# Some exit codes \>0 from a child process still report a job exit code of 0 **URL:** \ **Category:** Users/Site Administrators\ **Created:** [May 18, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551 "2023-05-18T21:47:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/1 "2023-05-18T21:47:13Z")
I have jobs that in some cases are finishing with qstat reporting an exit status of 0 even though a child process from a Singularity container that provided the job environment reported an exit code \>=1. My users are asking me to make it so qstat recognizes when a child process fails. I have some experimentation in mind I can try. Before I do I figured I’d ask this community for any experiences with this situation. Please share your thoughts. Basic Info: - openpbs 20.0.1 - Ubuntu 18.04 - Singularity 3.9.9 ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/2 "2023-05-18T23:33:41Z")
It appears the qsub argument “-sync y” may be what I need. However, that argument appears it may be depreciated. ---
**Author:** ![agurban](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.openpbs.org/agurban/32/67_2.png) [@agurban](https://community.openpbs.org/u/agurban)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 1:37am UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/3 "2023-05-19T01:37:19Z")
Which qsub are you looking at? ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/4 "2023-05-19T02:09:35Z")
I’m not following you. What do you mean which qsub? My workflow executes qsub to run an array job. ---
**Author:** ![adarsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@adarsh](https://community.openpbs.org/u/adarsh)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 7:51am UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/5 "2023-05-19T07:51:29Z")
Could you please share the output of the below command > qsub --version > qsub -h ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 2:21pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/6 "2023-05-19T14:21:49Z")
ah, what qsub version. Now I follow you qsub --version pbs\_version = 20.0.1 qsub -h Job script will be read from standard input. Submit with CTRL+D. ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 2:25pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/7 "2023-05-19T14:25:56Z")
I’m going to test with the directive #PBS -W block=true Based on the documentation, that may force the job to wait until the child process finishes and collect its exit code. Does that make sense? ---
**Author:** ![agurban](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.openpbs.org/agurban/32/67_2.png) [@agurban](https://community.openpbs.org/u/agurban)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/8 "2023-05-19T17:08:16Z")
Where did you read about the “sync y” option? That does not show up in OpenPBS. ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 8:22pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/9 "2023-05-19T20:22:40Z")
Here are some links. The sync option is either depreciated or an option with other schedulers forked off PBS. I also did not see any mention of it in recent/current PBS documentation > [https://slurm-dev.schedmd.narkive.com/hSPCuZbk/how-to-emulate-qsub-s-sync-y-wblock-true](https://slurm-dev.schedmd.narkive.com/hSPCuZbk/how-to-emulate-qsub-s-sync-y-wblock-true) [https://gridscheduler.sourceforge.net/htmlman/htmlman1/qsub.html](https://gridscheduler.sourceforge.net/htmlman/htmlman1/qsub.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Chase](https://community.openpbs.org/u/Chase)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 8:12pm UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/some-exit-codes-0-from-a-child-process-still-report-a-job-exit-code-of-0/3551/10 "2023-05-24T20:12:19Z")
Got back to this and tested the directive #PBS -W block=true. I still saw the job with a child process in a singularity container produce an exit code of 1 while qstat still reported a sucessfullly finished job. I have some other ideas I’m going to test