ncl_convert2nc and tmp file problem

From: David B. Reusch <dreusch_at_nyahnyahspammersnyahnyah>
Date: Mon Mar 05 2012 - 14:07:02 MST

I seem to be seeing a problem with ncl_convert2nc where a
script-generated tmp file can't be opened.

The big picture:
I'm running ncl_convert "in parallel" on bluefire at NCAR by submitting
an LSF job with 32 calls of a script that contains a call to
ncl_convert2nc within it. Each call of my script runs in the
background, so there may be up to 32 ncl_convert2nc's running
simultaneously on the execution node (each doing a different input
file). At the same time, I may have up to 12 of these LSF jobs running
at once (I'm trying to process some 3800+ files, so I end up with lots
of jobs). It does not look like more than one LSF job is running on the
same node at the same time (in case that might be contributing to the
problem).

The problem:
I've been using this approach for less than a week, but out of 6 job
sessions (each 36-40 of my scripts, each with 32 scripts running
ncl_convert2nc...), I've seen at least one failure with a message like
"fatal:Could not open (/glade/scratch/dbr/ncl246414.ncl)". I then have
to figure out which file didn't get converted and try it again. The
rerun jobs, with just one or a few datasets being processed, have worked
fine.

This looks like maybe the tmp file name being used by ncl_convert2nc
isn't quite unique enough? That would explain the error if two
instances are getting the same name and the file gets deleted by one
while the other still needs it.

This isn't necessarily the prettiest way to do all this file processing,
but it's getting the job done for me so I'd like to get it working
100%. Is there anything I can do to try to debug the ncl_convert2nc
processing and confirm/deny my suspicions about the file name race
condition?

Thanks,
Dave

-- 
Associate Research Professor of Climatology
Dept of Earth and Environmental Science
MSEC 304; 801 Leroy Place
New Mexico Tech
Socorro, NM 87801
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Received on Mon Mar 5 11:07:11 2012

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