---
name: "swait"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "slurm-llnl"
version: "26.05.5.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/swait"
---

# swait(1)

Block until a job's running steps and pending --async steps complete

## NAME

swait - Block until a job's running steps and pending --async steps complete

## SYNOPSIS

**swait** \[*OPTIONS*\] \[*jobid*\[\_*task*\] \| **s**\<*sluid*\>\]

## DESCRIPTION

**swait** blocks until there are no running steps and no pending **--async** steps. Use **swait** in a batch script to wait for all **--async** steps to complete.

**swait** talks directly to the stepmgr; it does not poll **slurmctld**. The target job must have stepmgr enabled (see **REQUIREMENTS**).

The positional argument is a numeric job ID, a single array task (e.g. *1000\_3*), or a SLUID (e.g. *s4SNKN57XZTE00*). Task ranges, task lists, and het-job component offsets (*jobid*+*offset*) are not supported. When the target is an array job with more than one task, a specific task must be selected with *jobid*\_*task*.

With no positional argument, **swait** consults **SLURM\_JOB\_SLUID** first, and falls back to **SLURM\_JOB\_ID**. This lets **swait** run inside a batch script or interactive allocation with no arguments and automatically wait on the enclosing job's steps.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**, **--help**

  Print help information and exit.

-

  - **-Q**, **--quiet**

  Suppress informational messages from appearing on stderr. Errors will still be displayed. Mutually exclusive with **--verbose**.

-

  - **--timeout**=*SECS*

  Wait at most *SECS* seconds for the job's steps to drain, then exit 1. *SECS* must be a non-negative integer. With no **--timeout**, or with **--timeout**=0, **swait** blocks indefinitely until the steps drain.

-

  - **--usage**

  Print a short usage line and exit.

-

  - **-v**, **--verbose**

  Increase verbosity; may be specified multiple times for more detail. Mutually exclusive with **--quiet**.

-

  - **-V**, **--version**

  Print version information and exit.

-

  ## REQUIREMENTS

The target job must have stepmgr enabled, either site-wide via **SlurmctldParameters=enable\_stepmgr** in [**slurm.conf**(5)](/slurm.conf/5.md), or per-job via **--stepmgr** to [**salloc**(1)](/salloc/1.md)/[**sbatch**(1)](/sbatch/1.md). This can be verified with **scontrol show job \<jobid\>**; look for **StepMgrEnabled=Yes**.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

Some **swait** options may be set via environment variables. These environment variables, along with their corresponding options, are listed below. (Note: Command line options will always override these settings.)

- **SLURM\_JOB\_SLUID**

  Used to identify the job to monitor when no positional argument is given. Takes precedence over **SLURM\_JOB\_ID**.

-

  - **SLURM\_JOB\_ID**

  Used to identify the job to monitor when no positional argument is given and **SLURM\_JOB\_SLUID** is not set.

-

  - **SLURM\_CONF**

  Location of the Slurm configuration file.

-

  ## EXIT STATUS

- **0**

  There are no running steps, and no pending async steps.

-

  - **1**

  **--timeout** elapsed before steps completed.

-

  - **2**

  **swait** encountered an error.

-

  ## EXAMPLES

Run multiple async steps from a batch script and block on them. The **--stepmgr** flag may be omitted if stepmgr is enabled site-wide.

```
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH -n 16
#SBATCH --stepmgr
srun --async -n 8 ./solve_a
srun --async -n 8 ./solve_b
swait
```

**swait** is only for **--async** steps; if a script merely backgrounds **srun** commands with the shell, the shell's *wait* builtin already covers that case and **swait** is not needed. The exception is when a script mixes both: run **swait** followed by *wait* so that the stepmgr's pending work and the shell's background processes have both finished:

```
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH -n 16
#SBATCH --stepmgr
srun -n 8 ./solve_a &
srun --async -n 8 ./solve_b
swait
wait
```

## COPYING

Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved

This file is part of Slurm, a resource management program. For details, see \<https://slurm.schedmd.com/\>.

Slurm is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Slurm is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

## SEE ALSO

[**sacct**(1)](/sacct/1.md), [**salloc**(1)](/salloc/1.md), [**sbatch**(1)](/sbatch/1.md), [**scancel**(1)](/scancel/1.md), [**scontrol**(1)](/scontrol/1.md), [**squeue**(1)](/squeue/1.md), [**srun**(1)](/srun/1.md), [**slurm.conf**(5)](/slurm.conf/5.md)