Using HPSS from Batch Jobs

Once you are set up for automatic authentication (see the sections on HSI, HTAR, and ftp/pftp) you can access HPSS from within batch scripts.

HSI will accept one-line commands on the HSI command line, e.g.:

hsi put filename

HSI, ftp, and pftp read from Standard Input (STDIN) and a list of commands can be placed in a text file (script) and redirected into the given utility, e.g.:

ftp < file_with_ftp_commands 

"Here" Documents

Another method uses what are called "Here Documents," in which the commands are embedded in the batch script rather than in a separate file external to the main script. The start of a "here-doc" block in a script is signalled by the presence of double angle brackets: << followed by a identifying tag. Lines up to the line containing the tag are treated as if they had been typed at the command prompt.

Here is a simple script which performs an ftp file transfer:

pftp -v -i archive <<_EOS
cd my_HPSS_directory
mget data*
quit
_EOS

This example will execute the FTP commands between the "_EOS" strings.