Selected Cylc Changes

Internal changes that do not directly affect users may not be listed here. For all changes see the closed milestones for each release.

Backward-incompatible changes in Cylc-8.x

Cylc 8.0aX (alpha) releases are not compatible with Cylc 7 or with previous 8.0aX releases, as the API is still under heavy development.

The Cylc server program and CLI codebase is now a Python 3 package that can be installed from PyPI with pip (see #2990), and has been renamed to cylc-flow. The name cylc is now used as a native Python package namespace to allow other projects to re-use it and extend Cylc with plug-ins.

The old PyGTK GUI is being replaced by a Web UI, with development managed in the cylc/cylc-ui repository (and see also cylc/cylc-uiserver).

The User Guide and other documentation has been removed from the Python package to the cylc/cylc-doc repository.

The commands cylc-profile-battery, cylc-test-battery, cylc-license have been removed, and cylc graph is only retained for text output used in tests (it will be re-implemented in the new web UI).

The xtrigger examples were moved to a separate cylc/cylc-xtriggers project (see #3123).

Jinja filters were moved from its Jinja2Filters folder to within the cylc namespace, under cylc.jinja.filters.

Cylc Review was also removed in this version.

Cylc 7 suites cannot be restarted (from previous state) with Cylc 8, but they can still be started from scratch (#3863).

Named checkpoints have been removed (#3906) due to being a seldom-used feature. Workflows can still be restarted from the last run, or reflow can be used to achieve the same result.

cylc-8.0rc1 (Upcoming)

First Release Candidate for Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#4581 - Job and task history is now loaded into the window about active tasks. Reflow future tasks now set to waiting.

#3931 - Convert Cylc to use the new "Universal Identifier".

#4506 - Cylc no longer creates a flow.cylc symlink to a suite.rc file. This only affects you if you have used a prior Cylc 8 pre-release.

#4547 - The max scan depth is now configurable in global.cylc[install]max depth, and cylc install will fail if the workflow ID would exceed this depth.

#4534 - Permit jobs to be run on platforms with no $HOME directory.

#4536 - cylc extract-resources renamed cylc get-resources and small changes made:

Cylc wrapper script made available.
Source argument now before target.
Metadata as well as names from --list option.
Files extracted to to target/source_name rather than target/full/source/path.

#4548 - Changed the workflow version control info log file format from modified-INI to JSON.

#4521 - The workflow config logs (that get written in log/flow-config/ on start/restart/reload) are now sparse, i.e. they will no longer be fleshed-out with defaults.

#4558 - Added a metadata section to the platform and platform group configurations.

#4561 - Moved the tutoral workflow back into Cylc from Cylc Docs to make it a packaged resource for anyone with a Cylc installation.

#4576 - Added --platform-names and --platforms options to cylc config for easy access to information on configured platforms.

Fixes

#4640 - Fix manual triggering of runahead-limited parentless tasks.

#4566 - Fix cylc scan invocation for remote scheduler host on a shared filesystem.

#4511 - Fix clock xtriggers for large inexact offsets (year, months); restore time check for old-style (task-property) clock triggers.

#4568 - Disable all CLI colour output if not to a terminal.

#4553 - Add job submit time to the datastore.

#4526 - Prevent runN and run<number> being allowed as installation target names.

#4526, #4549 - Prevent installing workflows with directory names that include reserved filenames such as log, work, runN, run<number> etc.

#4442 - Prevent installation of workflows inside other installed workflows.

#4540 - Handle the / character in job names, for PBS 19.2.1+.

#4570 - Fix incorrect fallback to localhost if [runtime][<task>][remote]host is unreachable.

#4543 - cylc play --stopcp=reload now takes its value from [scheduling]stop after cycle point instead of using the final cycle point.

cylc-8.0b3 (Released 2021-11-10)

Fourth beta release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#4355 - The --workflow-owner command line option has been removed.

#4367 - Make the central wrapper work with arbitrary virtual environment names.

#4343 - Implement required and optional outputs with new graph notation.

#4324 - Re-implement a basic form of the Cylc 7 cylc graph command for static graph visualisation.

#4335 - Have validation catch erroneous use of both expr => bar and expr => !bar in the same graph.

#4285 - Cylc now automatically infers the latest numbered run of the workflow for most commands (e.g. you can run cylc pause foo instead of having to type out foo/run3).

#4346 - Use natural sort order for the cylc scan --sort option.

#4313 - Change ignore to reload for the cycle point cli options (e.g. --fcp=reload), as this more accurately reflects what it's doing. Also improve validation of these cli options.

#4389 - the flow.cylc.processed (previously called suite.rc.processed) is now stored in log/flow-config/.

#4329 - Enable selection of platform from platform group at task job initialization.

#4430 - Log files renamed:

log/flow.cylc.processed ⇒ log/flow-processed.cylc
log/<datetimes>-run.cylc ⇒ log/<datetimes>-start.cylc

#4423 - Only changes to the workflow directory are recorded by log/version.

#4404 - The Cylc Graph section now accepts & and | as valid line breaks in the same way as =>.

#4455 - CYLC_WORKFLOW_NAME renamed to CYLC_WORKFLOW_ID. CYLC_WORKFLOW_NAME re-added as CYLC_WORKFLOW_ID shorn of any trailing runX.

#4471 - Users now get a different error for a config item that isn't valid, to one that isn't set.

#4457 - Cylc 8 cycle point time zone now defaults to UTC, except in Cylc 7 compatibility mode.

Fixes

#4493 - handle late job submission message properly.

#4443 - fix for slow polling generating an incorrect submit-failed result.

#4436 - If the workflow is paused, hold tasks just before job prep. Distinguish between succeeded and expired state icons in cylc tui. Spawn parentless tasks out the runahead limit immediately.

#4421 - Remove use of the ps system call (fixes a bug reported with Alpine Linux).

#4426 - Fix bug when a conditional expression in the graph contains one task name that is a substring of another.

#4399 - Ensure that implicit task names are validated (as opposed to explicit ones).

#4341 - Remove obsolete Cylc 7 [scheduling]spawn to max active cycle points config.

#4319 - Update cylc reinstall to skip cylc dirs work and share

#4289 - Make cylc clean safer by preventing cleaning of dirs that contain more than one workflow run dir (use --force to override this safeguard).

#4362 - When using cylc clean on a sequential run directory, remove the runN symlink if it points to the removed directory.

#4395 - Fix cylc stop --kill which was not actually killing task jobs.

#4338 - Cylc install -C option now works with relative paths.

#4440 - Fix an error that could occur during remote clean and other cylc clean improvements.

#4481 - Removed non-functional ping command from GUI.

#4445 - Cylc will prevent you using the same name for a platform and a platform group. Which one it should pick is ambiguous, and is a setup error.

#4465 - Fix a ValueError that could occasionally occur during remote tidy on workflow shutdown.

cylc-8.0b2 (Released 2021-07-28)

Third beta release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#4286 - Add an option for displaying source workflows in cylc scan.

#4300 - Integer flow labels with flow metadata, and improved task logging.

#4291 - Remove obsolete cylc edit and cylc search commands.

#4284 - Make --color=never work with cylc <command> --help.

#4259 - Ignore pre-initial dependencies with cylc play --start-task

#4103 - Expose runahead limiting to UIs; restore correct force-triggering of queued tasks for Cylc 8.

#4250 - Symlink dirs localhost symlinks are now overridable with cli option --symlink-dirs.

#4218 - Add ability to start a new run from specified tasks instead of a cycle point.

#4214 - Unify -v --verbose, -q --quiet and --debug options.

#4174 - Terminology: replace "suite" with "workflow".

#4177 - Remove obsolete configuration items from global.cylc[platforms][<platform name>]: run directory, work directory and suite definition directory. This functionality is now provided by [symlink dirs].

#4142 - Record source directory version control information on installation of a workflow.

#4238 - Future tasks can now be held in advance using cylc hold (previously it was only active tasks that could be held).

#4237 - cylc clean can now remove specific sub-directories instead of the whole run directory, using the --rm option. There are also the options --local-only and --remote-only for choosing to only clean on the local filesystem or remote install targets respectively.

