# Current state of slurm-adapter env-export for srun?

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [December 18, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685 "2025-12-18T03:39:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jasonbuechler](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jasonbuechler/32/302_2.png) [@jasonbuechler](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jasonbuechler)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685/1 "2025-12-18T03:39:50Z")

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Motivation:

As a _best-practice_, we encourage our researchers to prefix “srun” before all resource-intensive commands in their slurm batch scripts. ([TL;DR](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53636752/slurm-why-use-srun-inside-sbatch): better resource reporting.) Unfortunately, out-of-the-box, ondemand’s **Job Composer** “breaks” srun prefixing within an sbatch script.

Details:

The slurm adapter [config page](https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/latest/installation/resource-manager/slurm.html) alludes to this via the bigger picture:

> Open OnDemand’s Slurm support defaults to issuing CLI commands with the `--export` flag set to `NONE`, when Slurm’s default is `ALL`. This can cause issues with jobs that require `srun`.

There are two workarounds listed there, and I’ll add two more which I’ve successfully used:

- use a [script\_wrapper](https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/latest/reference/files/submit-yml/basic-bc-options.html#script-wrapper) and `export SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL` in a before any jobscript runs
- in your cluster config use `copy_environment: true` (with the caveat that the PUNs environment is very different from regular shell sessions)
- add `SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL` to the **Job Composer** env (/etc/ood/config/apps/myjobs/env)
- add [an initializer](https://github.com/OSC/ood_core/issues/158#issuecomment-564726137) to the **Job Composer** app

I want to emphasize now that I really, really want to focus only on the **Job Composer** (aka the “myjobs” app), and not on any other apps. (I know that Batch Connect offers a copy\_environment option, but as far as I know, this is not available for Job Composer.) I mention this because almost all discussion I can find on this srun …thing… focuses on batch-connect apps, and my priority is the Job Composer.

Question 1:

Are there any additional approaches, as of OOD v4, for “fixing” the Job Composer? (My apologies for that phrasing, I know it’s an architectural choice. But for my purposes…) I’m especially asking because the third option there I just came across in a Discourse post, and it wasn’t suggested in any documentation I could find, so maybe there are others?

Question 2:

Does the the cluster config `copy_environment` work for the Job Composer? In my testing, I have never gotten it to work.

I’m not posting this in the Get Help section on purpose, but for curiousity, my config:

```yaml
$ cat monsoon.yml
# /etc/ood/config/clusters.d/monsoon.yml
---
v2:
  metadata:
    title: "Monsoon"
  login:
    host: "ondemand-dev.hpc.nau.edu"
  job:
    adapter: "slurm"
    cluster: "monsoon"
    bin: "/usr/bin"
    conf: "/etc/slurm/slurm.conf"
    copy_environment: true
  batch_connect:
    basic:
      script_wrapper: |
        module purge
        %s
    vnc:
      script_wrapper: |
        module purge
        export PATH="/opt/TurboVNC/bin:$PATH"
        export WEBSOCKIFY_CMD="/usr/bin/websockify"
        %s

```

Thank you!

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**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685/2 "2025-12-18T15:22:56Z")

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> [@jasonbuechler](#):
>
> Are there any additional approaches, as of OOD v4, for “fixing” the Job Composer?

There is a copy\_environment option for the Job composer when you go to edit the job options.

> [@jasonbuechler](#):
>
> Does the the cluster config `copy_environment` work for the Job Composer? In my testing, I have never gotten it to work.

Seems like it should, though I’d have to check on why it doesn’t seem to.

That said - we likely need to change the default, it’s just hard to do when there’s so much inertia after so many years. Maybe it’ll come in 5.0 whenever that may be.

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**Author:** ![jasonbuechler](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jasonbuechler/32/302_2.png) [@jasonbuechler](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jasonbuechler)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685/3 "2025-12-19T20:03:45Z")

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Ah yes I had success in my testing this morning using that copy-environment checkbox in job options, which is good to know. Which makes it seem weirder to me that I had no luck with the cluster’s v2.job `copy_environment = true` config, neither for apps nor for job-composer batch submissions, but maybe I’ll post in the other forum about that.

For the last several years, I’ve been using the initializer linked above to “fix” `srun` in both dashboard and myjobs. In testing today, I’ve also had success with both (dashboard-)apps and job-composer jobs by adding `SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=“ALL”` to both `/etc/ood/config/apps/{dashboard,myjobs}/env` files.

Since the env-file approach seems cleaner– are the two approaches effectively identical, or might there be subtle differences?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/current-state-of-slurm-adapter-env-export-for-srun/4685/4 "2025-12-22T18:00:53Z")

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> [@jasonbuechler](#):
>
> Since the env-file approach seems cleaner– are the two approaches effectively identical, or might there be subtle differences?

I don’t think there’s any difference, no.