sarray

Merge multiple independent Slurm job arrays into a single sbatch submission.

Instead of flooding the scheduler with N separate job arrays, sarray combines them into one array job where each task is routed to the right script with the right arguments. This reduces scheduler overhead and makes queue management easier.

How it works

Given two scripts:

# train.slurm  →  --array=0-2  (3 tasks)
# eval.slurm   →  --array=0-4  (5 tasks)

sarray generates a single array job with --array=0-7 (8 tasks) and a dispatcher that maps each global task ID back to the right script and local task ID:

global 0,1,2     → train.slurm  with SLURM_ARRAY_TASK_ID = 0,1,2
global 3,4,5,6,7 → eval.slurm   with SLURM_ARRAY_TASK_ID = 0,1,2,3,4

All SLURM_ARRAY_TASK_* environment variables are set correctly in each task.

Constraint: all merged jobs must have identical #SBATCH options (same resources, partition, etc.) — only --array can differ.

Installation

pip install sarray
# or
uv add sarray

Usage

Interactive mode (recommended)

Start a listen session — this spawns a subshell where sbatch is intercepted:

sarray listen

Your prompt changes to [sarray] (bold yellow) to indicate you're in a session.

Inside the session, call sbatch normally. Every call is queued instead of submitted:

sbatch --array=0-4 train.slurm model_a
sbatch --array=0-4 train.slurm model_b
sbatch eval.slurm

When ready, submit everything as one merged array:

sarray submit

Or discard and exit without submitting:

sarray cancel

Both commands exit the subshell automatically.

Standalone mode

Pass a queue file directly — no subshell needed:

sarray submit jobs.conf

Where jobs.conf contains one sbatch call per line:

sbatch --array=0-2 train.slurm lr=0.01
sbatch --array=0-2 train.slurm lr=0.001
sbatch --array=0-2 train.slurm lr=0.0001

Read from stdin:

echo "sbatch job.slurm" | sarray submit -

Commands

sarray listen

Spawns an interactive subshell with a fake sbatch that queues calls into a temporary file. The real sbatch is shadowed only inside this subshell — your parent shell is unaffected.

Exit the session with sarray submit or sarray cancel.

sarray submit [FILE|-]

Generate and submit the merged job array.

The generated script is always written to disk before submission — sarray.slurm by default — so you can always inspect what was submitted.

Submit-time sbatch overrides. Any flag not recognized by sarray submit is passed through as an #SBATCH directive in the generated script, overriding whatever the individual jobs had. Useful for options you can't know ahead of time:

# Chain two job arrays
sarray submit --dependency=aftercorr:12345

# Use a reservation you just got
sarray submit --reservation=my_nodes

# Delay start
sarray submit --begin=2026-04-04T08:00:00

CLI flags override #SBATCH directives. For example:

sbatch --mem=8GB job.slurm    # overrides #SBATCH --mem in job.slurm
sbatch --array=0-9 job.slurm  # overrides #SBATCH --array in job.slurm

--wrap is also supported (no script file needed):

sbatch --wrap "python train.py" --array=0-4 --mem=16GB

sarray cancel

Discard the current listen session queue and exit the subshell.

sarray throttle JOBID -n N [--requeue] [--kill]

Update the concurrent task limit of a running job array without cancelling it.

Excess tasks are always selected by recency — the most recently started ones are acted on first. --requeue and --kill are mutually exclusive.

# Slow down a running array to 2 concurrent tasks
sarray throttle 123456 --max 2

# Slow down and requeue the excess running tasks (they will be rescheduled)
sarray throttle 123456 --max 2 --requeue

# Slow down and permanently cancel the excess running tasks
sarray throttle 123456 --max 2 --kill

The command checks that the job exists, belongs to you, and is a job array before updating.

Example workflow

$ sarray listen
[sarray] $ sbatch --array=0-9 experiments/baseline.slurm
[sarray] $ sbatch --array=0-9 experiments/ablation.slurm
[sarray] $ sbatch --array=0-9 experiments/ablation2.slurm
[sarray] $ sarray submit --dry-run   # preview the merged script
[sarray] $ sarray submit             # submit and exit the session
Submitted batch job 42137
$

Result: one job array with 30 tasks instead of 3 separate submissions.