CONDOR_PREEN(1)

✨ NAME ✨

condor_preen — like, the official name is "condor_preen - HTCondor Manual" but bestie, what it actually does is remove extraneous files from HTCondor directories 💅

This page lives in the HTCondor Manual, so if you're looking for the HTCondor Manual, hi, you found her 🫶

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

condor_preen [-mail ] [-remove ] [-verbose ] [-debug ] [-log <filename>]

That's the whole vibe check. Four lil toggles and one -log that wants a filename, periodt.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so picture this: condor_preen goes snooping through the directories that belong to HTCondor and removes extraneous files and directories — the lil leftovers from HTCondor processes that terminated abnormally, whether that's because of internal errors or because the whole system crashed 😭 mess.

The directories she checks are the LOG, EXECUTE, and SPOOL directories as defined in the HTCondor configuration files. No cap.

She's designed to be run as user root or user condor, periodically, as a lil backup method to make sure the file system stays reasonably clean even when errors happen. And guess what — this already happens automatically by default thanks to the condor_master daemon 👑. You can also explicitly invoke her on an as-needed basis if you're feeling proactive.

Now here's the tea on how she cleans the SPOOL directory: she always leaves behind the files specified in the configuration variables VALID_SPOOL_FILES and SYSTEM_VALID_SPOOL_FILES, as given by the configuration. Do not touch, she said 💅

The LOG directory works the opposite way: the only files removed or reported are those listed within the configuration variable INVALID_LOG_FILES. Why the different treatment? Because in general, the files in the LOG directory ought to be left alone, with few exceptions — and an example of those exceptions is core files. Since new log files get introduced regularly, it's way less effort to specify the ones that ought to be removed than the ones that are not to be removed. Lowkey genius, highkey efficient ✨

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -mail — sends mail to the user defined in the PREEN_ADMIN configuration variable, instead of writing to the standard output 📧
• -remove — actually removes the offending files and directories rather than just reporting on them 💀 (yes she can absolutely just spill the gossip without doing anything, iconic behaviour)
• -verbose — lists all files or directories found in the Condor directories and considered for deletion, even those which are not extraneous. This option also modifies the output produced by the -debug and -log options 🗣️
• -debug — prints extra debugging information to stderr as the command executes 🐛
• -log <filename> — writes extra debugging information to <filename> as the command executes 📝

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🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

condor_preen exits with a status value of 0 (zero) upon success, and she exits with a non-zero value upon failure. Here's the breakdown:

• An exit status of 2 means condor_preen attempted to send email about deleted files but was unable to. This usually indicates an error in the configuration for sending email 🙈
• An exit status of 1 indicates a general failure 😭

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

HTCondor Team 💜

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🌸 COPYRIGHT 🌸

1990-2026, Center for High Throughput Computing, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, US. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

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ok bestie that's the whole page, you ate this read fr fr 🍓 big slay, go keep your spool clean, and remember she was written for the HTCondor Manual, dated Oct 16, 2026. mwah 💅✨💖