Fixes

#4296 - Patches DNS issues with newer versions of Mac OS.

#4273 - Remove obsolete Cylc 7 visualization config section.

#4272 - Workflow visualisation data (data-store) now constrained by final cycle point.

#4248 - Fix parameter expansion in inherited task environments.

#4227 - Better error messages when initial cycle point is not valid for the cycling type.

#4228 - Interacting with a workflow on the cli using runN is now supported.

#4193 - Standard cylc install now correctly installs from directories with a . in the name. Symlink dirs now correctly expands environment variables on the remote. Fixes minor cosmetic bugs.

#4199 - cylc validate and cylc run now check task/family names in the [runtime] section for validity.

#4180 - Fix bug where installing a workflow that uses the deprecated suite.rc filename would symlink flow.cylc to the suite.rc in the source dir instead of the run dir. Also fixes a couple of other, small bugs.

#4222 - Fix bug where a workflow's public database file was not closed properly.

cylc-8.0b1 (Released 2021-04-21)

Second beta release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#4154 - Deprecate CYLC_SUITE_DEF_PATH with CYLC_SUITE_RUN_DIR (note the deprecated variable is still present in the job environment).

#4164 - Replace the job "host" field with "platform" in the GraphQL schema.

Fixes

#4169 - Fix a host ⇒ platform upgrade bug where host names were being popped from task configs causing subsequent tasks to run on localhost.

#4173 - Fix the state totals shown in both the UI and TUI, including incorrect counts during workflow run and post pause.

#4168 - Fix bug where any errors during workflow shutdown were not logged.

#4161 - Fix bug in in cylc install where a workflow would be installed with the wrong name.

#4188 - Fix incorrect usage examples for cylc install.

cylc-8.0b0 (Released 2021-03-29)

First beta release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

The filenames suite.rc and global.rc are now deprecated in favour of flow.cylc and global.cylc respectively (#3755). For backward compatibility, the cylc run command will automatically symlink an existing suite.rc file to flow.cylc.

Obsolete queued task state replaced by waiting, with a queued flag; queueing logic centralized. (#4088).

cylc register has been replaced by cylc install (#4000).

Added a new command: cylc clean, for removing stopped workflows on the local and any remote filesystems (#3961, #4017).

cylc run and cylc restart have been replaced by cylc play, simplifying how workflows are restarted (#4040).

cylc pause and cylc play are now used to pause and resume workflows, respectively. cylc hold and cylc release now only hold and release tasks, not the whole workflow. (#4076)

"Implicit"/"naked" tasks (tasks that do not have an explicit definition in flow.cylc[runtime]) are now disallowed by default (#4109). You can allow them by setting flow.cylc[scheduler]allow implicit tasks to True.

Enhancements

#4119 - Reimplement ssh task communications.

#4115 - Raise an error when invalid sort keys are provided clients.

#4105 - Replace the cylc executable global config setting with cylc path, for consistency with cylc invocation in job scripts.

#4014 - Rename "ready" task state to "preparing".

#4000 - cylc install command added. Install workflows into cylc run directory from source directories configured in global.cylc (see #4132), or from arbitrary locations.

#4071 - cylc reinstall command added.

#3992 - Rename batch system to job runner.

#3791 - Support Slurm heterogeneous jobs with a special directive prefix.

#3974 - Template variables, both in set files and provided via the -s/--set command line options are now parsed using ast.literal_eval. This permits non-string data types, strings must now be quoted.

#3811 - Move from cycle based to n distance dependency graph window node generation and pruning of the data-store (API/visual backing data). Ability to modify distance of live workflow via API, with default of n=1.

#3899 - CLI changes

Commands no longer re-invoke (so you get cylc run not cylc-run).
Improve CLI descriptions and help.
Internal-only commands now hidden from help.
New entry point for defining Cylc sub-commands.
remove cylc check-software (use standard tools like pipdeptree)
remove cylc nudge (no longer needed)

#3884 - Directories run, log, share, share/cycle, work now have the option to be redirected to configured directories by symlink.

#3856 - fail the GraphQL query with a helpful message if the variables defined do not match the expected values.

#3853 - Update protobuf and pyzmq.

#3857 - removed the obsolete "runahead" task state (not used since spawn-on-demand implementation).

#3816 - change cylc spawn command name to cylc set-outputs to better reflect its role in Cylc 8.

#3796 - Remote installation is now on a per install target rather than a per platform basis. app/, bin/, etc/, lib/ directories are now installed on the target, configurable in flow.cylc.

#3724 - Re-implemented the cylc scan command line interface and added a Python API for accessing workflow scanning functionality.

#3515 - spawn-on-demand: a more efficient way of the evolving the workflow via the graph.

#3692 - Use the $EDITOR and $GEDITOR environment variables to determine the default editor to use.

#3574 - use the bash installation defined in $path rather than hardcoding to /bin/bash.

#3774 - Removed support for interactive prompt.

#3798 - Deprecated the [runtime][X][parameter environment templates] section and instead allow templates in [runtime][X][environment].

#3802 - New global config hierarchy and ability to set site config directory.

#3848 - Deprecated [scheduling]max active cycle points in favour of [scheduling]runahead limit.

#3883 - Added a new workflow config option [scheduling]stop after cycle point.

#3913 - Added the ability to use plugins to parse suite templating variables and additional files to install. Only one such plugin exists at the time of writing, designed to parse rose-suite.conf files in repository "cylc-rose".

#3955 - Global config options to control the job submission environment.

#4020 - cylc validate will no longer check for a cyclic/circular graph if there are more than 100 tasks, unless the option --check-circular is used. This is to improve performance.

#3913 - Add ability to use pre-install entry point from cylc-rose plugin to provide environment and template variables for a workflow.

#4023 - Add ability to use post-install entry point from cylc-rose to use Rose style CLI settings of configurations in Cylc install. If Cylc-rose is installed three new CLI options will be available:

--opt_conf_keys="foo, bar"
--defines="[env]FOO=BAR"
--suite-defines="FOO=BAR"

#4101 - Add the ability to ignore (clear) rose install options from an earlier install: cylc reinstall --clear-rose-install-options

#4094 - Prevent Cylc from rsyncing the following files on install and reinstall:

rose-suite.conf
opt/rose-suite-cylc-install.conf These files should be handled by the cylc-rose plugin if you require them.

#4126 - Make obselete the config flow.cylc:[runtime][__TASK__][remote]suite definition directory.

#4098 - Provide a dictionary called CYLC_TEMPLATE_VARS into the templating environment.

#4099 - Unify cylc get-suite-config and cylc get-site-config commands as cylc config. Some options have been removed.

Fixes

#3984 - Only write task event timers to the database when they have changed (reverts behaviour change in 7.8.6). This corrects last updated db entries and reduces filesystem load.

#3917 - Fix a bug that caused one of the hostname resolution tests to fail in certain environments.

#3879 - Removed Google Groups e-mail from pip packaging metadata. Users browsing PYPI will have to visit our website to find out how to reach us (we are using Discourse and it does not offer an e-mail address).

#3859 - Fixes the query of broadcast states to retrieve only the data for the requested ID, instead of returning all the broadcast states in the database.

#3815 - Fixes a minor bug in the auto-restart functionality which caused suites to wait for local jobs running on any host to complete before restarting.

#3732 - XTrigger labels are now validated to ensure that runtime errors can not occur when exporting environment variables.

#3632 - Fix a bug that was causing UTC mode specified in global config to be pretty much ignored.

#3614 - Ensure the suite always restarts using the same time zone as the last cylc run.

#3788, #3820 - Task messages and task outputs/message triggers are now validated.

#3614 - Fix error when running cylc ping --verbose $SUITE.

#3852 - Prevents registering a workflow in a sub-directory of a run directory (as cylc scan would not be able to find it).

#3452 - Fix param graph issue when mixing offset and conditional (e.g. foo & baz => foo).

#3982 - Fix bug preventing workflow from shutting down properly on a keyboard interrupt (Ctrl+C) in Python 3.8+.

#4011 - Fix bug where including a trailing slash in the suite/workflow name would cause cylc stop (and possibly other commands) to silently fail.

#4046 - Fix bug where a workflow database could still be active for a short time after the workflow stops.

cylc-8.0a2 (2020-07-03)

Third alpha release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

The commands cylc submit and cylc jobscript have been removed.

Enhancements

#3389 - Publisher/Subscriber network components added (0MQ PUB/SUB pattern). Used to publish fine-grained data-store updates for the purposes of UI Server data sync, this change also includes CLI utility: cylc subscribe.

#3402 - removed automatic task job status message retries (problems that prevent message transmission are almost never transient, and in practice job polling is the only way to recover).

#3463 - cylc tui: A new terminal user interface to replace the old cylc monitor. An interactive collapsible tree to match the new web interface.

#3559 - Cylc configuration files are now auto-documented from their definitions.

#3617 - For integer cycling mode there is now a default initial cycle point of 1.

#3423 - automatic task retries re-implemented using xtriggers. Retrying tasks will now be in the "waiting" state with a wall_clock xtrigger set for the retry time.

Fixes

#3618 - Clear queue configuration warnings for referencing undefined or unused tasks.

#3596 - Fix a bug that could prevent housekeeping of the task_action_timers DB table and cause many warnings at restart.

#3602 - Fix a bug that prevented cycle point format conversion by the cylc suite-state command and the suite_state xtrigger function, if the target suite used the default format but downstream command or suite did not.

#3541 - Don't warn that a task was already added to an internal queue, if the queue is the same.

#3409 - prevent cylc-run from creating directories when executed for suites that do not exist.

#3433 - fix server abort at shutdown during remote run dir tidy (introduced during Cylc 8 development).

#3493 - Update jinja2 and pyzmq, as well as some test/dev dependencies. Fixes Jinja2 error where validation shows incorrect context.

#3531 - Fix job submission to SLURM when task name has a percent % character.

#3543 - fixed pipe polling issue observed on darwin (BSD) which could cause Cylc to hang.

cylc-8.0a1 (2019-09-18)

Second alpha release of Cylc 8.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#3377 - removed support for sourcing job-init-env.sh in task job scripts. Use bash login scripts instead.

#3302 - improve CLI task-globbing help.

#2935 - support alternate run directories, particularly for sub-suites.

#3096 - add colour to the Cylc CLI.

#2963 - make suite context available before config parsing.

#3274 - disallow the use of special characters in suite names.

#3001 - simplify cylc version, dropping VERSION file and git info.

#3007 - add tests for quoting of tilde expressions in environment section.

#3006 - remove cylc.profiling package and cylc-profile-battery.

#2998 - Bandit security recommendations for Cylc 8 target.

#3024 - remove remaining Cylc Review files.

#3022 - removed LaTeX support from check-software.

#3029 - remove dev-suites from tests.

#3036 - re-enable EmPy templating.

#3044 - remove GTK labels from task states.

#3055 - simplify regexes.

#2995 - elegantly handle known errors.

#3069 - make Python 3.7 the min version for Cylc.

#3068 - add shellcheck to lint shell script files.

#3088 - remove obsolete ksh support.

#3091 - remove useless license commands.

#3095 - run prove with --timer.

#3093 - job.sh: run as bash only.

#3101 - add kill all to functional tests.

#3123 - remove Kafka xtrigger example.

#2990 - make cylc a module.

#3131 - renamed cylc to cylc-flow, and simplified project summary.

#3140 - cylc-flow rename in README badges, setup.py, and a few more places.

#3138 - add suite aborted event.

#3132 - move parsec to cylc.parsec.

#3113 - document select_autoescape security ignore.

#3083 - extend ZMQClient and update docstrings.

#3155 - remove changed variable in async_map.

#3135 - incorporate jinja2filters into cylc.flow.jinja.filters, and use native namespaces.

#3134 - update how CYLC_DIR is used in Cylc.

#3165 - added GitHub Issue and Pull Request templates.

#3272, #3191 - uniform configuration section level for defining non-cycling and cycling graphs. E.g.:

# Deprecated Syntax
[scheduling]
    initial cycle point = next(T00)
    [[dependencies]]
        [[[P1D]]]
            graph = task1 => task2

Can now be written as:

# New Syntax
[scheduling]
    initial cycle point = next(T00)
    [[graph]]
        P1D = task1 => task2

#3249 - export the environment variable ISODATETIMEREF (reference time for the isodatetime command from metomi-isodatetime) in task jobs to have the same value as CYLC_TASK_CYCLE_POINT.

#3286 - Removed the cylc check-triggering command. Changed the suite.rc schema:

Removed [cylc]log resolved dependencies
Removed [cylc][[reference test]]* except expected task failures.
Moved [cylc]abort if any task fails to [cylc][[events]]abort if any task fails so it lives with the other abort if/on ... settings.

#3351 - sped up suite validation (which also affects responsiveness of suite controllers during suite startup, restarts, and reloads). Impact of the speedup is most noticeable when dealing with suite configurations that contain tasks with many task outputs.

#3358 - on submitting jobs to SLURM or LSF, the job names will now follow the pattern task.cycle.suite (instead of suite.task.cycle), for consistency with jobs on PBS.

#3356 - default job name length maximum for PBS is now 236 characters (i.e. assuming PBS 13 or newer). If you are still using PBS 12 or older, you should add a site configuration to restrict it to 15 characters.

Fixes

#3308 - fix a long-standing bug causing suites to stall some time after reloading a suite definition that removed tasks from the graph.

#3287 - fix xtrigger cycle-sequence specificity.

#3258 - leave '%'-escaped string templates alone in xtrigger arguments.

#3010 - fixes except KeyError in task_job_mgr.

#3031 - convert range to list so that we can use reduce.

#3040 - add check for zero to xrandom.

#3018 - subprocpool: use SpooledTemporaryFile instead of TemporaryFile.

#3032 - fix syntax for array access in cylc check-software.

#3035 - fix scheduler#shutdown when reference-log option is used.

#3056 - fix suite freeze on non-existent xtrigger.

#3060 - fix bug when an AttributeError is raised, and add unit tests for xtrigger.

#3015 - use global client zmq context.

#3092 - fix recent shellcheck-inspired quoting errors.

#3085 - fix cylc-search for directories without suite.rc.

#3105 - fix work location assumption in a test.

#3112 - prepend custom Jinja2 paths.

#3130 - remove Python 2 compatibility in setup.py for wheel.

#3137 - fix job kill hold-retry logic.

#3077 - support single port configuration for zmq.

#3153 - fix bug in async_map.

#3164 - fix pclient undefined error.

#3173 - NameError when invalid cylc command is used (instead of a ValueError).

#3003 - Fix inheritance with quotes using shlex.

#3184 - Fix restart correctness when the suite has a hold point, stop point, a stop task, a stop clock time and/or an auto stop option. These settings are now stored in the suite run SQLite file and are retrieved on suite restart. In addition, the settings are removed when they are consumed, e.g. if the suite stopped previously on reaching the stop point, the stop point would be consumed, so that on restart the suite would not stop again immediately.

The cylc run command can now accept --initial-cycle-point=CYCLE-POINT (--icp=CYCLE-POINT) and --start-cycle-point=CYCLE-POINT options. This change should allow the command to have a more uniform interface with commands such as cylc validate, and with the final/stop cycle point options).

After this change:

cylc run SUITE POINT is equivalent to cylc run --icp=POINT SUITE.
cylc run -w SUITE POINT is equivalent to cylc run -w --start-point=POINT SUITE.

The cylc run and cylc restart commands can now accept the --final-cycle-point=POINT and --stop-cycle-point=POINT options. The --until=POINT option is now an alias for --final-cycle-point=POINT option.

The cylc run and cylc restart commands can now accept the new --auto-shutdown option. This option overrides the equivalent suite configuration to force auto shutdown to be enabled. Previously, it is only possible to disable auto shutdown on the command line.

#3236 - Fix submit number increment logic on insert of family with tasks that were previously submitted.

#3276 - Fix log & DB recording of broadcasts from xtriggers so they register all settings, not just one.

#3325 - Fix task event handler start_time being unavailable in started events.

Documentation

#3181 - moved documentation to the new cylc/cylc-doc repository.

#3025 - fix dev-suites reference in docs (now in examples).

#3004 - document suite runtime interface.

#3066 - minor fix to docs about exit-script.

#3108 - anatomy of a job script.

#3129 - added SECURITY.md.

#3151 - fix documentation heading levels.

#3158 - fix \ in doco when wrapped in ...

Security issues

None. Note that we added a SECURITY.md file in this release (see #3129) with instructions for reporting security issues, as well as a listing with current incident reports.

cylc-8.0a0 (2019-03-12)

First alpha release of Cylc 8. Also first release of Cylc uploaded to PYPI: https://pypi.org/project/cylc-flow/.

(See note on cylc-8 backward-incompatible changes, above)

Enhancements

#2936 - remove obsolete commands, modules, configuration, and documentation.

#2966 - port Cylc to Python 3.

Fixes

None.

Documentation

#2939 - use higher contrast link colours for the generated documentation.

#2954 - fix jinja2 variable setting example suites.

#2951 - amend makefile command and address warning.

#2971 - general single- and multi-page User Guides.

Security issues

None.

cylc-7.8.1 (2019-01-25)

Maintenance and minor enhancement release, plus new-format User Guide.

Selected user-facing changes:

Enhancements

#2910 - replace LaTeX-generated HTML and PDF User Guide with Sphinx-generated HTML.

#2815 - allow initial cycle point relative to current time.

#2902 - expose suite UUID to event handlers.

Fixes

#2932 - fix possible blocking pipe due to chatty job submission (and other subprocess) commands.

#2921 - better suite validation warning for out-of-bounds cycling sequences.

#2924 - fix and expand 7.8.0 cylc review documentation in the User Guide.

cylc-7.8.0 (2018-11-27)

Minor release with over 120 issues closed. Significant issues include:

Enhancements

#2693 - auto host selection; and #2809 - auto migration. cylc run and cylc restart can now select the best host (based on several metrics) on which to launch suite server programs. And running suites can be told (via global config) to self-migrate to another available host, e.g. for server maintenance. (The pool of suite hosts should see a shared filesystem).

#2614 and #2821 - web-based job log viewer - cylc review (migration of "Rose Bush" from the Rose project).

#2339 - general external triggering: tasks can trigger off of arbitrary user-defined Python functions called periodically by the suite server program, with built-in functions for suite-state (inter-suite) triggering and clock triggering (these deprecate the existing suite-state polling tasks and clock-triggered tasks).

#2734 - EmPy templating support, as an alternative to Jinja2. "EmPy allows embedding plain Python code within templates and doesn't enforce any particular templating philosophy."

#2733 - enhanced Jinja2 support:

import pure Python modules in the same way as template modules
Jinja2Tests and Jinja2Globals, for custom "is" tests and global variables (c.f. our existing Jinja2Filters for custom filters).

#2682 - new built-in Jinja2 filter to convert ISO8601 date-time durations to decimal seconds or hours.

#2842 - cylc gui and cylc graph - better integration with system desktop themes, including dark themes; and other minor graph visualization improvements.

#2807 - task output events (event handlers can now be triggered when a task reports a registered output message).

#2868 - a new task runtime config item exit-script, for scripting to be executed at the last moment after successful job completion. (Companion of err-script).

#2781 and #2854 - improved suite server program logging (including: log/suite/err is no longer used).

#2849 - record local background jobs by host name rather than "localhost".

#2877 - new batch system handler pbs_multi_cluster, supports PBS 13 clients fronting heterogeneous clusters with different home directories from the cylc remote. (Not needed for PBS 14+.) (For Rose suites this requires a corresponding change to rose suite-run: metomi/rose#2252.)

#2812 - cylc gscan: show application menu bar by default.

#2768 - cylc gscan: display Cylc version of running suites.

#2786 - make task try number available to event handlers (as for task job submit number).

#2771 - bash command completion: complete suite names for commands that take a suite name argument (see etc/cylc-bash-completion).

#2769 - cylc check-software now takes arguments to check for availability of specific modules.

#2763 - cylc monitor - clean exit on Ctrl-C.

#2704 - paginated cylc help output.

#2660 - new gcylc.rc config item to show grouped cyclepoint subgraphs by default.

#2766 - (development) formal test coverage reporting and integration with GitHub.

#2751 - (development) new contributor guidelines - see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Fixes

#2876 - avoid subprocess hang when executing commands that generate a lot of stdout (such as when submitting hundreds of jobs at once).

#2828 - suite.rc - fail validation on detecting trailing whitespace after a line continuation character.

#2807 - handle multiple events of the same type with the same message (e.g. warnings) from the same task job.

#2803 - reset job submit number correctly after aborting (backing out of) a trigger edit-run.

#2727 - cylc gui: fix dropdown list of log numbers for re-inserted tasks or after suite restart.

#2759 and #2816 - suite registration tweaks and fixes.

#2861 - improved emacs syntax highlighting.

#2892 - print the bad host name along with "Name or service not known" exceptions.

cylc-7.7.2 (2018-07-26)

Maintenance release.

(Some minor changes not relevant to normal users may be omitted.)

Fixes and minor enhancements

#2719 - improved job poll logging

#2724 - fix a rare error associated with ithe use of final cycle point in multiple recurrence expressions

#2723 - fix remote commands (executed by remote task jobs) running in UTC mode when the suite is not running in UTC mode

#2726 - fix crash in suites with no final cycle point that are reloaded following a restart

#2716 - ensure that job polling interval lists are not overridden

#2714 - block irrelevant InsecureRequestWarnings from urllib3 on anonymous suite server access by cylc scan and cylc ping

#2715 - fix a cross-version incompatibility, if a cylc-7.6.x task job messages a cylc-7.7.1 suite

#2710 - fix a GUI error on right-clicking a "scissor node" in the graph view

cylc-7.7.1 (2018-06-27)

Minor maintenance release.

Fixes

(Several minor fixes have been omitted from this list.)

#2678 - fix loading of job poll timers on restart (bug introduced at last release)

#2683 - fix potential error in cylc check-software (which checks for installed software dependencies)

#2691 PBS support - handle job poll result correctly if qstat temporarily fails to connect to the server

#2703 - fix an error (inconsequential) that appears in the suite log at restart: ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

#2692 - fix X11 forwarding for GUI edit job log, with cylc gui --host=HOST

#2690 - invoking Cylc command help should not require $DISPLAY to be set

#2677 - use random serial numbers in the self-signed SSL certificates generated by suite server programs

#2688 #2705 - block several security warnings emitted by urllib3 under old Python versions (2.6). We are aware of the security issues, but these warnings serve no purpose on affected platforms except to confuse and annoy users.

#2676 - use #!/usr/bin/env python2 (i.e. Python-2 specific) in Cylc source files, to avoid issues with default Python 3 installations (note Cylc is going to Python 3 next year)

#2679 - change bold font back to normal in the GUI log viewer

cylc-7.7.0 (2018-05-12)

Enhancements

#2661 -

new User Guide section on Remote Job Management
tidy the installation documentation
standardise directory structures (all docs updated accordingly):
- deprecated <cylc-dir>conf/ file locations:
  - site config file <cylc-dir>etc/global.rc
  - gcylc config example <cylc-dir>/etc/gcylc.rc.eg
  - site job environment init <cylc-dir/etc/job-init-env.sh
  - editor syntax files in <cylc-dir>etc/syntax/
  - bash completion script <cylc-dir>/etc/cylc-bash-completion
- user global.rc can now go in ~/.cylc/<cylc-version>/ or ~/.cylc/ (the version-specific location avoid forward compatibility problems - see notes in <cylc-dir>/etc/global.rc.eg).
- moved central cylc wrapper template to usr/bin/cylc
- various developer scripts and notes moved from <cylc-dir>/dev/ to <cylc-dir>/etc/dev-bin, dev-notes, dev-suites.
- the ancient site.rc and user.rc global config filename variants are now obsolete.

#2659 - commands in the process pool (event handlers, and job submit, poll and kill commands) will now be killed on a configurable timeout if they hang, rather than tying up a member of the finite process pool: global.rc default: process pool timeout = PT10M

#2582 - improve client/server interface, including: cylc message can send multiple messages at once, with different severities; server ignores messages from superseded job submits; running jobs detect that the suite has been cold-started under them and will not attempt to connect; ssh-based indirect client-server communication now works automatically for all clients, not just messaging.

#2582, #2624, and earlier changes: all job host actions are now done by remote cylc subcommands that are compatible with ssh whitelisting.

#2590 - replaced the fixed process pool with direct management of individual sub-processes (for external commands executed by the server program).

#2561 - pass resolved triggering dependencies to $CYLC_TASK_DEPENDENCIES in job environments.

#2639 - date-time cycling: document availability of 365-day (never a leap year) and 366-day (always a leap year) calendars.

#2597 - emit a "late" event if a task has not triggered by a user-defined real-time offset relative to cycle point.

#2648 - improve version reporting. Note than non-standard lowercase cylc -v is now gone; use cylc -V or cylc --version, with optional --long format to print as well as version.

#2620 - re-document the long-dated [special tasks]sequential and recommend using explicit dependencies in the graph instead.

#2584 - internal queues now release task jobs on a FIFO (First In, First Out) basis, rather than randomly.

#2538 - remove leading whitespace from multi-line script items in task definitions, for cleaner job scripts.

#2503, #2624 - cylc cat-log: all remote host actions now done by a cylc sub-command; and simpler command options (see cylc cat-log --help; warning: the old command options are not supported)

Fixes

#2666 - cylc scan: make default behavior consistent with cylc gscan: get suite information from ~/cylc-run/ only for the current user; and no partial matches with -n/--name=PATTERN (i.e. --name=bar will only match the suite bar, not foobar or barbaz).

#2593 - fix polling after job execution timeout (configured pre-poll delays were being ignored).

#2656 - fix suicide triggers with multiple prerequisites in the same graph line.

#2638 - fix duplicate "failed" task events after cylc stop --kill.

#2653 - tidy and correct the main cylc help documentation.

#2644, #2646 - fix some graph parsing edge cases.

#2649 - respect suite UTC mode when recording job submit time (database and GUI tree view).

#2631 - fix "failed" task event after bad host select.

#2626 - cylc gui: fix error when a task job completes just before "view task prerequisites" (menu) is actioned.

#2600 - correct task prerequisite manipulation on state changes.

#2596 - fix reference to parameter values containing + or - characters.

#2592 - permit syntax errors in edit runs, so that the job file still gets written.

#2579 - cylc gscan: fix a re-spawning error dialog.

#2674 - cylc cat-log: avoid leaving orphaned tail-follow processes on job hosts.

cylc-7.6.1 (2018-03-28)

A collection of bug fixes made since cylc-7.6.0.

Fixes

#2571 - cylc gui: fix tailing of remote job logs from the GUI (in 7.6.0 this failed with a Python traceback).

#2596 - allow parameter values that contain +/- characters

#2574 - cylc gscan HOST: show just the owner's suites by default (at 7.6.0 this showed all suites on HOST).

#2592 - cylc trigger --edit: disable job script syntax checking in edit runs (this prevented a new job script from being written for editing).

#2579 - cylc gscan: fix respawning error dialog on giving a bad regular expression (on the command line) to match owner or suite name.

#2606 - jobs with batch system info missing in a corrupted status file (thus not pollable) will now poll as failed rather appear stuck as running.

#2603 - cylc gui (graph view): fix possible error on inserting a nested family.

#2602 - cylc gui (tree view): fix negative progress bar value (reportedly possible after manual task state manipulations).

#2586 - cylc gui (tree view): fix possible division-by-zero error in elapsed time computation.

#2588 - cylc trigger --edit: fix edit runs for tasks with dynamic remote host selection.

#2585 - fix recovery from a failed host select command.

cylc-7.6.0 (2018-02-07)

Enhancements

#2373 - refactored suite server code (for efficiency, maintainability, etc.)

#2396 - improved job polling and task state reset:

allow polling of finished tasks - to confirm they really succeeded or failed
poll to confirm a task message that implies a state reversal - it could just be a delayed message
allow reset to submitted or running states
removed the "enable resurrection" setting - any task can now return from the dead

#2410 - new CUSTOM severity task messages that can trigger a custom event handler

#2420 - cylc monitor now reconnects automatically if its target suite gets restarted on a different port

#2430 - cylc gscan, cylc gui - significant reduction in impact on suite server programs

#2433 - "group" (used to group suites in cylc gscan) is now defined under the suite "[[meta]]" section

#2424 - task job scripts now run in bash -l (login shell) instead of explicitly sourcing your .profile file. WARNING: if you have a .bash_profile and were using .profile as well just for Cylc, the latter file will now be ignored because bash gives precedence to the former. If so, just move your Cylc settings into .bash_profile or consult the Cylc User Guide for other ways to configure the task job environment.

#2441 - #2458 - allow more event handler arguments:

batch system name and job ID
submit time, start time, finish time
user@host

#2455 - network client improvements:

on a failed connection, clients detect if the suite has stopped according to the contact file, then report it stopped and remove the contact file
on attempt run an already-running suite (contact file exists) print more information on how old the suite is and how to shut it down
clients running in plain HTTP protocol will no longer attempt to fetch a non-existent SSL certificate
if a contact file is loaded, always use the values in it to avoid conflicting host strings in SSL certificate file, etc.

#2468 - initialize task remotes asynchronously via the multiprocessing pool, to avoid holding up suite start-up unnecessarily. WARNING this introduces new remote commands: cylc remote-init and cylc remote-tidy that will affect sites using ssh whitelisting

#2449 - #2469 - #2480 - #2501 - #2547 - #2552 - #2564 - User Guide:

rewrote the section on restart from state checkpoints
rewrote the section on suite run databases
new section on suite contact files
new section on disaster recovery
new section on remote monitoring and control
improved terminology:
- "suite server program" instead of "suite daemon" (it's not always a daemon)
- "severity" instead of "priority" for logging and task messaging
- "task remote" to encompass the concept of "the account where a task job runs" whether under the same user account or not, on another host or not
documented requirements for remote access to suite-parsing and file-retrieval commands, including via the GUI; and clarified the same for suite client commands
documented a known bug in use of parameters in complex graph syntax (and an easy workaround) - see the task parameters section
documented kill-to-hold behavior of tasks with retries configured

#2475 - suite server program: separate debug mode from daemonization

#2485 - export task job environment variables on definition and before assignment, to ensure they are available to subshells immediately - even in expressions inside subsequent variable definitions

#2489 - #2557 - cylc gscan -

configurable menubar visibility at start-up
grouped suites now retain their grouped status once stopped

#2515 - #2529 - #2517 - #2560 - cylc gui

put prompt dialogs above all windows
load new-suite log files after switching to another suite via the File menu
graph view: reinstate the right-click menu for ghost nodes (lost at cylc-7.5.0)
job log files:
- fix and document the "extra log files" setting
- add "view in editor" support for extra log files
- add text-editor functionality to cylc jobscript
- add "preview jobscript" functionality to the GUI

#2527 - #2431 - #2435 - #2445 - #2491 - #2484 - #2556 - improved parameter support:

allow "%d" integer format in parameter templates
allow out of range parameter on graph RHS
allow positive offset for parameter index on graph
allow negative integer parameters
allow custom templating of parameter environment variables, in addition to the built-in CYLC_TASK_PARAM\_<param-name>
allow bare parameter values as task names
allow explicit parameter values in "inherit" items under "[runtime]"
fix parameters inside (as opposed to beginning or end) of family names
fixed inheritance from multiple parameterized namespaces at once

#2553 - upgraded the bundled Jinja2 version to 2.10. This fixes the block scope problem introduced in the previous version

#2558 - new options to print out JSON format from cylc show and cylc scan

Fixes

#2381 - validation: fail bad event handler argument templates

#2416 - validation: print the problem namespace in case of bad multiple inheritance

#2426 - validation: fail non-predefined config item names (e.g. batch scheduler directives) that contain multiple consecutive spaces (to ensure that hard-to-spot whitespace typos don't prevent repeated items from overriding as intended)

#2432 - fixed an issue that could cause HTTPS client failure due to SSL certificate host name mismatch

#2434 - correctly strip "at TIME" from the end of multi-line task messages

#2440 - cylc suite-state

fixed DB query of tasks with custom outputs that have not been generated yet

#2444 - added cylc report-timings to main command help

#2449:

server suite and task URLs from suite server programs, rather than parsing them from the suite definition - so browsing URLs from a remote GUI now works
allow proper string templating of suite and task names in URLs; retained the old pseudo environment variables for backward compatibility

#2461 - fixed manual task retrigger after an aborted edit run - this was erroneously using the edited job file

#2462 - fixed job polling for the SGE batch scheduler

#2464 - fixed the ssh+HTTPS task communication method (broken at cylc-7.5.0)

#2467 - fixed an error in reverse date-time subtraction (first_point - last_point)

#2474 - cylc graph - better handle suite parsing errors on view refresh

#2496 - ensure that broadcasted environment variables are defined before all user-defined variables, which may need to reference the broadcasted ones

#2523 - fixed a problem with suicide triggers: with several used at once, tasks could go untriggered

#2546 - fixed problems with stop point after a suite reload: do not reset an existing stop point (this is dangerous, but it could be done before, and the stop point in the GUI status bar would still refer to the original)

#2562 - improved advice on how to generate an initial user config file (global.rc)

cylc-7.5.0 (2017-08-29)

Enhancements

#2387, #2330: New suite.rc [meta] sections for suite and task metadata. These hold the existing title, description, and URL items, plus arbitrary user-defined items. Metadata items can be passed to event handlers (e.g. a site-specific task "priority" or "importance" rating could inform an event-handler's decision on whether or not to escalate task failures).

#2298, #2401: New shell function cylc__job_abort <message> to abort task job scripts with a custom message that can be passed to task failed event handlers.

#2204: Remove auto-fallback to HTTP communications, if HTTPS is not available. Now HTTP is only used if explicitly configured.

#2332, #2325, #2321, #2312: Validation efficiency improvements.

#2291, #2303, #2322: Runtime efficiency improvements.

#2286: New command cylc report-timings to generate reports of task runtime statistics.

#2304: New event handlers for general CRITICAL events.

#2244, #2258: Advanced syntax for excluding multiple points from cycling sequences.

#2407: Documented exactly how Cylc uses ssh, scp, and rsync to interact with remote job hosts.

#2346, #2386: cylc graph now plots implicit dependences as grayed-out ghost nodes.

#2343: Improved the "Running Suites" section of the User Guide, including documentation of suite remote control.

#2344: Attempt to access suite service files via the filesystem first, before ssh, for other accounts on the suite host.

#2360: Better validation of suite parameter configuration.

#2314: In debug mode, send bash job script xtrace output (from set -x) to a separate log file.

Fixes

#2409: Fixed the cylc spawn command (it was killing tasks, since cylc-7).

#2378: Fixed use of negative offsets by the cylc suite-state command.

#2364: Correctly load completed custom task outputs on restart.

#2350: Handle bad event handler command line templates gracefully.

#2308: The parameterized task environment variable $CYLC_TASK_PARAM_<param> is now guaranteed to be defined before any use of it in the user-defined task environment section.

#2296: Prevent suites stalling after a restart that closely follows a warm-start (now the restart, like the warm start, ignores dependence on tasks from before the warm start point).

#2295: Fixed cylc cat-log "open in editor" functionality for remote job logs.

#2412: Fixed duplication of log messages to the old log after restart.

cylc-7.4.0 (2017-05-16)

Enhancements and fixes.

Highlighted Changes

#2260: Open job logs in your text editor, from CLI (cylc cat-log) or GUI.

#2259: cylc gscan - various improvements: right-click menu is now for suite operations only; other items moved to a main menubar and toolbar (which can be hidden to retain gscan's popular minimalist look); added all suite stop options (was just the default clean stop); task-state colour-key popup updates in-place if theme changed; new collapse/expand-all toobar buttons.

#2275: Pass suite and task URLs to event handlers.

#2272: Efficiency - reduce memory footprint.

#2157:

internal efficiency improvements
allow reset of individual message outputs
"cylc submit" can now submit families

#2244: Graph cycling configuration: multiple exclusion points.

#2240: Stepped integer parameters.

Fixes

#2269: Fix auto suite-polling tasks (i.e. inter-suite dependence graph syntax) - Broken in 7.3.0.

#2282: Fix global config processing of boolean settings - users could not override a site True setting to False.

#2279: Bundle Jinja2 2.9.6. (up from 2.8) - fixes a known issue with Jinja2 "import with context".

#2255: Fix handling of suite script items that contain nothing but comments.

#2247: Allow cylc graph --help in the absence of an X environment.

Other Changes

#2270: Detect and fail null tasks in graph.

#2257: cylc gscan - graceful exit via Ctrl-C.

#2252: ssh: add -Y (X Forwarding) only if necessary.

#2245: SSL certificate: add serial number (issue number). This allows curl, browsers, etc. to connect to suite daemons.

#2265: cylc gpanel - restored sorting of items by suite name.

#2250: Updated installation docs for HTTPS-related requirements.

cylc-7.3.0 (2017-04-10)

New Suite Design Guide, plus other enhancements and fixes.

Highlighted Changes

#2211: New comprehensive Suite Design Guide document to replace the outdated Suite Design section in the User Guide.

#2232: cylc gscan GUI: stop, hold, and release suites or groups of suites.

#2220: dummy and simulation mode improvements:

new dummy-local mode runs dummy tasks as local background jobs (allows dummy running other-site suites).
proportional run length, if tasks configure an execution time limit
single common [simulation] configuration section for dummy, dummy-local, and simulation modes.
dummy or simulated tasks can be made to fail at specific cycle points, and for first-try only, or all tries.
custom message outputs now work in simulation mode as well as the dummy modes.

#2218: fix error trapping in job scripts (degraded since job file refactoring in 7.1.1)

#2215: SGE batch system support - fixed formatting of directives with a space in the name.

Other Notable Changes

#2233: Upgraded the built-in example suites to cylc-7 syntax.

#2221: cylc gui GUI dot view - maintain user selection during update.

#2217: cylc gscan GUI - fix tracebacks emitted during suite initialization.

#2219: add user@host option to cylc monitor an cylc gui. Allows suite selection at startup using cylc scan output.

#2222: cylc gui GUI graph view - fixed right-click "view prerequisites" sub-menu.

#2213: Record family inheritance structure in the run database.

cylc-7.2.1 (2017-03-23)

Minor enhancements and fixes.

Highlighted Changes

#2209: Fixed the cylc gui graph view, broken at cylc-7.2.0.

#2193: Restored cylc gscan suite-stopped status checkerboard icons, lost at cylc-7.1.1.

#2208: Use suite host name instead of suite name in the SSL certificate "common name".

#2206: Updated User Guide installation section.

Other Notable Changes

#2191: Clearer task prerequisites print-out.

#2197: Removed the bundled external OrderedDict package.

#2194: cylc gscan - better handling of suites that are still initializing.

cylc-7.2.0 (2017-03-06)

Minor enhancements and fixes (note mid-level version number bumped up to reflect significant changes included in 7.1.1 - esp. job file refactoring).

Highlighted Changes

#2189: New assert and raise functions for handling Jinja2 errors in suites.

Other Changes

#2186: Use lowercase local shell variable names in new job script shell functions introduced in 7.1.1, to avoid overriding shell built-ins such as $HOSTNAME.

#2187: Fixed a bug causing restart failure in the presence of an active broadcast of a submission timeout value.

#2183: Use site-configured suite host self-identification, if present, as hostname in the SSL certificate.

#2182: Fixed failed User Guide build in 7.1.1.

cylc-7.1.1 (2017-02-27)

Minor enhancements and fixes (plus a significant change: task job file refactoring).

Highlighted Changes

#2141: Tidier task job files: hide error trap and messaging code, etc., in external shell functions.

#2134: Suite-state polling (e.g. for inter-suite triggering) now automatically detects and uses the remote suite cycle point format.

#2128: Suite-state polling (e.g. for inter-suite triggering) now works with custom task messages.

#2172: Added a built-in Jinja2 filter for formatting ISO8601 date-time strings.

#2164: Fixed support for Jinja2 in site/user config files, broken at 6.11.0.

#2153: cylc gui - use task execution time limit as the default mean elapsed time, to compute a progress bar for the first instance of a cycling task.

#2154: cylc gui graph view - fixed right-click sub-menu activation, broken at 7.1.0.

#2158: cylc gui graph view: fix right-click family ungroup, broken since 7.0.0.

Other Changes

#2142: New "select all" and "select none" buttons in the cylc gui task filter dialog.

#2163: (Development) New automated profiling test framework for comparing performance between Cylc versions.

#2160: Better suite stall detection in the presence of clock-triggered tasks.

#2156: Fix potential division-by-zero error in cylc gscan.

#2149: Fix handling of cycle point offsets in weeks (e.g. "P1W").

#2146: Documented how to set multiple -l VALUE directives in jobs submitted to PBS.

#2129: Allow initial cycle point to be specified on the command line for all relevant commands, if not specified in the suite definition.

#2139: Fixed error in use of execution time limit in jobs submitted to Platform LSF.

#2176: cylc gui graph view - fixed a bug that could cause a blank graph view window, since 7.0.0.

#2161: gcylc gui- disallow insertion at cycle points that are not valid for the task (unless overridden with --no-check).

cylc-7.1.0 (2017-01-26)

Minor enhancements and fixes.

Highlighted Changes

#2021: New command cylc checkpoint to create a named suite state checkpoint that you can restart from.

#2124: open another GUI window (to view another suite) via the gcylc File menu.

#2100: group multiple task event notifications into a single email over a 5 minute interval (configurable).

#2112: broadcast settings can now be loaded (or cancelled) from a file as well as the command line.

#2096: the cylc gscan GUI can now display summary states for suites owned by others.

Other Changes

#2126: fixed occasional misidentification of suite stall when only succeeded tasks exist just prior to shutdown.

#2127: fixed the cylc diff command (broken at 7.0.0)

#2119: fixed remote job kill after a suite definition reload, for task proxies that exist at the time of the reload.

#2025: GUI right-click menu items can now be selected with either mouse button 1 or 3.

#2117: improved logic for adding lib/cylc to Python sys.path (there was one reported instance of the system-level cherrpy being imported instead of the Cylc-bundled one, in cylc-7.0.0).

#2114: documented syntax-driven line continuation in suite graph configuration.

#2116: corrected a rare edge-case side-effect of manual task-state reset.

#2107: cylc insert - disallow insertion at cycle points that are not valid for the task (unless overridden with --no-check).

#2106: fixed cylc get-config --python output formatting, broken since cylc-6.6.0.

#2097: fixed a problem with task host and owner task proxies reloaded at suite restart (could cause job poll and kill to fail in some cases, for tasks in this category).

#2095: fixed validation of mixed deprecated and new suite.rc syntax.

cylc-7.0.0 (2016-12-21)

cylc-7 client/server communications is not backward compatible with cylc-6.

Note that cylc-7 bug fixes were back-ported to a series of 6.11.x releases, for those who have not transitioned to cylc-7 yet.

Highlighted Changes

#1923: A new HTTPS communications layer, replaces Pyro-3 Object RPC for all client-server communications. Suite daemons are now web servers!

#2063: Removed deprecated cylc-5 syntax and features.

#2044: Suite start-up now aborts with a sensible message on suite configuration errors (previously this happened post daemonization so the user had to check suite logs to see the error).

#2067: Consolidated suite service files (passphrase, SSL files, contact file, etc.) under .service/ in the suite run directory; the suite registration database and port files under $HOME/.cylc/ are no longer used; suites can now be grouped in sub-directory trees under the top level run directory.

#2033: Allow restart from suite state checkpoints other than the latest (checkpoints are also recorded automatically before and after restarts, and on reload).

#2024: cylc gscan now supports collapsible suite groups via a top level suite config group item. Right-click View Column "Group".

#2074: Task retry states and timers, and poll timers, now persist across suite restarts. Waiting tasks are not put in the held state before shutdown. Held tasks are not automatically released on restart.

#2004: Task event handlers are now continued on restart.

Other Changes

#2042: Documented [scheduling]spawn to max active cycle points (new in 6.11.0), which lets successive instances of the same task run out of order if dependencies allow.

#2092: New command cylc get-suite-contact to print suite contact information (host, port, PID, etc.)

#2089: Improved documentation on cycling workflows and use of parameterized tasks as a proxy for cycling.

#2021: cylc gui: removed the "connection failed" warning dialog that popped up on suite shutdown. This should be obvious by the reconnection countdown timer in the info bar.

#2023: New custom event email footer via global or suite config.

#2013: Fixed "remove task after spawning" which since 6.9.0 would not force a waiting task to spawn its successor.

#2071: Fix quote stripping on initial cycle point = "now".

#2070: Fix dummy mode support for custom task outputs: they were incorrectly propagated to other tasks.

#2065: cylc gscan now supports suite name filtering via a --name command line option.

#2060: 5-second timeout if hanging connections are encountered during port scanning.

#2055: Task elapsed times now persist over restarts.

#2046: Multi-task interface for cylc show. Fixed View Prerequisites for tasks in the runahead pool.

#2049: Per-host job submission and execution polling intervals via global/user config files.

#2051: Bundle Jinja2 2.8 with Cylc - one less external software dependency.

#2088: Support dependence on absolute cycle points in cycling graphs.

cylc-6.11.4 (2017-01-26)

More bug fixes backported from early Cylc-7 releases.

#2120: fixed remote job kill after a +suite definition reload, for task proxies that exist at the time of the reload.

#2111: fixed member-expansion of complex (FAMILY:fail-any & FAMILYI:finish-all) graph triggers.

#2102: fixed validation of mixed deprecated and new suite.rc syntax.

#2098: fixed a problem with task host and owner task proxies reloaded at suite restart (could cause job poll and kill to fail in some cases, for tasks in this category).

cylc-6.11.3 (2016-12-21)

One minor bug fix on top of 6.11.2.

#2091: Since 6.11.0 use of cylc-5 special "cold start tasks" caused downstream tasks to become immortal. This fixes the problem, but note that you should no longer be using this deprecated feature (which will be removed from cylc-7).

cylc-6.11.2 (2016-10-19)

Some minor enhancements and fixes.

Highlighted Changes

#2034: Allow restart from checkpoints. These are currently created before and after reloads, and on restart. (Note that since 6.11.0 suite state dump files no longer exist).

#2047: Documented the new "[scheduling]spawn to max active cycle points" suite configuration item, which allows successive instances of the same task to run out of order if the opportunity arises.

#2048: Allow "view prerequisites" for tasks in the 'runahead' state.

#2025: Provide a configurable event mail footer (suite or site/user configuration).

#2032: cylc gui - removed the annoying warning dialog for connection failed. Take note of the connection countdown in the status bar instead.

Other Changes

#2016: Fixed a Python traceback occasionally generated by the gcylc GUI log view window.

#2018: Restored the incremental printing of dots to stdout from the cylc suite-state polling command (lost at 6.11.1).

#2014: Fixed "remove after spawning". Since 6.9.0 this would not force-spawn the successor of a waiting task.

#2031: cylc gscan - fixed occasional jumping status icons introduced in 6.11.1.

#2040: Corrected documentation for the cylc cat-log command (it was using the alias cylc log).

cylc-6.11.1 (2016-09-22)

Three minor bug fixes on top of 6.11.0:

#2002: fix a bug in the graph string parser - if a task appears both with and without a cycle point offset in the same conditional trigger expression (unlikely, but possible!)

#2007: fix handling of OS Error if the user run into the limit for number of forked processes.

#2008: fix occasional traceback from cylc gsan.

cylc-6.11.0 (2016-09-13)

Highlighted Changes

#1953: Parameterized tasks: generate tasks automatically without using messy Jinja2 loops.

#1929: Under [runtime]:

New task [[[job]]] sub-sections unify the various batch system, job execution, and job polling settings (older settings deprecated).
A new [[[job]]] execution time limit setting allows cylc to:
- automatically generate batch system time limit directives;
- run background or at jobs with the timeout command;
- poll job with configurable delays (default 1, 3, 10 minutes) after reaching the time limit.
Moved the content of the old [event hooks] section to a unified [events] section (older settings deprecated).

#1884: cylc gscan displays a new warning icon with a tool-tip summary of recent task failures.

#1877: The gcylc status bar now shows a countdown to the next suite connection attempt, and resets the connection timer schedule if the user changes view settings.

#1966: Optionally spawn waiting tasks out to "max active cycle points" instead of one cycle point ahead. This means successive instances of the same task can run out of order (dependencies allowing). Use with caution on large suites with a lot of runahead.

#1940: Bash tab completion for cylc commands.

Other Changes

#1585: If a suite stalls, report any unsatisfied task prerequisites that cannot be met.

#1944: cylc get-config now returns a valid suite definition.

#1875: Enabled multiple selection in the gcylc text tree view.

#1900: Automatically continue graph string lines that end in (or start with) a dependency arrow.

#1862: New notation for initial and final cycle point in graph cycling section headings. E.g. [[[R1/^+PT1H]]] means "run once, one hour after the initial cycle point"; [[[R1/$-PT1H]]] means "run once, one hour before the final cycle point".

#1928: New notation for excluding a cycle point from a recurrence expression, e.g. [[[T00!^]]] means "daily at T00 after but not including the initial cycle point".

#1958: Suite daemon logging upgrade: improved log file formatting; the log, out, and err files are now rolled over together as soon as any one reaches the size limit.

#1827: Suite state dump files no longer exist - the suite run DB now records all restart information.

#1912: Fixed coloured cylc scan -c output (broken at 6.10.1).

#1921: Don't ignore dependencies among tasks back-inserted prior to a warm-start cycle point.

#1910: Task job scripts now use set -o pipefail to ensure that failure of any part of a shell pipeline causes a job failure.

#1886: When a job is submitted for the first time, any job logs with higher submit numbers will be removed ( these must have been generated by a previous suite run).

#1946: Removed annoying warnings that "self-suicide is not recommended".

#1889: Record any unhandled task messages (e.g. general progress messages) in the suite DB.

#1899: Custom task output messages (for message triggers) are now automatically faked in dummy mode.

cylc-6.10.2 (2016-06-02)

Highlighted Changes

#1848: Automatic stalled-suite detection, a "stalled" event hook, and an option to abort (shutdown) if stalled.

#1850: Much reduced CPU loading in cycling suites that have progressed far beyond their initial cycle point (cache recent points to avoid continually iterating from the start).

#1836: New gscan.rc file to configure the initial state of cylc gpanel and cylc gscan (e.g. which columns to display).

#1849: New configuration options for the gcylc GUI, e.g. to set the initial window size.

Other Changes

#1863: Report tasks added or removed by a suite reload.

#1844: Allow client commands from another suite's task (these would previously load the passphrase for the parent suite rather than the target suite).

#1866: Allow explicitly unset intervals in cylc config files, e.g. execution timeout = # (nothing).

#1863: Fixed a recent bug (since in 6.10.0) causing shutdown on reload of a suite after removing a task and its runtime definition.

#1864: Stronger checks to prevent users starting a second instance of a suite that is already running.

#1869: Fixed day-of-week cycling.

#1858: Fixed a recent bug (since 6.10.1) that could prevent a task at suite start-up from submitting even though its prerequisites were satisfied.

#1855: Allow inserted tasks to be released to the waiting immediately, even if the suite is currently quiet.

#1854: Restore wildcards to allow insertion of multiple tasks at once (inadvertently disallowed at 6.10.0).

#1853: Fixed a recent bug (since 6.10.1): reset task outputs to incomplete on manually retriggering or resetting to a pre-run state.

cylc-6.10.1 (2016-05-17)

Highlighted Changes

#1839: gcylc - fix for occasional locked-up blank GUI window at start-up (since 6.8.0, Jan 2016).

#1841: gcylc tree view - fix for excessive CPU load when displaying large suites (since 6.10.0).

#1838: Fix for the suite timeout event timer not resetting on task activity (since 6.10.0).

Other Changes

#1835: Suite reload - reload all tasks at once (previously, current active tasks were reloaded only when they finished, which could result in reloads appearing to take a long time).

#1833: gcylc - initial task state filtering configurable via the gcylc.rc config file.

#1826: Prevent tasks becoming immune to change by suite reload after being orphaned by one reload (i.e. removed from the suite) then re-inserted after another.

#1804: PBS job name length - truncate to 15 characters by default, but can now be configured in global.rc for PBS 13+, which supports longer names.

cylc-6.10.0 (2016-05-04)

Highlighted Changes

#1769, #1809, #1810, #1811, #1812, #1813, #1819: Suite daemon efficiency and memory footprint - significant improvements!

#1777: Faster validation of suites with large inter-dependent families. See also #1791.

#1743: Improved event handling: flexible handlers, built-in email handlers, execute event handlers asynchronously, general suite event handlers.

#1729: gcylc - The File -> Open dialog can now connect to suites running on other scanned hosts.

#1821: Right-click on a cycle-point in the gcylc text tree view to operate on all tasks at that cycle point.

Other Changes

#1714: Further improvements to Jinja2 error reporting.

#1755: Pyro-3.16 is now packaged with with cylc and has been modified to reduce the overhead of repeated calls to socket.gethost*. We will eventually replace it with a new client/server communications layer.

#1807: Dropped support for detaching (or manual completion) tasks.

#1805: gcylc - corrected the suite hold/release button state during active suite reloads.

#1802: Do not unregister running suites or assume that the argument of cylc unregister is a pattern.

#1800: Print a sensible error message for a suite graph section with a zero-width cycling interval.

#1791: Documented how to write suites with efficient inter-family triggering.

#1789: Fixed a bug causing high CPU load in large suites with queued tasks present.

#1788: Fixed a bug that could occasionally result in missing entries in suite run databases.

#1784: Corrected and improved the advice printed at start-up on how to see if a suite is still running.

#1781: Fixed a bug that could disable the right-click menu for some tasks after enabling a filter.

#1768: Client commands like cylc broadcast can now be invoked by tasks on hosts that do not share a filesystem with the suite host.

#1763: Remote tasks now load the right suite passphrase even if a locally registered suite has the same name.

#1762: Fixed polling of jobs submitted to loadleveler (broken since 6.8.1).

#1816, #1779: Allow task names that contain family names after a hyphen.

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Selected Cylc Changes

Backward-incompatible changes in Cylc-8.x

cylc-8.0rc1 (Upcoming)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0b3 (Released 2021-11-10)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0b2 (Released 2021-07-28)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0b1 (Released 2021-04-21)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0b0 (Released 2021-03-29)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0a2 (2020-07-03)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-8.0a1 (2019-09-18)

Enhancements

Fixes

Documentation

Security issues

cylc-8.0a0 (2019-03-12)

Enhancements

Fixes

Documentation

Security issues

cylc-7.8.1 (2019-01-25)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-7.8.0 (2018-11-27)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-7.7.2 (2018-07-26)

Fixes and minor enhancements

cylc-7.7.1 (2018-06-27)

Fixes

cylc-7.7.0 (2018-05-12)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-7.6.1 (2018-03-28)

Fixes

cylc-7.6.0 (2018-02-07)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-7.5.0 (2017-08-29)

Enhancements

Fixes

cylc-7.4.0 (2017-05-16)

Highlighted Changes

Fixes

Other Changes

cylc-7.3.0 (2017-04-10)

Highlighted Changes

Other Notable Changes

cylc-7.2.1 (2017-03-23)

Highlighted Changes

Other Notable Changes

cylc-7.2.0 (2017-03-06)

Highlighted Changes

Other Changes

cylc-7.1.1 (2017-02-27)

Highlighted Changes

Other Changes

cylc-7.1.0 (2017-01-26)

Highlighted Changes

Other Changes

cylc-7.0.0 (2016-12-21)

Highlighted Changes

Other Changes

cylc-6.11.4 (2017-01-26)