CONDOR_URLFETCH(1)

📦
version 25.14.1 · 12 versions
, in fedora 43

💖 CONDOR_URLFETCH 💖

okay bestie, so you know how HTCondor is literally the main character of your cluster? well this little cutie is from the HTCondor Manual, section 1, and it's your girl condor_urlfetch 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

condor_urlfetch — fetch configuration given a URL 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

condor_urlfetch [-<daemon> ] url local-url-cache-file

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so depending on what you hand it on the command line, condor_urlfetch does one of two things, and she does them gorgeously:

  • she takes the result of a query from url and sends it both to standard output and to the file you named with local-url-cache-file, or
  • she takes the contents of the file you named with local-url-cache-file and sends it to standard output. that's it. that's the whole vibe.

condor_urlfetch is meant to be the program that gets run when you're defining configuration — like in this nonfunctional example, which is giving "here for reference only, do not expect it to actually run" energy:

LOCAL_CONFIG_FILE = $(LIBEXEC)/condor_urlfetch -$(SUBSYSTEM) \
  http://www.example.com/htcondor-baseconfig  local.config |

now, that pipe character (|) at the end of this definition of the location of a configuration file changes the use of the definition. it's not decor. it makes the command listed on the right hand side of this assignment statement get invoked, and standard output becomes the configuration. iconic behaviour, honestly. the value of $(SUBSYSTEM) becomes the daemon that caused this configuration to be read.

so here's the tea 🍵:

  • if $(SUBSYSTEM) evaluates to MASTER, then the URL query always occurs, and the result gets sent to standard output as well as written to the file specified by argument local-url-cache-file.
  • when $(SUBSYSTEM) evaluates to a daemon other than MASTER, then the URL query only occurs if the file specified by local-url-cache-file does not exist.
  • if the file specified by local-url-cache-file does exist, then the contents of this file is sent to standard output.
no cap: if the configuration kept at the URL site changes, and reconfiguration is requested, the -<daemon> argument needs to be -MASTER. that is the only way to guarantee that there will be a query of the changed URL contents, such that they will make their way into the configuration. lowkey the most important line on this whole page bestie, do not skip it 😭

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -<daemon> — the upper case name of the daemon issuing the request for the configuration output. if it's -MASTER, then the URL query always occurs. if it's a daemon other than -MASTER — say STARTD or SCHEDD — then the URL query only occurs if the file defined by local-url-cache-file does not exist. that's the whole flag, she's simple but she's powerful 💪

🫶 EXIT STATUS 🫶

condor_urlfetch will exit with a status value of 0 (zero) upon success, and non zero otherwise. slay when it works, cry when it doesn't 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

HTCondor Team. we stan. 💜

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.

and that's the whole page bestie, periodt ✨ ily, go fetch that config. this was HTCondor Manual, section 1, dated Oct 16, 2026 — catch you on the next one, mwah 💖🦋🎀

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