Complete Slurm keyboard shortcuts and commands reference — 17 shortcuts across 3 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows & Mac.
Slurm is a popular job scheduler used by professionals worldwide. Learning keyboard shortcuts can dramatically speed up your workflow — studies show shortcut users save an average of 8 days per year compared to mouse-only users.
This page covers all 17 Slurm shortcuts across 3 categories: Job Submission, Job Monitoring, Cluster Info & Accounting. Each shortcut includes a description to help you understand when and how to use it effectively.
| Shortcut | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| sbatch script.sh | Submit batch job | Submit a job script for later execution. The script contains #SBATCH directives specifying resources like nodes, time, and memory. |
| srun --pty bash | Interactive session | Start an interactive allocation and open a shell directly on a compute node. |
| salloc -N1 -c4 | Allocate resources | Request an interactive resource allocation (1 node, 4 cores) without launching a task yet. |
| sbcast file /tmp/file | Broadcast file | Copy a file from local disk to local storage on every node allocated to a job. |
| Shortcut | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| squeue | View job queue | List queued and running jobs across the cluster with their state (R=running, PD=pending). |
| squeue -u $USER | View own jobs | Filter the queue to show only jobs submitted by the current user. |
| scancel jobid | Cancel job | Cancel a pending or running job by its job ID. |
| scancel -u $USER | Cancel all your jobs | Cancel every job currently submitted by the current user. |
| sattach jobid.stepid | Attach to job | Attach terminal input, output, and error streams to a currently running job step. |
| Shortcut | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| sinfo | Cluster status | Show the state of partitions and nodes managed by Slurm. |
| sinfo -N -l | Node detail | List every node individually with CPU count, memory, and state in long format. |
| scontrol show job jobid | Job details | Show comprehensive configuration and state details for a specific job. |
| scontrol show node name | Node details | Show hardware configuration and current state of a specific node. |
| sacct -j jobid | Job accounting | Report accounting information (CPU time, memory, exit code) for a completed or running job. |
| sacct -u $USER --starttime today | Today's jobs | List today's jobs for the current user along with resource usage. |
| sprio | Job priority | Show the factors contributing to a pending job's scheduling priority. |
| sshare | Fair-share usage | Show a user's or account's fair-share usage of the cluster over time. |
The most essential Slurm shortcuts are: sbatch script.sh (Submit batch job), srun --pty bash (Interactive session), salloc -N1 -c4 (Allocate resources). These cover the most frequent actions and can significantly speed up your workflow.
Slurm has 17 keyboard shortcuts across 3 categories on shortcut-tools.com.
These are command-line commands — type them in your terminal or console. Combine them with shell history search (Ctrl + R) and aliases to work even faster.
The Slurm shortcut for submit batch job is sbatch script.sh. Submit a job script for later execution. The script contains #SBATCH directives specifying resources like nodes, time, and memory.
Start with the essentials: Learn sbatch script.sh (Submit batch job) and srun --pty bash (Interactive session) first — these are the most commonly used.
Practice daily: Pick 2–3 new shortcuts each day and consciously use them instead of the mouse. Within a week, they become muscle memory.
Print this cheat sheet: Keep a reference nearby until shortcuts become automatic. Focus on the Job Submission category first.
CLI tip: Create shell aliases for the commands you use most. Combine them with these shortcuts for maximum efficiency.