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Batch processing is execution of a series of program
Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
s ("job
Job (software)

In computing a job is a term used to refer to a single instance of a Computer program. The term is mostly used on Computer multitasking systems....
s") on a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 without human interaction.

Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without human interaction, so all input data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters. This is in contrast to "online" or interactive programs which prompt the user for such input. A program takes a set of data files as input, process the data, and produces a set of output data files.






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Batch processing is execution of a series of program
Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
s ("job
Job (software)

In computing a job is a term used to refer to a single instance of a Computer program. The term is mostly used on Computer multitasking systems....
s") on a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 without human interaction.

Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without human interaction, so all input data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters. This is in contrast to "online" or interactive programs which prompt the user for such input. A program takes a set of data files as input, process the data, and produces a set of output data files. This operating environment is termed as "Batch Processing" because the input data are collected into Batches on files and are processed in Batches by the program.

Benefits

Batch processing has these benefits:
  • It allows sharing of computer resources among many users and programs,
  • It shifts the time of job processing to when the computing resources are less busy,
  • It avoids idling the computing resources with minute-by-minute human interaction and supervision,
  • By keeping high overall rate of utilization, it better amortizes the cost of a computer, especially an expensive one.


History

Batch processing has been associated with mainframe computer
Mainframe computer

Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and financial transaction processing....
s since the earliest days of electronic computing in 1950s. Because such computers were enormously costly, batch processing was the only economically-viable option of their use. In those days, interactive sessions
Read-eval-print loop

A read-eval-print loop , also known as an interactive toplevel, is a simple, interactive computer programming environment. The term is most usually used to refer to a Lisp programming language interactive environment, but can be applied to command line interface shell and similar environments for Smalltalk, Python , Ruby , Haskell , AP...
 with either text-based computer terminal
Computer terminal

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical computer hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system....
 interfaces or graphical user interface
Graphical user interface

A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment....
s were not widespread. Initially, computers were not even capable of having multiple programs loaded into the main memory.

Present days

Batch processing has grown beyond its mainframe origins, and is now frequently used in UNIX
Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
 environments and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....
 too. UNIX systems uses shells and other scripting languages. DOS
DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is a shorthand term for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me....
 systems uses batch files powered by COMMAND.COM
COMMAND.COM

COMMAND.COM is the filename of the default operating system Shell for DOS operating systems and the default command line interpreter on 16/32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows ....
, Microsoft Windows has cmd.exe, Windows Script Host
Windows Script Host

The Microsoft Windows Script Host is an automation technology for Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides scripting capabilities comparable to batch files, but with a greater range of supported features....
 and advanced Windows PowerShell
Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell is an extensible command line interface shell and associated scripting language from Microsoft. It was released in 2006 and is currently available for Windows XP SP2/SP3, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and is included in Windows Server 2008 as well as Windows 7 as an optional feature....
.

Job scheduling

UNIX utilizes cron and at facilities to allow for scheduling of complex job scripts. Windows has a job scheduler
Job scheduler

A job scheduler is an enterprise software application that is in charge of unattended background executions, commonly known for historical reasons as batch processing....
. Most high-performance computing
High-performance computing

High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers....
 clusters
Cluster (computing)

A computer cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely so that in many respects they form a single computer. The components of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other through fast local area networks....
 use batch processing to maximize cluster usage.

Printing

A popular computerized batch processing procedure is printing. This normally involves the operator selecting the documents they need printed and indicating to the batch printing software when, where they should be output and priority of the print job
Print job

In computing, a print job is a file or set of files that has been submitted to be printed.Jobs are typically identified by a unique number, and are assigned to a particular destination, usually a Computer printer....
. Then the job is sent to the print queue from where printing daemon sends them to the printer.

Databases

Batch processing is also used for efficient bulk database updates and automated transaction processing
Transaction processing

In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it cannot remain in an intermediate state....
, as contrasted to interactive online transaction processing
Online transaction processing

Online transaction processing, or OLTP, refers to a class of systems that facilitate and manage transaction-oriented applications, typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing....
 (OLTP) applications.

Converting

Batch processing is also used for converting a number of computer files from one format to another. This is to make files portable and versatile especially for proprietary and legacy files where viewers are not easy to come by.

See also

  • Batch-queuing system for schedulers that plan the execution of batch jobs
  • Job Processing Cycle
    Job processing cycle

    In mainframe computer operating systems, when a job is submitted, the operating system takes the job through a series of steps known as the job processing cycle....
     for detailed description of batch processing in the mainframe field
  • BatchPipes
    BatchPipes

    In IBM mainframes, BatchPipes is a batch processing utility designed for the MVS/ESA operating system, and all later incarnations—OS/390 and z/OS....
     for utility that increases batch performance