Usage¶

sinteractive [OPTIONS] [SBATCH_ARGS...]

Options¶

All other arguments are passed directly to sbatch, so you can use any sbatch option. See man sinteractive for full documentation.

Environment variables¶

Set personal defaults in your ~/.bashrc; explicit flags always win.

# Example: always use mouse mode and a bigger default allocation
export SINTERACTIVE_MOUSE=on
export SINTERACTIVE_MEM=16G
export SINTERACTIVE_CPUS=4

Configuring for other clusters (example: CU Alpine)¶

The defaults above match Bodhi, but everything scheduler-specific is overridable. To run on CU Boulder's Alpine, three things differ:

• tmux path — Alpine ships tmux as a system package at /usr/bin/tmux, not the source-built /usr/local/bin/tmux Bodhi uses.
• CPU partition + QOS — the general-purpose CPU queue is acpu (an explicit --qos is mandatory). acpu/cpu-normal are the names that take effect after Alpine's 2026-08-05 rename of amilan/normal; both name sets are already accepted, so using the new ones now means no change at the cutover.
• name clash on PATH — Alpine already provides an older, screen-based sinteractive in /usr/local/bin, which is ahead of ~/.local/bin on PATH. An alias forces your copy to win.

After make install, add this to your ~/.bashrc:

# Use the ~/.local/bin copy instead of Alpine's older /usr/local/bin one
alias sinteractive="$HOME/.local/bin/sinteractive"

export SINTERACTIVE_TMUX=/usr/bin/tmux     # Alpine's system tmux
export SINTERACTIVE_PARTITION=acpu         # CPU queue (was 'amilan' pre-2026-08-05)
export SINTERACTIVE_QOS=cpu-normal         # 1-day max walltime; QOS is required on Alpine

Then sinteractive launches a 1-day CPU session. For a longer run (up to 7 days), override the QOS: sinteractive --time=2d --qos=cpu-long. The default account (amc-general for most users) is applied automatically; pass --account=<name> if you need a different allocation.

Examples¶

# Default: 1-day session, 2 CPUs, 8G memory
sinteractive

# Run on a specific node
sinteractive --node compute01

# 2-hour session on the rna partition
sinteractive --time=2:00:00 --partition=rna

# Override default memory and CPUs
sinteractive --mem=16G --cpus-per-task=4

# GPU session
sinteractive --partition=gpu --gpus=1 --mem=16G

# Longer session on the normal partition (up to 3 days)
sinteractive --time=1-12:00:00 --partition=normal

Reconnecting after a disconnect¶

If your SSH connection drops or you intentionally detach (Ctrl-b d), the tmux session keeps running on the compute node and your work is safe. To reconnect from the login node:

# List your running sessions
sinteractive --list
#   JOBID       NAME                  NODE            PARTITION     ELAPSED     TIMELIMIT   CWD
#   12345       rna-seq               compute01       cpu           01:23:45    1-00:00:00  ~/projects/rna-seq

# Reattach
sinteractive --attach 12345

If you have only one session running, a bare sinteractive --attach goes straight to it — no need to look up the job id first. With several running, it lists them with ready-to-run commands to pick from.

Sessions launched with -n NAME can be reattached by name (sinteractive --attach NAME). Forgot to name one? Press Ctrl-b $ inside the session to name (or rename) it in place — the new name shows up in the status bar, squeue, --list, and works with --attach NAME.

Tips¶

Basic tmux commands¶

Scrollback and keyboard copy/paste¶

Copy mode uses vi keys (forced, regardless of $EDITOR), and copied text lands in your local system clipboard over SSH via OSC 52 — usually far smoother than mouse selection, especially with the scrollbar active.

Cancelling the job¶

Exiting the tmux session (type exit or Ctrl-d in all panes) automatically cancels the SLURM job. You can also cancel it from the login node, by name or job id:

sinteractive --cancel myproj
sinteractive --cancel 12345
scancel 12345              # equivalent, job id only

Pressing Ctrl-C while a launch is still waiting in the queue cancels the pending job too.

Waiting for a job to start¶

When the cluster is busy your job may sit in the queue. While it does, sinteractive shows why it is waiting (Slurm's pend reason — free resources, higher-priority jobs ahead of you) and, when Slurm can estimate one, the expected start time:

 ⠹ waiting for free resources — est. start 14:32 (2m elapsed)

Tab completion¶

make install installs a bash completion. It completes options, and after --attach, --status, and --cancel it completes the job ids and names of your running sessions:

sinteractive --attach <TAB>
# 12345  rna-seq  12346  assembly

Session names are read from the state files in ~/.cache/sinteractive/, not from squeue, so completion stays instant even when the scheduler is slow. Start a new shell after installing to pick it up.