National Center for Computational Sciences

PBS sets multiple environment variables at submission time. The following PBS variables are commonly used in batch scripts:

• PBS_O_WORKDIR
  • PBS sets the environment variable PBS_O_WORKDIR to the directory where the batch job was submitted.
  • By default, a job starts in your home directory.
  • Include the following command in your script if you want it to start in the submission directory:

cd $PBS_O_WORKDIR

• PBS_JOBID
  • PBS sets the environment variable PBS_JOBID to the job’s ID.
  • A common use for PBS_JOBID is to append the job’s ID to the standard output and error file(s), such as the following:

#PBS -o scriptname.o$PBS_JOBID