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2026.09.02· 2 min

What a note can carry

A note is a .md file with a short header. The body is ordinary Markdown: headings, lists, tables, quotes, code, diagrams, maths, images, and gifs. Nest them as in LaTeX: section, subsection, subsubsection.
Walltime is a contract. The login node is not a workstation.

Code#

Fence a block and name the language. Copy sits on the block. Long lines scroll inside the fence; they do not push the column.

Fences#

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --job-name=ping
#SBATCH --ntasks=4
#SBATCH --time=00:10:00
srun ./a.out

Inline names#

Inline names stay in a code span: srun, MPI_Init, $SLURM_NTASKS.
#include <mpi.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);
MPI_Finalize();
}

A rank that only starts#

That MPI_Init / MPI_Finalize pair is a subsubsection: enough to compile, not a solver.

Diagrams#

A mermaid fence becomes a figure. Flowcharts, sequence charts, and the rest of the Mermaid dialects are fair game.

Flow#

…

Sequence#

…

Maths#

Inline#

Inline TeX sits in dollar signs: a naive GEMM is 2n3 flops.

Display#

Displayed expressions use a math fence, $$…$$, or \[…\].
E(p)=pTp​T1​​
Tp​=Tcomp​+Tcomm​+TI/O​
Paragraph#
Strong scaling is the ratio of serial time to p times parallel time. If E(p) falls over while the solver is "MPI bound", time the I/O.

Figures and gifs#

A Markdown image is a figure. Put files in public/media/ and link them with /media/…. An https:// URL to a .png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, or .avif is also a figure. Still rasters are compressed on the fly. Click a still for a lightbox. GIFs animate in place and in the lightbox. A .mp4 or .webm is a video.
Four ranks on a mesh, each with a neighbour exchange
Four ranks on a mesh, each with a neighbour exchange
Four ranks on a mesh, as a compressed raster
Four ranks on a mesh, as a compressed raster
A pulse you should not run on the login node
A pulse you should not run on the login node

Links#

A Markdown link is a link. Internal pages use a path (/notes/…). External pages use https://… and open in a new tab. Bare URLs also become links: https://slurm.schedmd.com/sbatch.html.

Tables#

ProbeWhat it answers
sacct -jTIMEOUT, OOM, or a traceback
nvidia-smiWhether the allocation saw a GPU
A timer around VTKWhether the "MPI problem" is output
None of this replaces the centre handbook. It is just what a short note is allowed to hold. For the habit behind the gif, start with Login nodes are not compute.
#documentation
Why site-independent HPC notes still matter........................................................................................................................................................................................................2026.08.24
Environment modules are a contract........................................................................................................................................................................................................2024.09.18
Login nodes are not compute........................................................................................................................................................................................................2025.11.04
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