.0.7-rocky9-slurm
cd $HOME/myproject
python preprocess.py

mpirun -n 16 ./simulate --config config.yaml

Working directory

Slurm sets the working directory to the value you enter in the Working Directory field. Use absolute paths or cd explicitly if your input files are in a different location.

Output and error files

By default, stdout and stderr are written to slurm-<jobid>.out in the working directory. Set custom paths in the Output file and Error file fields. Use %j for job ID and %a for array task ID in file names.

Tips

  • Add set -e at the top to stop the script immediately if any command fails.
  • Print key variables at the start (echo "Running on $(hostname)") to make debugging easier.
  • Test your script interactively with salloc before submitting a long job.
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