Periodic tasks add only if

[fonzmeister]

I use django-q for some background tasks. The tasks looks like this in pseudocode

def task(param)
  if param:
    do_something() #runs instantly
  if not param:
    do_something_else() #takes a while to run
    time.sleep(3600)

If I run the task every 5 minutes and param == False for a few times in a row I will create a lot of tasks and my queue will overflow. Is there a way that only a new task is created if there is no task running, taking into consideration the timeout?

[kbuilds]

Would it be possible to have this task schedule a second task which exectes the long-running code?

That way, the task that is scheduled to run every 5 minutes can check the current queue, and decide whether to schedule another long-running task. Either way, it will finish relatively quickly.

[fonzmeister]

That will probably work. Will give it a go. Thanks!

Still think it might be nice feature though, if it is not too much work.
Nice job on the project so far btw, I really like it

[fonzmeister]

~~I cannot get this to work. I need to pass an object into the function, which is causing me problems, since it can not be pickled

I rewrote the project a bit so this will work. But I cannot find how to acces the queue in te manual. Can you give me a little tip whith this?~~

Found it, you can acces the queue with from django_q.models import OrmQ and then do queries like you would do with a regular model in django