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Step 1: Write a suite definition

The suite definition defines describes how your tasks run and interact. task s are placed can be grouped together in families, which themselves may be placed in other families and/or suite s. All the entities (tasks, families and suites) are called node s and form a hierarchical tree.

There are two main methods for describing a suite definition to the ecflow_server.

• via a text suite definition

  The grammar of this text definition is described by Definition file Grammar. This grammar does not support conditional statements (such as if,while,for) nor the ability to define functions. However, the text definition file can be generated/created using any language which in itself supports conditional statements. The text definition is similar to that offered by SMS/CDP and as such may be an appropriate migration path for some.

• via a python suite definition

  This allows more checking and functionality and as such is our preferred method. See ecFlow Python Api.

Step 2: Write your scripts

ecf script will correspond with s are text files that correspond to the task in the suite definition. The script defines the main work that is to be carried out. The script includes child command s and special comments and manual sections that provides information for operatorsusers.

The child command s are a restricted set of ecflow_client commands that communicate with the ecflow_server. They inform the server when the job has started, completed, aborted or set some event.

STep 3: Start

an ecflow server

After ecflow_server is started, the suite definition, can then be loaded into it.

• The user then initiates scheduling in the ecflow_server
• scheduling will check dependencies in the suite definition every minute. If these dependencies are free, the server will submit the task. This process is called job creation. The running process corresponding to the task is referred to as a job.

The running jobs will communicate back to the server using child command s. These cause:

• status changes on the node s held in the server.
• update to attributes of a node (i.e like event s, meter s and label s)