# Cannot qalter jobs in an array

**URL:** <https://community.openpbs.org/t/cannot-qalter-jobs-in-an-array/364>\
**Category:** Developers\
**Created:** [November 28, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/cannot-qalter-jobs-in-an-array/364 "2016-11-28T23:16:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stetner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@stetner](https://community.openpbs.org/u/stetner)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/cannot-qalter-jobs-in-an-array/364/1 "2016-11-28T23:16:49Z")

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Hi,

I was trying to qalter the wall time for jobs in an array and found I could not. The top array job itself will alter but not the running jobs.

Is this by design or am I missing something?

Thanks,  
Doug

`$ sudo /opt/local/pbs/default/bin/qalter 116527[0].delta -l walltime=50:00:00 qalter: Invalid request 116527[0].delta $ qstat -1n -t -x | grep d.stet 116527[].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array -- 1 1 5gb 50:00 B -- -- 116527[0].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 35631 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:58 delta008/1 116527[1].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 35634 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:58 delta008/2 116527[2].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 21717 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 20:00 delta009/1 116527[3].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 21718 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 20:00 delta009/2 116527[4].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 28706 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:59 delta011/5 116527[5].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 84453 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:59 delta012/1 116527[6].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 122787 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:59 delta013/1 116527[7].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 135394 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:58 delta017/0 116527[8].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 135395 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 19:58 delta017/2 116527[9].delta d.stetne normal bscp_array 129537 1 1 5gb 24:00 R 20:00 delta021/1`

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**Author:** ![jon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.openpbs.org/jon/32/23_2.png) [@jon](https://community.openpbs.org/u/jon)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/cannot-qalter-jobs-in-an-array/364/2 "2016-11-28T23:40:09Z")

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Two things. First the order is wrong and second you cannot change attributes of a subjob since it related to the parent. To alter the walltime do

qalter -lwalltime=32 105[]

This will only affect jobs that are still in a Q state. Once a sub job has started it will have the attributes of the parent job at the time it started.

HTH

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stetner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@stetner](https://community.openpbs.org/u/stetner)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/cannot-qalter-jobs-in-an-array/364/3 "2016-11-28T23:49:58Z")

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OK, thanks for that.

(BTW I do not think the order matters as I changed the top job with that syntax)