CONDOR_TRANSFORM_ADS(1)

💖 condor_transform_ads — HTCondor Manual 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is genuinely iconic. this is condor_transform_ads, straight out of the HTCondor Manual, and it does exactly one thing extremely well: it takes your ClassAds, runs them through whatever rules you hand it, and spits out the glow-up version. it's giving makeover montage but for structured data. periodt.

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✨ NAME ✨

condor_transform_ads — Transform ClassAds according to specified rules, and output the transformed ClassAds.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

condor_transform_ads [-help [rules] ]

condor_transform_ads [-rules rules-file] [-jobtransforms name-list]
[-jobroute route-name] [-in[:<form>]  ** *infile*] [-out[:<form>[,
nosort]]  ** outfile] [<key>=<value> ] [-long ] [-json ] [-xml ]
[-verbose ] [-terse ] [-debug ] [-unit-test ] [-testing ]
[-convertoldroutes ] [infile1 ...infileN ]

real talk, the vibes here matter: you must give at least one transform — either a rules file, or a JOB_TRANSFORM_ / JOB_ROUTER_ROUTE_ name. and you must give at least one input file. no transforms, no input, no slay.

a few more things you literally cannot skip:

• Transforms are applied in the order they're given on the command line. order is the whole personality here.
• If a rules file has a TRANSFORM statement with arguments, it must be the last rules file. it has to be at the end, bestie, that's just the rule.
• If you don't specify an output file, output goes to stdout. 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

condor_transform_ads reads ClassAds from a set of input files, transforms them according to rules defined in a rules file or read from configuration, and outputs the resulting transformed ClassAds. that's it, that's the whole job, and it eats every time. 💅

if you want the actual tea on how the transform language works, go read the classads/transforms Classad Transforms section. that's where all the syntax lore lives. iykyk.

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -help [rules | convert] — show usage info and dip out. -help rules spills the info about the available transformation rules. -help convert gives you the info about the -convertoldroutes option.
• -rules rules-file — points at the file holding your transformation rule definitions, or configuration that declares a JOB_TRANSFORM_<name> or JOB_ROUTER_ROUTE_<name> variable, for use in a later -jobtransforms <name> or -jobroute <name> argument. it's the setup, fr fr.
• -jobtransforms name-list — a comma-separated list of more transform names. the transform rules get read from a previous rules file, or from the configured JOB_TRANSFORM_<name> values.
• -jobroute name — a job route. the transform rules get read from a previous rules file, or from the configured JOB_ROUTER_ROUTE_<name> values.
• -in[:<form>] infile — an input file holding the ClassAd(s) that are about to get transformed. <form>, if you specify it, is one of:
  • long: traditional long form (default) ← the classic, the standard, the moment
  • xml: XML form
  • json: JSON ClassAd form
  • new: "new" ClassAd form without newlines
  • auto: guess format by reading the input

and if you pass - for infile, input gets read from stdin. 🎀

• -out[:<form>[, nosort] outfile — an output file to receive the transformed ClassAd(s). <form>, if specified, is one of:
  • long: traditional long form (default)
  • xml: XML form
  • json: JSON ClassAd form
  • new: "new" ClassAd form without newlines
  • auto: use the same format as the first input

ClassAds are storted by attribute unless nosort is specified.

• [<key>=<value> ] — assign key/value pairs before the rules file is parsed; can be used to pass arguments to rules. (More detail needed here.) — yes bestie, the manpage really says that, we're all waiting on the follow-up 🙈
• -long — use long form for both input and output ClassAd(s). (This is the default.) so you can chill, it's already happening.
• -json — use JSON form for both input and output ClassAd(s).
• -xml — use XML form for both input and output ClassAd(s).
• -verbose — verbose mode: echoes to stderr the transform names as they're applied, plus the individual transform rules as they're executed. it narrates its own life. main character energy honestly.
• -terse — disables -verbose.
• -debug — sends debugging information to stderr, based on the value of the configuration variable TOOL_DEBUG.

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🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

condor_transform_ads exits with a status value of 0 (zero) on success, and exits with the value 1 (one) on failure. binary. no in-between. it either ate or it didn't. 💀

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

here's a simple little example that transforms the given input ClassAds according to the given rules. so cute, so effective:

Input file (my_input)

# File: my_input
ResidentSetSize = 500
DiskUsage = 2500000
NumCkpts = 0
TransferrErr = false
Err = "/dev/null"

Rules file (my_rules)

# File: my_rules
EVALSET MemoryUsage ( ResidentSetSize / 100 )
EVALMACRO WantDisk = ( DiskUsage * 2 )
SET RequestDisk ( $(WantDisk) / 1024 )
RENAME NumCkpts NumCheckPoints
DELETE /(.+)Err/

Command execution

$ condor_transform_ads -rules my_rules -in my_input

Resulting ClassAd output

DiskUsage = 2500000
Err = "/dev/null"
MemoryUsage = 5
NumCheckPoints = 0
RequestDisk = ( 5000000 / 1024 )
ResidentSetSize = 500

look at that. NumCkpts became NumCheckPoints, the Err-ish attributes got deleted, MemoryUsage and RequestDisk appeared out of nowhere. that's a transformation, that's a full glow-up, that's art. 🔥

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

HTCondor Team — absolute icons, no notes.

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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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aaaand that's the whole page, bestie. this was the HTCondor Manual version of CONDOR_TRANSFORM_ADS(1), dated Oct 16, 2026. go transform some ads, you've got this. mwah. 💅✨🫶