New User

[dberton]

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Just joined,and need help.I'm used to running seti and using addons.I have a home net and the machine I'm folding on has no modem.usually I'd monitor with setispy and up and download wus through my box with the modem. Can I do similar with folding.I connected and shut down from this machine, then started on other machine can I check progress on lan without interfering? Is there a link with addons? I know i'll eventually get into it.

[rshepard]

From the FAQ:

What are the differences for uploading to server?

The size of each upload will remain roughly the same as the ones in Phase I. Only the best structure of each generation will be saved on our servers. Folding offline/sneaker-netting will still be available. Copying results to a different machine and then uploading them is still permitted. However, it will be necessary to then copy the files back to the original machine AFTER the upload has been made, as important changes will be made to filelist.txt after a successful upload.

Note that you may not upload the same generation results twice. This will not result in any additional credit, and may spoil the previous generation results you have uploaded thus far.
Is there an easier way to 'sneaker net' than copying the whole directory?

'Sneaker net' refers to running the client on one or more machines that never connect to the internet, then copying the files (via CD for example) to a different machine which IS on the internet, to upload. The problem is that since uploading occurs on a different machine, the first machine(s) (the one(s) doing the actual work) never know that work has been uploaded, and so you must manually 'tell them'.

To do this, you need to understand a little about filelist.txt and how phase II works. filelist.txt tracks all the files that have been generated and that need to be uploaded to our server, plus some other information. Whenever you upload, filelist.txt gets modified and some of the files that were listed in it get uploaded, and deleted from disk. However in some cases, you still need to keep a file locally, AFTER it has been uploaded. This can all be figured out from filelist.txt. Consider the following contents for filelist.txt:

.\fold_0_xxxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24.log.bz2
.\xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023.val
.\fold_0_xxxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_25.log.bz2
.\xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_25_0000034.val
CurrentStruc 0 41 126 25 1 0 10000000.000 10000000.000 .....

Pay special attention to the fifth number after 'CurrentStruc'. In this case it is a '1'. This tells us the number of file pairs (log and val file pairs) in filelist.txt, starting from the top, that have already been uploaded to the server. Thus fold_0_xxxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24.log.bz2 and xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023.val have already been sent to the server in this case, while the other 2 files have not yet. When an upload is initiated, all files that have not yet been uploaded will be, except the last file pair which is normally from the current, partially completed generation. These will not be uploaded until the generation has been completed of course. In the above example, nothing is ready to be uploaded yet.

Also note that while in filelist.txt the val file is always listed as xxx.val, on disk there may be one or more of the following files: xxx.val, xxx_min.val, xxx.val.bz2 or xxx_min.val.bz2. Thus the name may not exactly match what is in filelist.txt, and this is OK. Sometimes more than one of these filenames will be present on disk, in which case all of them go together.

So at any point in time, what files should be present? The answer is, and rows in filelist.txt that have NOT been uploaded yet (as per the above explanation), as well as the .val file(s) from the last filepair that WAS uploaded, if it is still listed in filelist.txt. In our above example, this would be xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023.val (and/or xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023.val.bz2, xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023_min.val or xxxxxxx_0_xxxxxxxx_protein_24_0000023_min.val.bz2)

Thus to update the sneaker net machines after an upload, you simply need to copy back the filelist.txt from the internet-enabled machine after the upload, and then delete files that have been uploaded. Do this by looking at the filelist.txt. Only files listed in there are needed, and only use the fifth number after CurrentStruc to figure out if any other files can be deleted as well. But remember to keep the .val files from the last uploaded generation, if any, to avoid breaking the software. Lastly, remember for any .val entry in the filelist.txt, there may be any one or more of four actual filenames in disk, as explained above. The best way to get the hang of it is just look at what the uploader leaves behind after it uploads and see if it matches what you expect based on these instructions. Once you've done this a few times, you shoudl get the hang of it and can probably script a somewhat automated way of updating the no-network machines.


Welcome aboard!

:cheers:

Oops-- for monitoring on your LAN, try:

http://www.bluetentacle.co.uk/dcmonitor/

[dberton]

:bang: I'm going to need some time to digest this! Thanks for the help. I guess I should have started with the faq page:rotfl: