How to control the execution of batch job as and when desired

[Suman_7]

All,

How do I control the execution of a batch job that is exeucted through a script that I have written. Basically this script is an infinite loop which goes and executes after every 24 hrs. The users want their control on this script so they can stop and start it as they need.
So far I have one solution by creating a flag in a control table which this script will look and continue if this is set to TRUE. If the users want that script should not be executed they can update this falg to FALSE.

Is there any way I can do this at UNIX level instead of going in the backend.

Thank You,

[Navin Bhat_2]

You could issue a kill -SIGSTOP and kill - SIGCONT.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

This is probably better done using a cronjob fired off daily at some designated time. You cronjob might look for a file and if present exit immediately. I would create a small script to either create or rm this file as a means of user control.

[Sanjay Kumar Suri]

If the user has the authority to use cron then the user can as well create an entry in the his/her crontab and hash (#) the same if the job need not to be run.

sks